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$225,000 Available for Projects

$225,000 in grant funds will soon be available to BDAs and other business associations. $100,000 will be available this fall and $100,000 next spring. These funds are open to all business associations in Portland and the requirements are the same as APNBA's - Up to $5000 per cycle to be matched at least dollar for dollar by the association. The remaining $25,000 is the annual Business District Grant Program, earmarked for improvements in individual districts, awarded in December to be completed within six months.

Every interested group is required to attend an orientation. Contact us at info@apnba.com for a packet and further details.

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The President Ponders

Whew!
That’s how I think we all feel after a series of time consuming and, I must admit, painful steps to re-focus the Alliance of Portland Neighborhood Business Associations on its primary purpose, namely, serving the needs of Portland’s neighborhood business districts. Here is what we have accomplished in the past 120 days:

• Involved more business districts in APNBA deliberations and decisions.
• Established Board meetings every other month (February, April, June, August, October, December) on the second Monday.
• Established Executive Committee meetings every other month (January, March, May, July, September, November) on the second Monday.
• Moved to a more spacious location (Friendship Lodge at 57th & NE Sandy Blvd.) with plenty of free off-street parking.
• Conducted a strategic planning effort that concluded that APNBA must:
  • obtain permanent and sustainable funding
  • secure funding from new sources
  • establish a position of executive Director and of administrative assistant
  • establish an office to conduct business and store records
• Contracted with The Support Group and Nancy Chapin to focus on public policy issues potentially affecting APNBA and its members.
• Undertaken a top to bottom review of the APNBA By-Laws.
• Created the Administration & Finance Committee to develop written policies, procedures and protocols.
• Begun developing capacity to create endowed funds for a broader funding base.
• Initiated a Technology Committee to review all the tools that APNBA utilizes to serve its members.

In the coming months we will:

• Administer the $25,000 neighborhood business district grants and the $200,000 supplemental business association grant program.
• Blend the Prosperity NOW! conference into a better and broader event with focus on solving the perpetual business district problems – leadership and leadership renewal, membership recruitment and retention, newsletters, web sites, events, and more.
• Participate in and play a leading role in the community wide effort to broaden how we all look at business. Partnering with the Office of Neighborhood Involvement APNBA will work with neighborhood associations, business associations, and minority chambers of commerce to address and overcome common barriers to success and to build capacity for business to prosper.

Plenty of achievements in a short period of time all the while we serve our own business districts, our own businesses, and our personal lives! Whew!

The Value of Your Time

Independent Sector, which tracks the value of volunteer time in America, estimates that Americans donated $280 billion dollars worth of their time in 2005. That's 15.5 million hours at $18.04 per hour, the equivalent of over 9 million full time non-profit workers. Independent Sector estimated the nation-wide average hourly earnings of all production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls and increased by 12 percent for fringe benefits to reach $18.04. Nearly 84 million people, 44 percent of the population, donated an average of 185 hours each to make those numbers.

You don't get paid for this, and it doesn't show in your business district budget, but using these figures, you might be surprised at the value of the time and out of pocket expenses you and your board contribute.

Coming Events
September 1-3: Art in the Pearl Sidewalk Sale - Park Blocks, Burnside to Everett, Candace McDonell, 503-223-0070.

September 10: Belmont Street Fair - SE Belmont St. from 11th - 39th, John Barker, 503-231-9118 September 16: Alberta Street Fair - NE Alberta from 11th - 33rd. http://artonalberta.org/

Tell us about your event - Contact the Editor.

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