The State with the Best Education Wins!
	MATR Newsletter - Fri Jun 17, 2005

MATR Web hosting provided by: Add an event... Upcoming Events Montana Dinosaur Festival and Car Show, 6/18, Malta, Montana The 46th Annual Pacific NW Economic Development Council Conference, 6/19-22, Mt Hood, OR IV International Rural Network Conference - 19-24 June, 2005 - Abingdon, VA, USA HomeTown Competitiveness- "A Come-Back/Give-Back Approach To Rural Community Building, 6/21-22, Glendive, MT Surviving A SBIR Audit, 6/22, Helena Free Saftey Workshop by MT Statefund, 06/23, Missoula, MT NEW ZEALAND DAY, 6/23-24-25, Missoula "Great Customer Service Is The Name Of The Game!", 6/23. Missoula City Club Missoula - John Wall Of Palmerston North, New Zealand Sister City Committee, 6/24, Missoula Regards To Rural Conference III, 6/24-25, Welches, OR Montana Legislature Economic Affairs Interim Committee Meeting, 6/24, Helena, MT New Events NEW ZEALAND DAY, 6/23-24-25, Missoula "Great Customer Service Is The Name Of The Game!", 6/23. Missoula Civic Engagement And Voter Participation - A Legal Training For Nonprofits,6/28 Billings, 6/29 Missoula 2005 Montana Governors’ Cup Golf Tournament, July, 28, 29 And 30, 2005, Whitefish, MT Environmental & Subsurface Science Symposium, 9/19-21, Big Sky Resort, Montana National Association Of Seed And Venture Funds-"Fostering Innovation Capital" 9/28-30, Philadelphia, PA Idaho Tech Launch , 6/29-30, Sun Valley, ID Midwest Association Of Seed & Venture Funds Conference, 10/11, Fargo, ND To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page

"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." -- Henny Youngman

City Club Missoula - John Wall Of Palmerston North, New Zealand Sister City Committee, 6/24, Missoula http://www.matr.net/events.phtml?showdetail=1233

Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana

• Lighting the entrepreneurial spark
  Now back to our towns. No matter how small your community, there are local people who are extremely interested in helping your town succeed _ people willing to put their talents, energy, and money to work, and people who want to invest their money locally.


• Program Aims to Train Rural Entrepreneurs
  Entrepreneurship seen as economic antidote to regional declines in farming and manufacturing.


• Jump-starting the start-ups - ASU program (funded by local entrepreneur) encourages student entrepreneurs
  The money is funding a program to cultivate student business start-ups. It is part of a trend at business schools nationwide to help good ideas become moneymaking ventures.

Montana Business

• Business Profiles: Transplanted Company Thrives in Billings - Darcova, Inc.
  There's been improvement in the state government's attitude about manufacturing, said Baugh, who reports that when they first started business they encountered considerably anti-manufacturing attitudes from people who mistakenly believed that all manufacturing entails smoke-stacks and environmental hazards. Baugh also credits MMEC, greatly, in helping to turn around perception and to convey to people the importance of manufacturing as part of the economic base.


• Insurance burden - For many small Montana businesses, health benefits too expensive
  Small-business owners in Montana are in desperate straits when it comes to health insurance, and the crisis has broad economic and public health implications, say analysts and state officials.


• Ad Operations Interactive (Missoula) picks up two new clients.
  Ad Operations Interactive has signed deals with Tribune Interactive and Lexico Publishing Group, LLC.


• GCS Research and S&K Technologies Announce Strategic Alliance
  Creating the Geospatial High-Tech Workforce for Montana

Montana Economic Development

• Montana Chamber Transitions to "Interim" Efforts After Successful 2005 Legislature
  Contrary to popular reports, the Legislature did not end April 21st, it just adjourned.


• Fonda, Kidder Promote Montana for Films
  Besides promoting Montana as a filming destination, the council will also establish a lending library of footage showing the natural beauty, history and culture of Montana as a way to familiarize TV and movie producers with the state's assets.


• Montana Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity - Welcome to BizMt.com
  Montana’s simply a great place to live. We invite you to explore Montana and see all the possibilities we hold for you and your business.

Funding and Building your Business

• LLC Basics
  This hybrid entity brings together some of the best features of partnerships and corporations, and is a great choice for entrepreneurs who want to move beyond the sole proprietorship.


• Wikis, Weblogs and RSS: What Does the New Internet Mean for Business?
  I have seen lots of excitement in the last six months about what's possible. There have been, for example, applications such as Google Maps that have allowed people to envision new ways of working -- but when I say it's a whole new Internet I mean there's new vigor. And that's going to lead to more creative thinking.


• Don't Think Big, and Other Hiring Tips
  When it comes to finding the right candidate for a small business, some trends have outlasted several start-up booms and busts.


• Those High-flying Angel Investors: VC Panel Talks Up Creative Financing for Start-ups
  "Even before you go out and raise money, ask 'How can I do this with as little money as possible?'"


• Trusting Venture Capitalists (and Angels)
  What stops someone who has money from taking an idea from saying: "Great idea. I'll do it myself. Thanks!"?


• New Independent Contractor Rules for Montana
  There are important requirements under this new law for both independent contractors and the businesses who hire them.


• The Legal Ins and Outs of Forming a Partnership
  

Regional Economic Development

• Trade alliance of West states? Utah and other Western states may work together to increase economic clout
  The Western Governors' Association says that if the West were a separate country, its economy would be the third largest in the world, behind the United States and Japan. The combined value of the West's merchandise trade exports in 2004 was approximately $320 billion.


