Greetings and welcome to a rainy, windy Friday (and weekend) and welcome to the last day in January! Christmas decorations are down and here come the red Valentine hearts and the Leprechaun fedoras – you have been warned!

 

Here’s our team update for this week:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
  • Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) – On Monday, Paul participated in a CEDS Strategy Committee meeting facilitated by Aniko Drlik-Muehleck  of the University of Oregon’s Institute for Policy Research and Engagement.
  • Waldport Chamber – Paul attended the Waldport Chamber breakfast (they always do a great job). He was able to talk with featured speaker Liora Sponko (of the Oregon Arts Commission) about EDALC’s Creative Economy Playbook project – looks like there might be some fruitful collaboration there.
  • CCFW – Sarah attended a Central Coast Food Web Action plan meeting Wednesday afternoon. 
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
      • O2IH Website – Paul and Stacie met with web developer Shawn Livengood to check in on progress this morning. Shawn implemented the page and menu changes our staff suggested. We are awaiting a second draft logo and some color and font recommendations from our logo artist (SmiesDesign – they did our EDALC logo) and will then begin adding in some initial site content.
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Cascades West Innovation Hub – On Monday, Paul and Sarah filmed a video at Hatfield’s iLab for an application for an SBA Growth Accelerator grant application for some gap funding for the Cascades West Innovation Hub (you can see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vJ5wtCs8pM). The grant application was submitted on Wednesday. BTW – it was a herculean editing task to edit this video down to just 90 seconds – way to go Sarah! Paul, Sarah, and Stacie attended the Cascades West Innovation Hub Subcontractors Check-in on Tuesday and are preparing for the hub Advisory Team meeting on Feb 4th.
  • Broadband
      • BEAD Prequalification – It looks like the BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment) prequalification will finally open up on February 12th. Paul will reach out to Pioneer Cooperative to check in on their plans (quite possibly the only single ISP to apply) and, if it makes sense, will set up a conversation with LCSD and Lincoln County to discuss.
  • Core Economic Development Services
  • Economic Summit – Sarah worked on the pillars of the local economy videos and got some additional b-roll of the Taft CTE program and the Housing Authority’s development locations. She also worked on coordination of speakers, municipal representatives, and resource tables. Stacie wrote the press release which will be sent out once approved by our keynote speaker. Swag and centerpiece brainstorming + research are progress. Stacie visited Aquarium Village on Wednesday to source some items.
  • Community Connecting
  • How are you doing? – This week Leslie realized that one of the challenges of her role involving multiple, multi-sector collaborative efforts is that each sector is dealing with its own increased challenges under quickly changing variables. Many analogies arise, as usual. Currently, Leslie’s leading analogy is that each organization and sector is dealing with a firehose of new information and situations, and folks who collaborate with multiple organizations and sectors have multiple firehoses to navigate. Leslie’s doing her best to selectively turn her attention to the onslaughts she can directly affect in positive ways so she doesn’t get overwhelmed and distracted by the onslaughts she can’t. 

Fortunately, Leslie also realized that a strength in her role is the trusted connections to a wide network of people who can help support and share resources with each other in challenging times. Connecting in person, in both work and social settings, has been extremely helpful this week, and it will be vital in the years ahead. This week’s report includes updates on some of Leslie’s work/social gatherings. That being said, if you could use some in-person connection time to help support the firehose/s you are navigating – please, please reach out to Leslie to schedule a meetup. These types of meetups are helpful to her too, and she has lots of ideas and resources to share.  

  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication
        • Stacie boosted partner posts across all platforms throughout the week and shared community posts to stories today. 
        •  The team finalized the Winter 2025 newsletter which went out on Tuesday and currently has a record-breaking 62.2% open rate (average open rates for online newsletters are between 15-25%).
  • Project Work
        • Stacie added new projects to Monday.com and updated O2IH, Cascades West Innovation Hub, and Summit boards throughout the week.
  • Admin
  • Our Waldport Offices – On Wednesday, Paul visited EDALC’s offices in Waldport. The restoration is nearly complete (carpeting replacement should be finished this weekend) and looks great. Looks like there will be a lot of joint compound dust to clean off of our furniture and electronics. EDALC should be able to return to Waldport in the next week or two, and again, a HUGE Thank You to OCCC for the temporary office in Newport!
  • Team Meeting – Stacie, Paul, and Sarah met to update each other on work in progress and identify areas where we can lean in to help.

 

Reminder: Next Thursday is our February EDALC Board of Directors meeting via Zoom. Here’s the connection info:

 

Topic: EDALC February BoD Meeting

Time: Feb 6, 2025 03:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09&omn=85314716132

 

Meeting ID: 917 810 4987

Passcode: 0NyksK

 

That’s it for this week. Thanks for ALL that you are doing out there! Keep us posted if you have anything you want us to share, and don’t be stingy with your ideas – we love hearing from you! Have a wonderful holiday!!

 

Cheers,

 

-The EDALC Team (Paul, Sarah, Leslie and Stacie)