2023 THE FOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT ISSUE October 2023 | OregonBusiness.com Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow What’s next for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival? Up and Comers Bend’s Central District gets a glowup
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⁄Contents⁄ October 2023 FEATURES 24 In Ashland, the Play’s (Still) the Thing The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is struggling financially as it emerges from the pandemic. Tim Bond, its new artistic director, sees brighter days ahead. 28 Growing Up Bend’s Central District is the gritty core of a polished and growing city. But developers are working to give it a makeover that keeps the neighborhood’s heart beating. 35 100 Best Nonprofits to Work For in Oregon 2023 Cover Story We honor the state’s best nonprofit employers, according to the results of employee surveys. REGULARS 6 Editor’s Letter 8 Newsfeed 14 Tactics Katie Poppe, co-founder and CEO of Blue Star Donuts, talks about how COVID-19 unexpectedly turned a niche, gourmet doughnut brand into a household snack available in 40 states. 56 Powerlist Law firms, ranked by number of employees 60 Downtime Live, work and play with Katy Brooks, president/CEO of the Bend Chamber of Commerce. 62 Policy Brief Meara McLaughlin, executive director of MusicPortland, writes about how policymakers can better support the music industry. Follow @OregonBusiness for breaking news, blogs and commentary. Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter featuring the best of OregonBusiness.com, plus articles from our print publication. To sign up, go to OregonBusiness.com. 28 BRAND STORIES 12 GNSA The one-stop shop for managing employee operations from payroll to HR and more 16 PayneWest Insurance Nonprofits can save big with strategic insurance renewal planning. 22 Visit Tillamook Coast Oregon Tillamook County installs new wayfinding signage that connects visitors and residents to the region’s roots. 50 SAIF Corporation This state-chartered nonprofit has been taking care of injured workers and helping people get back to work since 1914. 54 Comcast Direct Working to lessen the digital divide and support communities in times of need 58 Oregon Community Foundation Delivering a new model that brings wealth-building opportunities to diverse investors JASON E. KAPLAN CHECK OUT THESE EXCLUSIVES ON OREGONBUSINESS.COM n Medford’s Income Growth Outpaced 91% of U.S. Metros Between 2019 and 2022. What’s Behind the Boom? — The uptick reverses decades of decline, according to Census data. n Measure 110 Partial Repeal Would Use Criminal Justice System for Early Intervention — Two alternative ballot measures would recriminalize hard drugs in Oregon, but the organizing group’s founder, Max Williams, says he hopes the Legislature comes up with a better alternative. n University of Oregon Partners With Dialect-Based AI Startup SoapBox Labs — The Irish tech company’s software will enable the College of Education to better identify struggling readers of different dialects. n Wyden, Merkley Announce $2.3 Million for Rural Renewable-Energy Projects — Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will go toward 28 Oregon projects aimed at building renewable energy and energy efficiency infrastructure. 100 BEST NEWS The 2024 100 Best Companies to Work For in Oregon Survey Is Open! Find out how satisfied your employees are with their jobs through our anonymous and confidential survey. Register at OregonBusiness .com/2024Register. For information on how the survey works, visit OregonBusiness.com/Statements. 2024 Phoebe and Doug Pedersen operate the Pool Club at the Campfire Motel in Bend’s Central District. They plan to open another bar in the developing district. 4
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⁄From the Editor⁄ Shifting to Fall NEARLY EVERY STORY in this issue is about an entity in transition. For this month’s Tactics section (p. 14), I spoke to Katie Poppe, the co-founder and CEO of Blue Star Donuts, about how her company weathered the COVID-19 pandemic—initially cutting jobs and closing stores, and then by developing a product that could be delivered to grocery stores. It was a moment that could have broken the company — and, as Poppe points out, did break a number of other food-service companies—but from which Blue Star emerged stronger, if in an expected form. For years my high school drama club organized a spring-break trip to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Twelve of us—and two chaperones — would pile into a van and make the very long trip from Idaho to Ashland. I went two years in a row, watching plays like “The Winter’s Tale” and “Death of a Salesman” and exploring Ashland’s vintage shops and bookstores in my downtime. Those trips were my first experience of Western Oregon’s milder—and wetter—climate. I suspect they are responsible for the fact that I ended up attending college west of the Cascades and living here for the long haul. I had the chance to attend many plays in Ashland for years, but I’ve watched the festival’s recent challenges with interest. So when I learned OSF had hired a new artistic director, I was eager to speak to him. For “In Ashland, the Play’s (Still) the Thing” (p. 24), Tim Bond talked to me about his vision for the festival in 2024 and beyond. I also talked about what makes the festival—and its business model — unique, and what challenges OSF shares with performing arts organizations across the country. For “Growing Up” (p. 28), writer Tim Neville explored the ongoing transformation of Bend’s Central District. A group of developers, policymakers and business owners is working to redevelop the area, but in a way that’s inclusive and doesn’t sand off the neighborhood’s edges altogether. The Willamette Valley, unlike other parts of the Northwest, has a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees, which means that when fall arrives, about half the trees turn colors and drop their leaves—but some stay just as they are. Our cover story, “The 100 Best