News from your LCEDC

LINCOLN COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL BOARD OF DIRECTORS VACANCY

5/13/13
LCEDC is seeking a committed individual to serve on our Board of Directors. This position is for an individual with an interest in economic development within the County. The EDC’s goals are to increase business activity and capital investment, extend employment opportunities, retain current employment opportunities and enhance the overall economy of Lincoln  County Washington. Please see full bylaws, application and additional information about the LCEDC Board of Directors HERE.

If you are interested, please complete and return the application form by Friday June 21st  to Lincoln County EDC PO Box 1304, Davenport, WA 99122 or edcinfo@centurylink.net. Election will be held at the annual meeting onJune 27, 2013.

Webinar - Community Branding

Chamber Leaders, Community Organization Leaders, City Administrators, Event Coordinators, Newspaper Editors, Recreation Providers, City & Town Clerks, Civic Movers & Shakers!

There will be a free webinar about Community Branding on March 7 featuring Roger Brooks, the speaker that inspired Joyce and I so much that we included "Implement tourism branding programs in our communities." in the countywide economic strategy! His ideas are solid and proven and to implement this type of program in our county would BENEFIT US ALL. I encourage anyone who can take an hour out of their day at 9:00 am on March 7 to tune in. We have already registered. I am hoping you will, too.

Here is the description of the webinar and the link to register:
We are exposed to 5,000 marketing messages a day, so we filter out anything that doesn't appeal specifically to us. The days of promoting "something for everyone" are officially over. If there is one way to promote your community or business successfully, it is by narrowing your focus. An effective brand always has "a narrow focus." And that is easier said than done.

In this fast-paced, fun, and informative webinar, you'll learn the ten rules you need to successfully brand your community, organization, or business. Some of these rules are:

• Logos and slogans are not brands!
• Brands are specific. - Brands are perceptions.
• All successful brands are built on product, not just marketing.
• Focus groups can lead to a generic brand.

With five more rules and case histories, this webinar is informative and amazingly entertaining.

The presenter, Roger Brooks, CEO of Destination Development International, is one of North America's most sought after experts in the creation of great destinations. Roger and his team have worked with nearly 1000 communities, successfully guiding them in their community branding, revitalization, and marketing efforts. He is well-known for energizing communities into action ­- providing ideas they can implement today to make a difference tomorrow.

Join us Thursday, March 7 at 9am Pacific* for this 60-minute, interactive webinar brought to you by Destination Development International!

This webinar is completely FREE without any obligations or sales pitch.

RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW, IT WILL FILL UP FAST

Margie Hall

Tourism Advertising Campaign Gets Approval

(Davenport, WA, December 18, 2012.) The approval of a proposal from the Economic Development Council (EDC) paves the way for an advertising campaign to promote the County's tourism opportunities in the coming year. At their regular meeting on Dec. 17, Commissioners approved EDC Director Margie Hall's proposal to administer $10,065.00 in County Lodging Tax dollars. This will be the third year the EDC has acted as the Visitor & Convention Bureau and administered Lodging Tax dollars on behalf of the County.

The funds were approved for a campaign that includes radio, print and online promotion targeting Spokane & Kootenai Counties and central and east central Washington. Highlights include:
 Maintaining the County's tourism website VisitLincolnCountyWashington.com
 Advertising in The Inlander & Out There Magazine
 Radio coverage on stations in Grand Coulee and Wenatchee
 Advertising in Fish & Wildlife's hunting & fishing regulations pamphlets
 Distribution of 5,000 tourism brochures along the I-5 corridor
 Advertisements in the 2013 recreation guides produced by our three papers
 Event posters to distribute throughout the region
 Advertisement in Wenatchee's tourism magazine The Foothills

The EDC wants Lincoln County's event organizers to be aware of this advertising so that they can take it into consideration when developing their own event budgets for the coming year. The tourism campaign will be one of the topics covered at an All-County Chamber Leaders meeting on February 1.

County Lodging Tax, the source of the funding, is collected as sales and use tax on houseboat rentals, vacation rentals, campgrounds and RV parks and is paid by the customer. The funds requested by the EDC do not include Lodging Tax collected within Lincoln County's cities and towns.

If your community or recreational facility has an event or activity scheduled for 2013, please email your event and contact information to the LCEDC office at edcjoyce@centurylink.net or mail to P.O. Box 1304, Davenport, WA 99122.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Misc. Updates

December 4, 2012
Greetings,
I wanted to bring you up to date on a few things we have been involved in recently:

Economic Development Strategy We received a lot of feedback on the draft – thank you very much – and the bulk of those comments have been incorporated into the plan. The final draft will go to the County Commissioners for adoption before the end of the year. It will also be posted on the EDC website.

