Helping People "Connect" is the Best Part of Being a Community Bank.

A few years ago, I traded being a business owner to being a small business banker. It was a decision I relish everyday. But I've never lost sight of two things. First, business owners work really, really hard. Second, our economy depends on small businesses to create jobs and drive our economy.

As a bank, we depend on helping our communities thrive.

The formula is simply this: the better our local businesses do, the more jobs are created and the more that is given back through non-profits. Our local tax base grows making it easier for local governments to provide the necessary services including schools, parks, libraries, recreation centers, roads and police and fire protection.

Small businesses are at the heart of this.

In April, through the support of my managers, we did something unique. The space we used to rent out was converted to create the Umpqua Community Room, the very first of it's kind for our 350 locations on the West Coast. With the new space we host the Business Workshop @ Umpqua series, three times monthly. The Workshop is designed to bring entrepreneurs and community leaders together to discuss business topics in a peer-to-peer format. The space is also available free of charge to other community organizations and now hosts over thirty meetings monthly. Then last week we held our first public forum on affordable housing.

Affordable Housing is a hot topic.

We live in one of the fastest growing communities in the Pacific Northwest. Our neighbor city Snoqualmie, home of Snoqualmie Falls, an attraction that brings nearly two million visitors a year, has grown ten fold over the past dozen years-from 1100 to 11,000 residents. And now North Bend is about to face a similar growth.

The challenge is the average new house cost is $600,000. Rentals are averaging nearly $3,000. And for those families earning $60,000 it is simply unattainable. These are teachers, hospital and school employees, people working at the casino and in nonprofits.

Last week, we gathered about 40 people from local government, builders, employers and nonprofits to talk about the need and start the hard work of finding solutions.

This is what communities do best; finding solutions together. And now thanks to the support of Umpqua management who share in this vision, we have a place to make this happen. It's why I love my job and the bank I work for.