2026 Summer Chatta Data Newsletter
CSI Chattanooga President’s Message: June 2025
As we look back on 2025, our Chattanooga Chapter had a very busy year, with a lot of things to celebrate. Our chapter maintained ~42 members pretty consistently. In FY 2025-2026 I’d like to see us grow our chapter by at least 10-15%, this seems very doable. The strength of CSI is our diversity of members across the construction industry. When looking at our own chapter, we could use some more industry (contractors & subcontractors), manufacturer’s reps and al- ways, students! One bright spot this past year was the number of students that attended our chapter meetings, I’d like to see that not only continue but increase this year.
I want to challenge each of you, who is a member to bring a new member into our chapter this year, and when you do, let’s get them actively involved, besides just coming to meetings.
We had 7 educational chapter meetings this past year that provided CEU’s. Our 2 best attended meetings were the Chattanooga Lookouts Stadium presentation, “Rounding First Base” and “How Do They Build That”, an interactive tour of working cabinet shop. Additionally, we also had 2 special meetings of celebration at year end and at Christmas.
Administratively, Kenny Tyler & Jonnie Cox were instrumental in completing all the revisions to our Chattanooga Chapter Operating Guide, so we can now rest assured that we are legally compliant as of 2025.
Our devoted Product Show chair Amy Fleming was instrumental in boldly changing venues this year, moving the product show from the Chattanooga Whiskey Company where we have been for the last several years to The Chattanoogan. We had great attendance; the vendors were happier with the new venue and the speakers for the CEU sessions were excellent. Additionally, our overall attendance was up from previous years.
The chapter awarded 3 Marshall Hildebrand scholarships this year, $1,500 to Kaori Oliveros,
Finally, our Chattanooga Chapter hosted the Gulf States Region Conference in downtown Chattanooga at the Holiday Inn. As a Chapter President, I could not be more proud and appreciative that so few dedicated members of our chapter (and a few very dedicated wives) accomplished so much. We had over 70 attendees who from all the feedback we received seemed to not only enjoy themselves but felt that they got their money’s worth.
From a full day of CEU educational sessions on Thursday, to GSR region business Friday morning, then highlighted with the Tivoli Theater update and walking tour, this conference had a lot to offer. A special thank you to each one of our chapter members that worked so hard, that sacrificed so much of their work and personal time, and that showed up when it mattered to make this event a huge success!
Not lost in all the GSR Conference events was how well our Chattanooga Chapter did on Awards night. Bill Wilkerson, Ronny Rahn, Kenny Tyler, Jessica Etheredge, and Jonnie Cox were all award winners. And…our very own Cindi Brooks was the very deserving recipient of the Robert V. Bishop Award, the highest CSI award that is bestowed in the Gulf States Region.
My vision for FY 2025-26 is simple:
- Continue to present quality educational programs that are both interesting and offer CEU’s to our professional community.
- Grow our chapter by at least 10%-15% - welcome new members in areas where we don’t have many – industry, manufacturer’s / product reps, and as always – more students! The future is about the students – we had 4 of them at the GSR conference that attended the entire conference, which was exciting and an impetus for the upcoming year’s growth.
- Look for innovative ideas and opportunities that we haven’t explored before to make our chapter more dynamic, just because “we’ve always done it that way” doesn’t mean that we can’t and shouldn’t be looking for new ideas and ways to do it better.
If we have 42 members, we’d like to see more of you at our meetings…what are the rest of you doing on Thursday nights? Come and join us, get a delicious meal, network and learn something new! I hope to see more of you at our chapter meetings this coming year.
Chattanooga Chapter CSI President
