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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Mar 20, 2007 |
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"I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises." -- Buzz Aldrin - Astronaut
Growth and the challenges it entails have been in the headlines. This guide may be of help to those counties and regions struggling with this issue. "A Tool to engage leaders in a regional dialogue on growth issues." http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Boomtown Institute
Come Home Montana
- The Agurban from Boomtown Institute. Life-Changing Promises
“Every once in a while an idea comes up that is so wild, audacious and awe-inspiring that you can’t believe that someone could possibly do it.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Career Opportunities - Sales Manager - Felco Industries
Growing construction equipment manufacturer in Missoula is seeking a sales manager for southeastern US.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- Entrepreneurial Education Laws in the States
States have sought to harness and nurture entrepreneurship in many ways, including in their public school and higher education systems. One tool states have used is enacting legislation addressing entrepreneurship, and this document examines such legislation in 18 states.
Montana Education Excellence
- Top 50 hot jobs in Idaho
From thousands of entry-level positions to engineers and administrators, more than 1,700 new and replacement jobs are projected to open up by 2014 -- and shortages are already being felt.
- Manpower's Michael Van Handel and the looming "war on talent" and its global implications.
If you can accommodate part-time schedules, remote workers, job sharing, and similar nontraditional work arrangements, you stand a better chance of retaining older workers or attracting retirees back into the workforce. It puts additional pressure on managers to oversee such arrangements, but that's part of dealing with the talent crunch. Companies should also involve their human-resources departments in strategy sessions, and invest in training and internal development.
Education
- University of Montana College of Technology Offers Lab Technician Courses
Completion of the level II course qualifies students for laboratory assistant positions in research and in clinical and industrial production.
Montana Business
- Virtual school: Grades K-8 may be held online. Officials hope to copy the success of Utah's electronic high school
Elementary school students in Utah soon may be able to go to school without ever having to leave home.
- Tough Choices: Preparing Students for Global Competition
Isn't the notion of competition as a focus for education contradictory to the main purposes of education? Doesn't it make school a place to determine present and future "winners" and "losers"? Sounds quite good for big business and globalization, and quite bad for human beings to me.
- At this school, the food is part of the curriculum
These kids are learning how to cook, so they won't have to rely on take-out when they're older.
Funding and Building your Business
- Composite lumber company requests bond approval. The Bitterroot Composite Lumber Company
John Schneeberger and Corrine Gantt founded the Bitterroot Composite Lumber Company. The business would use mill waste and biomass from restoration and fuel-reduction projects as well as recycled plastics to create boards for outdoor decks. The business itself would be called Montana Decks.
- Independent Hardware stores in Butte, Montana not afraid of Home Depot's arrival
"The first couple of months we'll feel it," Stordahl said. "We're going to stay aggressive and our service will take care of it."
Regional Business
- Democratic principles making businesses more transparent and successful
Many supervisors don't delegate, because they cling to a false assumption that they need to amass as much power as possible. "The truth is, the more you empower others, the more power you'll actually have, and the whole organization will be more powerful. There will be more work being done," says Katcher.
- Bootstrapping Your Business
Why bootstrap your company? Why not simply raise money from angels or VCs? Equity investment is the most expensive source of capital for starting companies.
- 15 Sites for Promoting Your Local Business
The advertising of the future is going online--and going local.
- Some Web 2.0 startups have unusual problem: too many customers
Who wants to suggest that some users are less valuable than others — even though it's true?
Regional Economic Development
- Group donates plane for Northwest environmental flights
Steven Garman will pilot the craft to carry passengers to look for such things as landslides possibly caused by logging activities, snowmobile tracks in wilderness areas where the machines are not allowed, and damage from off-road vehicles.
Utah Economic Development
- Planning Grants in High Poverty Counties
The purpose of this activity is to support grants for the planning and development of new service delivery sites in high poverty counties funded under section 330 of the Public Health Service Act.
- New Access Points in High Poverty Counties PI2 (NAPHPC)
The purpose of this activity is to support the establishment of new service delivery sites in high poverty counties funded under section 330 of the Public Health Service Act.
- CCF Targeted Capacity Building Program
The purpose of the CCF Targeted Capacity Building Program is to help build the capacity of faith-based and community organizations that address the needs of distressed communities.
- Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Other Asset Formation Opportunities
This program will will fund up to 10 capacity-building collaborations that create or expand asset formation and financial literacy services offered by eligible entities funded under the CSBG program in support of National Community Action Goal "1" (Low Income People Become More Self-sufficient).
- Rural Housing Economic Development (RHED)
Eligible applicants are local rural nonprofit organizations, community development corporations, federally recognized Indian tribes, state housing finance agencies, state community and/or economic development agencies.
- A Tool to engage leaders in a regional dialogue on growth issues.
This guide also provides an opportunity to learn from the best practices and mistakes of previous regional visioning exercises. A collection of sample documents, agendas, reports, and other material accompany the guide to serve as examples of what has worked for other District Councils and their partners.
Washington State Business
- Variety awaits participants in Utah Economic Summit
Keynotes. Breakouts. Panels. And $100,000 for some entrepreneurs.
Other Economies
- Sirti Technology Center Spring 2007 Newsletter
I invite you to read about the exciting innovation coming out of Eastern Washington and our client’s contributions to economic growth.
- Biotech firm attracts $29 million in 2nd funding round. Spaltudaq
Seattle-based Spaltudaq http://www.spaltudaq.com/ started out as one man in a lab with an idea for fighting cancer.
Incubators and R&DUniversity TechTransfer
- Micron announces new lab at University of Washington. Part of Micron’s effort to establish strategic partnerships with premiere research universities.
The lab is part of Micron’s university-relations efforts to advance education, primarily in science and engineering, by establishing strategic partnerships with premiere research universities. The lab will help locate materials needed to support silicon conductors as computer chips continue to become physically smaller.
Careers
- New University Tech Transfer Numbers
The data (from Fiscal Year 2005) show that the process of moving research into the marketplace seems to be getting smoother.
Non-Profit News
- Everyone can become known for something
Experts refer to it as personal branding.
Energy
- All Montanans are on wrong side of this divide
The report by the Helena-based Big Sky Institute for the Advancement of Nonprofits shows the state's philanthropic giving and receiving is anemic compared with the top 10 states — all of which boast major urban areas.
Connectivity & Communications
- Townsend, Montana school going green
“Townsend School is the first school under Fuels for Schools and Beyond to sell carbon dioxide CO2 emission offsets,” said DNRC Fuels for Schools Program Coordinator, Angela Farr.
- Green Dream: Shrink-Wrapped Trash
TransLoad's equipment compresses tons of garbage into dense cylindrical bales and seals them hermetically in several layers of plastic film. The company intends to load those bales into boxcars, and ship them to its landfills.
- Idaho Power defends recent wind study
Developers say report is flawed because it focused on hydroelectricity and not all power sources
City Club Missoula
- Online hacking organized, report says. Most computer attacks originate in U.S.
How'd you like to be somebody else - for under 20 bucks?
- Oops! Computer tech wipes out info on $38B fund
While reformatting the disk drive during a routine maintenance check, the technician mistakenly reformatted the back up drive as well and, suddenly, all the data disappeared.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- City Club Missoula Hosts New Missoula Office of Planning and Grants Chief Roger Millar: Planning lifts quality of life
Roger Millar, a certified planner and engineer, talked about preserving quality of life in Missoula in the face of growth. His talk drew a crowd, with some 120 people attending the forum sponsored by City Club Missoula.
- Startup says Google deal brings web-based records to doctors at no cost
Practice Fusion Inc. lets doctors put electronic medical records in digital files. It also provides practice-management tools, such as billing systems.
- A Smarter Web. New technologies will make online search more intelligent--and may even lead to a "Web 3.0."
The Semantic Web community's grandest visions, of data-surfing computer servants that automatically reason their way through problems, have yet to be fulfilled. But the basic technologies that Miller shepherded through research labs and standards committees are joining the everyday Web. They can be found everywhere--on entertainment and travel sites, in business and scientific databases--and are forming the core of what some promoters call a nascent "Web 3.0."
- A Fresh Start for the Internet. Stanford University researchers aren't just dreaming of a new Internet: they're building it.
A growing number of researchers are acknowledging that the Internet is fundamentally flawed and needs an overhaul. The Stanford program is just one of a number of initiatives to fix the Internet.
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