Nonprofits to Work For in Oregon” (p. 35), feels a bit more evergreen, and not just because we run it every October. The list is compiled from the results of surveys sent to participating nonprofits across the state. A third-party company scores the results and shares them with us, but we have the opportunity to review employee comments. It’s always striking to discover which benefits organizations offer in an effort to recruit and retain people. These include somewhat novel perks like AAA memberships and gym memberships, but there are also themes that come up again and again: work-life balance, flexibility, commitment to the mission. The organizations on the list should be commended for working to ensure employees are well cared for as they care for their communities. VOLUME 46 ⁄ NUMBER 9 OREGON BUSINESS (ISSN 02798190) is published 10 times per year, monthly except Jul/Aug and Nov/Dec issues, by MEDIAmerica Inc. at 12570 S.W. 69th Ave., Suite 102, Portland OR 97223. Subscription inquiries should be directed to 503-445-8811. Subscription charge is $24.95 per year, $49.95 for two years in the USA. Single copies and back issues available at above address and at selected newsstands. The editor is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. Copyright © 2023 by MEDIAmerica Inc. All rights reserved. All material is protected by copyright and must not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Printed in Oregon. Periodicals Postage Paid at Portland, OR. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Oregon Business, 12570 S.W. 69th Ave., Suite 102, Portland OR 97223 EDITORIAL EDITOR Christen McCurdy christenm@oregonbusiness.com ART DIRECTOR Joan McGuire joanm@oregonbusiness.com STAFF WRITER Sander Gusinow sanderg@oregonbusiness.com STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Jason E. Kaplan jasonk@oregonbusiness.com COPY EDITOR Morgan Stone CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Meara McLaughlin, Tim Neville PUBLISHING PUBLISHER Courtney Kutzman courtneyk@oregonbusiness.com EVENTS MANAGER Craig Peebles craigp@oregonbusiness.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Evan Morehouse evanm@mediamerica.net ADVERTISING AND PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Greta Hogenstad gretah@mediamerica.net DIGITAL PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Alison Kattleman alisonk@mediamerica.net PRESIDENT AND CEO Andrew A. Insinga CONTROLLER Bill Lee BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIRMAN André W. Iseli PRESIDENT Andrew A. Insinga SECRETARY William L. Mainwaring TREASURER Win McCormack 6
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ECONOMY & FINANCE ●Pop Drop. According to Census data analyzed by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis, Oregon saw an increase in out-migration last year: Nearly 160,000 people left the state in 2022, compared to 110,000 in 2020. ●Keeping Pace. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Oregon median household income increased 5.7% in 2022, roughly matching 6% inflation reported that year. HEALTH CARE ●Catch and Release. Marion County filed a lawsuit against the leaders of the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon State Hospital, claiming staffing shortages resulted in people with pending criminal charges being released into the community. POLITICS ●Gun Control on Trial. A state trial surrounding the constitutionality of Oregon’s Measure 114, which prohibits large- capacity firearm magazines and requires individuals obtain a permit before purchasing a gun, began in Harney County. ●Outfoxed. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed suit against Fox Corporation, alleging that false claims about the 2020 election broadcast on Fox News caused losses to state employees’ retirement funds. ●Lame Ducks. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced he wouldn’t seek a third term in 2024. Less than a week later, Rosenblum said she would not seek a fourth term as attorney general. (Neither position is subject to term limits.) ●Rollback. A coalition backed by Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle, Nike founder Phil Knight and real estate mogul Jordan Schnitzer proposed a ballot measure that would adjust several parts of Oregon’s drug-decriminalization law, Measure 110 — notably making possession of hard drugs a crime again and mandating treatment. MANUFACTURING ●Hot Bot. Industrial robot designer Agility Robotics announced plans to build a manufacturing plant in Salem with the capacity to produce more than 10,000 humanoid robots a year. The 70,000-squarefoot plant could employ as many as 500 workers and is set to open later this year. ●Feeling Chipper. Chipmaker Intel signaled an expansion of its semiconductor manufacturing operations in Hillsboro, according to documents filed with state air-quality regulators for “additional fab space and associated emissions.” ●On the Verge of a Merger. A Fred Meyer spokesperson said no stores in Oregon are slated to be sold as Kroger and Albertsons solidify a $24.6 billion merger, but Kroger and Albertsons will sell 49 other Oregon stores to New Hampshire’s C&S Wholesale Grocers. TOURISM & HOSPITALITY ●Summertime Blues. The economic rebound of Portland’s hospitality industry stalled over the summer, according to bookings data from Travel Portland. ●Going Up. The city of Medford announced two four-story hotel constructions on the former site of the city’s I-5 exit 27. SPORTS ●Dame Time’s Up. After 11 seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, All-Star guard Damian Lillard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. Days after the deal was announced, Dewayne Hankins, the team’s president of business operations, said, “The team’s not for sale, it continues to not be for sale.” ●Ducking Out. Oregon State and Washington State sued the 10 other member schools that, until recently, belonged to the Pac-12 conference. Those schools, including University of Oregon, began departing in 2022 amid a major reorganization across college sports; OSU and WSU are seeking control of the conference moving forward. EDUCATION ●Climate Pressure. Hundreds of Portland-area students gathered in front of City Hall as part of a nationwide day of action by young people pushing politicians to issue emergency orders on climate change. REAL ESTATE ●On the Down Low. A report from real estate listing website Redfin found Oregon home prices decreased 1% yearover-year in August. FARMS & FORESTS ●Aw, Shoot. An investigation from the Oregon Department of Forestry indicated the Juniper Creek Fire, which started in August and burned 106 acres, was likely sparked by target shooting. ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT ●Justice Friends. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced Portland-based social, racial and environmental justice grantmaker Seeding Justice will lead the agency’s Community Climate Investment program, which collects and invests carbon offsets purchased by fuel suppliers. RESTAURANT & RETAIL ●Eat Up! Spending by diners at Oregon restaurants has increased 14% since the start of the year, according to a study published last month by USA Today — 9% higher than the national average. ⁄Newsfeed⁄ No Oregon Fred Meyer stores are slated to be sold as Kroger and Albertsons finalize a $24.6 billion merger. Robots creating jobs? Who knew? SHUTTERSTOCK 8
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12 BRAND STORY PRODUCED BY THE OREGON BUSINESS MARKETING DEPARTMENT BY DENISE SZOTT Oregon is on the cutting edge for labor laws that revolve around employee rights. The state has seen a large volume of legislation passed over the last year — including a retirement plan mandate, paid family medical leave and minimum wage — with more on the horizon. Businesses must navigate these rapidly changing local, state or federal legislative developments. But keeping up with these evolving — and often confusing — regulations can be a drain on employers’ time, attention and bottom line. As employers’ legal responsibilities multiply, it makes good sense to get help with oversight and compliance. With a solid track record for over 25 years, Great Northern Staff Administrators (GNSA) has been there every step of the way as a one-stop shop for managing employee operations. The payroll, Saving Businesses From Rapidly Changing Oregon Labor Laws GNSA helps navigate new requirements easily and accurately. “We are seeing a large influx of Oregon-based companies come to us because they’re working with some other [out-of-state] provider that doesn’t have the checks and balances or reconciliation processes for filing Oregon payroll taxes that GNSA does.” KATHARINA FINK, GNSA PRESIDENT (From left) Danielle Brown, Alayna Bradford and Barbi Escobar, payroll specialists
13 BRAND STORY human resources and benefits administration firm, based in Portland but with clients nationwide, offers integrated plans and options for human capital management (HCM) to businesses of all sizes. GNSA brings value to Oregon companies by helping to streamline the management of the entire employee life cycle from recruiting, onboarding, payroll, core human resources and employee benefits, through to retirement. GNSA has experience implementing these systems from the ground up and delivering them in the cloud. With its PeoplePro software, GNSA provides a single platform for managing all of the disparate pieces of an employee’s work life, relieving an employer of these tasks. Paid leave Oregon has been on the forefront of the paid family and medical leave movement, something that many other states are likely to implement at some point. The state requires a payroll tax of 1% of an employee’s gross wages to be remitted by employers. GNSA makes that a whole lot easier. “We are taking care of the payroll tax calculation, withholding and remittance, ensuring accuracy and that payroll taxes are done correctly,” says GNSA President, Katharina Fink. “We are seeing a large influx of Oregonbased companies come to us because they’re working with some other [out-ofstate] provider that doesn’t have the checks and balances or reconciliation processes for filing Oregon payroll taxes that GNSA does. After experiencing inaccurate payroll tax filings, these companies are coming to GNSA to get it right and process payroll for them,” says Fink. GNSA’s state-of-the-art technology ensures employee deductions and tax filings are done timely, accurately and securely. Although employers are provided with copies of the tax filings, nothing more is required of the business owner, since filing is completed by GNSA using the company’s ID number. Retirement plans Under the state’s new retirement plan mandate, all employers with at least one employee must offer a retirement plan. If a company doesn’t find an alternative option, they must enroll in OregonSaves, which does not allow employers to make contributions. Employers must also collect and keep track of employee contributions, remitting them to the proper authorities within five days. GNSA’s works with OregonSaves and other retirement plans to manage the calculation, remittance and reporting of employee contributions. GNSA also partners with vendors to help an employer set up a retirement plan if needed. Choosing a GNSA-preferred vendor means all the necessary information for that vendor is already integrated with GNSA’s PeoplePro software. Through its automated process, employees can make election changes without enlisting the manual help of HR, which can leave room for error. Employees have easy access Aside from helping a company comply with new labor laws, GNSA’s cloud-based PeoplePro software suite also helps eliminate human mistakes while enabling employees with 24/7 access to their data. With technology available through a mobile app, employees can view their paychecks, timesheets, request time off, record personal changes, such as marriage and children or make any other benefit administration updates that previously required a company’s human resources manager to be involved and manually input this data. Legal compliance with labor laws and legislation for employee rights is mandatory and can raise the cost of doing business. GNSA can help control those costs by easing the administrative burden on owners and providing a better solution to employees through strategic human capital management. Through its wealth of experience and advanced solutions, GNSA understands and stays on top of the sometimes-bewildering landscape of laws and knows how to seamlessly track changes, implement solutions and meet compliance requirements. GNSA streamlines back-office processes and employee operations, allowing companies to focus on the business of their business, rather than spending hours focusing on things like the Oregon Retirement Mandate, or Paid Leave Oregon.n Leslie Florestan, implementation specialist Crystal Johnson, payroll specialist, and Rebekah Goodland, tax specialist
