Greetings and welcome to Friday! What a gorgeous and sunny day out there today!!
Sarah’s Note: I took the beginning of the week off to take a little trip up to the Kalama River and Mt. Saint Helens with my boyfriend Trystan. He is heading up to Astoria for Hake season soon, so we took some time to kayak and fish a few lakes before he leaves for the summer, so it is a short weekly update from me.
Here’s our weekly staff update:
Blue Economy::
Yesterday, we received an MOU from RAIN to assist with some project work related to wrapping up their EDA grant (which is in partnership with Hatfield) and some additional Blue Economy work funded from a grant from the Lemelson Foundation. I’ll be reviewing that on Monday (it will be several projects relating to our current blue priorities, coupled with funding). Today, Mark Farley and I met with the Eastern Research Group team via Zoom. They developed the Blue Economy sector study funded by the state. We are going to use some of our CDS funding to do a deeper dive into some of the areas of the high level study. – Paul
Community Connecting::
Some excerpts from Leslie’s report (link below):
Last Friday evening I joined a bilingual discussion from 6-7 PM at Arcoíris Cultural with Jason Holland. Seven adults and six children joined. I love events where kids are playing nearby while the adults are discussing community improvement ideas! Jason and I gained insight and feedback on the following questions:
1. When you think about culture in Newport, what do you think of?
2. What do you appreciate about the Arts & Culture found in the Greater Newport Area (what are our strengths/assets)?
3. What is missing from the Arts & Culture Scene? What can we do better?
4. If you could wave a magic wand and do one thing to make Newport the best Arts & Culture City, what would that be?
For the past few months, I’ve met weekly with Laura Johnson and Alyssa Leidel from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Drinking Water Protection Program and Michelle Smith, from the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts. We aim to design regional gatherings to build relationships and capacity between the multiple individuals and entities who want to protect their drinking water sources and watersheds along the Oregon Coast.
Here’s a link to Leslie’s always informative and thought-provoking full report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iVVBLIkjPEskFC0qifUbUL5SL-0NRBNVSErfAnz8iIA/edit?usp=sharing
Creative Economies::
For ART Toledo this week, I worked on the fundraising page and adding the sponsor logos onto it. – Sarah
Entrepreneurship Events::
Earlier this week, I finished up the layout for our “pocket memo book” that we’ve designed to highlight our entrepreneurial support work. We’re having an initial order printed up that will be available as a take-away gift at our Fail Fest event (we also plan to used them in our other three events throughout the year). – Paul
This week for the Fail Fest event I sent out a press release to some local media outlets and sent our entrepreneur logo and ad to some chambers and newspapers that requested them. In addition, I posted on our Facebook page about the event, it is only two weeks away! – Sarah
Project Work::
I put together the Oregon Prospector listing for the Waldport art gallery and made it public, I also updated some listings and the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider on the EDALC website. In addition, continued to work on April’s board meeting minutes. – Sarah
Rural Opportunity Initiative::
This week, I submitted our April 2023 progress report to the ROI team. SO much going on and so many results (and cool pictures) to share. Next week, I’ll need to do some ROI budget adjustments – we had some funding earmarked for entrepreneurial kitchen work that won’t happen this cycle (hopefully next), but are doing MUCH more training and event work. I’ve been in contact with the program director Brian Plinksi, and he’s aware and supportive of the change. -Paul
Supporting and Connecting with Partners::
CWEDD – This week, we had an Executive Committee meeting for the Cascades West Economic Development District, and discussed ways in which we can get CWEDD more engaged (and helpful) in the broadband work briefing done across our four-county region. On May 11th, we’ll have the first in-person CWEDD full board meeting since the pandemic – it’ll be held at the COG office in Albany. I should be able to attend in person and get back in time for our Fail Fest at the PAC at 5:30. – Paul
Childcare – On Wednesday, interim Newport Chamber Director Judy Kuhl and I met with Angela Nebel. She’s been hired by Lincoln County to help promote the new childcare training programs and grant programs – specifically looking to bring in folks interested in starting up a licensed at-home childcare business. We were able to point her in some solid directions and make some introductions that should help her be even more effective in her outreach. – Paul
Newport Chamber – On Tuesday, the Newport Chamber Executive Committee met to narrow down first-round candidates (who have all been interviewed) into the finalists for the position. The next step will be taking a DISC assessment, which will then be matched with the “Let the Job Talk” assessment we completed several weeks ago. After that, it will be final interviews and scheduling a candidate meet & greet event. – Paul
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
Remember that we have our May EDALC Board of Directors NEXT Thursday at 3:30pm via Zoom. The Zoom meeting info is below:
Topic: May EDALC BoD Meeting
Time: May 4, 2023 03:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09
Meeting ID: 917 810 4987
Passcode: 0NyksK
Have wonderful weekend! Thanks for ALL that you are doing out there! Please reach out to me if you need anything at all. Have a wonderful weekend!
Cheers,
-Paul 🙂