Greetings and welcome to Friday – it’s a toasty one out there today!

Thanks so much to everyone who could make our Board of Directors meeting yesterday! We had a great, deep discussion on many aspects of the Community and Economic Development Grant Program. I’ve got some work to do over the next week or so, but we did come out of it with a unified and positive consensus – encourage and empower as wide a range of applications (representing innovative, meaningful projects) as possible.

Here’s our staff update for the week:

Blue Economy::

This week, I spent a good deal of time getting everything together for our Government Accountability Office interview next Wednesday. Mark Farley and I talked through what to highlight of our current and upcoming work. I feel like we’re very well prepared – and I think we feel that it will be a pretty surface-level interview. Mark and I also met with Rural Prosperity Partners (formerly Sequoia Consulting) to talk through priority areas in which to seek future grant funding. – Paul

Communication/Marketing::

I shared an SBDC excel class coming up on our Facebook page and proofread than scheduled the Startup Blue newsletter for next Tuesday. – Sarah

Events::

For the Economic Summit this week I spoke with a potential speaker about presenting at the event and reached out again with some questions for a potential location. – Sarah

Our Communities::

I attended and videoed the presentation sections of the Coastal Partnerships for Drinking Water Protection Workshop presented by Leslie and DEQ at OCCC on Wednesday. – Sarah

Project Work::

This week I completed the board meeting minutes, updated the entrepreneur slider, and worked on developing a “How to support local arts” guide for both individuals and organizations. I brainstormed the youth entrepreneurship video and updated Oregon Prospector listings. – Sarah

Rural Opportunity Initiative::

This week, we narrowed down our focus areas for our upcoming ROI application – thanks so much to those of you who took our short impact survey. Aside from using ROI funds to support our core economic development work, our project priorities will be:

-Continue building our Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

-Supporting youth entrepreneurship efforts in Lincoln County

-Supporting creative economy entrepreneurship

I sent out requests for letters of support today and next week, we’ll roll up our sleeves and start getting rolling on the grant application. – Paul

Upcoming::

Sarah and I will be attending the Oregon Economic Developers Association (OEDA) annual conference in Eugene from Sunday through Tuesday.

Reminder: Our November Board of Directors meeting (November 2nd) will be IN PERSON, hosted by Bob at Hatfield’s Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building.

As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:

Board of Directors Resources

For your end-of-week moment of Zen (and in honor of Birgitte’s overseas adventures), here is a stunning and peaceful 4K video of some truly breathtaking fjords in Norway:

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 🙂