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New survey to focus on economic vitality of Gallatin Valley- (Another excellent University- Business Partnership)

In the next few months, more than 200 local businesses will be asked to participate in a survey as part of a new economic-indicator project.

By KAYLEY MENDENHALL, Chronicle Staff Writer

The State of the Gallatin Valley Economy project is a group effort to monitor the vitality of the local economy on a semi-annual basis. The Gallatin Development Corp., Montana State University College of Business, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and North Star Consulting Group are collaborating on the project.

"The basic concept for the study came from the feeling collaboratively between these groups that there was not a good study, or a good barometer if you will, of how well the Gallatin Valley’s economy was doing," said Doug Fletcher, managing partner with North Star.

Fletcher’s group has experience setting up Web-based surveys and has already created a Web site for this project. Business owners, CEOs or general managers will be asked to log-on to the site and anonymously complete a series of questions.

"We’ll gather data from about 200 different companies in 10 or 12 business sectors," said Rich Semenick, dean of the MSU college of business.

Those sectors include agriculture, manufacturing, construction, software, financial, recreation and tourism among others, Fletcher said.

"It’s not going to be focused just on one industry sector," he said. "We’re trying to create a study that can represent the diversity of businesses in the Gallatin Valley."

Survey questions include current and projected levels of employment, payroll expenditures, business investments, revenue growth and location plans.

Semenick said the Gallatin Development Corp. is in the process of creating a list of businesses that will be included in the survey and is contacting those owners. Once the list is complete, businesses will have a few weeks to complete the survey and results should be compiled and released by the end of the summer.

Assuming all goes well with the first study, Fletcher said the plan is to conduct it again every six months. The survey results are aimed at providing information regarding economic trends in the Gallatin Valley.

"We feel that Bozeman is at the point now where it’s large enough and complex enough as a business community that it would be valuable to do a (semi-annual) economic development and growth survey," Semenick said. "We really want to do this for the business community and anyone considering moving here and locating here. Those kind of data are interesting."

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2003/06/11/news/indicatorsbzbigs.txt

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