25 mm 032717

Monday Mailing

Year 23 • Issue 25 27 March 2017 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

Amazon Keeps Building Data Centers in Umatilla, Morrow Counties Oregon Bottle Deposit to Increase to 10 Cents Unemployment Rate Drops to Historic Low in February HUD Explained Feared Dead, Math’s Back: Planning Nerds Vindicated Non-Profit Boards Webinar - March 29, 2017, 10:30-11:45 am PDT Jordan Cove Touts Project Changes at Open House What Is Life - April 6 at 5:00pm to 8:00pm Why I Believe that Service is the Best Form of Leadership Drew Dudley: Everyday Leadership Rural Community & Economic Development Funding Resources

1. Amazon Keeps Building Data Centers in Umatilla, Morrow Counties Online retail giant Amazon, which operates two server farms near Boardman and one near Umatilla, is proposing a third complex west of Hermiston consisting of four additional data centers. The company recently purchased about 120 acres of land between Westland and Cottonwood Bend roads, adjacent to the Hermiston Generating Plant near the intersection interstates 84 and 82.

Quote of the Week: "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." ~Beverly Sills

Oregon Fast Fact: The western Oregon climate is very similar to that of the Burgundy region in France where the Pinot grape is from.

Western Oregon has several wineries which produce Pinot Noir wine.

Data centers arrived on the scene locally in 2011, and since then Amazon — doing business through a holding company called Vadata — has continued to expand at the Port of Umatilla and Port of Morrow industrial parks along the Columbia River.

Each new center provides roughly 40 jobs with an average salary of $68,000 per year. According to Jim Footh, real estate development manager for Vadata, the company needs to build multiple data center campuses to provide backup in case one of the buildings goes down.

To access the full story, click here.

2. Oregon Bottle Deposit to Increase to 10 Cents If you have a bag of soda cans, beer bottles and water containers accumulating in the garage, you might want to wait to redeem them — at least for another nine days.

On April 1, Oregon's 5-cent bottle deposit refund will increase for the first time, doubling to 10 cents, in an effort to perk up lagging redemption rates.

The state became the first in the country to introduce a bottle bill back in 1971.

To access the full story, click here.

Page 1 of 6

3. Unemployment Rate Drops to Historic Low in February Oregon's unemployment rate dropped in February to 4 percent, the lowest it has been in 41 years.

The state added about 8,200 jobs in February, up from about 700 jobs added in January, when the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent. Nationally, the rate was 4.7 percent in February.

State employment officials said that in February, 82,000 Oregonians were unemployed, the lowest number since August. 1995. By contrast, the labor force has grown from just under 1.7 million in 1995 to more than 2 million today. have shown that additional caloric intake rather than reduced exercise is driving the trend.

To access the full story, click here.

4. HUD Explained During the nascent Trump era, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The president’s choice to run the agency, neurosurgeon and former presidential candidate Ben Carson, has been criticized by housing advocates for being unprepared for the position and under-informed about the role that this massive agency plays in the lives of many Americans. More recently, the Trump administration has just proposed a $6 billion cut in the HUD’s funding.

As a provider of public housing, a highly politicized topic embroiled in a legacy of segregation, HUD already deals in its fair share of hot-debated topics. But its big-picture issues can distract from the agency’s everyday scope, mission, and impact. While HUD’s future is being discussed in Washington, here’s a primer on how the agency was formed and how it operates.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Feared Dead, Math’s Back: Planning Nerds Vindicated Planning for the future tends to be a humiliating exercise. Whatever’s headed our way is both inevitable and unpredictable. Yet because it brings with it the consequences of decisions we made or ducked in the past and now have to manage or endure in the present, we have to take a stab at decisions that are coherent and well-informed.

Or not.

Lately, owing to chaos at the federal level, we’ve appeared all in for a going-with-the-gut planning strategy. Even when it was clear the gut was on a fact-free diet. But there’s evidence that, at least in some policy-making categories, rational analysis using, you know, data might be making a comeback.

To access the full story, click here.

