September 14-16, Casino Rama

Registration:There is still time to register for this year’s conference. We have a great line-up of workshops and networking opportunities.  

• Rates: Member $640 / Non-Member $740
• Rates include opening reception, 6 meals, 4 refreshment breaks, keynote speakers, plenaries, and workshops.
  
  

Rooms:We are seeing very high registration numbers this year – which is great!

As of Friday July 24^th 2015, we have been in communication with Casino Rama and there are no other rooms available in our block other than smoking rooms- and VERY few of those available.

We actually had to increase our Conference block once and now have the largest block we can access. There are a few rooms available at Casino Rama outside of our block for $199 per night.

The options for rooms are:

• Casino Rama smoking rooms for $130 per night- phone 1-800-832-7529. Group code ONTI15B.
• Casino Rama non-smoking, outside of our block rooms at $199 per night- phone 1-800-832-7529.
• The Days Inn, Orillia which is 1km from Casino Rama - phone number is 1-705-326-8288 and website is http://www.daysinn.ca/hotels/ontario/orillia/days-inn-orillia/hotel-overview
• The Best Western Orillia which is 8kms from Casino Rama- phone number is 705-325-6505 and website is http://www.bestwesternorillia.com/
  
  

Member Choice Awards: Be sure to log on to our OACFDC website and vote for your choice for Member Choice Award winner. This will be a complete surprise until the night of the banquet. All nominations are included- Entrepreneurs of the Year as well as Awards of CFDC Excellence for both Community Economic Development and Innovation projects and partnerships.

Your choices are:

• BeBe Bartoons
• Canoe Fresh Foods Ltd.
• Don's Butcher Shop
• Embers Grill & Smokehouse
• Limestone Organic Creamery
• TimKap Lodging
• Winterdance Dogsled Tours
• WonTon Crunch Inc.
• Food and Beverage (FAB) Region
• Edge Renewal Fund- Rebuilding the Essence of Canada's Prettiest Town
• Skills for the Green Economy
• Aboriginal Business and Community Fund and Market Study
• Heart of the Continent's National Geographic Geo-Tourism Project
• Upper Canada Equity Fund
• The Centre for Non-Profit Collaboration

Interpreter Available for French Language Workshops

An interpreter will be available for all workshops. Not only will he interpret English to French for francophone delegates, he is also available to translate French workshops into English.  The French workshops were chosen on their overall relevance to all attendees- so be sure to read the descriptions to see if they would be of interest to you.

While writing this newsletter, we are at a 74% participation rate for the Salary and Benefits survey for 2014. Once we reach the 80% participation mark, we will be sharing by email and posting all of the results on our website.

Here are 4 reasons how Salary Survey results could benefit your office:

1. Pay employees competitively. You’re able to ensure that you offer competitive salary packages that attract and retain top talent. On the flip side, a salary survey may help you identify areas in which you’re overpaying relative to the market, allowing you to control costs in a way that’s still fair to your employees.
   
   
2. Establish salary ranges. Without compensation survey data, designing new salary ranges or adjusting pay structures can be very difficult.
   
   
3. Provide data for pay-related HR projects. Salary and benefits survey results can help you plan for non-cash related incentives (hours of work, vacation etc.).
   
   
4. Be a “good citizen” in the HR community. No matter where your office is located, we all do better when we collaborate. By sharing your own data, you encourage others to do the same, thus helping to paint the most accurate picture of the market for everyone. We’ve been lucky enough to have a chart-topping level of repeat participation and our survey participants have seen the benefits. This type of stability creates consistent data that can be compared year-over-year for even more accurate annual market analysis. 

Nominations are now open for the 2015 Startup Canada Awards.

Startup Canada is putting the national spotlight on the movers and shakers of Canada's entrepreneurship movement! If you or someone you know is making Canada a better place to start and grow a business, whether it be through their support and promotion of entrepreneurship, or through their leadership as entrepreneurs, nominate them for the Startup Canada Awards! Individuals, groups and organizations from all industries, sectors and corporate status can apply.

