the

WOVEN

ROOM

The road to January

Superseded · kept for the record
Working plan · 17 August 2026

Superseded

Read the business plan instead

Written 17 August, when this was going to be a 501(c)(3) launching in January. Both of those changed. It is kept because the research on it is real and some of it is still good, and because deleting a plan makes it harder to remember why any given decision got made the way it did.

Right on this page, and it held: the January launch and the October to December soft launch. A note from 2 September moved the date to February, and that was wrong. The date is Thursday 14 January 2027.

Stale on this page: every 501(c)(3) reference, the 1023 forms, the IRS determination letter, the three directors and the bylaws, because the entity became an LLC on 2 September. The mark commission, because the mark has existed since 8 August. Katie Clark reading the agreement, because there is no lawyer on this. Cynthia at $175, which is a month rather than a year. Most of the decide-by dates on it are months in the past now.

Still good on this page: the funder table further down, which is parked rather than wrong, because an LLC cannot apply for most of it and it comes back only if a foundation is ever added. The ownership split, which is unchanged and now lives in the business plan. And the member grant programme at the very bottom. That was the best idea on this page, and it now sits in the business plan with fresh numbers.

Where things stand

Five months, and most of the hard thinking is already done

The name is settled and the domains are owned. The brand guide is written and the palette, type, pillars and rituals are all decided. Seven social graphics are finished, the thirty-post launch calendar is written, and the website is built with real pages for About, Gatherings, Membership and Contact.

What is left divides cleanly. There is a short list of things that block other things, and then there is a long list of ordinary work that can run in parallel once those are cleared. This plan puts the blockers first and then walks month by month to the public launch in January.

Two notes on how to read it. Anything marked in rust is a conflict or a risk that needs a decision rather than a task that needs doing. And every open question has a suggested decide-by date, because the ones without dates are the ones that drift.

Three things gate everything else. Nothing on this plan moves faster than the slowest of them.

Clear these first

The gates

What everything else is waiting on

Each of these unlocks a whole column of work. None of them is expensive. All three are sitting still right now.

Gate one

Kelci's answer on the release

The release waiving the thirty-mile non-compete has not come back. Until it does, the shape of Jennifer's public role in October is an open question rather than a plan.

Blocks: the public face, the announcement, who hosts

Gate two

The IRS determination letter

Every funder on the list requires 501(c)(3) status in hand. The 1023-EZ is decided for eighty percent of filers within twenty-two days, so the letter is a few weeks behind the filing, and the filing is a few weeks behind the entity decision.

Blocks: every grant, tax-deductible gifts

Gate three

The mark, as vector

The wordmark exists and the swash is resolved. The drawn mark does not exist yet. Nothing can be embroidered, printed at size, trademarked, or set as a favicon until it does.

Blocks: Thread Cards, badges, signage, the seal

On the chapter agreement, since it shapes October

Section 9 of the signed chapter agreement restricts starting, operating, or being involved in a competing networking group within thirty miles for one year following termination. Section 5 requires ninety days written notice. Notice given on 13 August puts the end of the agreement around 11 November 2026, and the restricted period would then run to roughly 11 November 2027. Smyrna sits inside thirty miles of Murfreesboro.

The release in clause 3 of the separation agreement is what removes this, and it has not been answered. Katie is being asked to read the signed agreement and tell us where the line actually sits, with these questions in front of her:

Was the notice in writing, and when did the clock actually start?
Section 9 restricts being involved in a competing group. What does that permit? Attending as a member, speaking once, appearing on a member list?
The clause never names an anchor point for the thirty miles. Does that ambiguity matter?
Kelci announced publicly on 5 August that she is exiting the chapter business. Does the covenant hold when the party who holds it has left the market?
Disputes go to arbitration in Idaho under Idaho law. What does that cost in practice, and does it change the calculus regardless of who is right?
If the full release is refused, is signing clause 1 alone worth pursuing? It moves the end date earlier.

Kate is not a party to the chapter agreement and carries no restriction. That is worth knowing because it gives us a workable interim shape if the release never comes: Kate can front the public and legal side while Jennifer's role is structured around whatever Katie says is safe. That is one option to talk through together, not a decision either of us has made.

The calendar

Month by month to the public launch

Dates in the right column are the target, and the owner is named where the work sits clearly with one of us.

AugustWhat is left, 18 to 31

Clear the three gates and get the publishing pipe working, so September is building rather than unblocking.

