LCD Accomplishments
February - May 2008
Weekly visits to Lakeview High School class to discuss entrepreneurship. Also visits to all high schools in the county to promote the Young Entrepreneurs Business Week (YEBW) that will take place in July 2008. Lake County Development has awarded scholarships to 3 high school students from Lake County to attend YEBW.
February - April 2008
Made at the Kitchen Table™ 6 week workshops in Christmas Valley and Lakeview with 15 total participants.
February 2008
Food Competition in Burns with 7 total participants
January - April 2008
Monthly meetings to establish the first ever Christmas Valley's Tumbleweed Farmers' and Crafters' Market and to re-establish the Lakeview's Saturday Market.
January 2008
Extra 1.5 days of Made at the Kitchen Table™ Train the Trainers Sessions
Fall 2007
LCD helped sponsor a Saddle Blanket Training in mid-September in Plush. 17 people participated.
Most importantly, LCD expanded our office this fall. We now have more than double our original room!
Fall 2007 Continued
To prepare for the sustainability of the Made at the Kitchen Table™ Program, LCD held a "Train the Trainers" two day training the end of September. Then, in conjunction with the next 6 week session of Made at the Kitchen Table™ offered in Lakeview from October-November, the trainers received more training and actual hands-on experience with 10 new participants of the program. Total Made at the Kitchen Table™ trainers trained: 11. Two of those trainers are from North Lake County, another two are from the Madras/Warm Springs area and the rest are from the Lakeview area.
At the beginning of October, LCD coordinated two meetings with the Northwest Cooperative Development Center (NWCDC) and home care providers. These meetings were arranged so that the NWCDC could present their feasibility study results on forming a Home Care Cooperative in Lake County to both home care providers in North and South Lake County.
In mid-October, LCD held a Business Forum in Christmas Valley in collaboration with the Oregon Employment Department. The Business Forum was made up of a panel of 3 experts: an employer attorney, an accountant and a human resources expert. The format was a question and answer type with short presentations on new tax and law updates for small businesses in 2008. 19 people attended this forum.
Two Food Competitions were sponsored for Lake County in the beginning of November entitled: Meats, Treats, and Eats, OH MY! 4 participants competed in North Lake County and 4 participants competed in South Lake County. Each 1st place winner received a $2500 scholarship to the Food Innovation Center (FIC) in Portland and each 2nd place winner won a $1000 scholarship to the FIC.
Whew! That basically sums up the past year for us. Of course, we did leave out all those meetings we went to and all those reports we have had to fill out because we figured that you would rather hear the fun stuff.
All the trainings and workshops this past year have been sponsored by Lake County Development (LCD), the Connecting Oregon for Rural Entrepreneurship (CORE) Collaborative and a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Grant.
Also, we have been involved with the following collaborations:
- Chewaucan Challenge Fly-fishing Tournament (July 2007)
- OR Business Magazine "Biz is Good" Tour (September 2007)
- Oregon Rural Policy Forum in Lakeview (November 2007)
- Lake County Community Foundation Project (Ongoing)
Another ongoing project: One-on-One Business Assistance - This ranges from focused assistance to general information/questions.
Summer 2007
LCD continued our positive culture campaign by sponsoring, and encouraging other businesses to sponsor, another round of "Positive Thoughts" in the newspaper. We also began a new ad campaign called the "Business Spotlight", which gets the word out about smaller, less publicized businesses in Lake County. Twice a month we are featuring a local business in the Wise Buys, the Lake County Examiner and the Desert Whispers. Every Business Spotlight contains a couple of paragraphs explaining the product or products the business makes, the reasons why you should buy the product(s), and the contact information. There is also a picture of one of the products included to give you an idea of what it looks like. So grab a local paper and check out a Business Spotlight today. You might find a business you never heard of before!
By the end of the summer, LCD had prepared a Business Scholarship Form and Policy with guidance from our North Lake Entrepreneurial Advisory Board.
Spring 2007
We provided workshops for home-based entrepreneurs in both North and South Lake County, called Made at the Kitchen Table™. We had 9 participants in the North and 8 in the South for this 6 week workshop (late March-early May).
At the same time, LCD offered a series of employer/employee trainings. Two trainings were held in Lakeview & one in Christmas Valley on "Dealing w/ Difficult & Negative People" & "Communications/Listening Skills"; while another training was held in Lakeview on the topic of "Time Management". In total, 50 people attended and participated in employer/employee trainings this spring from mid-March till early June!
Fall/Winter 2006
Introduction of Thinking Economics curriculum to help youth entrepreneurship in the Paisley and North Lake High Schools.
Business and Financial Planning Training in Lakeview - 2 day training with 6 participants representing 10 businesses.
Summer 2006
Food Fight Competition in Lakeview - 3 participants. "Positive Thoughts" Campaign.