• Business booms as wind farm construction begins at Judith Gap, Montana
  People are “excited” about the project, Cameron said. About the only question he’s heard has to do with Blattner hiring a lot of out-of-state contractors and workers. But nearly all of the contractors are from Montana and most of the workers are, too, he said.


• Solutions for America - Inventing Civic Solutions - A how-to guide on launching and sustaining successful community programs
  Community inventing is critical to finding new answers to old problems. These writers provide evidence of change based on vision, cre-ativity, and commitment. They have never given up. They represent the best in community work.


• Development Report Card For The States - promising practices
  These are meant as a starting point for readers of the DRC who want to know where to turn to find the best ideas around the country that could be adapted or replicated in their state.


• Western Governors work on economy
  Kotkin noted that with development of telecommunications, small towns in the West are now on equal footing with large cities in terms of economic opportunity and desirability.

Utah Economic Development

• Utah aims to erase hindrances to investing in startups
  "About 10 or 15 years ago the message to the business community nationally was, 'Come to Utah. We have cheap labor,' " Roybal said. "I think the message is significantly different now. Our message is that we continue to have the youngest labor pool in the United States, and because of our high concentration of academic institutions here, they tend to be a little bit smarter and a little bit more educated."

Idaho Business

• Hilex Poly Co. of Jerome, ID may have to import specialized talent.
  "We require a strong manufacturing background with several years of experience, and we are working with Idaho Commerce and Labor in conjunction with CSI. We have exhausted our initial pool but are posting local ads and through employee referrals are continuing to hire," Schutz said. "But as needed, we would expand the geography."

Incubators and R&D

• Missoula research ecologist Michael K. Schwartz honored as top young scientist
  Schwartz supervises work in genetics at the Forestry Sciences Lab in Missoula, focusing on research that aids Forest Service wildlife management programs across the country, according to the agency. The lab also works with states, American Indian tribes, universities and private groups to help manage wildlife.


• IDeA Network gives Idaho college students a chance to do research
  Idaho's public universities have won more than $100 million in research funding from the NSF EPSCoR and NIH IDeA programs. The Idaho programs are advised by a statewide committee of business, government and scientific leaders.


• The Idaho National Laboratory eyes plutonium for powering spacecraft
  INL is attracting other programs to eastern Idaho. The Center for Space Research is a university-organized group that will be affiliated with INL and its new Center for Advanced Energy Studies.


• A Boon for Montana Business - MonTEC Incubator nurtures homegrown companies
  “The challenge to Montana is: Can we build companies around that research that will do business here, or do we just let that research migrate to wherever there’s money and investors and have it create jobs somewhere else?”

University TechTransfer

• Regional Partnership to Boost University Tech Commercialization in Michigan
  Catering to high-tech companies built on innovation, the nonprofit regional collaboration dubbed SPARK, hopes to transform Ann Arbor, Mich., into more of an entrepreneurial hub and triple the number of technology jobs within five years.

Non-Profit News

• Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg and Corvallis High School Vote for "MAPS"
  Says Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg: “As MAPS enters into its second year, I’m proud that the Florence Prever Rosten Foundation has taken the initiative to found this organization (MAPS) and work for Montana’s middle and high school students”.

Energy

• Motorbike runs on hydrogen power
  While attention has been focused on developing pollution-free hydrogen-powered cars, Intelligent Energy and some others have turned instead to two-wheeled transportation.


• Winning the Oil Endgame
  According to RMI, the report outlines how American industry can restore competitiveness and boost profits by mobilizing modern technologies and smart business strategies to displace oil more cheaply than buying it.

Connectivity & Communications

• Techno-rebels spread wireless network vision
  If enough people share bandwdith and a spot on their window ledge for a small radio antenna, eventually anyone in the city will be able to go online free. It's a new form of civic activism - driven by computer programmers who want to pool their collective knowledge for the greater good.


• New Legal Guide for Bloggers
  "Bloggers are a powerful new voice in public debates," said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl, who coordinated the project. "The guide will help bloggers understand the basics about the laws that affect them so they can better protect and defend their rights."


• 'Freedom,' 'democracy' taboo words on Chinese Internet Blogs
  Users of the MSN Spaces section of Microsoft Corp.'s new China-based Web portal get a scolding message each time they input words deemed taboo by the communist authorities — such as democracy, freedom and human rights.

Transportation

• Oregon Tests By-the-Mile Taxes for Roadways
  The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) will soon employ high-tech equipment that will charge drivers for the miles they travel rather than the amount of gasoline they consume. This is the first in a number of steps Oregon is considering to replace the gas tax as the primary revenue source for Oregon roads.

Community

• Missoula Sustainable Building Resource Guide is Being Organized. Should you be included?
  

Leadership Montana

• Leadership Montana Introduces Class of 2006…
  Congratulations to all who will participate in leading the future of Montana. - Russ


• Good Managers Focus on Employees' Strengths, Not Weaknesses
  the best managers share one talent -- the ability to find, and then capitalize upon, their employees' unique traits. "The guiding principle is, 'How can I take this person's talent and turn it into performance?'

City Club Missoula

• City Club Missoula - The 'Public' in Politics
  I say heartening because the mission of the City Club is noble and just: “to inform and inspire citizens on issues vital to the Missoula area community through public forums that encourage new ideas.” And sitting here, it’s apparent that this kind of forum serves that mission well.

---

To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page