Legal and entity

Send Katie the signed chapter agreement, the reading copy and the separation agreement, with the six questions. All three files are ready in the repo.Kate · this week

Set a decide-by on Kelci. Recommendation is Friday 21 August. If there is no answer by then, we stop waiting and build to the restricted plan. A signature after that becomes good news rather than something we are waiting on.Both · Fri 21 Aug

Settle the entity question with Cynthia: one 501(c)(3), or a membership entity plus a foundation that holds the education and the grants. Everything else depends on this one.Kate + Cynthia

File the Tennessee charter, form SS-4418, one hundred dollars. Needs three directors and the IRS purpose and dissolution language, which the state template does not include.Kate + Cynthia

EIN, bylaws, conflict of interest policy, first-year budget, bank account.Kate + Cynthia

Brand

Pick the wordmark face from the specimen page, then export the whole suite: stacked, horizontal, reversed, and the square avatar.Kate · this week

Regenerate the October 8 announcement graphic. Of the seven finished graphics it is the last one still carrying the swash.Kate

Scope the mark commission with Katie: price, timeline, file formats, and rights assignment in writing. The brief is already written as section 14 of the brand guide.Kate

Social

The publishing pipe does not exist yet. The Instagram handle is claimed but it is a personal account with no link in bio, there is no Facebook Page, and neither is connected to the scheduler. Nothing can post or schedule until that is built.Kate · by Fri 21 Aug

Convert the account to Professional, create the Facebook Page, link the two, and connect them both into the scheduler.Kate

Re-date the thirty-post calendar. It was written to start 12 August and post 01 has not gone out, so the whole run needs shifting to the day the pipe goes live. The October 8 announcement is the fixed point to work backwards from.Kate

Name reveal post goes out once the wordmark is settled. It was drafted for 24 August.Kate · Mon 24 Aug

Two copy passes before anything publishes. Several captions and one graphic use the negate-then-assert construction, which is on the do-not-use list in the brand guide's own voice section. And the bio line about keeping the room small pulls against a later post saying the goal is not exclusivity. Both are quick fixes on the drafts.Kate

Venue

Meet Victoria at Downtown Social on founding-partner terms. Site visit timed to a passing train so we hear it before we commit.Both

Raise the trade: the Downtown Social website build in exchange for room rental. Her current site is paid through May 2027, so the launch timing needs agreeing up front. Worth pricing both sides before the conversation.Kate

Money

Call the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee about fiscal sponsorship, 615 321 4939. If it works the way most do, it lets us take grants and tax-deductible gifts before our own determination letter arrives, and that could pull the whole January window forward by a year.Kate · this month

Call the Christy-Houston Foundation in Murfreesboro. It is Rutherford County's own foundation and it publishes nothing online, so this is a phone call rather than an application. If either of us knows someone there, that is worth more than any form.Jennifer or Cynthia

Ask the Town of Smyrna about the Charity Assistance Fund, the utility-bill giving program that supports local nonprofits. Worth raising in the same conversation as the venue.Kate

SeptemberThe founding month

The room meets for the first time, the filing goes in, and the website goes live so October has somewhere to send people.

The room

Private founding dinner. The first time the group is in a room together under the new name.Both

Ask Ginger, Hannah, Kayla, Sherry and Susan to serve on the board or the feedback panel, and confirm Sherry on the greeter role.Jennifer

Confirm Cynthia as a founding board member and as the finance speaker.Kate

Brand and photography

The brand photo session has a date conflict. Five posts and the launch reel call for real photographs of real women, and no generated people. The social plan puts the session on 8 September, but post 09 needs photographs on 31 August. So either the session moves earlier, or post 09 trades places with a later one.Kate · decide by Fri 21 Aug

Brand photo session with Ashlyn. This is a hard dependency for the launch reel, so it wants to be early in the month rather than late.Kate + Ashlyn

Mark delivered as vector, then favicons, the seal, Thread Cards and name badges all follow from it.Katie, then Kate

Website and systems

Point thewovenroom.org at the site. DNS lives at Cloudflare, so the record gets set on the Cloudflare side rather than at the host.Kate

Registration live, with the questionnaire built in. Questions are answered at registration and never in the room, and the answers build the seating chart before each breakfast.Kate

Ticketing live for the twenty-dollar soft-launch gatherings.Kate

Run the launch checklist over the site before it goes public: titles, descriptions, favicon, and every page read at phone width.Kate

Programming

Lock speakers for October, November and December. Speakers do both the breakfast and the evening workshop, so the ask is for two dates from each.Jennifer

