First off, if you haven’t yet heard the news – at this week’s OCCC Board of Education meeting, Birgitte announced her upcoming retirement (at the end of September). Her ten years at the helm of the OCCC have been truly transformational. A hearty Huzzah for Birgitte’s incredible stewardship! Read more here:
Click to access OCCC_Release_012424_President.pdf
Also, next week is our February Board of Directors meeting – it’s our annual grant scoring and review meeting. Here is a link to the grant applications, scoring rubric and scoring spreadsheet:
If you can get me your spreadsheets by the end-of-day on Tuesday, that’d be great!
Here’s our staff update for the week:
Blue Economy::
Next week, I’ll be meeting again with Aaron from Oo-nee Sea Urchin ranch about getting them some support from our CDS funding for start-ups. Mark Farley and I will be meeting again with Don Gerhart from Challenger Biosciences to discuss next steps on the green methanol research project (phase three wraps up next week). – Paul
Broadband::
This week and next, I’ll be wrangling support letters for the BTAP grant proposal that we’ll be submitting with the support of Rural Prosperity Partners for the February 2nd deadline. – Paul
Community Connecting::
Earlier this week, Leslie and I met for several hours to go through some clarification questions posed to us by the Ford Family Foundation on our invited grant proposal to fund Leslie’s Community Connector position. Leslie then dove into polishing up some appendix materials, and we should be close to submitting the requested info back to TFFF, – Paul
Creative Economies::
For ART Toledo this week, I updated the Art, Oysters & Brews registration form, attended the executive committee meeting, began working on an artist MailChimp newsletter, and opened a PO box in Toledo for the organization to begin transitioning into a nonprofit. – Sarah
Economic Summit::
For the Economic Summit this week I sent out invitations to the local chambers and business support organizations to be part of the summit through in-kind sponsorship or hosting a resource table at the event. I also put together a co-sponsorship proposal and created a QR code for marketing materials. – Sarah
This week, I completed work on our “Fresh, Local and Innovative” summit logo (the awesome motto was Sarah’s idea!), in the style of vintage fruit crate art. I also set up the event for paid ticketing through EventBrite. It’ll go fully live early next week. – Paul
Entrepreneurship::
This week I continued to work on the Youth Entrepreneurship Videos, I conducted video interviews with Gypsea Weaver, Skosh, and Hearth & Table and began editing each of the interviews. – Sarah
Organizational Management::
Early next week, Sarah, Leslie and I will have three in-person interviews with the finalists for our half-time Organizational Coordinator position. All three look to be strong candidates, and we ended up getting 37 applicants for the position – not bad! We’ll keep you posted. – Paul
Project Work::
I updated the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider on the EDALC website. – Sarah
Supporting and Connecting with Partners::
Cascades West Economic Development District (CWEDD) – This week, the CWEDD Executive Committee met to meet the new COG Community and Economic Development Director (and CWEDD Director) Jacklyn Disney – who started in her new role two weeks ago. We also discussed CWEDD officer elections and the upcoming update to the region’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS), which kicks off in earnest next week. – Paul
Northwest Oregon Works – This morning, I presented an updated EDALC overview and some information on our upcoming projects and priorities for the year at the NOW board meeting – held at the Lincoln County Cultural Center. – Paul
Waldport Chamber – On Wednesday morning, we welcomed about 50+ folks in for a Waldport Chamber breakfast. Dave Price and I got to give short updates, as well as Representative Gomberg. The main program was Brad Attig from Reinventing Rural. – Paul
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
I’m STILL on jury duty call – my next check in is on Tuesday evening to see if I have to serve on Wednesday the 31st. Hopefully, I don’t get stuck in a trial on the last day of the month!
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 🙂