Greetings and welcome to Friday! Looks like a cool and refreshing Easter weekend ahead.

 

Last Sunday through Tuesday, Paul attended the Nonprofit Association of Oregon’s 36th Nonprofit Leaders Conference in Ashland (conference fees and hotel were provided by Business Oregon’s ROI program). While the majority of attendees were social service nonprofits, there was a small but mighty contingent of economic development organizations. The overarching theme was responding to the chaos coming from DC and tools and techniques to manage varying (and unanticipated) levels of funding disruption.

 

This week also saw the distribution of our Spring EDALC newsletter – which goes out to close to 270 local and regional subscribers. Stacie is the lead on EDALC’s newsletters these days, with contributions coming in from the whole team.

 

Here’s our weekly team update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support
      • ART Toledo – Sarah worked on website updates and organized files for ART Toledo. She also uploaded the promo video for the 2025 Art, Oysters & Brews and began to work on a mailchimp save the date email that will go to local artists.
  • CCFW – Sarah reviewed resumes for the Community Foods & Market Coordinator position at the Central Coast Food Web.
  • OEDA – Sarah worked on a list of potential speakers and tours for the OEDA conference in October in Salishan.
      • Yachats – Next Wednesday evening is our collaborative community budget game event with the City of Yachats. They are expecting close to 100 participants. Paul wrapped up the programming of the web game, while the rest of the team worked on the budget cards. Early next week will be testing and polishing.
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
      • NOAA Young Fisherman’s Grant – Work is continuing on the narrative for the application (with co-applicants including OCCC as lead, OSU/Oregon Sea Grant, EDALC and the Tillamook Coast Visitors Association), as well as tracking down letters of support. The grant application is due next week. 
  • O2IH Website – Content is complete and ready for our team to review! Shawn will make small adjustments based on our feedback, and we’ll be getting training on the books soon. Stacie rebuilt the kumu.io resource map in EDALC’s new account and made some improvements in the process.
  • Entrepreneurship
      • Cascades West Innovation Hub (CWIH) – Paul, Sarah and Stacie trekked to Lebanon on Wednesday for the Willamette Valley Biotech Showcase event at the Boulder Falls Event Center. The event was one of the collaborative kickoff events of the CWIH. Paul was the kickoff speaker, followed by a keynote on Corvallis Microfluidics Hub. Paul also met with the grant manager of the COG to discuss a potential greater CWIH management role for EDALC in FY25-26.
  • ROI Video Project – Sarah worked on ideas for speakers to feature in the Business Oregon/TZOM films video that will be filmed in May.
  • Youth Entrepreneurship Program Pitch Event  – Sarah drafted a press release and team proofed/provided feedback.
  • Broadband
      • Broadband Action Team – This week was the monthly BAT meeting. The portal for BEAD application in Oregon will open next week, though significant changes in the program are anticipated at the federal level. The Cascades West Economic Development District is helping to coordinate letters of support for regional BEAD applications.
  • Core Economic Development Services
      • Oregon Prospector – Sarah updated listings on Oregon Prospector and added new ones.
  • Community Connecting
  • Rural Forward Day and Rural Oregon Day at the Capitol, by Rural Development Initiatives and partners – On Wednesday, the Reser Family Foundation shared Reser Foods’ meeting facilities in Beaverton to gather over 30 Rural leaders from across Oregon to focus and share stories about the power of rural collaborative efforts to solve complex rural challenges. Then a much larger group convened on Thursday for the first Rural Oregon Day in Salem, for an inspiring and empowering gathering that connected leaders to rural-centered approaches and legislation advocacy at the Capitol. Many attendees, including Leslie, met with their Representatives or Senators (or their staff), while building powerful new connections around multiple topics and sectors. Kudos to the entire RDI team for making two free days of impactful and inspiring Rural Action happen (and for covering Leslie’s travel and lodging)! 
  • Leslie connected and reconnected with many folks and their aligned and inspiring efforts. Learn more details and get inspired to collaborate by catching up with Leslie’s full weekly update: April 18, 2025 EDALC CC Weekly Report
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication Stacie posted Friday community roundup and shared relevant partner/regional posts on various social media channels. She also sent the Spring newsletter on Tuesday and posted announcements to LI, FB, and IG.
  • Project Work Stacie followed up with Andi at CTSI on next steps for publicizing this year’s Pow-Wow sponsorship opportunity. She also emailed Tyler at Primaltones to start working on details for the annual YBEF/EDALC meeting on 6/26.
  • Admin

 

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 Easter weekend!

 

Cheers,

 

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