Ask Ginger about leading the book club on Faithfully Flourishing.Jennifer

Write the run of show for a gathering: the wins segment that opens, speed networking, the arrival and departure rituals, the greeter walking people to tables.Both

Money

File the 1023-EZ or the full 1023. Filing by mid-September puts the determination letter in reach for the October grant window.Kate + Cynthia · by Tue 15 Sep

Settle membership pricing and put it in writing before it reaches a page. Forty dollars a month is decided. The annual figure needs settling, since twelve months at forty comes to four hundred and eighty rather than four hundred and twenty. One of those is a discount we chose on purpose.Both · decide by 30 Sep

Bookkeeping set up with Cynthia, and the first-year budget agreed.Kate + Cynthia

OctoberSoft launch

The doors open at twenty dollars a seat. Everything from here is a rehearsal for January with real people in the room.

Launch

Announcement post on 8 October, the fixed point the whole social calendar was built toward.Kate · Thu 8 Oct

First soft-launch gathering at Downtown Social. Twenty-dollar tickets.Both

Seating chart built from the registration questionnaire before the doors open, roughly three per industry category at different stages so the mentorship happens by design.Kate

Live video stream from the gathering, and the monthly content session that produces twenty-five short videos in about half an hour.Kate

Corporate

Open the sponsored-seat conversations. Nissan, Ascend, Ingram, Asurion and General Mills are the largest employers in the county and none of them runs an open grant program, so the ask is a block of seats for their women out of a marketing or employee-engagement budget rather than a philanthropy one. Faster to approve, and it puts their people in the room.Jennifer

Offer speaker placement alongside the seat ask, since it costs them nothing and gives them a second reason to say yes.Jennifer

Money

City of Murfreesboro Community Grant, applications open 1 to 31 October every year. It funds education and it funds operating expenses, which almost nothing else does. It needs the determination letter in hand, so this is only live if the September filing has come back. If not, the window returns next October.Kate · 1 to 31 Oct

Middle Tennessee Electric SharingChange. Rolling, no deadline, board meets roughly monthly. Program costs only, no salaries and no capital, so it fits a workshop series well.Kate

NovemberProve the format

Second gathering, founding members start signing, and the first real grant applications go out.

The room

Second soft-launch gathering, with the evening workshop from the same speaker.Both

Founding member enrollment opens, with the three-year price lock. This is the offer that makes January a launch rather than an announcement.Both

First monthly referral roundup, so members see the number rather than being told about it.Kate

Legal

Around 11 November the chapter agreement reaches the end of the ninety-day notice period, assuming notice was given in writing on 13 August. Katie's read should have pinned the real date down well before we reach it.Watch this date

Money

Build the GivingMatters profile as soon as the determination letter lands. It gates every Community Foundation grant, including the January window, so it is not a January task.Kate

Truist Foundation deadline, 30 November. Their two pillars are career pathways to economic mobility and strengthening small businesses, minimum fifteen thousand dollars. They will not fund operating support or scholarships, so the ask has to be a specific program build. They also require three years between grants, so this is the one application worth taking time over.Kate · Mon 30 Nov

DecemberLoad the spring

Third gathering, and everything January needs gets built while the room is small enough to fix things quietly.

The room

Third soft-launch gathering. By now the run of show should need no notes.Both

Quarterly awards and the wins segment running as habit rather than as a new idea.Jennifer

Founding member roster closed or close to it, ahead of the January price.Both

Handover and hiring

Bring Faith in on social and graphics as a paid vendor, so that she is already running it in January instead of starting then.Kate

Confirm Ashlyn on photography for the launch and the first quarter.Jennifer

Money

First Horizon Community Development Fund, applications 1 December to 31 January. Reviewed by the local market's community development manager, so knowing someone at the Rutherford County branch helps a lot.Kate

Draft the Community Foundation Women's Fund application over the holidays so January is submitting rather than writing.Kate

JanuaryPublic launch

The room opens properly, and the grant year opens with it. These two happen in the same four weeks, which is either very good or very busy.

