Thursday, April 17, 2008
There's No Old Navy In Wyoming
And other fun facts about Wyoming! :) It's time for an update. I don't mean to update so infrequently, but I'm a busy girl. Many of you want to know what I'm up to, and it's tough to be specific, as I'm involved in so many different things with my job, in the community, and in general. However, I'll try to be concise--I've got a million other things I could be working on right now, but I'd rather sit here in Casper and blog.
First, let's cover why I'm in Casper--I'm at a grant writing course. I recently wrote a proposal for a $100,000 grant for design planning in Sheridan. My boss was impressed with my initiative, and decided that I would transition from project manager to grant writer. If we're pursuing that path, I wanted grant writing training. I need to know where to find grants, how to jump through the hoops for government grant applications, and how to ensure fund use compliance. My boss agreed. He wanted me to find a grant writing course for economic development; however, there is no such course. He found a very general grant writing course in Boise, but that would have required me changing some other plans I had in place to attend that course; we compromised by signing up for the class I found on Tuesday, and that's how I'm sitting in Casper today. (And although there is no Old Navy anywhere in the state, there is an excellent sushi restaurant in Casper. Mmmmm.)
In addition to the grant writing transition, I'm managing 11 task forces and 3 industry clusters as part of my project manager duties. Projects include:
- Meeting with an aviation consultant to discuss options for recruiting a second airline into Sheridan and to discuss existing airline service issues. The community will need to partially fund a risk abatement program (if an airline comes here and doesn't make x per flight, the community makes up the difference between the actual revenue and x), and apply for a state aviation grant to fund the rest of the total risk abatement fund to attract another airline or convince the current airline to expand service.
- Awaiting a finalized design and groundbreaking to begin construction of a new childcare center in Sheridan. Forward Sheridan wrote a $3 million grant for the construction of this facility; once open, additional grant money will be found to construct satellites in other communities in the County.
- Both the City and County are updating their comprehensive zoning and land use plans (last update--1982); I've been involved in meetings for both the City and County, as well as joint meetings of both entities to discuss the border area between the City and County.
- Meeting with City officials to discuss design planning in Sheridan--design planning is the process that gives a zoning plan teeth by providing comprehensive design standards and pattern books showing acceptable development architecture, building materials, and landscaping for a particular neighborhood. Without this, a company can develop anything in the appropriately zoned area, but there's no telling what it will look like.
- Promoting the need for companies to have a formal drug and substance policy, as well as drug testing. Grant money is integral to the success of this initiative.
- Working in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce to design a user-friendly, senior-friendly, and disabled-friendly jobs database for Sheridan County jobs. The current job database offered by the Department of Workforce Services isn't easy to navigate and high-quality applicants are very difficult to find.
- Coordinating the efforts of several groups to address Wyoming's workforce shortage. Strategies include reentering mature workers into the workforce, recruiting from military bases, and recruiting young professionals. Each initiative has taken on a life of its own, in particular the young professionals.
- Managing the young professionals group, hYPe (helping young professionals engage). This group has taken off--there are over 100 members, a steering committee, and more ideas and energy than you can shake a stick at. I manage all of the minutes for the steering committee and general membership meetings, send all correspondence and keep the email list, keep the community calendar, maintain all of the websites for the group (there are 3 sites currently, with plans to expand), and organize or finalize event details.
- Work in partnership with the housing action committee to tackle workforce housing issues. We've brought in a consultant to discuss employer assisted housing options, as well as discuss general solutions to workforce housing in our market. He's coming back to hold a training in the area to discuss how to bring some of these suggestions to fruition.
- Maintain the website and manage all email correspondence for the knowledge-based industry cluster, StartWest. There is a lot of interesting technology in Sheridan--look at the meeting minutes for details of what folks are doing with technology in Sheridan. In addition to this cluster, I'm also trying to coordinate several artists to form a cluster and coordinate several energy, oil and gas, and coal bed methane companies to form an energy industry cluster.
I think that about covers the task forces and clusters--that's part of our strategic plan. We're also entering a campaign, which I'm also managing. I'm not at liberty to discuss details, as its not public knowledge, but I can say that it will be quite a bit of work to manage, even with hiring a consultant (and a minion to do my bidding).
In addition to all of the above, I'm responsible for our website maintenance, editing documents, supply orders, and whatever else generally comes up. Somehow, I manage to keep most of the work stuff within a 40 hour week (board meeting weeks are a different story, as preparing for the monthly board meeting takes precedence over all other tasks).
None of that includes community involvement, although I work with a number of community leaders with my job. I've been pretty involved in the community, and the list seems to keep growing.
- I've joined the Jaycees, volunteering with projects like Meals on Wheels and Christmas in April--home maintenance for those who are physically unable to keep up.
- I'm on the Sheridan Earth Day Committee--a Recycle Run (5K), Community Barbecue, Tree Planting, and Recycling Fair are part of the Earth Day celebration.
- I'm on the Celebrate the Arts Committee--an annual festival of art in downtown Sheridan where artists display work downtown, visit downtown merchants, hold panel discussions, and hold an art auction/barbecue.
- I'm on the Member's Guild Board at the Trail End Museum.
- I volunteer with the Downtown Sheridan Association.
- I'm on the committee for the annual Chamber Gala fundraiser event.
- I'm on the committee for the annual Buffalo Bill Days--a week-long celebration of Buffalo Bill and the Wild West. It's one of the biggest events in Sheridan, along with the WYO Rodeo and Christmas Stroll.
- I partnered with a friend to organize a "Ladies Who Lunch" group--a group of business women who meet monthly to network and socialize.
- I've been involved with the transportation planning process in Sheridan also, attending so many meetings about transportation planning that I think I should have an honorary engineering certification.
- I'll be volunteering to help with the WYO Rodeo, the Big Horn Mountain Festival (a bluegrass, folk, and country music festival that happens the same week as rodeo), the Big West Art Festival, and the 4th of July Extravaganza (nothing like schmoozing and networking with the bigwigs).
And I still have time for fun stuff. A lot of the above stuff counts as fun, but I still have time to go to the movies, catch a show at the local theater (I saw the Glenn Miller Orchestra last Wednesday, and it was awesome!), socialize during happy hour at the bar, bike around the park, snowshoe in the mountains, read a book, etc. I don't understand when people say they're bored or there's nothing to do here--I have to pick and choose what I do, and there are often days when I go from work to event to event to event then home. For example, after work on Wednesday, I stopped by an artist reception at a local gallery, went to a transportation plan meeting, then to Business After Hours (a Chamber of Commerce networking event). That's a typical day for me, and I love that I'm not just stuck at work all day, then in traffic during the evening.
Oh, speaking of traffic, I will be back on the East Coast for a bit--May 1st through the 6th. I fly in late on the 1st (I land around 11 pm on the 1st and fly out at 2 pm on the 6th). My parents thought it would be a wonderful birthday present to get me plane tickets to fly home and I finally booked a flight and am taking some time off to visit. If you want to catch up, book your time now! :)
posted by jaime |
8:40 PM
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