WSDA’s Value-Added Workshops took place during October and November. They packed a lot into four sessions: planning, financing, insurance, food technology, product development, processing, packaging, labeling, branding and marketing. Clearly we did not go into every subject in great depth, but it was well worth the $80.00 price tag. If you are considering entering the value-added ag arena, the WSDA’s Small Farm & Direct Marketing Handbook is free and is a great place to start:  http://agr.wa.gov/Marketing/SmallFarm/DOCS/056-SmallFarmAndDirectMarketingHandbook-Complete.pdf

I also have A TON of other resources and articles and guides on everything there is to do with a value-added ag business . If you are interested and you utilize the free storage program DropBox, I can forward them to you. Just let me know.

Enhancing Specialty Crop Producer Profitability, a 2-year grant funded program from WSU Extension, will soon be announced. It will provide educational outreach and support to new and small scale producers of specialty crops. For this project, specialty crops are defined as “fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture.” Final scheduling of class content and formats is being worked on now, but I am attaching a very tentative first draft to give you an idea of what might be included. I will let you know when I get an update. Potential Class Outline

Rural Business Enterprise Grant applications are due by Jan. 14 if you want to be considered for fiscal year 2013. This USDA grant program provides funds to finance and facilitate development of small and emerging businesses. Public bodies, private non-profit corporations and federally recognized Indian Tribes are eligible to apply. Sounds contradictory, I know, but the following link will shed some light on the program:  http://www.rurdev.usda..gov/wa/BUSRBEG.htm

Export Speaker Keith Meadowcroft was here in November to provide information on the State’s current export initiative and how his SBDC Export Readiness Center can help businesses benefit from it. If you missed his presentations I am attaching a summary of their services and their contact info. Thank you to the Davenport & Odessa Chambers of Commerce for hosting this speaker!

Lake Roosevelt Marinas WILL BE OPEN this summer. NPS has extended their contract with Dakota Columbia for the 2013 season. In the meantime, there are two opportunities to contract for the operation of the Seven Bays & Keller marinas beyond this season. Prospectuses are at http://www.concessions.nps.gov/prospectuses.htm Bid opening is Feb. 5.

Crowdfunding is loosely defined as the collective effort of individuals who pool their resources, usually via the Internet, to support the efforts of a person or organization. For the first time that I am aware of, there is a crowdfunding effort in Lincoln County. intelliPaper, a 3-year-old tech company that recently moved manufacturing from Spokane to Edwall where the owners live, is in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign that ends Dec. 23. They are selling their start-up products – paper USB ports is one example – and you can be a financer for as little as $20.00. Check it out by going to their website https://www.intellipaper.info/ and clicking on Project Has Launched.

A Need for a Microloan Program in Lincoln County garnered some of the comments we received following the draft economic development strategy release. Could small scale ($5,000 or less) crowdfunding through local networks be a viable option for a local business with a temporary financial need or a local start-up needing gap capital? Would love to hear your thoughts on this.       

EDC’s Website is in the midst of a rebuild.  The new website will go live in the first quarter of 2013. The new site will include a blog where we will be able to provide an ongoing update of economic development in Lincoln County. It will have a couple other new features as well. Stay tuned…
Thank you!
Margie

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

EDC Board Shares Draft of Economic Development Strategy -
Seeks Public Input

October 5, 2012
The Lincoln County Economic Development Council (EDC) has completed the first draft of the County’s economic development strategy and would appreciate your input. Suggestions and corrections are encouraged. The EDC is relying on local stakeholders to be the definitive proof readers.

EDC Director Margie Hall relates that the document has been formatted so that even if you read only the first couple pages, you will grasp the most important part – the Mission and the Goals & Objectives. If you read through page 10, you will know how the EDC proposes they might be achieved.   “We want the stakeholders of Lincoln County to read this plan; to work together to implement it on a countywide level; and to use it as a tool when seeking guidance or funding. Not put it on a shelf and never look at it again. We purposely did not bury the important pieces under a ton of data from other resources.  Those resources are all right there in the footnotes and are easy to access if someone wants to dig deeper.”   

The County Commissioners approved the EDC’s request to prepare a strategy on their behalf because state and federal entities are increasingly requiring an economic development plan be in place before they will lend assistance. This strategy is meant to provide a road map for countywide economic growth and to be a tool for those seeking government funding.

