Greetings and happy Friday! What a gorgeous day out there! Note the new work email address (woo hoo!).
Here’s our update from this week –
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Suzan’s week:
* Messages (staff, former director’s email & phone)
* Clean/disinfect office
* Post office/sort mail
* Staff meetings
* Bank – Meet w/supervisor to help complete cc application, deposit memberships, 2nd trip – turned in signed application
* Process memberships
* Update database & xls
* Various tasks for director
* Evaluate old website, create/submit report to director
* Tracked down old FaceBook administrator
* Posted deposits in QuickBooks
* Posted P/R insurance reimbursement in QuickBooks
* Cut checks
* Completed SAIF form
* Friday list
Note: Susan’s new email is: staff@businesslincolncounty.com (old email still works)
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Paul’s week:
Meet and Greets – This week was another heavy week on the Zoom circuit, and I’m so thankful for the local, regional and state leaders for making time to share their thoughts and ideas with me. Also for suggesting other folks I need to connect with (and making introductions) – that list keeps growing. I had a very frank and productive call this morning with Commissioner Hunt and Wayne Belmont, and came away with some action items to follow up on next week.
Facebook – Thanks to Suzan, we FINALLY found the original administrator of our Facebook page. Both Suzan and I reached out and I’m now the page administrator. This week, we had our first new posts since 2017! Next week, I’ll add some more polish to the page. Your homework is to head over to the page and like it:
https://www.facebook.com/EconDevLincolnCounty
EDALC Internet – Doug’s Electric was in the office on Monday and got the cable run set up. We’ve got Spectrum coming back next Friday to get us some speedy (and Zoom-worthy) Internet.
Software Tools – I secured a number of vital software tools this week, plus got both Suzan and myself subscriptions to MS Office 365. I even managed to get the Exchange server up and playing nicely so we have our new emails working (we discovered a glitch mid-week that had me muttering some expletives, but got it solved). Curt did yeoman’s work this week getting Suzan’s computer configured to the new world order.
Our New URL/Website – We also secured our new web hosting service (BlueHost) and pointed the Domain Name Servers to get the URL working. We now have a “coming soon” page up (https://businesslincolncounty.com/). Next week, we’ll get the SSL certificate working (so the “not secure” message goes away).
I also started planning out the website development project – I’m using Trello for project management – it’s a digital kanban board (What is that? Learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_board). I also built a sitemap outline that defines the pages and menus – still have a bit more work to do on that, and then we’ll get to style, theme and page development. Suzan did a great job evaluating the old website for what information we’ll want to keep on the new site.
EDALC Logo Project – I spent some time processing ideas from the board on logo imagery and have what I feel is a solid approach. I’ve engaged SmiesDesign (Sherry Smies is an Austin-based graphic designer I’ve worked with for the past 11 years) to get us some mockups based on the approach we want to take. Will share mockups when they come in.
Planning – I’m continuing to “mind map” a potential strategic plan for county-wide economic development and have started a similar process on an organizational performance and sustainability plan.
Commercial Landlord Data Project – We’ve got a formal request into Lincoln City for an initial data dump on businesses that have landlords (though it sounds like we’ll have some data cleanup) – thanks to Alison Robertson for helping me get that rolling. With that initial data in hand, we can evaluate our data request process for the other municipalities.
Trails of all sorts – Had another few meetings with Jesse Dolin this week as I gain more clarity on the Lincoln County Oregon Coast Trails project. Some amazing opportunities there, especially in this realm of “tourism while social distancing” that may be with us for a while. Jesse also invited me to join the Central Coast Food Trail steering committee and it looks like I’ll be helping put together a virtual business engagement workshop relating to the trail this Fall.
RAINmaker Accelerator – I started Oregon RAIN’s digital marketing accelerator course this week (I’m both a student and a business mentor for that program). They did a pretty slick job managing over 100 participants via Zoom. I think this will be a great opportunity for me to learn some new ideas on enhancing EDALC’s brand awareness and digitally marketing for businesses, remote worker and entrepreneur attraction for the region.
Have a great weekend, stay safe and wear those masks!
Cheers,
-Paul 🙂