Greetings and welcome to a wet and windy Friday!
Thanks to all who attended yesterday’s Board of Directors meeting – it was a lively meeting full of great information and discussion. A big “thank you” goes out to Nate Gilman and his insights into other Blue Economy work going on outside of Oregon’s borders.
Here’s our EDALC update for the week:
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Blue Economy/O2IH::
It looks like all of the scores for the Blue Sector Survey proposals submitted to Business Oregon were in alignment and a clear winner emerged (Mark Farley and I were two of the four scorers). That firm is now being offered a contract and we should have the kick off meeting in a few weeks. SO glad to have that project finally under way! – Paul
Business Development::
I had a great meeting with **** in our Waldport offices. He’s looking to eventually start up a small manufacturing operation to develop components for future space industry needs. Sarah has already been working with him to find some initial office space. – Paul
Communication/Marketing::
On Monday, Thursday and Friday, I found more business courses and updated the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider on our website. -Sarah
I wrote a “Happy Halloween” promotional post for two of the Oregon Coast SBDC’s business courses and posted it on Monday and wrote a “Fishermen’s Appreciation Day” post on Friday. -Sarah
Community Connecting::
I filled this week with human-need-meeting collaborative efforts, a theme that drives my community-connecting work. In this era of extreme political divisiveness, I aim to focus my skills on helping folks in Lincoln County meet the human needs that every person shares: air, water, food, shelter, safety, health, belonging, and purpose. As some of you know, I can shpeel about the why and how for days, but, in an over-generalized nutshell, if folks’ human needs are met in ways that are healthy for their mind, body, and spirit, they generally have more capacity to thrive and support themselves, their families, friends, communities, and the efforts they’re passionate about. If human needs aren’t met, or are “met” in ways that aren’t actually healthy, folks’ brains and bodies generally aren’t functioning optimally, and they can struggle to survive and thrive.
If someone is challenging to deal with, chances are there are gaps in their human needs being met. They may not be aware of it, or they may be using less-healthy methods to try to meet their needs. I find it easiest to work with all folks when I give grace for what the gaps in their needs may be, instead of simply blaming their challenging behavior on who they are as a person. I also find it easiest to work with others when I’m honest and authentic about my own gaps in human needs. To oversimplify physiology: brains aren’t able to focus on collaboration, empathy, or complex problem solving when they’re catching up on meeting their human needs. In my lived experience, focusing on efforts that make it easiest for all humans in a community to healthily meet their human needs is the most equitable way to build a community’s resiliency and willingness to work together to solve challenging community situations. But I digress…
– Leslie
Here is the link to Leslie’s full report and a recap of her week’s highlights (always a great read!):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NHoqzL2CsD017s–gITP17RQsqAzkLtSAC0tULl_ydc/edit?usp=sharing
Community and Economic Development Grant::
We’re wrapping up the last of the materials for the Community and Economic Development grant program. We’ll review on Monday and get them off to Casey at the county. As Commissioner Hunt indicated during our BoD meeting yesterday, we’ll probably get the office “go for it” after the Wednesday Commissioners’ meeting – then we can open the grant cycle. We’ll do a grant workshop in later November. We won’t be reviewing grants in December, so we won’t have a BoD meeting – instead, we’re looking at the second week in January for our EDALC grant review meeting. More info to follow next week! – Paul
For the community and economic grant program this week, I wrote a press release and sent it to Casey Miller to be reviewed by the county, I wrote a MailChimp newsletter for the grant program to be released next week, I continued to edit the press release, I scanned and edited a “Quick Tips for Grant Writers” document to provide for the applicants and on the EDALC website, researched ways to confirm a nonprofit is in good standing, and began working on another newsletter about the grant workshop to be released later this month. -Sarah
Creative Economies::
I listened to a presentation on Monday about how to make websites ADA compliant and took notes in order to implement those changes while redoing the ART Toledo website, since it has become a priority to the group to have ADA compliant events and materials. -Sarah
Events::
On Monday, the Art, Oysters & Brews team met virtually to begin planning the 2023 event series. Last year, we were a little rushed in planning, so it’s great that we’re getting a handle on this eight months before the first event – it’s never too early to start planning! – Paul
Our Communities::
I had the privilege to serve on the panel today for Lincoln City’s Economic Development Project Manager interviews, held at Lincoln City’s City Hall. We had a small team that handled a number of interviews with some very high quality candidates. The new position will add capacity to Alison Robertson’s work at the city and also provide some additional collaborative touchpoint for our continued work together. – Paul
Project Work::
I updated the Average Rent of Commercial Buildings in Lincoln County spreadsheet on Monday and Friday. -Sarah
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I checked the status of all the Oregon Prospector listings that were expiring soon and updated those based on if they had sold yet or not. -Sarah
I added new properties to Oregon Prospector on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. -Sarah
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.
Don’t forget to set your clocks back and to enjoy a plump, huge 49 hour weekend!
Cheers,
-Paul 🙂