Greetings and welcome to Friday! Looks like a gorgeous Spring weekend ahead of us – and NO time change to stress us out on Sunday.
BUT today is the Ides of March, so when walking into a public place (especially if wearing a toga!) and folks start to converge upon you to show you some “urgent” paperwork… run!
Our staff update for this week is super short – just two main items:
2024 Lincoln County Economic Summit::
Yesterday was our second local Economic Summit – from our perspective, it was a rousing success! Thanks to all who could make it yesterday. We nudged up our ticket counts twice and still sold out at 80 tickets (and we had folks who STILL wanted to come!). The event was held at the Spy Glass convention center space at the Inn at Otter Crest. What an amazing hidden gem (wasn’t EDALC’s 25th anniversary party held there?)! And the food? Off the charts good!
The event was jam-packed full of great content, plus numerous times for networking (which attendees dove into with gusto), and a dozen amazing resource tables. We celebrated local business innovators, innovative local programs and organizations and took several deep dives into data that defines our county and region. Our own Leslie closed us out with a great and heartfelt presentation of “Community Building Through an Expedition Lens.”
Our keynote was Benjamin Winchester, a rural sociologist from the University of Minnesota, delivering a fast-paced and energetic talk entitled “Rural is the Middle of Everywhere.” Rarely have folks seen a data-driven talk that genuinely questioned long-held assumptions of the rural narrative we’ve all been exposed to. Folks were chatting earnestly about what it means during later networking sessions and after the event (we’ll be posting a video of the talk on our website next week).
Also, we have the best staff and team imaginable! Everybody worked SO hard to plan and deliver this event and while there were some glitches during the day (as there always is), the team was on it so fast that nobody noticed anything other than a smooth, fun and informative event. Wah hoo!!
The Ford Family Foundation::
This, from an email that came in Wednesday evening:
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We are pleased to notify you that your grant application for: Lincoln County Community Connector in the amount of $95,150.00 has been awarded by The Ford Family Foundation.
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A LOT of effort went into this on both sides, with tFFF changing their organizational policies to make this award (it is the FIRST time tFFF will be awarding a grant to a 501c6!). Hats off to them for embracing innovative and lateral-thinking economic development and for Leslie’s dogged determinism to make this a reality. This deserves both a “Wah Hoo!!” AND a loud “Huzzah!!”
Upcoming::
On Monday, Paul will be heading to Sherwood with a small contingent to get a tour of NW Natural’s hydrogen demonstration project.
On Wednesday, the Board of Commissioners look to formally approve 23-24 Community and Economic Development Grant awardees. Paul will be stuck in another meeting (one that took a few months to set up, so he can’t reschedule), but Sarah (and possibly Stacie) will be in attendance if the Commissioners have any questions.
Also, on March 25th, EDALC turns 30 years old!! Yet another Huzzah!!
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
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 🙂