⁄Tactics⁄ What did you do before doughnuts? Well, I went to school for neurological psychology. I was on the Ph.D. track. Then in college, unfortunately, tragedy struck: My dad died in a plane crash, and a couple of weeks later, my mom died from cancer. I was 20; my brother was 16. I decided to take a gap year before continuing on to grad school and go travel around the world. It gave me a lot of time to think and to process and to not feel sorry for myself, and to really understand and appreciate what we have in our country. We still have a lot of problems and things to figure out, but I realized that I have a lot of opportunity in the States: I have access to education, to birth control; I can own property, I can get a divorce, I can have a business. It really solidified for me that I wanted to go back and make the most out of my opportunities as a woman and to be a business owner. I didn’t know what kind of business yet. I spent about a year in an MBA program and realized, “This is more like a grooming program for Fortune 500 companies, it’s not really teaching me how to be an entrepreneur.” And around that time, I got my first business partner [Camden], who was a chef, and he had opened a couple fine-dining restaurants in Portland. This was 2008-2009. Then the economy tanked. Not a lot of investors. Especially not for the restaurant industry. But the foodie revolution was happening, and we noticed that even though people couldn’t afford 40 or 50 bucks a head to go to a nice restaurant, a lot of people would still come in for the burger. We thought, well, there’s something to that. I had a little bit of money left from when my parents died and decided to kind of bet the farm on the first location. Luckily, it worked. It was, I think, a combination of right time, right place; the first Little Big Burger opened in September 2010, and it was a hit — lines around the block. I made my money back in three months. And it was like, “OK, this is clearly a viable business model; can we replicate it?” We tried it with ramen, and I love that concept, but it’s very seasonal. Blue Star was inspired by my first trip to France. I was just blown away by the quality of the pastry and the honor around it, the respect around it. You go into these pastry shops, they look like jewelry stores. They have beautiful plates, nice lighting and nice displays. In the States, we grew up with bread in a bag on the grocery shelf. It’s a very different experience. We thought, OK, well, let’s make gourmet doughnuts from scratch and use this brioche base. We have such great bounty in the Pacific Northwest with fruits and herbs, and let’s use some spices and liquors and make it a little bit more upscale, or have a doughnut for adults. Blue Star opened in December 2012. I just thought it was going to be a one-off, kind of a vanity project. And again, something about right time, right place, and the customer response just blew me away. When you make a business, there’s the idea, the original vision of it. But really, once it’s burst into the world, the world decides what it’s going to be. It’s a dance between the vision and then the reception, and then it becomes its own thing, which I just think is so interesting. The customer response to Blue Star has really shaped it into what it’s become over the years. A Hole New World Katie Poppe, CEO of Blue Star Doughnuts, talks about what inspired her to try to sell a gourmet doughnut, how the company weathered the pandemic — and what’s next. INTERVIEW BY CHRISTEN McCURDY Katie Poppe wasn’t sure Blue Star would make it. That was true at the beginning, when she and co-founderMicahCamdenhatchedtheideaofmaking gourmet doughnuts and selling them in a classed-up environment, using a brioche dough and providing an atmosphere similar to the pastry shops found in France. (Camden, who is also Poppe’s ex-husband and the co-founder of several of her prior businesses — including Little Big Burger and Boxer Ramen — is no longer involved with Blue Star.) It was such a passion project, Poppe says, that it was hard to gauge whether other people would take interest. But they did: Almost immediately after the first Blue Star opened in 2012, customers started lining up around the block. The company grew rapidly, and at its apex, Blue Star had eight locations in Portland and three in Los Angeles. Then on March 19, 2020, retail locations were forced to close due to gathering restrictions announced by then-Gov. Kate Brown as the first cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in the U.S. At first, Poppe says, “I cried my eyes out for a day,” but then, with pastry chef Stephanie Thornton, arrived at an idea that not only saved the company but shifted its model for the long haul. Rather than operate fryers at each store, Blue Star operates a hub-and-spoke model, where doughnuts are made at the flagship location — now situated in the former Oregon Culinary Institute building in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood — and delivered to its other stores. That model lent itself well to a pandemic survival strategy that relied on delivery of a new product — doughnut bites, which come in flavors like Orange Dream and Lemon Poppyseed — to area grocery stores. That doesn’t mean the shift was painless. Early in the pandemic, Poppe closed four stores and put most of the staff of nearly 100 people on furlough, trimming to a core team of eight; the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize and pay down debt. Morrison Development, which owned Blue Star’s former flagship, later sued the company, saying it had outstanding debts, but then dropped the suit. Now the company employs about 85 and enjoys steady business from a variety of income streams that include e-commerce and wholesale orders, as well as in-person orders at six locations in Portland and one in L.A. This interview has been edited for space and clarity. 14
