Greetings and welcome to Friday!
Here’s our EDALC update for the week:
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Sarah’s Update:
This week I began with making myself a list of new Oregon Prospector entries from the updated commercial property list from Linda Roy (thank you so much for helping me get set up with that by the way Linda!). Afterwards I talked with a lady from a company who works on commercial property data about the types of data they upload to see if it would be valuable to try to work with them. Later, I updated the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider on the EDALC website. I also messaged some more local artists on etsy about registering to be a vendor at the upcoming Art, Oysters & Brews events. Next, Paul and I discussed getting a new intern for the rest of the summer and some possible projects that she could potentially work on. Afterwards, I began researching and writing down some possible data points to be used in an economic vitality report card that we will develop in the coming months. At the end of the day, I messaged more artists on etsy and began working on the major employers in Lincoln County spreadsheet.
On Wednesday, I started off by updating the major employers spreadsheet with the responses from the night before. Afterwards, I called all of the businesses I was not able to email from the list of last year’s major employers. Next, I created a new page for the ART Toledo website for the winning artwork of the Chalk the Block event. Later, Paul and I met with Mindy the new intern and discussed her upcoming projects. Lastly, I emailed and called more potential major employers in the county.
At the end of my week, I began by calling more businesses to get their employment numbers. Afterwards, I posted a promotional post for a food costing SBDC course on the EDALC Facebook page. Next, I added some new for rent commercial buildings to the average rate of commercial properties in Lincoln County spreadsheet. I also added a slideshow of all the chalk the block participants’ art on the ART Toledo website. Later, I wrote up the minutes for the executive committee meeting, continued to work on some formatting issues on the ART Toledo website, and messaged more potential artists about Art, Oysters & Brews.
Hope you have a great weekend!
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Leslie’s Update:
My Q&A of the week: Why EDALC?
In this week’s meeting with Paul and our Field Coordinator, Denise Bacon, from The Ford Family Foundation (TFFF), Paul mentioned that folks in our shared community spaces wondered where I’d end up after my Vision 2040 Program Coordinator position at the City of Newport. He’s referred to my choice as EDALC winning the “Leslie Lottery.” I feel like I’ve won a lottery with this opportunity to test out a new Community Connector concept.
While Paul & I have very different origin stories, it didn’t take long to realize that our unique superpowers are complementary. Paul’s computer, gaming, technology, and rural government background are excellent experiential lenses to my big-dreaming, complex problem-solving ideas. We can bounce giant ideas off each other, whittle them down to what could be possible and mutually beneficial to those involved, and find ways to make things happen.
Read Leslie’s full report here (it’s worth the read!!):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IEDB8AB-7U3w2s2EZwYHQJtDqEk3s6TBkfcSVZ_PBgY/edit?usp=sharing
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Paul’s Update:
Incoming Intern – In a fast moving series of events starting off with an early Monday morning text from Dave Price, we are getting an intern! Mindy Suitter is in the tribe’s internship program and she had an internship collapse just a week in (the business she was interning with closed their doors suddenly). She’s going to be a senior at OSU in the Fall studying business and marketing. We had a series of Zoom interviews and she came into the office on Wednesday – we’ve worked up a small set of marketing projects she can work on that are on our wish list but we just don’t have the capacity to do, so we’re jazzed. She officially starts next Tuesday – and her wages are fully paid by the tribe. I received formal authorization from assistant GM Lisa Norton this morning. You’ll get a chance to meet her during next week’s board meeting.
Blue Economy – This week, I completed the FINAL steps to get EDALC back up and active in SAM and received confirmation mid-week, so we’re all good to directly receive federal funds. I also attended Start Up Blue’s “Tuesday at Two” online blue economy hang-out and got to meet some interesting blue entrepreneurs. Mark Farley and I met on Wednesday to continue our planning for when the Congressionally Directed Spending hits (should be early August). I also met with Rachael Maddock-Hughes of Sequoia Consulting to discuss upcoming “rainmaking” work we’ll be asking them to do as part of the O2IH projects.
Business Support – I had another meeting with a local artist looking at purchasing a multi-use building in Newport for studio space for multiple artists (plus retail space and such). I developed a quick and dirty Excel “what if” calculator to help evaluate commercial building purchases. With a little polish (and branding), it could be a valuable tool we can share on our web site.
Executive Committee – EDALC’s Executive Committee met this week – first without me to discuss my contract renewal and then I joined in for us to discuss next week’s upcoming board meeting, our budget and strategic priorities. It was a great and energized conversation all around, and I’m totally jazzed about the work we’ll be doing with strong board support this year.
Upcoming – Next Tuesday, regional economic developers (mostly from our Cascades West Economic Development District region) will be getting together in person for the first time since the pandemic. I’ll be trekking to Albany for the meeting, and it’ll be awesome to meet in person folks I’ve been working with and collaborating with for two years virtually.
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
Meeting reminder:
Our August EDALV Board of Directors meeting will be held (via Zoom) on Thursday, August 4th at 3:30pm. Here is the Zoom meeting info:
Topic: EDALC August Board of Directors meeting
Time: Aug 4, 2022 03:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09
Meeting ID: 917 810 4987
Passcode: 0NyksK
Saturday night is the Aquarium’s Donor Appreciation Night for their Phase I construction – so awesome to see such a local treasure grow better and better!
I’ll be off doing some solo tent camping at Siuslaw’s Blackberry campground on Sunday night, so I won’t be in on Monday. Poking sticks at the fire – good times!
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 🙂