Happy Friday, and welcome to September! 

 

Last Friday, EDALC staff participated in an off-site day-long retreat. Meeting at the rec center in Little Whale Cove, the day was broken into three “chunks.” First, each of the staff had the opportunity to share a short presentation that would allow them to share a bit more about what makes them tick. Sarah shared a fascinating biography. Leslie shared art and photographs she created, many pieces from her expedition-leading trips in New Zealand. Stacie introduced the staff to watercolor painting. Paul “attempted” to explain his four main thinking modalities: creative thinking, game-design thinking, thinking like a programmer and entrepreneurial thinking.

 

Next, the team discussed overall strategic priorities for EDALC in FY2024-25. The day ended with four sessions – each of the team was charged with facilitating a 45 minute discussion on something they felt was important to EDALC and our mission. Sarah led a discussion on our 2025 Lincoln County Economic Summit. Leslie explored how EDALC could potentially use an AI-powered application within takeactionlincolncounty.com. Stacie presented EDALC’s official brand guidelines and led the team through an exercise exploring “values keywords” for our work and organization. Paul led a discussion on blue economy work and opportunities over the last year of EDALC’s Congressionally Directed Spending award.

 

The team ended the day at Gracie’s Sea Hag for some libations and toasts to an exciting and “never boring” upcoming year for the organization. Now on with the regularly-scheduled staff update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
      • CWEDD – Last week, the Economic Development District Executive Committee met to discuss the upcoming 9/12 full board meeting in Albany and also started planning a regional Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy regional planning meeting, to be held in October.
      • OCCC – On the 26th, the OCCC Board of Education met to interview the Presidential finalists. On the 28th, the Board met in executive session. Next week, the Board will meet to determine next steps.
      • SBDC – Last Thursday, the EDALC team was treated to dinner (at Myril) and lively conversation with SBDC Director (and EDALC Director) Gregory Price and Advisor and Coordinator Kellianne Parker. The conversation focused on the upcoming YEP program and continued and expanded collaboration.
  • ART Toledo – Sarah looked into a grant opportunity for ART Toledo and worked on a promotion video for the 2025 event for Mayor Cross to present at an upcoming conference. 
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
  • O2IH website – Stacie wrote the RFP based on a meeting with Paul and Sarah. Paul to review and complete with the goal of sending to vendors next week.
      • Paul and Sarah met with Marcus from OCVA and Kristen with the Oregon Cluster Initiative to discuss potential opportunities for collaboration with O2IH efforts. 
      • Mark Farley and Paul met with Don Gerhart of Challenger Biosciences to talk through next steps of the green methanol project – specifically, preparing for an STTR grant submission in early October and some logistical work on next steps to develop a prototype methanol injection kit by the end of 2025.
  • Entrepreneurship
  • FailFest
        • Sarah and Stacie worked on the marketing plan (press release, Punch Bowl invite, and community outreach). Paul sent out invitations to business owners and entrepreneurs to be event speakers.
      • Economic Summit
        • Sarah put together the notes on the Economic Summit from the team retreat last Friday and began looking into potential speakers and sponsors.  
  • Core Economic Development Services
  • Oregon Prospector – Sarah updated Oregon Prospector listings and checked old ones to make sure they were still active.
  • Community Connecting
  • Affordable Housing Partners (AHP) Monthly Meetings Resume! This Wednesday was the first AHP meeting after summer break, and it was wonderful to hear updates from housing partners throughout the county. Leslie will share the meeting minutes when they are sent out by AHP co-lead, Elise Jordan. This is one of Leslie’s favorite collaborative meetings that has proven to be effective at convening and forwarding collective impact efforts. These meetings are open to anyone interested in understanding and helping forward Emergency, Transitional, Affordable, and Workforce Housing options in Lincoln County, so let Leslie know if you would like an invite and she’ll pass it along!
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication
        • Stacie shared SBDC SBM program to social media, completed Friday community roundup, and continued to chip away at the website update to-do list.
  • Project Work
      • Major Employers – Sarah continued to call and email local businesses for their employment numbers. 
      • Economic Vitality Report Card – Sarah did some additional research on housing affordability data for the economic vitality report card. 

 

Reminder: the September and October EDALC BoD meetings will be combined into an in-person meeting on Wednesday, September 25th (start time: 5:30pm) at the Hatfield Gladys Valley Marine Studies building. It will be a joining meeting between EDALC and YBEF and we’ll be hearing from the Eastern Research Group on their NOAA Economic Impact study.

 

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! 

 

Cheers,

 

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