JASON E. KAPLAN So your inspiration was French pastries and the economics of the post-recession years, when people were going out but not spending a lot of money. But Portland was already on the map — we already had this kind of doughnut culture. Hats off to Voodoo; they really were the first people to do something different, and I have a lot of respect for that. I think it started people thinking, “What else could you do differently?” For us, it was like, “What if we just try and make a very gourmet version of a doughnut?” I love it because you see so much diversity, especially in Portland. Everybody’s doing their own thing, and I have so much respect for that. You’ve got Mikiko Mochi Donuts, you’ve got Pip’s, you’ve got Doe, who’s all vegan; everybody kind of has their own little thing going on, and it’s very diverse. I know the press likes to play up this what’s-the-best-doughnut competition, but behind the scenes, we’re all very supportive of each other. I very deliberately don’t go in their territory. They’re very good at what they’re doing. Let everybody do their own thing. Let everybody have their own space. Can you talk about how the pandemic affected your business model? It was so hard on the industry in general. People are not in the restaurant industry to make a lot of money. It’s very grueling, difficult, challenging work. But at the heart of it is hosting. People are called to serve, we want to make good experiences. To have all of that ripped away in the pandemic — and a lot of small-business owners didn’t have the resources and weren’t able to get lots of loans. We had the mandate to close and I just cried my eyes out the next day. A lot of really good business owners that have been in this industry for decades and had good business models and were really good at what they do — they just got obliterated, and it breaks my heart. A lot of people are just so burned out that they walked away. I get that too. I think that we’re very lucky to still be here. I don’t take that for granted at all. I’m very, very grateful to our customers and our clientele for keeping us going. What’s the future for Blue Star? I’m so proud of our doughnut bites. This is a new product that we just kind of invented out of desperation, and now it’s become over 30% of our revenue and has 40-state distribution. We’re so proud of the quality that we’ve been able to maintain with a large-scale production; we’re really committed to the quality and integrity of the product. And we’re also working on our next airport location; we have a spot that is under construction right now. That’ll be opening in June, 24. That will be our international showcase location. I’m just really honored and proud to be representing doughnuts in Oregon; I think we’re the only doughnut shop at Port of Portland. 15
16 BRAND STORY PRODUCED BY THE OREGON BUSINESS MARKETING DEPARTMENT BY JOHN CHANDLER Despite the name, Oregon’s nonprofit sector has actually buffed itself into a sizable economic force statewide, with more than 23,502 organizations providing an estimated 225,284 jobs. With an emphasis on lean, efficient business models, every nickel is necessary if nonprofits are to make their financial goals and continue their altruistic operations. “Every single year we see an increase in nonprofit jobs, as it has a direct impacts on our communities and economy. ,” says Jacob Colmenero, a sales executive with Marsh McLennan Agency, a nationwide insurer and Fortune 500 company. Colmenero served for more than 10 years in the nonprofit sector, principally as a fundraiser for children’s health care groups raising over $10 million. He’s familiar with all the usual challenges, including nonprofits facing an uphill battle when it comes to finding quality candidates. “I understand the difficulty in competing for skilled labor. And retaining it,” he says. “If we can help a nonprofit to attract skilled labor, to fundraise more efficiently, we can make a bigger impact on our community.” Community impact turns out to be a major part of MMA’s corporate culture. Whether the client is a local, communitybased nonprofit, or a multi-state agency supporting communities nationwide, Marsh McLennan Agency (MMA) can bring significant industry expertise to insure employers against inevitable risks. “At MMA, our passion is to serve others,” Colmenero says. “Together we have a shared purpose; to improve our communities and the lives of our colleagues and clients.“We seek to safeguard your organization and provide counsel so you can concentrate on furthering your mission.” Unfortunately, when it comes to salaries and benefits designed to attract the best job applicants,it’s well-documented that even established nonprofits cannot compete with private companies. After salaries, the largest expense for any employer is health insurance, an area where some sound strategic planning with an experienced insurance broker can result in lower rates for both the suits and the boots. “The important thing is being strategic in your health-benefit planning before your next renewal,” advises Colmenero. “Instead of seeing it as an annual event, or having your broker bring the renewal to you and be blindsided, have a discussion upfront about how to have tactical conversations. Not just with your broker, but Nonprofits Notch Savings With Informed Renewal Planning Insurance burden eased with an engaged broker on your side Jacob Colmenero has served the nonprofit sector for more than 10 years.
