Greetings and welcome to Friday! Another busy week full of solid work to “move the needle.” Thanks so much to all the board members who really been stepping up the last few weeks – it feels great to collaborate!
Here’s our update for the week –
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Suzan’s week:
* Daily/ weekly routine tasks
* Update calendar
* Complete timecard & submit
* Pay bills in bill pay
* Update QBO
* Prepare agenda, minutes & attachment
* Distribute board notice
* Search for old hard copy payments for Paul
* Post payroll & gusto
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Paul’s week:
Preliminary Strategic Planning – I spent the lion’s share of my “Deep Work” this week on putting together a strategic summary (think of it as a roadmap and a precursor to a full-blown strategic plan) document – that will also have the ability to serve as an “elevator pitch” for our organization. We discussed it in our Strategic Alignment committee meeting this week and also Birgitte spent some time working on refining it today (thanks a ton, Birgitte!). I also spent some time brushing up on my page layout skills in iStudio Publisher so that we can make this document as professional and attractive as possible.
DEI Training – This Wednesday we finished up our four months of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training with Michelle Leedom of Clinton Street Consulting. This was a program underwritten by OCVA (we only had to pay a nominal fee), and it was very high quality (and sometimes quite uncomfortable). Sixteen of us went through the training, and I think we all walked away with not only increased awareness but also some actionable steps we can all do professionally to be more inclusive.
Combinatorial Creativity – I spent a little time this week exploring some creative intersections between my efforts here and other creative pursuits, so see if there might be some new lenses through which we can look at our work. Riffing off of the research of Jane McGonigal (of the Institute of the Future – she was also a professional colleague of mine in the computer game industry), I looked at some ways we could use game science to look at the practice of economic development (see Jane’s book “Superbetter”). I also started exploring ways we can use storytelling to better convey economic development visions. More on these pursuits later, if they bear any fruit.
Toledo Main Street – This week, I wrote a support letter for Toledo’s application into the Oregon Main Street program. We utilized the four-point approach of the Main Street program in our downtown revitalization work in Monmouth (though not through the Illinois Main Street program, because the then-governor had gutted the department by then).
Strategic Alignment Committee – We had the first official meeting of the Strategic Alignment and Governance Committee this week (Birgitte, Doug Holbrook, Kerry and myself) yesterday. We spent time discussing how to develop a “board matrix” to help us maximize the effectiveness our our BoD writ large. We’ll also be putting together an online BoD application (once we feel the matrix rows are looking good). We also spent a good amount of time talking about or organizational and strategic goals.
Enterprise Zone – I attended a webinar from Art Fish on EZ exemptions and potential job number challenges due to the pandemic last year. Next week, I’ll see if that affects any of our current exemptees and will also be doing some re-up and new application work for our local EZ.
Wildfire Recovery – I attended Sarah Means’ wildfire recovery call this week and we heard from the FEMA CPCB folks (Community Planning and Capacity Building), a new intergovernmental group I hadn’t heard of before. They can offer some technical assistance in recovery planning, and one aspect of that is economic development planning. I reached our to Commissioner Jacobson (she was also on the call) to see if there might be ways we can assist on that front.
Energy Trust of Oregon – Alison over at Lincoln City invited me to a Energy Trust of Oregon meeting this week – it was a great chance to learn about that organization, their local incentives, and we got to hear a great presentation on the design of the new Hatfield Marine Studies building. I had no idea how much planning was done relating to potential tsunami hazards when the building was designed. Bob also reminded me (in a call we had later in the day) to make sure we pack a “go kit” in case of evacuation – it’s on our weekend to-do list!
Blue Economy – I had a great meeting this week with Laura Furgurson, the new Blue Economy Catalyst for Oregon RAIN (as part of an EDA grant in cooptation with Hatfield). I got to learn a little more about her role, and we discussed ways we can collaborate in the future in the blue economy space. It also looks like “The MIC” (Maritime Innovation Center) needs a new name (to avoid some unintentional political baggage) – any ideas?
Virtual Member Event – We’re beginning to plan a virtual member event for March (probably late March), and I reached out today to Ryan Lilly to see if he’d be interested in being our featured speaker. He’s a nationally-recognized leader in the field of entrepreneurship development and building local and regional entrepreneurial ecosystems (and wrote the book “Ecosystem Hacking” that was published in 2019). Hopefully I can reel him in! (This just in: Ryan’s game! Will get him more info over the next week or two – hot dog!)
Newport 2040 Community Vision Awards – The voting for the awards is now open – over 80 nominees across all the categories! You can read about the nominees here: tinyurl.com/readabouthelpers2020. The online voting is here: tinyurl.com/voteforhelpers2020.
Upcoming Meeting (reminder):
EDALC February Board of Directors:
Feb 4, 2021 03:30 PM Pacific Time
https://zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09
I’ll send an Outlook invite out early next week as a reminder.
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 🙂