Hello and Happy Friday!

 

First, thank you to those who were able to attend yesterday’s board meeting. We’re happy to share that EDALC has a new vision statement: A vibrant, resilient Lincoln County economy that sustains prosperity and opportunity for all. We’ll be working with the EDALC Board on an aligned mission statement in the coming months.

 

On Tuesday, Paul and Sarah helped facilitate the sold-out Cascades West Economic Development District’s Ignite Economic Vitality Summit in Albany. Sarah served as a regional priorities discussion facilitator, and Paul served as emcee. Paul also pinch-hit as moderator for the amazing capital access panel, which was organized by Gregory Price who was unfortunately out sick.

 

Paul and Marshall have been in Sunriver since Wednesday for the annual Oregon Community College Association conference. They’re probably driving back right now.

 

Conference season is winding down, but we have one last event of our own this year. Next Thursday is Fail Fest 2026 at Primaltones in Aquarium Village. We hope you can join us for an evening of entrepreneurial camaraderie and community-building. Please register for this free event at tinyurl.com/FailFest26 as we have limited space available.

 

FYI – Stacie was in Seaview, Washington Monday-Wednesday for a birthday retreat so has a bit less to share this week. Here are our updates:

 

  • Partner Support/Community Support
    • CCFW – Sarah met with Jim King to discuss upcoming funding opportunities. Sarah and the CCFW team met with the Governor’s staff on Friday to show them the building, discuss CCFW’s programs and see if there are opportunities for them to support the organization.
    • CWEDD – Paul and Sarah prepped for and attended the CWEDD economic summit on Tuesday.
    • Newport – Paul and Sarah prepped talking points for a Wednesday evening Uptown meeting at City Hall in Newport. Sarah attended the meeting with local business and property owners and shared some initial information about the facade improvement program and encouraged the businesses to reach out with any questions or general business needs. 
    • Workforce – Paul, Marshall and Dave Price met with Eric Sherman to discuss a possible new “buy local” campaign focused on the importance of hiring local trades professionals. Eric works with two trades organizations that have funding for this effort.
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Fail Fest – Sarah worked on the slide deck. Stacie sent the program to our emcee, edited a speaker bio, and shared the schedule with the five confirmed speakers.
    • YEP – Sarah continued to work on video editing the two local business highlight videos for the YEP curriculum. 
  • Core Economic Development Services
    • ComEcDev grant – Sarah answered a couple potential applicants’ questions and looked into standard state and federal indirect rate caps for grants. Stacie reviewed incoming applications for completion and sent application confirmation emails.
    • Oregon Prospector – Sarah met with Business Oregon’s industrial lands specialist on how to improve Oregon Prospector and better attract developers to our Lincoln County available industrial sites. It was a very useful conversation and she took away some immediate and long term opportunities for improvement and some more information on Business Oregon’s industrial site development loan programs and general support resources. 
  • Community Connecting
    • Center for Women’s Leadership & RDI Rural Women’s Leadership Cohort Facilitation in Salem – On Monday, Leslie met virtually with Aniko to finish the slide presentation and worksheets in preparation for Tuesday’s session at Chemeketa’s Center for Business and Industry in downtown Salem. This session was the first gathering of the 2-day, in-person training for the 4th annual cohort. This year’s group includes five women from the Central Oregon Coast. This “Power With: Strengthening and Sustaining Rural Collaborative Efforts” session gave Aniko and Leslie over twice the amount of time as our Regards to Rural version to expand on the fusion of Leslie’s Expedition Lens approach applied to the Strategic Doing activities and practices. The session was well-received, and Leslie continued with the group for both days, increasing her statewide networking connections and power mapping proficiency, in a session led by Andrea Cooper of March Strategies. As last year, the Salem experience ended with a group conversation with Sophorn Cheang, Director of Business Oregon.
  • Organizational Management
    • Marketing & Communication – Stacie and Sarah met to finalize the partner communication strategy for 2027 which Stacie shared in Thursday’s BoD meeting. Stacie also managed social media.

 

Thank you for all of your hard work, and have a wonderful weekend!

 

Best,

 

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