I would first like to remind you that our upcoming Spring Training will be held at McMenamins Edgefield, in Troutdale, on April 10th, and will focus on Business Retention & Expansion and Economic Gardening. For full details and to register, go to the Professional Development page.

Secondly, the co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means released their recommended budget last week. This is a starting place for discussion in a long series of legislative negotiations to arrive at a final state budget for 2007-2009. This recommended budget does not include the Brand Oregon line item, cuts Oregon Inc in half, and cuts other critical Oregon and Economic and Community Development Department (OECDD) initiatives. Additionally, the Governor's recommended budget included significant support for Workforce Training to Skill Up Oregonians. The co-chairs have budgeted almost no state dollars for Workforce Development and have cut community college and targeted university investments that build a skilled workforce.

I urge you to contact your legislators and the committee co-chairs and express support for both:

• OECDD's Budget Package, and
• Workforce Training and Higher Education Investments in the Governor's budget

The 2007 Oregon Economic Development Association Legislative Strategy can be viewed at:

http://www.oeda.biz/legislative.html

After the upcoming April 10th event, remaining Oregon Economic Development Association professional development events for 2007 will be held in Corvallis and Portland respectively:

• Summer Training, July 23, LaSells Stewart Center, OSU, Corvallis
• Back to Business III Annual Conference, Hilton Portland and Executive Tower, Portland

During the past few weeks, OEDA has entered into contracts with Tami Lundy who will be providing financial services along with Susan Appleby who will be providing web services to our organization. We are delighted to have Tami and Susan on board. Look for our new and improved website in the next month or so.

As always, we appreciate your continued support of our organization. On behalf of the entire OEDA Board, we look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming trainings or conferences. In the meantime, if you have any questions about our organization or activities feel free to call or email.

Sincerely,
Colin Sears, President
Oregon Economic Development Association
(Economic Development Manager/Portland Development Commission)
searsc@pdc.us
503.823.3320