Greetings and welcome to Friday and welcome to August – yowza, that escalated quickly!
Thanks to all who attended our August Board of Directors meeting yesterday – it was a great discussion of our FY23-24 work plan and strategic priorities. We’ll refine it next week and take Birgitte’s suggestion of really looking through the staff time commitments to make sure we’re not bandwidth challenge. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights!
Don’t forget that this Saturday is the August Art, Oysters & Brews event in Toledo. Sarah will be working set-up and I’ll be running the sound for the musicians (and will have my guitars on-hand in case anyone is a no-show!). At 1:30pm is the unveiling and dedication of the new Michael Gibbons mural painted by Casey McEneny. Hope to see you there!
Here’s our staff update for the week:
Blue Economy::
On Monday, Mark Farley and I met with the team from the Eastern Research Group to talk through a potential NOAA economic impact (both regionally and statewide) study we may want to commission. This afternoon, Mark and I also met Don Gerhart (Challenger Biosciences) for a working lunch to discuss his green methanol research and discuss and possible future work that could lead to some tangible results for our coastal fishing vessels – there are some promising opportunities and we’re awaiting some preliminary next steps from Don. – Paul
Community Connecting::
For anyone and everyone who would like to share feedback on my work last year, I’ve created an online questionnaire. Your honest feedback will help my upcoming Pilot Position report, as well as assist in designing future years of a Community Connector role at EDALC. Thanks in advance for any time you can spare on sharing your thoughts here: https://tinyurl.com/ccfeedback2023
Please share this opportunity with anyone else in your networks who I’ve worked with! Please submit your feedback by Monday, August 14th. – Leslie
** Also, be sure to check on Leslie report for sponsorship opportunities for the upcoming (soon!) CTSI Pow-Wow. It’s a great opportunity to support local heritage! EDALC is going to step up as a sponsor as well.
Here is the link to Leslie’s full and informative report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HUlu_sjQoxso-CLJUERlbTZV01sGk3kMf0EpitijUQs/edit
Creative Economies::
Creative Economies::
For ART Toledo this week, I updated the website and created and sent out a MailChimp newsletter promoting the Art, Oysters & Brews event happening this Saturday. In addition, I attended the Art Toledo meeting Thursday morning, participated in a Chalk the Block subcommittee afterwards, and posted on the EDALC facebook page for the Art, Oysters & Brews event. – Sarah
Membership::
Michael Smith and I met on Wednesday afternoon to talk financials. We also spent a good deal of time talking about putting together a small membership committee and putting together a prospect list for the financial and utility sectors (as a first step). We also talked about doing some preliminary “down the road” planning for an EDALC-run Lincoln County business incubator (a clear local need). We’ll also be reaching out to the board members in the coming weeks with invoices for FY23-24 EDALC memberships. – Paul
Project Work::
This week I continued to work on the major employers report, I also reached out a few more times to request bids for the Lincoln County Economic report from some Oregon data analytics consulting companies. I reached out to a few potential event spaces for the Economic Summit about their capacity and requested more information about their event services. I continued to look into possible data points for the Economic Vitality Report card, I found some interesting data through Oregon Lottery reporting and Business Oregon but am waiting to hear back from them on some details regarding their reports. I also organized our white board of sticky notes from the team planning session onto our Monday.com page so we can track projects easier, and updated the opportunities for entrepreneurs on the EDALC website. I continued to update Oregon Prospector listings throughout the week, and sent my informational Oregon Prospector video to Business Oregon, if you are interested in watching or sharing the video it is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h4NlRKyWkD1cUgE-YpgJgZBVYPGxzPgy/view?usp=sharing
– Sarah
Rural Opportunity Initiative::
We received *very positive* feedback from Business Oregon on our ROI final report. We have a few more bits of info to put together as part of our final “wind down” materials. We’ll also be preparing our next “project wish list” for our upcoming second ROI grant application (we’re expecting that to open later this month or in early September). – Paul
Supporting Our Partners::
Cascades West COG – This week I reviewed a new loan application from a business in Sweet Home looking to expand. It’s nice seeing some applications coming into the COG after quite a few months of no action. I’m thinking we need to amp-up the awareness of these great alternative loan programs locally. – Paul
Cascades West Innovation Hub – This week I participated in a listening session (four were held, last week and this week) to get stakeholder input on putting together a plan (that could/should evolve into a grant request) for a virtual innovation up to serve our Economic Development District region. There was some great conversation, but I still find myself wondering is there is any “there there” – I’ll keep you posted! – Paul
OCCC – Yesterday, I helped facilitate part of the OCCC Foundation’s annual board retreat. We did some great exercises for the board to learn more about each other and how to get into a “yes…and” brainstorming mindset (by doing some improve theater!). We also looked at visualizing a compelling future for the college and the foundation through a “Deck of Lenses” exercise and some facilitated brainstorming – so happy to help support such a great organization! – 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 🙂