Greetings and welcome to Friday!
Here’s our EDALC update for the week:
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Project Associate Onboarding – Sarah Buddingh popped in this week to fill out paperwork and get a tour of the office (the full 30-second version!) and an introduction to some of the initial projects she’ll be working on. She’ll be in for a half-day next week, then starting in earnest (20 hours a week initially) on March 1st. I think she’s got great potential to help us up our game even further.
CO.STARTERS – I pulled together the marketing verbiage and imagery for the OCCC’s Catch the Wave magazine for the 10-week entrepreneurial start-up course that will be launching later next month. Next on the docket is some high touch marketing of the offering to the ART Toledo solopreneurs and connecting with the iLab to see if there are any potential entrepreneurs who can benefit from this experience.
O2IH – Mark Farley and I hosted Ayreann Colombo and Sarah Lu Heath (from ColPac, the north coast economic development district) at Hatfield this morning. Mark gave an excellent tour of the facilities (across many buildings – I learned a ton as well), and then we settled into the iLab with Drummond Biles and had a very lively discussion on was to coordinate and collaborate with the north coast on Blue Economy work going forward (starting with an application for an Innovation Hub planning grant). It seems like there are real and genuine alignment opportunities going forward. I also met with Connor Nolan, the Blue Economy Catalyst (replacing Laura Furgurson), to learn what he’s been up to and to provide him some advice and guidance on next steps.
EDALC Funding Update – I had a great meeting with Spencer and Derrick at the City of Newport this week. They need a little capacity in preparing for the revitalization of their city center, and it’s a great opportunity to build a working relationship together. I’ll be putting together a proposal next week, but it looks like the work (and the funding) and commence as early as March. So it looks like we’re in good shape to receive meaningful funding from Lincoln City, Newport, Toledo, LCSD and OCCC, plus grant funding from ROI (the first check was deposited this week). I received word today that the congressionally-directed funding has been pushed back to no sooner than March 11th.
Seeing OCCC Into the Future – I had a great meeting with Birgitte this week and look forward to working with her and her OCCC to offer some assistance and another viewpoint as they pull together their strategic plan. Also, being a good educator, Birgitte gave me some homework to do!
Refresher Course – I attended a one hour refresher course on state business incentives presented by Business Oregon – things like Enterprise Zones, SIPs, the Governor’s strategic reserve fund and the Oregon Advantage investment tax credit.
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
Following up on last week’s comment on Nick Baumgartner, we were surprised (and excited) that he was selected to participate in the first-ever mixed snowboard cross final, and that he and his partner, Lindsey Jacobellis, pulled off a gold medal! Holy cow! I’m equally proud of my former staff member, Erika Sauter, who organized and pulled off a three-city “welcome home” celebration in the U.P. for Nick with only 24 hours notice – she deserves a medal for that as well!
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 🙂