hiding on the staircase

last night, my good friend proffered the notion that blogs (and video games, and creating a persona, for that matter) offer a person a sense of achievement - even if nobody reads their blog (and they are well aware of this likelihood whilst typing away), or if they never win the video game, or if their persona is annoying/inconspicuous

[let us here put aside the brief follow up conversation we'd about subprime lending, hedge funds, tightening credit, The Rebel, Ghost Wars, the connections between jacobins-decembrists-other revolutionaries and osama bin laden, smart people, and BBQ]

boring...















__________________________________________________________________

Last week, at our Weekly Classroom Training, we began planning the next few month's training topics, because we'd pretty much come to the end of the February planning we'd done in-house, as well as with Technical Assistance for Community Services, Black United Fund, Mercy Corps, and the Rebuilding Center.

The Crew is particularly interested in our marketing; that is, how do we develop new customers. So, they've asked for trainings which describe our different customer bases, and from that discuss how we access and build relationships in those areas. Yesterday, the Board felt it was time to have this conversation again at the Board level, particularly as we add new Board members from the community and from private businesses. So, good news for you, a brief "who does Verde sell services to?" rundown, at least for the next couple of years:

• Environmental Groups and Agencies. The Portland Region is home to many nonprofit groups and government agencies concerned with stormwater management, wetland restoration, invasives removal, and streamside revegetation. In the aggregate, these groups spend significant money annually. For environmental groups, our goal is to be their contractor of choice whenever they pay money for native plant installation or invasives removal. For government agencies, we want to be competitive (skill-wise, cost-wise) with other contractors active in government contracting opportunities.

• Affordable Housing Providers. Similarly, many Portland area nonprofit groups plan and construct affordable housing. Some of these nonprofits are focused on specific demographic groups, like Hacienda CDC or Low Income Housing by Native Americans in Portland Oregon, and some are focused on specific geographic areas like Peninsula CDC or ROSE CDC. In the aggregate, their individual efforts result in new affordable housing construction, construction which requires landscape installation. We want to be their contractor of choice.

wasn't that fun?

bye bye bye bye