17 BRAND STORY your HR team, CFOs, and one of the most important pieces that gets overlooked, your employees. “They are the utilizers of the benefits, so what is impacting your employees now?” Colmenero asks. “How do you address their day-to-day concerns so that your benefits truly make an impact?” That’s where a broker comes into play, he says. Partnering with an insurance broker that is actively engaged on your behalf can save time, money, and help workers access the benefits they pay for. A broker that can help drive relevant health conversations within the employment organization,through surveys, educational opportunities, and by establishing committees, effectively demonstrates to workers that the employer is actively concerned about the ongoing quality of the health benefits. That’s another compelling reason it’s best for employers to stay in touch with their insurance broker. An ideal conversation takes place about six months before renewal, Colmenero says. “Have tactical conversations about setting about DEIJ committees, employee surveys, looking at health claim data if that’s provided, and being upfront so that you have a roadmap when renewal hits,” he says. “Ask your broker what’s new? Ask about alternative methods of funding your insurance plan and what kind of free resources are available to my employees.” Access is crucial Of course, benefits are only beneficial when workers understand how to use them. It doesn’t help anyone if employees aren’t using their healthcare benefits because they don’t know how to access them, or opting out on picking up health insurance because they don’t understand it. Again, a committed insurance broker can lessen the education burden placed on the employer, as HR staff are typically overworked and not benefit experts, that’s why you have a broker to help. “The biggest piece about this, health insurance is the second-highest expense employers pay, after employee salaries,” Colmenero says. “So this is a significant budget line item that often blindsides employers. You don’t do that for anything else within your business.” Colmenero reports that during COVID, workers were not utilizing their health benefits in person due to fear of spreading the virus, which gave rise to telehealth, technology giving potential patients an actual face to converse with, and it continues to show positive adoption rates. This is the kind of innovative thinking that a broker can bring to the table. “Telehealth is fantastic for everyday cuts and scrapes,” Colmenero agrees. “And it’s low-cost for the employer.” It’s also an effective way to identify next steps in health care that can help the employee mitigate pricey trips to the emergency room due to a lack of diagnostic foresight. Colmenero says that 2020 was their lowest claim year, and that 2022 and 2023 haven’t equaled pre-pandemic numbers. “What’s happening now is that carriers are pushing it all to next year. We’re seeing increases in carriers expecting a bounceback in 2024.” “The important thing is being strategic in your health-benefit planning before your next renewal.” JACOB COLMENERO
18 BRAND STORY PRODUCED BY THE OREGON BUSINESS MARKETING DEPARTMENT What that means to employers, specifically in nonprofits, is an increase in renewals or harder projections on what they should expect for renewals. Establishing continuity What becomes painfully obvious to everyone involved in the healthcare process, Colmenero says, is that continuity between broker and employer is absolutely essential to ensure that workers get the most bang for their insurance buck. “If employers are jumping around between carriers every year, and are always looking for the lowest price, it’s impossible to achieve continuity between policyholder and broker,” Colmenero observes. “They’re being reactive instead of proactive. So if you’re only talking to your broker once a year, odds are you’re out of date and missing something.” And being out of date on your insurance policy can be expensive. Out-of-pocket health care costs can be up to 10.4% of a family’s income in low-wage families, Colmenero continues. “That’s a significant blow to any family, and that percentage can be decreased if they know how to access healthcare, a broker can helps communicate that,” he says. There’s no one key that unlocks the goals for everyone, he says. “If you can get buy-in from your employees, that’s why committees are positive and surveys can be impactful. It gives the employee a feeling of ownership of their benefits, that they own the benefits, because they do. They are paying for them. And you want them to use them because you don’t want to pay for a service that isn’t being used,” he adds. Even something as basic as an outline of goals on the employer’s part can lead to more informed decision-making at “If employers are jumping around between carriers every year, and are always looking for the lowest price, it’s impossible to achieve continuity between policyholder and broker. They’re being reactive instead of proactive. So if you’re only talking to your broker once a year, odds are you’re out of date and missing something.” JACOB COLMENERO renewal time. “What are you trying to address?” Colmenero asks. It could be access to health care, education on a specific topic, or ways to decrease costs for the employer and the employee, but still deliver impactful benefits, it’s just a few emails away.“It all comes down to conversations with your broker and your employees,” Colmenero concludes. “That’s why you want to have these discussions ahead of time, because they are less impactful and less effective at the time of renewal.”n
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22 BRAND STORY PRODUCED BY THE OREGON BUSINESS MARKETING DEPARTMENT BY NAN DEVLIN “Welcome,” “parking,” “one way,” “tourist office,” … When directing visitors to our towns, we focus on guiding their cars to entrances and services, and rightly so. Communities use wayfinding to create safe, smooth visitor experiences that enhance the local tourism economy. But wayfinding can be more than that. It has the power to increase local and visitor understanding of the places in which they live and travel. A memorable visitor experience connects people to place. It creates a journey that involves both tangible and intangible factors. Many places, especially popular destinations, offer kiosks with printed or digital maps, transportation routes, QR codes or even a visitor center hotline. Historical sites will often feature informational placards about associated figures or events. Less commonly found, especially in rural areas, are interpretive signs that share stories about wildlife, natural resources, stewardship, local history and native peoples. In 2014, when Tillamook County implemented a transient lodging tax, it issued a directive to the new county-wide tourism organization, Visit Tillamook Coast: Develop a comprehensive wayfinding system. The county commissioners aimed to direct visitors to small towns across the 72-mile-long county in order to ease traffic on Highway 101, the ribbon of road that connects the entire Oregon Coast, and bring economic vitality to businesses