Launch

Public launch. Full membership at forty dollars a month, founding members already seated.Both

Press and local coverage, and the launch reel from the September photo session.Kate + Faith

Annual dress-up dinner on the calendar, and the second location conversation opened once the first room is near its cap of thirty.Both

Money, and this is the month that matters

Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Women's Fund, 1 to 31 January. Five thousand dollars at the under-three-years tier. Women's economic stability is one of their four focus areas and it is a direct hit on what we do. This is the single best first application on the list.Kate · 1 to 31 Jan

Community Foundation Community Impact Grants, same window. Unrestricted operating support, and Rutherford is one of their forty counties.Kate · 1 to 31 Jan

Bridgestone Community Impact, 15 January to 28 February. Nashville headquarters, and access to education is one of their stated areas.Kate

Walmart Spark Good local grants, two hundred and fifty to five thousand dollars, decided at store level. Smyrna stores are the relevant unit.Kate

Decisions

The open questions, and when they need answers

These are the ones that are genuinely undecided. Everything else on the plan is work rather than choice.

The question	Who decides	By when
How long do we wait on Kelci, and what does the plan look like if the answer never comes?	Kate and Jennifer, with Katie's read	Fri 21 Aug
One entity or two. A single 501(c)(3), or a membership entity alongside a foundation that holds the education and the grant money.	Kate with Cynthia	Fri 28 Aug
Which IRS form. The 1023-EZ is two hundred and seventy-five dollars and about three weeks. The full 1023 is six hundred and takes about six months, and it puts our program description in front of a real reviewer.	Kate with Cynthia	Fri 28 Aug
The photo session date, since one social post needs photographs before the session is currently scheduled.	Kate	Fri 21 Aug
Venue terms with Victoria, and whether the website trade covers the room alone or the room plus setup and staffing.	Kate and Jennifer	End of Aug
The annual membership price. Forty a month is settled. Whether the annual is four hundred and twenty as a discount or four hundred and eighty at full rate is not.	Kate and Jennifer	Wed 30 Sep
Board composition, and who among Ginger, Hannah, Kayla, Sherry and Susan sits on the board rather than the feedback panel.	Jennifer leads the asks	End of Sep
Which gathering date each month, locked far enough ahead that speakers can hold two dates.	Both	Mid Sep

Ownership

Who carries what

This follows the split agreed on 8 August. It is written down here so neither of us has to remember it.

Area	Owner	What that means in practice
The room	Jennifer	Hosting and running gatherings, recruiting and vetting speakers, in-room facilitation, the public face.
Corporate and sponsorship	Jennifer	Sponsored seats, corporate outreach, and the local relationships that never appear on a website.
Platform and systems	Kate	Website, registration, member data, seating charts, ticketing, the live stream.
Brand and social	Kate, then Faith	Brand, social strategy and automation until Faith takes posting and graphics as a paid vendor by January.
Entity, filings and grants	Kate with Cynthia	Charter, exemption, state registrations, the annual filing calendar, and every grant application.
Photography	Ashlyn	Brand session in September and coverage through the launch.
Welcoming, speakers, table pairings	Both	Member conversations, vetting speakers together, curating who sits with whom.

Later

The money that needs us to have a history first

Worth knowing now so we build toward it, and worth not chasing yet.

Funder	What it takes	Earliest
United Way of South Central Tennessee Opportunity Grants under ten thousand and Community Investment above it. Financial stability is one of their four Bold Goals.	One full year of operation. Rutherford is in their seven counties.	Jan 2028
Impact100 Nashville Spark grants around thirty-five thousand, larger ones to one hundred thousand.	Three years of financials averaging fifty thousand in revenue. Rutherford is in their ten counties.	2029
Nissan Foundation Ten to fifty thousand, and Middle Tennessee is one of eight target regions.	Three years operating, and a genuine cultural heritage dimension to the programming.	2029
HCA Healthcare Foundation Middle Tennessee Fund, and Rutherford is in the region.	Three years as a 501(c)(3) and an operating budget above five hundred thousand.	Later
Nissan Neighbors The plant-level program, separate from the Foundation.	Currently closed to new applications, and priority goes to existing grantees, which is why the sponsored-seat relationship matters.	Next cycle

One thing worth building into the programming from the start

There is a whole category of grant money that funds our members rather than us, and teaching it would fill a room on its own. The Amber Grant awards three grants of ten thousand dollars every month to women-owned businesses, including pre-revenue ones. Verizon runs ten thousand dollar grants monthly off the back of free courses. Comcast RISE funds marketing and technology for women-owned businesses. The Soroptimist Live Your Dream Awards fund women who are their family's primary earner and are in training or school, and applications there run from August through the middle of November.

A standing session on how to actually win these is a real member benefit, and it makes the education program concrete in the same breath.

The Woven Room

Cultivated belonging.

Working plan · 17 August 2026
For Kate and Jennifer