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We left Portland bundled in our winter coats and drove through snow flurries to arrive in the brilliant and much kinder sunshine of the southern Oregon Coast. This latest Meyer Memorial Trust Two-Way Street Tour began in Coos Bay yesterday (April Fools Day!) at the Kozy Kitchen, where evidence of active work by the area’s nonprofits was displayed right on our table—a laminated “Hunger Facts” card produced by Oregon Coast Community Action. And these facts were no April Fool’s joke, but the reality of many of the area’s residents who struggle to put food on their tables while paying rent and other life expenses.
As we prepared for the meeting at the Coos Bay Library, we and our host, Judy McMakin, from the Coos County Commission on Children and Families, were pleasantly surprised, astonished really, at the large turnout—almost 70 people representing nonprofits throughout the Coos Bay/North Bend area (and a few beyond the Bay area)! This was one of those meetings were the time spent on introductions was significant but well worth it as we learned about the wide variety of groups in attendance, from the City of Lakeside to Klamath Common Ground (an all-volunteer group, represented by a passionate and articulate fisherman, whose work stretches across several counties as they seek consensus on contentious water and fishing issues) to Grandparents Rock to government representatives to city and county commissioners. Such a large group could have easily overwhelmed two meager Meyer representatives were it not for their desire to learn all they could about Meyer Memorial Trust as well as provide us with a picture of life in Coos County. And they asked some great questions, such as
“How much is too much?”
“How much should a grant application weigh” (referring to how much information to include with an application)?
“How do all-volunteer organizations raise other community support?”
“What role should board members, who are also those key volunteers, play?”
A minority of hands went up when we asked how many had applied for a Meyer grant in the past (around 10), but the good news is that of those who applied, most had received grants. And some wonderful connections happened: We had a new colleague join us—Barbara Bauder, hired by Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) to staff their new office in Coos Bay. As we discussed the need for more technical assistance training for nonprofits outside the Portland metro area, Barbara announced that OCF and Technical Assistance for Community Services (TACS) will be hosting a joint training for area nonprofits in May. Cindy Beding from the Coos County Fairgrounds volunteered to research and help organize a “webinar” at a public place like the library, where several groups could pool resources to purchase technical assistance training via the web.
While the County has seen its hard times economically (affecting the level of charitable giving in the county) and still faces daunting challenges with loss of federal timber funding, those in attendance would no longer accept the negative image often portrayed of their county. One member felt as if the Coos Bay area was at a turning point—people want to work and live there and much of the city looks better. Another member mentioned the fact that Coos County recently had the highest percentage of high school graduates going to community college, and Coos County Commissioner Nikki Whitty mentioned the strong public support for projects in Coos County, such as restoration of the Egyptian Theatre (used by the Oregon Music Festival), and the Dora Community Center, which has raised over $1 million. The meeting ended on the comment that in Coos Bay, “We don’t dream big enough, but we really can do amazing things here.” Seeing close to 70 people leave the library, we had to agree. What an amazing show of community strength and support!
Our next stop was Bandon, Oregon, a quieter beach town that provided another spectacular sunny afternoon for these rain-weary Portlanders.
While we didn’t have a whole lot of time for lunch between community meetings, we did have time to stop at the Cranberry Shoppe and purchase Sally’s favorite candy, a strange concoction called chocolate licorice.
This community meeting at the Bandon Library was once again hosted by the amazing Judy McMakin (shown here with Sally Yee) who managed to turn out another record crowd, close to 50 people representing all types of nonprofit and government organizations. And once again, one of the best parts of the meeting was the introductions. A friendly competition for attendance broke out between representatives of the Bandon Swimming Pool Project and the Lakeside Library Foundation.
When asked how many had applied for Meyer grants in the past, a small number of hands went up (less than 10), but, again, of those who applied, most had received grants--more evidence that connecting Meyer with rural communities is critically important. This group expressed a lot of interest in organizational capacity building, wondering what does capacity building look like in small organizations, how do organizations in small towns find new board members, and how do they find someone who will work hard for them but who isn’t already on three other boards?
