Greetings and welcome to a beautiful Friday! I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but how is it June already?!?!
Thanks to all who made our short Board of Directors meeting yesterday afternoon. Birgitte should be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s quickest board meeting – six minutes!! But we got the work done – thanks all!
Here’s our weekly staff update:
Blue Economy::
We worked a bit this week with the RAIN/StartupBlue team on a June newsletter that will be going out next week. It’ll cover some innovator highlights, introduce EDALC’s role in the space over the coming months and highlight an end-of-month event in Astoria. – Paul
Broadband::
I’m trekking out in a few (hence the early drop of the update) to meet with Lisa Norton (CTSI) in Newport to talk through and coordinate local and regional broadband communication and see how we can create some overlapping win-wins through the EDA planning grant (Linn, Lincoln and Benton counties) and the CTSI broadband planning grant. I’ll keep you posted. – Paul
Community Connecting::
(an excerpt from Leslie’s update)
I offer a potential solution to this Calendar Ecosystem of Lincoln County challenge: how does one schedule a new community outreach, education, or celebration event amongst all that already exists?
Go to where the people are already gathering: Collaborate on, support, sponsor, and/or ask to table at recurring events that are most aligned with your efforts, audience, and the time of year you’re aiming for.
If you’re aiming to reach multiple audiences, get involved in multiple events that occur on different days and times of the week. A day and time that works for a restaurant employee may not work for a teacher or a fisher. An event that attracts families may not attract folks without kids.
Instead of trying to create a new event that fits everyone’s schedule and interests, dovetail your community-centered efforts into multiple events that allow you to support what’s already existing and reach the widest range of audiences throughout the year.
There are many community calendars, organization newsletters, social media pages and groups, and other methods folks use to announce events. This leads to other challenges Lincoln County and other rural communities face: there isn’t one location where all community events, programs, and opportunities are listed. There also isn’t one way of receiving information that all community members use.
While these challenges won’t all be solved by my creating yet another calendar of re-occurring events in Lincoln County, I still wanted a new way to inform folks and organizations about the existing Calendar Ecosystem of Lincoln County – and I can use your help improving this resource!
Check out the amazing interactive calendar here (it’s WAY cool! – says Paul):
https://create.plandisc.com/wheel/showPublic/jAGrozV
Leslie’s full, detailed and fascinating report is linked here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bi0NUxb2ddh-sjyyA93DkF0kCcY1sDRVjr5oQpUmfXw/edit?usp=sharing
Creative Economies::
This week for ART Toledo I discussed marketing plans for the Art, Oysters & Brews and Chalk the Block events with their RARE member Katy. I also put together a MailChimp newsletter asking artists to be vendors at the Art, Oysters & Brews events and sent it out on Wednesday. In addition, I worked on the new ART Toledo website and attended the meeting in Toledo Thursday morning. – Sarah
Organizational Development::
Paul, Leslie, and I had our team meeting Tuesday morning, and attended the very quick board meeting Thursday afternoon. Paul, Leslie and I also met with Melissa and Matt Batchelor about some potential project collaborations (it was an awesome, energized and productive meeting! – Paul). – Sarah
I spent a good chuck of this week doing the final tweaks to the FY2023-24 budget that was approved yesterday and also cleaning and buttoning up our QuickBook in preparation for the end-of-fiscal year wrap up in a month. – Paul
Project Work::
On Tuesday, I finished the board meeting minutes and researched potential summer intern programs. I worked on the major employers report throughout the week and on Friday, I worked on Oregon Prospector updates. – Sarah
Supporting and Connecting with Partners::
Newport Chamber – This week the hiring committee wrapped up the search for a new Executive Director. An offer was extended, and accepted, by Wayne Patterson (of Roseburg, but a long-time Newport visitor). He’s moving into his “third career,” having spent time in the executive leadership world and as a rural economic developer. He looks to be a real change agent for the Chamber. Today is his first day on the job. – Paul
Depoe Bay – Last weekend, I assisted with the Fleet of Flowers event and ran the sound. It was a gorgeous day with a standing-room-only crowd. What a great way to honor Memorial Day! At the end of the event, as if on cue, two eagles that live near the harbor swooped in just as the fleet was heading out with their wreaths – amazing! – Paul
OCCCF – I met with Jeanette Campagna to discuss a facilitated planning and strategy event for the board of the OCCC Foundation. We’ve got some great initial ideas that we’ll nail down in the coming weeks. – Paul
Upcoming Events::
For the YBEF & EDALC annual meeting this week, I reached out the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center to get some historical photos of the bay and was directed to an online historical database where I found lots of photos of Toledo and Newport. I put those together into a slideshow to be played during the event. I also put together the punchbowl invite and sent it out Friday afternoon. In addition, I reached out to some potential vendors for the event. – Sarah
YBEF/EDALC Annual Meeting and Celebration (SAVE THE DATE!):
Thursday, June 29th (5:30pm start time) – *new* Port of Newport office building. Fiorst round invites went out this afternoon (thanks Sarah!)
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
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 🙂