Learning with The Library

Coaching Essentials for Managers

by Sara Canaday

Library Resources to help Grow your Business!

Like many other leadership skills, coaching is one you can hone and perfect with the right information and tools-and Coaching Essentials for Managers provides exactly that. Filled with colored illustrations, self-assessments, real-world scenarios, essential takeaways, and practical exercises to reinforce learning, you will walk away feeling fully prepared to coach your employees and inspire them to do their best, most engaged work. Sign up for an instant online library card today at: josephinelibrary.org/library-cards.

Library Branches: Grants Pass, Illinois Valley, Williams, & Wolf Creek. For more information visit, josephinelibrary.org or Email info@josephinelibrary.org

Your Chamber of Commerce has had a very successful and engaged March! And we still have a lot more coming up in April.

This month we welcomed 12 new members, hosted a downtown tour, Young Professional Network Social, Ambassador Bunco fundraising event, Legislative calls with our representatives, visited numerous members, and toured new facilities. We also had a very important roundtable discussion regarding funding options for Public Safety. This is an ongoing discussion. While all of these are going on, we are still working on many important issues for our community that don’t get publicized a lot. Some of the topics we have been focusing on include Childcare, Workforce Housing and a Qualified Workforce.

This month I would like to share efforts around Childcare. Childcare was hit hard during the pandemic. Finding staff let alone is a huge issue in this industry. Soon we will be releasing the data captured from our Business Retention & Expansion survey that amplifies the need of quality childcare for our workforce.

The last two months we have been working directly with childcare providers for grant requests in partnership with Representative Lily Morgan. Funding is needed to continue to expand childcare. We will continue to work directly with childcare providers and continue to share grants, funds and opportunities to help our childcare facilities. During COVID, we also worked with a group of partners to help share the message on how to find childcare and other promotion efforts.

The Chamber is one of the first places people call when they are relocating so we make sure we are providing accurate and reliable information and a huge request we get is around childcare! We will continue to monitor this industry and be involved.

This is where the Chamber makes a strong difference through advocacy, promotion, and connections. Your Chamber continues to work on these crucial pieces to our businesses including Childcare, Workforce housing, and a Qualified Workforce.

We appreciate all of our Chamber Members and definitely want to emphasize we are here to help, so please reach out to us when you need resources and one-to-one connections.

Ferguson Fabrication LLC

Ferguson Fabrication LLC was born in owners Bill and Kerry Ferguson’s garage in 1995. Bill’s background was working in the Mill industry doing material and air handling. He worked for this company for seven years and worked his way up to foreman, working long hours. Then, yearning for more family time, Bill and Kerry decided to start their own business closer to home. Their vision was to create a company that would express their creative side using metal as their medium. Since then, Ferguson Fabrication has grown to employ most of the Ferguson family along with others and has maintained a standard of excellence that has earned them the title of one of the elite fabrication shops on the west coast.

Throughout the last twenty-seven years they have been in business, many projects have made them proud; some highlights are the Taprock/Hellgate ramps and railings, the restaurant’s deck railing, and the tree sculpture over the bar. Other notable projects include the Grants Pass High School sculpture and the rooftop architectural trellis for The One Building in Medford. However, they do more than grand commercial custom projects. Their diversified shop ranges in projects from Grand Vineyard Entries, Residential/Commercial Gate and Automation, Structural Steel, Production Fabrication, and Residential/ Commercial architecture, as well as powder coating, ceramic coating, and media blasting.

Bill and Kerry Ferguson’s reputation in this community is essential to them and has been maintained by their commitment to high-quality control standards and continued employee education. They are excited for the company’s future as they prepare to pass their legacy on to Joseph and his wife, Shelby Ferguson, and watch them expand their business and lead the next generation of tradesmen and women in our community.

The Grants Pass & Josephine County Chamber of Commerce and the City of Grants Pass are working with Energy Trust of Oregon to bring energy savings to our communities.