not on that highway. Visit Tillamook Coast worked with Lennox Insites, a well-known wayfinding and interpretive firm that previously worked with Nehalem Bay State Park and Partners Wayfinding in Tillamook County: Connecting People to Place New county tourism organization installs signage to inspire visits to coastal towns. Below you flows the Nehalem River—part of the Greater Nehalem Watershed that stretches from Vernonia on the east side of the Oregon Coast Range, combining the waters of Salmonberry River, North Fork of the Nehalem and Cook Creek. One of Oregon’s longest free-flowing rivers, the Nehalem runs 120 miles (193 kilometers) from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, the river supports vital habitat for wild steelhead, Coho and Chinook salmon, which in turn provides food for people and wildlife, recreational fishing and nutrients for the land and the ocean. Catch and release only fishing for wild winter steelhead is popular in the Nehalem River during February and March. The river provides one of the few remaining Wild Coho salmon seasons in Oregon. Runs of hatchery Coho with clipped fins also inhabit the river. As you paddle along the river or view from the banks, look for these fish and other wildlife such as river otter, beaver, osprey, black-tailed deer or elk. Check with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for specific regulations at www.fw.state.or.us. Connecting Mountains to Ocean The Nehalem River Watershed right: Osprey below: River Otter Photo: Justin Bailie Photography “Interpretive signs are key to educating both residents and visitors about history, culture and stewardship, and with the intent of inspiring respect for the place they live and visit.” CHARLES LENNOX, LENNOX INSITES
23 BRAND STORY in Design, which specializes in design and fabrication specifications. Community meetings were held throughout the county to determine the types of signs residents and agencies wanted and to develop a style that reflects a comprehensive sense of place and allows each town its own identity. The county plan, completed in late 2016, has informed the individual city plans. First up was the city of Tillamook, which worked with the Oregon Department of Transportation on an alternative traffic pattern in the center of town. Tillamook used its “The Dairylands” cow logo and cheddar-orange color palette for four gateway signs located at each town entrance. Nehalem, a small town in north Tillamook County, was eager to share the story of its connection to the Nehalem River. In addition to gateway signs and directionals, four interpretive signs were developed: native peoples’ history, connecting mountains to ocean, living with a river and the history of the North County Recreation District swimming pool, which was built during the Great Depression to teach every child in the community to swim in response to a tragic drowning accident. “These four stories were important to the legacy and values of the Nehalem community,” says Charles Lennox of Lennox Insites. “Interpretive signs are key to educating both residents and visitors about history, culture and stewardship, and with the intent of inspiring respect for the place they live and visit.” Pacific City wayfinding is being done in two phases, with Phase One focusing on the east side of the Nestucca River and Bay. During planning, community members chose to share stories of the beloved Pacific City airport and the historic Dory Fleet, the only dory boat fleet in the lower 48 states. Phase Two will focus on Kiwanda Drive, the road along the beach, and will commence when planned infrastructure is closer to completion. These stories will include native peoples’ history, and stewardship of land, water, recreation and the Cape Kiwanda headland. The two most recent wayfinding projects took place in Rockaway Beach and Bay City. The Old Growth Cedar Trail in Rockaway Beach has several interpretive signs about stewardship, wildlife, flora and fauna. Along the beach, signs highlight Twin Rocks (sandstone rocks offshore) and the Emily G Reed shipwreck. Bay City, nestled on Tillamook Bay, will soon share its history of fishing and oyster harvesting through an interpretive sign about farming the sea. The bay also features multiple signs that Visit Tillamook Coast developed in collaboration with Tillamook Estuaries Partnership. They share stories of ocean stewardship, fish, shellfish, shoreline habitats, ocean wildlife and birds. You can find them at waysides south of Garibaldi and on the waterfront decks at Port of Garibaldi. For more information, visit TillamookCoast.com/Wayfinding. EXPERIENCE Starting with the first fall rains, Chinook salmon travel into the North and South Forks of the Nehalem River. The April–July early returning summer-run portion for Chinook in the Nehalem River Basin is unique to the Oregon coast. Fall-run Chinook season is August–December. Funding for this project is provided by Tillamook County Transient Lodging Tax (TLT) administered through Visit Tillamook Coast www.tillamookcoast.com. Illustrations: Nora Sherwood
In Ashland, the Play’s (Still) the Thing This fall Tim Bond returned to his longtime creative home to serve as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s artistic director. The festival is struggling, but Bond’s outlook is sunny. One man in his time plays many parts,” wrote the Bard in “As You Like It.” Tim Bond grew up in Ohio and California. He received a BFA in dramatic arts from Howard and his MFA in directing from the University of Washington, and he started his professional career at the Seattle Theatre Group in 1984, directing more than 20 productions, many of which were West Coast and world premieres. His career has taken him all over the country—from Dallas to Cleveland to Milwaukee. But the Pacific Northwest, and Ashland in particular, have had a strong pull for Bond, who was also a full professor and head of the professional actor training program at the University of Washington School of Drama. And from 1996 to 2007, he served as artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he directed 12 productions and created a program to mentor theater artists and administrators from diverse backgrounds. In September he returned to Ashland to serve as the festival’s new artistic director. Bond returns during a challenging time for the 88-year-old festival and for the performing arts in general. He’s undeterred, though. In fact, he’s excited. “I was just here in July,” Bond told Oregon Business during a video call in August. “There was an energy and an excitement of audiences coming back, finally, after COVID. That felt amazing.” In April OSF launched an emergency fundraising drive, saying it needed to raise $1.5 million by June — and $2.5 million in total — in order to continue the 2023 season. That announcement followed the January resignations of executive director David Schmitz and director of development Amanda Brandes, plus 12 layoffs, seven furloughs and a hiring freeze. Artistic director Nataki Garrett stepped into the role of executive director on an interim basis, but resigned from the festival in May. OSF later announced that it met and exceeded the $2.5 million goal in less than 50 days, but said it needed another $7.5 million to complete the season. OSF board chair Diane Yu says after Garrett’s resignation, the search for a new BY CHRISTEN McCURDY | PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN “ 24