To comment on the draft strategy, please email the EDC at edcinfo@centurylink.net or send input by mail to P.O. Box 1304, Davenport WA 99122, before October 31, 2012.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

USDA-Rural Development Newsletter

September, 2012
The latest "Washington State Rural Developments" newsletter from the USDA has several program updates and an article on the Value-Added Producer Grant Funding Program page 2. Click HERE for PDF of Newsletter.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

USDA Value-Added Producer Grant Program

August 16, 2012

The results of the SWOT survey we conducted last winter made it very clear: The citizens of Lincoln County believe value-added ag products are one of our best economic opportunities. With that in mind, USDA has just announced a new round of their Value-Added Producer Grant program. This program is one of the best of its kind for new ventures and the EDC has already provided the Olympia and Spokane USDA offices with copies of our survey results. MORE

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

August 3, 2012 Updates

PDF Print Version

Greetings,
Just passing on some economic development news. Hope you find something that is useful to you or to your business or organization.

A reminder that the deadline for Counties, Cities, Towns and PDAs to apply for Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) grants is August 16.

If you are exporting or considering exporting a product you could qualify for a $5,000 voucher from the Dept. of Commerce and the Small Business Administration. Vouchers can be used for trade show costs, translation services, export training programs and more and do not have to be paid back. Click HERE to see a full list of eligible expenses and to determine if your company qualifies.

The August News for Small Business newsletter is now available From the Dept. of Labor & Industries.

The National Park Service plans to release a new prospectus this month detailing the operating contract requirements for Seven Bays and Keller Marinas. Watch for the announcement on their website.

The National Park Service has also opened up the opportunity for concessioners to provide visitor services-for-a-fee for recreational purposes (i.e. fishing guide, tour guide, boat recovery.) The EDC is working to get this message out locally before we seek interested parties from out of state so please, if it sounds like something you or someone you know would be interested in, email us at edcinfo@centurylink.net

The EDC has stepped up our promotion of Lincoln County’s hunting and fishing opportunities and nothing sells better than a good photo. If you have a favorite fish or game photo that was taken in Lincoln County and you are willing to let us use it, please send it to edcinfocenturylink.net and we might just make you famous!

To find out what events and activities are going on in our County, like us on Facebook. You can also access the same information and a ton more at www.VisitLincolnCountyWashington.com

As always, if there is anything that we can do to help your business thrive, contact us.

We are here to help!
Margie

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

SBA Bulletin

Click HERE for:
Refinancing Program Deadline Approaching | Using A Mobile Device as a Cash Register | A Guide to Importing

Lincoln County EDC Adds Two New Directors

(Davenport, WA, July 3, 2012.)   PDF of article
The Lincoln County Economic Development Council held their Annual Membership meeting on Thursday, June 28th at The Red Rooster Restaurant in Reardan. The order of business at the annual meeting is the election of members to the Board of Directors and two positions were available.

Existing Board members Doug Plinski (President,) Staci Moses (Vice President,) Steve Aubuchon (Secretary,) Rex Harder (Treasurer,) Ron Groff, Scott Hutsell, and Dale Swant elected two new members to the Board, Jamie Manchester and John Nelson. Jamie lives in the Seven Bays area, is a fourth generation resident of Lincoln County and is employed by the Sprague and Lamont School Districts as
Librarian. John, a business planner for WSU Extension in Spokane, has lived and farmed in the Reardan area for 32 years, owns property in both Reardan and Davenport, and is active in the Reardan Lions Club. Both expressed a desire to see the county's economy grow and thrive and will begin to work toward that goal when the Board meets for their next monthly meeting on July 26.

The Lincoln County Economic Development Council is a 501(c)3 non-profit whose key function is to coordinate and implement economic development for our region. The EDC is funded partially by grants and partially by membership dues from businesses, municipalities, individuals and organizations that recognize the importance of being proactive about our County's economic future.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

“SWOT” survey results are in

(Davenport, WA, May 1, 2012.)
This past winter, students from Eastern Washington University assisted the Lincoln County Economic Development Council (EDC) with a countywide Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) survey.  The students analyzed the survey results, reported their findings, and pointed out a couple of holes in our survey coverage (one being a shortage of input from our youth.) The EDC went back out and gathered the missing data. A second team of students, this time from Gonzaga University, agreed to incorporate the new survey responses in with the original responses and re-evaluate the results. When evaluating the results, two research questions were applied:  What do the different population groups and residents of Lincoln County believe are their main Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats? And Is there a statistical difference between each of these beliefs? The EDC recently received . . . MORE