Greetings and welcome to the first Friday in April!
Thanks to all who could join us for yesterday’s EDALC Board of Directors meeting. We had great lively discussions and hats off to Leslie for doing a yeomen’s job talking us through her work as a Community Connector.
Here’s our staff update for this week:
Blue Economy::
On Thursday, Mark Farley and I met with Don from Challenger Bioscience to discuss next steps to connect with a proper STTR program for the “Green Methanol to Decarbonize the Maritime Fishing Fleet” project. Our initial letter of intent to what we thought was the right DoE program did not make it to the next step, but I think it was a program alignment issue, rather than a flawed project idea. – Paul
Broadband::
Made additional edits to industry-specific letters of support based on updates from Pioneer – Stacie
After Stacie worked her magic and set up an Excel tracker, I reached out to about two dozen stakeholders for letters of support for the upcoming Broadband Deployment Program grant that will be submitted by Pioneer, which is due April 26th. – Paul
Business Support::
I spent a little time this week helping EiP Technologies get ready from some potential investors who will be visiting their demo site in Waldport next week. I also was able to connect Aaron from the OoNee Sea Urchin Ranch with Northwest Oregon works to see how their programs (especially their upcoming maritime workforce funding) can help him train up his summer workforce of 15-20 in Newport (plus several divers on the south coast). – Paul
Community Connecting::
I’m officially back to my link-infused, bulletpoint-heavy, and action-item-recommending weekly updates! For those who didn’t join yesterday’s Board of Directors meeting, this month marks the start of another year of Community Connector funding support from The Ford Family Foundation’s (TFFF) Rural Community Building Department. I am honored to have inspired TFFF to shift its historical funding practices to recognize EDALC, a 501(c)6, as the ideal fit for my Community Connector role on Oregon’s Central Coast. After a 7-year Goldilocks-esque search volunteering and working within and alongside many amazing community-serving organizations, I am confident that this organization and its small, mighty, nimble team and well-connected, active Board of Directors is where a Community Connector belongs. – Leslie
Here’s a link to Leslie’s full update on Google docs (SO glad to have her back full time!):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LmnXjyHk-Bfuh3oxFdaLQQYPy1c8UVLB23ns7G47ZVE/edit?usp=sharing
Entrepreneurship::
For the YEP event this week, Paul and I met with Kelliane and Michele from the SBDC team about event details and marketing. I also worked on a press release, created and sent out punchbowl invites, reached out to some caterers, and scheduled a meeting with Tami at Hatfield to get some event details solidified. In addition, I created a playlist on our YouTube page for the YEP local business highlight videos, here is the link if you are interested in watching: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCPRYQQjE4fiyFBnsJRUtBHsljr0vx-iR – Sarah
On Wednesday, I had the honor of addressing the students in the Youth Entrepreneurship Program in Newport. I “told the tale of victory and woe” of my computer game company – Magic Lantern Playware. – Paul
Events::
I got the thank you cards for the economic summit written up and sent out to all our speakers, raffle donors, and the Spyglass team! – Sarah
Marketing & Communication::
Social Media: Continued to increase EDALC connections on LinkedIn and Instagram. Cross-posted YEP video information. Exploring Canva and Bitly as potential solutions for some of the challenges presented by using multiple platforms that aren’t inclined to play nicely (youtube/linkedin/Instagram). – Stacie
Newsletter: Continued to draft articles, including my own introduction which was the hardest part. – Stacie
Onboarding::
Onboarding: Used my work on the BDP project to start diving in to the broader (ha) broadband efforts, went down a couple of rabbit holes re: SBDC, OCI, and OCCC. I’ll always be learning. – Stacie
Organizational Development::
Helped make some changes to Zoom to allow us to leverage more AI functionality. Attended board meeting – Stacie
Project Work::
I edited the grant webpage on the EDALC website, added new classes to the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider, and updated Oregon Prospector listings. I also worked on the spring MailChimp newsletter and the April board meeting minutes. – Sarah
Supporting Partners::
CWEDD – On Tuesday, I trekked to Albany to join in our quarterly economic developers lunch. It’s a chance for practitioners in our economic development district to get together to share war stories, best practices and such. I then met with Jaclyn Disney, the COG’s Community and Economic Development Director, to talk about ways to tee-up and improve the process as we get ready to kick off our Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy update for the region. – Paul
Upcoming::
Next Tuesday, I’ll be talking to Waldport high school students about what it’s like to have a career in computer game development – it’s part of Matt Batchelor’s Career Connected Learning lunch series, held in our building every other Tuesday. – Paul
Later this month, Leslie and I will be trekking to the Regards to Rural conference (https://rdiinc.org/r2r/) at the Three Rivers Convention Center in WA’s Tri-Cities – Leslie will be attending on tFFF’s dime and I’ll be attending on ROI’s dime. Looking forward to that energized and sold-out conference. – Paul
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
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 🙂