Greetings and welcome to Friday! And for the curious – yes, we have indoor plumbing once again (what amazing technology!) – our leak was fixed early Friday evening last week and we’ve been golden ever since.
Here’s our EDALC update for the week:
====
Project Associate Search – We’re at over 20 applicants for the position! I’ve had four interviews so far, with one more scheduled next Tuesday, and I think we’ve got one (or more) winners in that smaller pool.
Rural Opportunity Initiative – Our statewide kick-off meeting is in mid-February – looking forward to becoming part of a larger, rural Oregon team. We’ll also have our one-on-one consultations starting shortly. BizOR is also sending us all to the RDI Regard to Rural Conference at the Wildhorse Casino in Pendleton (May 20-21). We’re still waiting on the initial fund deposit, but it should be in our account any day now.
EDA Good Jobs Challenge (GJC) Grant Program – We’re still working on wrangling local letters of support for the National Restaurant Association’s GJC application and the Oregon team will be meeting again next week. I met with Heather DeSart and their grant writer on their GJC workforce development application and was able to share with them some of the work we did on the BBB grant to (hopefully) strengthen their application.
O2IH – Several funding opportunities have cropped up recently that look to be prime candidates to push forward our O2IH collaborative work. One of the most relevant (and something we were anticipating) is the call for planning grants to stand up regional innovation hubs. Here’s a blurb from Business Oregon:
>>>>
Business Oregon and the Oregon Innovation Council is pleased to announce the availability of $1.5 million for partnerships exploring the potential of Regional Innovation Hubs, a key recommendation in Oregon’s 10-Year Innovation Plan. Planning grants will be awarded to collaborative partnerships to determine how they can best build and advance regional innovation ecosystems and provide innovation-based entrepreneurs access to technical assistance, capital, networking, mentorship, and talent development in their region.
<<<<
We’ll be meeting next week to discuss these opportunities.
WordPress Strategic Planning Project – I met with Laura Kimberly (Newport Library) and Leslie Palotas (City of Newport Vision 2040) and we trained Laura on the custom plugin. She’ll be working to input their library strategic plan into the tool as a trail run before we further refine the site and open it up to stakeholders. We’re also starting work to set up a demonstration to the Ford Family Foundation’s Community Website team to see how this could be integrated into their web platform.
COGs – I had a meeting white week with a team from our regional Council of Governments – we discussed ways to improve the marketing of their loan instruments – especially some remaining CARES dollars they need to get out in the next few months. We’ll be helping them with some Lincoln County marketing as well as “amping up” the visibility of this capital-access tools on our website.
Creativity Boot Camp – I’m looking forward to dusting off and updating my Creativity Boot Camp curriculum – especially as it pertains to working professionals. I see this as one of the programatic deliverables of our ROI program as well as a way to offer some skill development to local businesses. I’ll be presenting to Leadership Lincoln this Spring and am also working with Dave Price to do a one or two session workshop through the OCCC. SO looking forward to that – it’s a true passion of mine.
GP – I saw this morning that C.J. Drake will be leaving the Toledo GP plant and relocating to a Georgia GP cellulose mill – he wants to be closer to family. He’ll be greatly missed!
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
REMINDER: Our next BoD meeting will be Thursday, February 3rd at 3:30pm.
Here’s the Zoom link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09
Meeting ID: 917 810 4987
Passcode: 0NyksK
Susan and I will be heading out early today for our long weekend in Sedona – gonna bathe in those vortexes (and some good wine). I’ll be back at it on Tuesday morning.
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 🙂