Notes from Colleen's Desk: Pic-a-Nic Basket Ode to Yogi

Emile Amarotico SOREDI Loan Committee Chair

Noland’s heart is always aligned with serving our business community. And his brain was always busy looking for creative ways to mitigate our risk so that we could keep on serving our community in the future!

Dr. Cathy Kemper-Pelle SOREDI Board Member

Noland has been such a joy to work with and has added so much to the SOREDI team with his business loan expertise.

Tom Fischer SOREDI Executive Committee

Noland is the first and perhaps the only banker that I have been able to clearly understand. I always enjoyed working with him on client issues and was impressed at how well he communicated with SOREDI borrowers. They experienced Noland’s ability to define points succinctly and also interject a little bit of humor. He will be missed.

Melanie Rossetta SOREDI Loan Committee

It has been my privilege to work with Noland on the SOREDI Loan Committee. Noland was always well prepared and very professional, but most importantly his desire to serve our community was always very apparent.

Jeanne Pickens SOREDI Executive Committee

Noland’s contributions to SOREDI and our community have been immense and will have an impact for years to come.

Hey, Hey, Hey. . . SOREDI’s Business Development Loan Manager is on his way!

Noland Alston is retiring May 6 after 5 and ½ years with the agency. Rumor is that he has his fishing pole in hand and the RV fueled, and has many tasty snacks stocked up.

Affectionately known as Yogi in the office, we are already wondering who will be on watch for abandoned pic-a-nic baskets. We all love a good sandwich and oatmeal cookies.

More importantly though, we have loved Noland’s calm, thoughtful, and sincere presence in the office. He has been the balance to all of our bodacious musings on how to wildly serve the business community.

Even falling into the Rogue River on a staff rafting excursion did not seem to faze Yogi (probably because we had already had lunch before launching the rafts). But always a good sport, he allowed us to gently pull him back into the raft, with glasses still in place, while politely suggesting we pushed him overboard.

During his tenure with SOREDI, which comprised only a fraction of his long-standing credit analysis career of over 40 years, Noland closed 28 gap-financing loans to the tune of $4,316,176.

From a banker’s perspective that number may seem small, until you realize that that was only the SOREDI portion of the whole project budget that made it possible for those businesses to move forward on their expansion or startup. Yeah, it actually is a big deal for this nimble agency and a lot of diligent analysis surely occurred behind the scenes.

As Yogi can attest, we think every business inquiry is a big deal here at SOREDI and we are determined to help each one take the next step toward their business goals.

Noland had been on the team all but 7 months, when my role at SOREDI transitioned from business development manager to executive director. I recall vividly our first conversation and my very specific and serious inquiry – “you are never retiring right?” I knew that I would need to increase my understanding of the loan program exponentially and I was confident that Noland would help me do just that with his financial calculator in hand. Yogi is after all, smarter than your average bear.

SOREDI’s loan program is no small endeavor to manage as it is funded with mostly federal funds that are restricted within our financials and come with a few strings attached in terms of where and how they can be lent. There is a loan committee involved and a great deal of back and forth with the loan applicant to get to final approval and funding.

You might like to send a sandwich Noland’s way for a job well-done. Better yet, join us on Wednesday, May 5, 3 – 6 pm at El Paraiso, located at 142 North Front Street in Medford for a festive farewell – appetizers provided.

Here are a few significant loan program game-changers during Noland’s tenure worth noting:

Surpassed the $20 million lent mark – under Noland’s guidance. With one or two loans still in the final stretch to closing, we will have actually reached nearly $21.7 million lent since the program’s inception in 1994.
Defederalized a USDA loan fund - that is, we paid off the original loan from the USDA in order to free up funds that would then be available for eligible businesses based in the urban communities of Medford and Grants Pass.
Increased SOREDI’s administrative draw - Noland’s expertise unveiled that SOREDI had sufficient margin to give itself a raise from the interest accrued on the loan portfolio, leading the agency to become more sustainably diversified in its sources of operational revenues than ever before.
Forgave three months of interest - for current loan clients at the onset of the pandemic with an additional option for three months of deferred principal payments.

You may be wondering how we will ever replace Noland. Fact is that we can’t. However, the loan program is in good hands with other stellar business development managers that have already stepped up to learn the nuances of our loan program and carry our business-friendly pic-a-nic basket of gap-financing resources forward. Loan program inquires may now be forwarded to Kim Young, Analysis and Business Development Manager – kim@soredi.org.

Thank you, Noland, for your good nature, patience, diligence, and commitment to helping our business community prosper. Enjoy traveling, fishing, coffee, oatmeal cookies and every sandwich that crosses your retirement path. You will be missed!

Happy Trails!

Colleen Padilla, Executive Director

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