Greetings – We’ve had another busy and productive week, and the world around us has settled back into some semblance of “near new normal” – though many of our residents who lost their homes in the Echo Mountain fire still have a long road to go to reach their new normal, but once again, it’s amazing to see how this region steps up to help!
Here’s our update for this week –
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Suzan’s week:
(Susan was back for two days this week, but off yesterday for her birthday)
* Daily/ weekly routine tasks
* Staff meeting with Paul
* Recycle info from Thompsonās
* Update board roster
* Cut checks
* Submit timecard
* Schedule check & forms signer
* Minutes
* Agenda
* Distribute board notice
* Bills to pay list
* Query db for contacts & emails for PS
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Paul’s week:
Continued Network Building – I met this week with James Kerti, who is now running the Yachts Visitors Center. He’s got some very interesting ideas on remote worker recruitment (since he was one for five years before this gig) and is also connected to a solid network of current remote workers in the area. I’ll think he’ll prove to be a valuable collaborator. I also met with Deborah Trusty, the Library Director in Toledo. She’s one of the longest serving city employees there and was able to offer some valuable historical perspective and insight. Next Tuesday, I’m getting a tour of the Port of Toledo by Bud – looking forward to it!
Regional Teams – This week was my first to be invited into the Governor’s Economic Recovery Team for our region, facilitated by Sarah Means. I was also brought into the Echo Mountain Fire Recovery team (Sarah Means again) – and we had Zoom meetings for both this week. Currently, I’m more in a “listen and learn” mode but I’m starting to see some ways I can add some value and support in the future.
Executive Committee – We had a very productive and positive Executive Committee meeting this week. The focus of our discussion was on sustainable funding models for EDALC going forward. I put together some initial thoughts, but heard some great ideas and approaches from the Committee – we’ll dive a little deeper into possible approaches during next week’s board meeting.
Newport Car Dealership Update – It looks like deal fell though – argh. The owner of the local dealerships seems to have a quite different idea of the value of the businesses and both parties stepped away being more than $1.5 million apart after three good faith offers. The good news is that is was a real-world test of bringing together local leaders quickly to address and inform a prospective business investment – something that I see us doing much more in the near future.
Marketing – I’ve got our first Anvil Marketing consultation scheduled for next Friday so we can discuss was to maximize the impact (and discoverability) of our new website when it launches. I’ll keep you posted on that front.
Website Project – I managed to pull off some true Deep Work hours this week on the website, but not as much as I had hoped (quite a few “urgent and important” things cropped up), but I’m pressing on and getting closer every day!
Regional Listening Sessions – Commissioner Hunt, Greg Wolf (Association of Oregon Counties) and I had a very productive followup meeting this week and it looks like we have the path forward to hold four virtual listening sessions related to local economic development. I was able to demonstrate a live “vote poll” on the Zoom call, pulling in data in real time from our discussion – it’s a tool we’ll use to get a sense of the importance of priorities in the sessions. I am currently working with Kristy Peter at the county to finds some times in late October to hold these sessions, as well as pulling together the invite list with Doug’s help.
BusinessOregon – We had an interesting potential business lead come in from Melissa Murphy at BusinessOregon. I’ve been doing some emails and calls to see if it’s even a possibility, and we’ve also got a call coming up later today to discuss. If it looks like we can meet the site selector’s criteria, I’ll take the lead in pulling together the information in the format they are requesting. I’m being purposefully vague here – more info when we can share it.
Office – We’ve started our work in the office. I’ve been going through the large shelves in the main room and pulling out old and dated materials (it’ll take a lot of convincing to hold onto publications and reports from before 1995!). I’ve also got my new desk in (actually, OLD desk – it’s my custom made wormy-maple desk I had made when I had my software company – good to have the old friend back in action!). I’ve ordered another large, rolling storage shelf so we can get those boxes off the floor and get things cleaned up and buttoned down.
Reminder – We will have our October BoD meeting next Thursday, October 1st. The meeting will be at 3:30pm and handled via Zoom. Here are the meeting details (we’ll send out again next week):
Topic: October EDALC Board of Directors Meeting
Time: Oct 1, 2020 03:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09
Meeting ID: 917 810 4987
Passcode: 0NyksK
Note: this is the same link as last month – we’ll use a consistent link for these meetings going forward (until, one-day, when we can meet in person again!).
Have a great weekend! Thanks for all that you are doing out there! Please reach out to me if you need anything at all.
Cheers,
-Paul š