Greetings and welcome to 2024!! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and come into 2024 armed with a short but awesome set of resolutions, the boundless optimism of a seven-year-old and the stamina of a marathon runner. It’s going to be a wild ride, for sure!
Here’s our first staff update of the new year:
Blue Economy::
This week, I had a long followup meeting with Aaron Huang of the Ooni Sea Urchin Ranch (https://www.oo-nee.com/) startup (harvesting purple urchin uni). His business is really a poster child of the kind of local-asset driven Blue Economy startups we’d like to see more of along the coast. It looks like we’ll be able to assist him as one of our five “start up sites” with our CDS funding. – Paul
I read through and made suggestions for the NOAA Fleet Interview guide and attended the meeting with ERG Friday morning. – Sarah
Broadband::
This week, I met with Pioneer Telephone to discuss their BDP broadband grant application. Next week, I’ll be meeting with Rural Prosperity Partners to coordinate work on an EDALC-submitted Broadband Technical Assistance Program grant application, to benefit our regional EDD counties. – Paul
Communication/Marketing::
I posted on the EDALC Facebook page for two upcoming business courses, the “Starting a Business in Lincoln County” course by the SBDC and a 3-part Kiva Loan workshop presented by Reinventing Rural. – Sarah
Community and Economic Development Grant Program::
This week, Sarah completed checking with all applying organizational chief executives authorizing grant applications. If board members can get their scoring spreadsheets in to me by January 29th, that would be awesome. As a reminder, here is our BoD’s grant page:
Creative Economies::
I prepared some interview questions for some potential muralists for an upcoming sensory mural and attended the ART Toledo meeting Thursday morning. – Sarah
Entrepreneurship::
This week, Sarah and I finished compiling a list of local entrepreneurs that would be good targets for the Youth Entrepreneurship Program videos we will be producing in the next few week. That same list will also help us identify some awesome business speakers for our March economic summit. – Paul
Organizational Management::
Last Friday, Sarah and I developed and posted a job listing for our half-time Organizational Coordinator position (approved in this year’s budget). We posted it on Indeed and our website (with some social media shout outs on FB and LinkedIn). Over the week, we’ve received over 14 qualified applicants. Sarah and I will review the resumes on Monday and select a few top candidates for initial Zoom interviews. – Paul
Project Work::
I updated the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider on the EDALC website, worked on the DEQ water workshop videos, and sent out the Newport Airport survey to all the chamber directors. I also contacted some of the grant applicant organizations’ chief executives to get confirmation of their support for applying for the grant. – Sarah
Supporting and Connecting with Partners::
CW COG/CWEDD – I heard this week from COG Executive Director Ryan Vogt that their top candidate, Jaclyn Disney, accepted their offer to become the COG’s Director of Community and Economic Development (and also the Executive Director of the Cascades West Economic Development District). She starts next week and should be an awesome regional partner. – 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 to see if I have to serve on Wednesday. Sarah and I have a solid battle plan if I have to step into the jurors box for a few days.
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 🙂