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Dear friends of the Reedsport Main Street Program,
Hey, what’s going on in town? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was one place we could look to find out? Well, that’s exactly what River Bill was thinking when he set out to make a Google Calendar for Reedsport. Bill is gradually adding more events to the calendar with the goal that it will someday be our one stop for all community activities. It’s a work in progress, so help us improve it! If you have events that you would like us to add, please email me with “CALENDAR” in the subject line. If you already have or would like to have an iCal-based calendar that we can coordinate with ours, contact me for more info. Our community calendar can be filtered by topic as well. Check it out at: reedsportmainstreet.com/calendar.html Looking at the calendar, I see that the next RMSP Board of Director’s meeting is tonight at 5pm in the conference room at City Hall. The Design Committee will meet again this Thursday, October 22, at 2pm in the conference room at City Hall. All civic-minded bystanders are welcome to attend. Also note that I will be out of the office for most of next week for some training. Did you see the article that The World published about our Economic Development Committee meeting? Gail, our new Umpqua Post editor, did a fine job reporting on the meeting. What do you think about having more bike trails or indoor activities like pickleball? Do you think we can, or should, look for ways to use the hills around Reedsport while that privately-owned timber is growing? Read more about our round table discussion on our Facebook page, or here: http://tinyurl.com/olwma2q Here’s something to think about: This year we’re going to be trying to get the lights turned on in Reedsport…the holiday lights, that is! Thanks to a generous donation by the Reedsport/Winchester Bay Chamber of Commerce, the City will be leading the way by purchasing some new city lights to hang around town. If you have a storefront, a house, a rock, or anything else that you can put a string of lights on, start thinking about how you might be able to add just a little extra sparkle to your display this year. Maybe you can only do something small, but remember, a lot of “small” adds up to something gigantic. You’ll hear more about this soon, but start brainstorming now. I’ve had a great deal of culture shock since I moved back to the USA from England. The cars are much larger here. The plumbing here works as one might expect it to, with no surprises. I don’t confuse people by mentioning things like candy corn, s’mores, or Grape Nuts. But the biggest difference for me is adjusting how I engage with ideas. You see, for the past three years I have been in an intense academic setting. Every week I had to argue something I knew very little about with a professor who might be a world leader in the subject. “Prove it to me, make me believe it, let me see your line of thinking,” was the message I heard every day. My ideas were mercilessly challenged, and in turn I learned to challenge every idea. And I would often walk out of the room feeling like an absolute idiot, but I knew for next time that I’d better come up with an argument that I could defend. In some ways the world is much a like an old university don, reclining with his cup of tea and dry sense of humor, poised to knock your best propositions to pieces if you haven’t really thought things through. So when I say, “Give me your ideas,” I absolutely mean it. Make them big, make them ridiculous, and don’t hesitate to come up with some downright awful stuff. The bad ideas will die, and that’s okay. I will challenge your ideas – we should all challenge your ideas – not to discourage you, but to help you turn them into the best ideas possible! Until next time - Katie Lockard, RMSP Coordinator Comments are closed.
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