6. Non-Profit Boards Webinar - March 29, 2017, 10:30-11:45 am PDT In this webinar we'll hear from board members and non-profit staff sharing their understanding of board roles and responsibilities. We'll explore answers to: -What are the required board responsibilities?

-What makes a good board member?

-What's a healthy board/staff relationship?

Page 2 of 6

-What is an active board?

-Are rural boards different?

Our presenters include: -Sharon Thornberry, Rural Communities Liaison - Oregon Food Bank. Sharon has been on 11 boards including the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force, Ten Rivers Food Web, Philomath Community Services, Oregon Farmers Market Association & Bread for the World -Daniel Faccinetti, Regional Network Developer - Oregon Food Bank. Daniel is the former Executive Director of Linton Community Center, a non-profit north of Portland offering youth programming and a community food pantry.

-Colleen Sanders, Oregon State Extension Services, Master Gardener Education Program Assistant.

Colleen is also Board Chair for the Eastern Oregon Climate Change Coalition, Board Member of the Pendleton Farmers Market, and has participated in board meetings for the Umatilla Basin Watershed Council & Umatilla County Master Gardener Association To register for this webinar, click here.

7. Jordan Cove Touts Project Changes at Open House NORTH BEND — It’s been five years since The Jordan Cove Energy Project held its last open house.

On Tuesday afternoon, that changed when more than 40 Jordan Cove Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline representatives fielded questions, gave presentations and tried to alleviate concerns for four hours at The Mill Casino.

The open house received hundreds of attendees.

It was the first of four to be held over the next few days in Coos, Douglas, Jackson and Klamath counties.

The informational expos are the second phase in Jordan Cove's applicant process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which seeks public comments, holds scope meetings and conducts site visits before it will allow the project to file its formal application.

To access the full story, click here.

8. What Is Life - April 6 at 5:00pm to 8:00pm White Stag Block - 70 NW Couch Street, Portland, OR 97209 The seventh annual “What is…? ” conference-experience will engage communication, media, and nature by examining everyday life — our lifeworks and lifestyles — emphasizing the lifeworlds (environments) we live in. It will investigate how communication/media constitute and permeate all avenues and forms of life — from scale, pace, and pattern to the public, private, and organic. By building bridges through multidisciplinary networks, the event emphasizes how communication is instrumental in and for living systems. What is life and how is life mediated?

What is Life? (2017) builds on last year’s conference-experience, What is Media? (2016), expanding a transdisciplinary notion of medium/media with special attention to its material, historical, and Page 3 of 6

ecological ramifications. It marks the second collaboration with scholars from the natural sciences (physical and life sciences) and the arts.

For more information about this event, click here.

9. Why I Believe that Service is the Best Form of Leadership The two words 'service' and 'leadership' are often used together (in fact, there is such a word as 'service leadership'), but what exact relationship do the two words have with one another?

Traditionally, leadership means being at the very top of a hierarchical pyramid, being the "boss" of others, having powers to rule over a group of people. However, the term leadership has always been debated and reconstructed to fit an individual's idea of what it takes to be a great leader. In the amount of time so far that I have gotten to develop my own sense of what leadership means, I have always believed service to be of utmost importance in leading others. As Robert K. Greenleaf (the person who coined the term 'service leadership') states, "The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead."

Ever since I was young, I strived to incorporate service into everything I did, including my future career goal back then: to become a doctor. I valued service so much because I believed it was important to give back all we could to the community we grew up to. My dedication to serving those less fortunate than I am helped develop a foundation for my future and brought me to an understanding of why service was important to leadership. In high school, I was selected to be on the international advisory board for a nonprofit organization called Team HBV. HBV (hepatitis B virus) is a disease especially deadly among Asian Pacific Islanders, and the primary goal of our organization was to spread awareness and eventually eliminate HBV's presence in the world. During this time, I interacted with tens of hundreds of high school students from around the world, serving as their leader in various circumstances. These are the 3 most important lessons I learned from them.

To access the full story, click here.

10. Drew Dudley: Everyday Leadership We have all changed someone’s life — usually without even realizing it. In this funny talk, Drew Dudley calls on all of us to celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other’s lives.