artistic director was a “somewhat expedited process.” “We felt that the organization needed leadership and needed strong, capable, knowledgeable leadership as soon as we could possibly find it,” Yu says. “We were delighted that the then-associate artistic director [Evren Odcikin] agreed to serve as the interim artistic director. But we also felt we should search for a permanent artistic director as soon as we could so that there’d be greater stability and greater opportunity for the next administration to get a foothold.” T he Oregon Shakespeare Festival was founded in 1935 by Angus Bowmer, an English instructor at what was then known as the Southern Oregon Normal School (a forerunner to Southern Oregon University). Looking at the deterioriating remains of Ashland’s Chautauqua building — a lecture hall and theater built as part of a movement that brought cultural and educational programming to rural areas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — Bowmer noticed something. With the former dome ceiling removed, the building looked a bit like the sketches he had seen of Elizabethan theaters. He proposed a theater festival of just two Shakespeare plays, to be performed in conjunction with the city’s Fourth of July weekend. The city cautiously advanced him a sum “not to exceed” $400 (just under $9,000 in 2023 dollars) for the project, and the State Emergency Relief Administration provided a construction crew to build a stage and improve the site. The site of that performance space now houses the open-air, 1,200-seat Allen Elizabethan Theatre. The festival has since grown to include five theaters, and from a midsummer weekend event to a multimonth season — next year’s festival will open March 19 and close on Sept. 15. It’s also a major economic driver in Ashland and the Rogue Valley as a whole. In 2021 the Medford-based broadcast station KTVL reported that according to an OSF financial study, in 2019 the festival had an economic impact of $120 million, drawing around 120,000 tourists to the area during what was then an eight-month run. OSF was not able to provide Oregon Business with a copy of this study, nor with more recent data for comparison. But Katharine Cato, director of Travel Ashland — a branch of the Ashland Chamber of Commerce — confirmed that the festival is responsible for about one-third of the 350,000 visitors the area has historically received each year. “Things have shifted and our visitor bases certainly evolved,” says Cato, who called OSF an “important amenity” for local tourism. Notably, she says, visitors are more likely to come to Ashland in the spring and fall to avoid smoke. “We are grateful they are building back.” Cato was also optimistic about Bond’s return to Ashland, noting that he previously served on the Ashland Chamber’s board of directors and was active on a number of the chamber’s committees. “He is so engaged with the community. He raised his family here, he has roots here. He’s thrilled to, quote-unquote, be back home. So we were thrilled to have him,” Cato says. I n a sense, Bond never left Ashland. He still has a home in the area; in 2022 he directed a production of August Wilson’s “How I Learned What I Learned” for OSF. During his tenure as associate artistic director, he directed more than 12 productions, including Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” Pearl Clage’s “Blues for an Alabama Sky” and “El Paso Blue” by Octavio Solis. He also directed three plays by August Wilson and has the goal of producing Wilson’s whole 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle for the festival. Bond is also the creator of OSF’s FAIR program. An acronym for fellowships, assistantships, internships and residencies, the program was set up to create opportunities for theater artists and administrators from diverse backgrounds. “I really felt Oregon Shakespeare Festival had such an amazing staff, and an amazing history and fantastic facilities and a lot of knowledge to pass on,” Bond says. “But we were looking to figure out how we could diversify more, how we could get younger voices, and get the next generation to infuse the company with new ideas and people coming from all over the country.” He says OSF now employs a number of staff who started with the FAIR program, and that he’s met FAIR alumni in both artistic and administrative roles. “We really have seeded the American theater,” he says. According to OSF’s website, the FAIR program is currently on hiatus; Bond has a goal of reviving it as soon as possible. Former artistic director Nataki Garrett described her tenure at OSF as “four years in crisis” in an interview with the online news outlet Ashland.news. Garrett was the second woman to serve as OSF’s artistic director. She was also the first Black artistic director; Bond is the second. After she announced her departure, Garrett told American Theatre magazine that early on, donors told her she was the reason they were rescinding their donation. She was also the target of threats so serious OSF hired a security detail and contacted federal law enforcement. Ostensibly, critics—including the anonymous writers of a series of letters who called themselves “the old white guard”—were displeased by Garrett’s programming choices, notably that in 2021, the only play OSF staged was a one-woman play about the life of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Critics who signed their names to their critiques — like local columnist Herbert Rothschild—said the problem was that OSF was turning its back on the Bard. “An arts organization that originally produced only plays by Shakespeare is now producing fewer and fewer of them,” Rothschild wrote in 2022. A review of the festival’s production history, which is documented on its website, shows OSF began producing non-Shakespeare plays in the 1950s; the American Theatre story notes that Garrett’s Shakespeare-to-non-Shakespeare ratio is close to that of her predecessor, Bill Rauch. When Bond spoke with OB, the festival had not yet announced which plays it would be producing in 2024, but he said he hopes the upcoming season will be “our miracle season.” “We feel that Shakespeare will continue to be an important calling card for Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s work. We’re hoping to make at least 30% of our plays still be connected to Shakespeare,” but also to incorporate more musicals and highlight the work of longtime OSF actors. In September OSF announced plans to produce nine plays during its 2024 season. They include “Macbeth” and “Much Ado We were looking to figure out how we could diversify more, how we could get younger voices, and get the next generation to infuse the company with new ideas and people coming from all over the country.” TIM BOND, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 25
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