One of the biggest concerns expressed in this group was the need to generate affordable housing, specifically workforce housing for those earning lower to middle incomes who are providing basic supports for the community—teachers, law enforcement officers, service industry workers. It was also clear that public infrastructure projects such as swimming pools, libraries, parks and other quality-of-life improvements were critically important but hard to fund, given all the financial pressures on rural cities and counties. We had a spirited discussion about how philanthropic dollars can support and leverage other funding for public projects and how communities can build a base of individual and business support for these projects, even during hard economic times.
Once again, as we watched over 50 passionate, engaged people file out of the Bandon Library, we felt a high level of community strength and a can-do spirit to improve the quality of life in Coos and Curry counties.
Until the next stop...
Kim Thomas and Sally Yee
These Two-Way Street tours are simply brilliant. Connecting MMT to the communities of Oregon in such a personal way not only demonstrates the Trust's committment to providing support for the most effective programs, it also must help demystify the whole grant writing process. It's reassuring to people to know that grantors like MMT aren't impersonal machines making random decisions. There's heart behind it all. Thanks for sharing your road trip, Kim and Sally.
Warmly,
Cheryl Crumbley
United Way of Lane County
The community here in Bandon feels blessed by the attention that the MMT is paying to our needs.
I must emphasize that the comments which follow are my own and do not reflect the policy of an organization I helped found and lead but have stepped back to allow a new generation assume the leadership role. I speak only for myself.
Every spare moment over the last 19 years my wife and I have devoted to establishing and preserving Shoreline Education for Awareness. In 16 of those years, I have been President of this all volunteer tax exempt education organization.
SEA has never had any paid staff and no trained grant writer, nor has SEA ever had the funds to send volunteers to such training. On numerous occasions I have done some research on what grants SEA could pursue to improve effectiveness. A few of those times I browsed the MMT web site but was overwhelmed by what seemed to be a very high hurdle. So far my score for grants has been one successes for about 10 tries. $5000 from the state to build the SEAquarium, a mobile display unit to facilitate marine education.
Two years ago SEA was honored to enter into a MOU with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to become "Friends of the Southern Oregon Coastal Refuges." Besides the free office space in the FWS Office near Bandon the most important benefit was advice from FWS Staff. The Manager of Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge rewrote a grant request that I wrote that had been turned down by the National Wildlife Refuge Association. His version won SEA a very generous grant to replace our 10-16 year old spotting scopes used to show over 15,000 people the seals and sea lions at Simpson Reef off shore from Shore Acres State Park. Simpson Reef is part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
Last year I took the final action in my plan to prepare SEA for my retirement.
This Two Way Street meeting which was attended by SEA's new President and myself may be another valuable step in the development of continued governance for SEA. The new Board must decide next steps, but I will be recommending a Grassroots Grant Request to MMT for Technical Assistance in developing a Strategic Plan.
Thank you for your interest in our area.
It sounds as though this was a great collaborative event; I wish I had been there.
I am wondering if the MMT has any materials relating to the question of how all-volunteer institutions can engender community support?
Prior to the museum/learning center/s actual opening, our inital funding to get "up and running" was provided by the "founding father" who did a whole lot of arm-twisting before he passed away. However, those donors regarded it as a "one-time thing" and most often as a personal favor to him.
As a relatively new institution, we need a plan to build ongoing local support to carry forth our mission.
A significant portion of that mission involves fire safety, both onsite and carrying the message to school classes, etc. in the area's rural counties (thanks to the "Hazard Home" trailer awarded to us by the State Fire Marshal's office).
The other portion of our mission involves both the "artifact" as well as the "cultural" history of firefighting, America's most admired profession.
We realize that we need this local base of support in order to position ourselves for grants and (hopefully) larger donations.
If you have any such materials, they would be gratefully accepted.
Kathleen Almquist
Eastern Oregon Fire Museum & Learning Center