Valley County Economic Development Council

Monthly Meeting 12/1/16 Minutes

Donnelly City Hall 4-6pm

In attendance: Sherry Maupin, Bill Willey, Scotty Davenport, Don Bailey, Donna Eggleston, Cami Hedges, Cynda Herrick, Eric Borchers, Jonne Hower, Blake Watson

Underway @ 4:02pm

  • Scotty moved to adjust the agenda to have the ED report toward the end
  • Treasurer’s Report
    • Further discussion needed
    • Cami and Rob should connect and look at integrating QuickBooks
    • RC&D line item needed Water Trails funds
    • Additional clarification needed on allocation of $250 scholarship for Andrew’s participation in the Leadership Academy
    • With above note, moved to be approved, seconded, motion passed
  • November Minutes
    • Moved to be approved, seconded, motion passed
  • Long term funding structure
    • VCEDC needs to court businesses
    • We need to create a piece of collateral that speaks to what we do
    • Do we look for memberships or donations?–ANNUAL MEETING TOPIC
    • Do we change the name to “West Central Mountains”? ANNUAL MEETING TOPIC
  • Annual Meeting
    • Don booked the clubhouse at Spring Mountain Ranch
    • Venue has good parking, spacious meeting room, and various other amenities
    • January 5th from 12-noon until 6pm
    • Potluck-style
    • Blake/Idaho Power offered to contribute up to $200 for food
    • Andrew will send details email 1-2 weeks prior
    • We need to start thinking about elections, bylaws, articles
    • Training options:
      • Social media
      • Randy Shroll on the role of the board
  • Newsletter
    • Should be sent out quarterly–seasonally
    • Content should be a mixture of business, community development and government
    • Should answer/clarify questions the community has
    • Next issue out in February
  • Soft Skills Training
    • Meadows schools district economics class is no longer offered
      • Junior Achievement may be a substitute option
    • Career planning AmeriCorps member from Boise is doing outreach with local schools right now to determine whether CIS is feasible
    • VCEDC hosting a soft skills training with SBA at St. Lukes McCall on Dec. 7th for Brundage and St. Lukes–will be recorded and can be used with other businesses
      • Telepresence option may create greater flexibility for offering future trainings
      • How can we get webinars out to the broader community? ANNUAL MEETING TOPIC
  • PTAC event is March 23rd
    • Andrew will send out the flier to the Council
    • Need to promote through the chambers
    • All kinds of businesses could benefit from this resource
  • SCORE: Senior Corps of Retired Executives
    • Can we duplicate in Valley County/Meadows Valley?
    • Tapping into this resource may serve as a mobile/remote business incubator for ABC
    • Could use libraries as hub for meetings
    • Andrew will follow up with Boise office to get more information
  • Housing Trust
    • Website is up and running
    • Working on a donated condo in Cascade
    • Mike is working on collateral to get the word out
    • Andrew ran an ad in the Star News promoting the website next week
    • Strategic plan merges many national templates and will be available for review in January
  • Pathways/Byways/Water Trails
    • The story map is up and running
    • Brochures are forthcoming (template)
    • Jackie Aymon mentioned to Andrew possibly creating a groomed ski trail in the old rail bed as a beta–buy in from property owners may be difficult
    • Andrew will continue working on this with Cynda, Steve, and local promoters
  • ASAP
    • Final data on roughly 30 NAICS codes should be available in January
    • Long term, this could be a great analysis/research tool for new industries
    • Cynda asked about whether we have a database with capacity of infrastructure for cities/county
      • Andrew noted that there are some benefits and challenges to publishing infrastructure capacity–moving target, best to get critical information before creating understandings with site selection professionals
      • Andrew will include Council on monthly reports going forward
  • ED Report
    • Education and grow your businesses are up and running on the website
    • Andrew has met with BSU and other vendors–all are excited about the education resource
    • VCEDC may be able to provide some value-added insurance services to businesses through a group association, but this may not scale
      • Telephonic medicine
      • Vision
      • Dental
      • Tabled item until after new administration chooses direction for ObamaCare
    • Andrew working on Umpqua Bank Application
    • IEDA resources slides available for those interested
    • Newsletter distribution has been successful thus far
      • 167 new subscriptions
      • 11,000+ Facebook impressions
      • 1 week left on campaign
    • Andrew will continue working on merging and updating the strategic plan/executive summary
    • Branding exercise underway with ABC–some connection to regionalism–VCEDC will keep contact with subcommittee
    • Andrew has begun networking VCEDC, Commerce and Labor products with local business
  • Discussion:
    • HVAC (A1) hasn’t been able to find an employee–ad has run for along time
    • Meadow Creek in Meadows could use a new Water/Sewer professional–might be good fit for apprentice program
    • Donnelly water bond passed last month
    • Christmas tree made it to D.C., more beer being sent to Jackie
    • WCM Rec District meeting Tuesday @ 6pm @ Idaho First Bank
  • Adjourned @ 6:04pm