The deadline for nominations is August 15^th, 2015.

Full award descriptions and criteria are available at www.startupaward.ca  

Omega Performance:  We continue to offer lending courses provided by Omega, originally endorsed by the BDC.  These are online self-study courses which allow each person one year to complete each course. The following are available: 

1. Business Lending Fundamentals (available in English only): In this course, staff will learn to identify viable loan opportunities—and provide underwriters with the documentation required to make an informed credit decision. Price $650
   
   
2. Essentials of Business Lending (available in French & English):  The hands-on approach, specific to financial institutions, shows lenders how to identify asset conversion cycles, which explain the underlying reasons businesses borrow and provide the key for accurately judging whether a borrower will be able to repay the loan. Lenders learn to assess the risks inherent in business operations and management decisions, as well as to evaluate business financial statements. Price $1430 

Nottawasaga Futures was successful in getting funding to help pay for a portion of  the Essentials of Business Lending course for employee Andie Côté byapplying to the Canada-Ontario Job Grant (the Job Grant)  http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/cojg/

The Job Grant provides an opportunity for employers to invest in their workforce, with help from the government. It provides direct financial support to individual employers who wish to purchase training for their employees. It is available to small, medium and large businesses with a plan to deliver short-term training to existing and new employees, and will:

• Provide up to $10,000 in government support per person for training costs.
• Require employers to contribute one-third of the total costs. There will be additional flexibility for small businesses to provide an in-kind contribution towards their share of the costs.
• Require training to be delivered by an eligible, third-party trainer.
  
  

Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. Full details are available at http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/cojg/

Congratulations Andie and Nottawasaga Futures! 

We have additional window decals available in either French or English.  The cost per decal is $0.71 + HST (plus the cost of shipping them out to you).

To place an order please contact us at 519-633-2326 ext. 125 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The OACFDC has contracted Kathy Wood of Natural Capital Resources Inc. to undertake a research study, entitled: What Loan Portfolio Performance Tells Us about our Clients, Communities and Regions.

The analysis of loan portfolio performance will enable everyone to see what social and or economic influences may be shaping loan performance – and therefore suggesting different loan portfolio persona, what the implications of these findings are for future utilization of current performance measures, how their performance stacks up against other CFDCs across the province, and how regions perform compared to the provincial average.

Priya Mehta, one of the OACFDC’s summer interns, has been assisting Kathy with data collection. As you may know, we requested that all CFDCs complete a brief survey to provide important data regarding local community, economic, organizational and social factors that shape the performance of the CFDC. We thank all CFDCs for their cooperation and participation in this process.

Currently, we are populating our database with this information along with OMAFRA economic overviews from 2012-2015 and annual performance reports from FedDev and FedNor. Upon populating our database, we will be working to analyze the results that will either support or reject our hypotheses.

On the advisory team for this project, we have Shawn Heard, David Brushey and Bill Spinney from Northern CFDC offices as well as Tracey Dyson, Rick Whittaker and Gordon Potts from Southern CFDC offices. They have also worked closely with Kathy to refine the variables and hypotheses for this project.

This report will be delivered at the 2015 Conference as a plenary session and a workshop on Tuesday, September 15th.

Do you have staff or board changes? Retirements, new hires or new volunteers?

Don’t forget to send us your updated staff and volunteer email addresses so that we can add them to our communications distribution lists. We will also sign them up to access the OACFDC website which has many resources available to members.

Also make sure to “Like” and Share the OACFDC Facebook page and follow our Twitter feed to keep up to date on events, resources and news.

Don’t forget to keep checking our online OACFDC calendar at http://www.oacfdc.com/view-calendar-2

We are continually adding events/workshops/webinars which are all great resources for staff and volunteers. If you have an event you would like us to post, please send it along to Brenda at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.