Notes from Colleen’s Desk: Planning to Pivot

I learned over the weekend that I should never attempt to assemble anything. Especially a ping pong table… particularly after hobbling through the assembly of the caddy for the croquet set thirty minutes earlier!

I am a better planner. I planned to buy the table; I bought the table. And then planned to have friends over to play ping pong (along with badminton and croquet), have a barbecue, and simply have great fellowship.

That big, heavy ping pong table box should have had a disclaimer on it that said something like “Do not attempt to assemble unless you have assistance from a certified assembler.” And maybe a second disclaimer to the effect of “Assembly will take much longer that you can reasonably expect.”

Many thoughts over the last weekend come to mind as I write and relate them to the current “Great Pause.” I had many moments of great pause in my 5 hour assembly experience. To my credit, I did plan to have help from the outset– which unfortunately did not materialize. Gratefully, my daughter came to my rescue.  I think she could see my frustration and the death-grip I had on that Phillips screwdriver. She quickly assessed the situation and then aptly suggested that I barbecue the hamburgers instead, while she put the second half of the table together. I agreed.

Can there possibly be that many parts, screws, washers, and spacers in a ping pong table? The answer is yes. Sometimes they are moving parts, hard to identify and hard to hold onto. This also applies to the myriad of considerations – the moving parts – that every business, every agency, every jurisdiction, and every citizen is facing right now in this COVID-19 crisis.

Nothing is status quo. The certainty of my daily to-do list is no more. Everything is fluid. And as one local partner this week suggested, some of those things may never come back to our lists. Gasp! They were add-ons; maybe they should not have been there in the first place.

We are all pivoting right now. Kind of like the game of ping pong, you never know which direction you might need to pivot to next in order to keep the ball in play. Currently, with the entire staff working remotely most of the week, the ping pong table is half up. It may be just me holding down the entire third floor, but rest assured that we are polishing a few moves, increasing our response time, and swinging at every play possible. There is not time to sit on the sidelines.

Little known fact about me: I was accepted to the University of Oregon right out of high school and was planning to study linguistics. I mentioned this to my sister on a hike in the woods last Saturday and she asked what kind of a career a linguist would pursue. I said, well, the study of words of course.

How is that relevant you ask? Turns out that in addition to lists, I also have a word every year – kind of like a mantra. One year it was ‘focus’, another it was ‘margin’, and yet another year it was ‘stretch’.  I decided my new word (beginning now) should be ‘pivot’.

Much like many manufacturers are doing locally – the likes of Central Point’s Quantum Innovations, who has pivoted to make hand sanitizer –  SOREDI is pivoting to respond and explore every option that may bring relief to our business community. That is our playbook, after all … to help Southern Oregon Businesses prosper.

Pivoting means taking on some potentially new tasks to access resources, being a quick learn, and being a little vulnerable. It means taking some risks. But we are game to give it our best shot.

Here is a look at three funding resources we are volleying for now to help our business community:

1. We have submitted to our Economic Development Administration (EDA) regional office, upon their request, a proposed concept for grant funding. If received, the funding would help sustain SOREDI’s capacity and be used to assist small enterprises affected by COVID-19, along with manufacturers who are pivoting to manufacture PPE. We are eagerly awaiting a formalized application process.
2. We are speaking to several jurisdictions about applying for special Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding through Business Oregon. The CDBG funding is also being set aside for the same purposes noted above. SOREDI would serve as the administrator on the participating community’s behalf. This is a unique opportunity for all the State’s economic development districts that has not been previously an option. We expect the application process to commence soon, and we are learning all we can about CDBG funding and process requirements.
3. We have applied for funding from the Oregon Community Foundation’s Small Business Stabilization Fund, again in response to COVID-19. We are grateful to our counterpart economic development district – CCD Development Corporation – for serving as our fiscal sponsor, which enabled our application.

SOREDI is wildly serious about business development in Southern Oregon, earnestly pivoting to stay in the game, and hoping to score in all three plays noted above. Watch for news and opportunity soon.

I guess I can now say that I am planning to pivot! Ping Pong anyone?

Colleen Padilla, Executive Director