Greetings and welcome to Friday!
Much going on this holiday weekend: Beachcomber Days, Father’s Day and the new Juneteenth federal holiday. It also looks like a rainy Sunday – but we could sure use a touch of the wet stuff!
It’s also that time of the year to celebrate our local graduates. Last weekend saw high school graduations across the county and this weekend are both OCCC’s and OSU’s commencement exercises – way to go graduates!!
Here’s our weekly staff update:
Blue Economy::
This week, we assisted Start Up Blue (a blue offshoot of RAIN) with the content of their June newsletter which went out on Thursday. One of the feature articles focused on EDALC and our current work – and also announcing the work we’ll be doing in partnership with them through September. I also reached out and did direct invites to key Business Oregon team members to the Astoria event next week. – Paul
Broadband::
This was once again “broadband week.” Out of the gates, Solarity (the EDA-funded broadband consultant for Lincoln, Linn and Benton counties) delivered a webinar on digital equity – both what it means and potential funding sources (we helped market the webinar to local stakeholders). We also had our monthly BAT meeting. The key positive takeaway from the meeting was a report that the FCC has created a second (penultimate) “fabric map” of unserved broadband households. As a result of local efforts (we participated in efforts for our economic development district region) and efforts led by Oregon’s Broadband Office, is that 48,000 extra unserved addresses were approved by the FCC in Oregon leading to an increase of almost $300 million in anticipated federal funding for the state! The FCC’s final funding determinations should be locked in by June 30. – Paul
Paul and I attended the Solarity and OCWCOG broadband informational webinar Tuesday morning. – Sarah
Communications/Marketing::
I posted about the Startup Blue event, “Harboring Success: A Gathering of the North Coast Maritime Community,” happening on Thursday, June 22nd from 5:30-7:30pm at Fort George Brewery in Astoria on our Facebook page this week. – Sarah
Community Connecting::
(an excerpt from Leslie’s update)
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem questions at Cinco de Mayo in Lincoln City – I compiled the post-it note feedback gathered at the EDALC & OSU Extension SNAP-ed resource table at the bilingual Cinco de Mayo celebration at Taft High School in Lincoln City.
Check out this page to see what folks shared about the businesses they’d like to see and start themselves on the Central Oregon Coast: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15sN5xl0SxPyuGZz_wOpdFvz3LHgyxq9qjMKD6m676t8/edit
Leslie’s full, detailed and fascinating report is linked here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fiv0Cl9hP-aysqHbZJzCu8Uy5QQWmhvrp4TdqtqbVQo/edit?usp=sharing
Creative Economies::
For ART Toledo this week, I worked on the new website, I attended the Chalk the Block subcommittee meeting Tuesday morning, and I sent out an email to all the previous phantom gallery artists inviting them to be vendors at AOB. I also began working on the ART Toledo summer newsletter and attended the ART Toledo meeting Thursday morning. – Sarah
I spent a few hours this week getting back up to speed with WordPress design and css coding and we set up a category-based system of page content for the new ART Toledo website, plus I built out the informational widgets for the right page sidebar and four footer areas. Yup – nerdy web stuff! – Paul
Yesterday, I met with Director Jason Holland over a pint at Wolf Tree to discuss the creation of a “git r done” stakeholder team for the Newport Arts & Cultural district. We also discussed the Oregon Arts Council ask to the legislature for some seed money to “test drive” five Oregon communities for a statewide cultural district program – and if it might end up being a casualty of the drawn out and devisive end of this legislative session. – Paul
Events::
For the YBEF and EDALC Celebration this week I contacted Special Occasions in order to pay our bill, reached out again to Pacific Digital about printing stickers, and resent the punchbowl invitations to all the guests. Please RSVP if you haven’t! If you haven’t seen the invite, it may be in your spam folder, but if not please reach out to me and I can email you the direct link. – Sarah
Innovation::
Last Friday (too late for last week’s update), I participated as part of the initial “core team” meeting for the Cascades West Innovation Hub. The purpose of the group is to guide an inform a research and reporting process that will seek to describe a result-based approach to innovation support within the Cascades West Economic Development District. – Paul
Organizational Development::
This week, Oregon Office Solutions was in the office to set up our new Xerox workhorse printer generously donated by Doug Holbrook (thanks SO much, Doug!!). They got it mostly working – there needs to be a little coordination with OCCC’s IT team to finish things off (such as scanning and automatic supply level management). I also wrapped up the active portion of our required SAM update (the system that the federal government uses to manage and pay grant awards). It took a few weeks to get the authorization on our office move (to prove that it was legit), but that came through yesterday and I finished the update – a few more verification steps and we should be good to go. – Paul
This week, we saw some closure on some of the final operational support funding from our governmental partners (thanks to Kaety and Administrator Johnson at the County and Judy at the City of Toledo!). We still have our final ROI grant payment forthcoming, which will be sent out after we submit our final report in early July. We still have some member dues outstanding from our Directors, but we’ll get invoices out early next week on those – then we should be good to go in the jump into FY2023-24! – Paul
Paul, Leslie, and I had our team meeting Tuesday afternoon (over some tasty lunch at Fresh Mexican), and I finished my Leadership Lincoln presentation video and leadership speech. I attended my final Leadership Lincoln class on Wednesday. – Sarah
Project Work::
On Monday, I updated the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider and on Thursday I updated the Blue Economy page on the EDALC website. On Thursday and Friday, I worked on Oregon Prospector updates and the major employers report. – Sarah
Upcoming Events::
YBEF/EDALC Annual Meeting and Celebration:
Thursday, June 29th (5:30pm start time) – *new* Port of Newport office building. The event will have tasty apps from Sorella’s, some custom mixed Italian cocktails, acoustic blues instrumental music (wonder who’ll be playing?) and an interesting program. Hope to see all of you there! Invites went back out today with more event info.
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
I’ll be out of the office on Tuesday – I’m heading up to PDX to send Susan on her way to the Midwest to visit her family in Illinois and Indiana.
Have wonderful weekend! 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 🙂