To access this video from the TEDx series, click here.

11. Rural Community & Economic Development Funding Resources USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Programs — Purpose: Help to revitalize rural America by supporting local and regional food stakeholders. Eligibility: Varies by program. Funding: $27 million is available nationwide. Application Deadline: March 27, 2017.

USDA Rural Development Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program — Purpose: Provide funds for the construction, improvement, or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide broadband service in eligible rural areas. Eligibility: Corporations, limited liability companies, cooperatives or mutual organizations, Indian tribes or tribal organizations, and state or local units of government. Funding: Awards range from $100,000 to $10 million. Application Deadline: March 31, 2017.

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program — Purpose: Help with the planning, implementation, or expansion of a criminal justice and mental health collaboration program. Eligibility: States, federally recognized tribes, Page 4 of 6

tribal organizations, and local units of governments. Funding: 10 $200,000 awards, 40 $75,000 awards, and 8 $300,000 awards expected; 20% cash or in-kind match required. Application Deadline: April 4, 2017.

Oregon Water Resources Department Water Project Grants and Loans — Purpose: Support the evaluation, planning, and implementation of instream and out-of-stream water resource projects that result in economic, environmental, and social/cultural public benefits. Eligibility: Indian tribes, nonprofits, and persons defined by Oregon statute and rule. Funding: Approximately $5 million is available for water projects across the state. Application Deadline: April 5, 2017.

The Sparkplug Foundation — Purpose: Provide grants to start up nonprofit organizations or new projects of established nonprofits that address the fields of music, education, and community organizing. Questionnaire Deadline: April 10, 2017. Letter of Intent Deadline: April 17, 2017. Application Deadline: May 5, 2017.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Challenge America — Purpose: Offer support primarily to small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations . Eligibility: Nonprofits, Native American tribal governments (federally recognized), independent school districts, special district governments, state governments, county governments, public- and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and city or township governments. Funding: Individual awards of $10,000.

Application Deadline: April 13, 2017.

U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Program and Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program — Purpose: Provide grants through the CDFI Program for financial and technical assistance to improve low-income communities through economic development, affordable housing, and other community development financial services; through the NACA Program, encourage the creation and strengthening of CDFIs that primarily serve Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities. Eligibility: Varies by program. Funding: Varies by program. Application Deadline (both programs): April 28, 2017.

NEA Foundation Learning and Leadership Grants — Purpose: Support the professional development of public education professionals. Eligibility: Public school teachers, public education support professionals, and/or faculty and staff in public institutions of higher education. Funding: Individual awards of $2,000 for individuals, $5,000 for groups. Application Deadline: June 1, 2017.

Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) Community Facilities Loan Program — Purpose: Help develop and improve essential community facilities (such as public and nonprofit office buildings, treatment centers, emergency and transitional housing, assisted living, human services, public safety, child care, education, and cultural facilities) in the rural West through shortterm loans for early property acquisition and pre-development, interim construction costs, and longterm permanent financing. Eligibility: Priority given to loan applications for projects that incorporate significant green methods and materials. Application Deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis.

Department of Commerce (DOC) Economic Development Administration (EDA) Economic Development Assistance Programs — Purpose: Support economic development, foster job creation, and attract private investment in economically distressed areas of the United States.

Eligibility: Native American tribal governments or organizations, state governments, private institutions of higher education, nonprofits (other than institutions of higher education), special district governments, county governments, public and state controlled institutions of higher education, city or township governments, and others that vary by program. Funding: Awards range from $100,000 to $3 million. Application Deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis.

Page 5 of 6

USDA Rural Development Strategic Economic and Community Development (SECD) — Purpose: Incentivize communities to align resources; develop long-term community and economic growth strategies; and engage federal, state, and local partners by prioritizing projects that support the implementation of multi-jurisdictional plans under the Community Facilities Program, Water and Waste Disposal Program, Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program, and Rural Business Development Grant Program. Eligibility: Varies by program. Funding: Up to 10 percent of each program's annual appropriations can be set aside and made available to eligible SECD applicants.

Application Deadline: Varies by program.

Page 6 of 6