MATR Newsletter - Fri Mar 30, 2007 |
"True gentleman (or gentlewoman) are the ones who are never unintentionally rude." -- Oscar Wilde
"City Club Missoula And Missoula Kiwanis Club Welcome Montana’s Senior Senator Max Baucus, 4/3, Missoula" http://matr.net/events ... =1892 --- "Setting up shop / Arlee, Montana kids off to national conference for their Snack Shack business but they need your support to get there." http://matr.net/articl ... .html
Boomtown Institute
Come Home Montana
- "BoomtownUSA by Jack Schultz" - Tapping The Second Career Overachievers
Layton has been taking the example of the Retiree Resource Network to the National Active Retirement Association. With retirees retiring younger and often with more of their life in front of them than in the rear view mirror, programs like this make a lot of sense for other communities with a large retiree base. I hope that others copy.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Career Opportunity - Broadband Technician - 3 Rivers Communications
This position will be responsible to design, repair, and maintain wireless broadband communications systems.
Montana Education Excellence
- More Colleges Nuture Business Aspirations
The Arizona State program hands out $200,000 to student ventures annually, accepting about 15 to 20 of the roughly 100 submissions that are made each year. And hundreds of other U.S. colleges and universities also have awakened to the fact that many of their graduates are likely to work for themselves someday. Many are bolstering their courses and extracurricular activities for aspiring entrepreneurs and helping students create businesses before graduation.
- Setting up shop / Arlee, Montana kids off to national conference for their Snack Shack business but they need your support to get there.
To get there, the Arlee AIBL chapter http://www.aibl.org has to beef up the Snack Shack sales and raise the final $1,000 they need to fly and pay for hotel rooms.
Education
- University of Montana Named to President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll
"The University of Montana has earned this listing because of the dedication of the faculty, staff and students to community and national service," said UM President George Dennison. "I believe we have every reason to take pride in this accomplishment."
- Absarokee native receives MSU's 47th Goldwater Scholarship
Luke Oltrogge of Absarokee is the 47th MSU student to win the nation's premier scholarship for undergraduates studying science and math.
- Sen. John Tester To Host Montana Tribal College Summit ‘Empowering Through Education’, 4/5, Browning, Montana
“We need to help secure and brighten the future for the next generation of American Indian students,” Tester said. “I want to be sure that our Tribal Colleges empower their students to thrive in today’s new job market, maintain their cultural heritage and help build stronger communities.”
2007 Montana Legislature
- Montana 43rd in nation for teacher pay
The latest survey by a national teachers’ union ranks Montana 43rd among the states in average teacher salaries.
Montana Business
- Freshman lawmaker gets lesson in gamesmanship
"I am extremely hurt," French, of Scobey, told Olson Thursday as she pulled him into a House anteroom to discuss his bill, introduced earlier in the day. The Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, want to be able to take credit for a popular measure come election time, French said later, "so they hijacked my bill."
Montana Meth Project
- Modwest Expands Web Development Team, Launches Portfolio Site
"Our team at Modwest is more capable and complete today than it's ever been. Together, we have decades of experience in website design and development. From ecommerce to search-engine optimization to dynamic database-driven web applications, we're ready to take on nearly any project. Plus, we're working faster and smarter and meeting our clients' needs better than ever before."
- N.E.W. planning to add 130 positions in Great Falls
"Our employees and our company have become so involved in Great Falls, and what we see here is just a really great fit to continue to offer more employment opportunities."
- GameTech acquires Summit Amusementn of Billings, Montana
Billings, Mont.-based Summit makes video lottery terminal equipment and other gaming devices. Its primary markets include Montana, Louisiana and Native American casinos.
- TerraServer® and MyTopo.com (Billings, Montana) Announce Exclusive Print Partnership
“We chose MyTopo to be our exclusive print partner because of their long-standing commitment to quality and customer service,” said Brian Randy Funk, COO of TerraServer®. “MyTopo has an amazing printing capability and worked closely with us to develop new products and technologies.”
- What's in a name?�� Publisher claims trademark for name 'Whitefish'
This is not the first time a geographical term was trademarked in Montana. In the early 1990s, French designer Claude Montana unsuccessfully laid claim to the state's very name itself. The issue arose again in 2005 when David E. Lipson, a Las Vegas merchant banker, announced he had applied for eight trademarks that would give him exclusive use of the phrase "the last best place."
Montana Economic Development
- Idaho looks to Montana example in fight against meth
Methamphetamine has sunk its teeth into the Magic Valley.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Meeting The Affordable Housing Challenge - Conference in Montana set for 5/17-18
Inclusionary zoning and community land trusts are two innovative methods that government and non-profits are starting to use to create affordable housing, though these, like past efforts, have their shortcomings.
- Montana Business Assistance Connection start-up loans hit $10M
Current board member and former president Rick Hays said the milestone is crucial as the local economic development authority strives toward its goal of economic self-sufficiency, funding its operations completely with the fees and interest generated by its loans.
- Montana World Trade Center Newsletter March 28, 2007
German Company Seeking North American Distributor for New Medical Device
- The National Park Service wants to hear from you on “matching fund” component where the Park Service would match funds raised by private and non-profit donors for projects in the Park.
The Service will hold a “listening session” in Helena Sunday to hear suggestions and ideas on President Bush's National Park Centennial Initiative.
Montana Biotech
- Proposed Tax Break Could Boost Angels' Role
Proposed legislation winding its way through Congress could give angel investors a new incentive to fund start-ups -- and a more visible profile in the small-business community. The Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs Act would provide a 25% tax credit to investors with a net worth of at least $1 million who make equity investments in early-stage small businesses -- the first time an investor would get a break for investing at the front end.
Funding and Building your Business
- Startup capital sources can dictate future of biotech firms
If answered incorrectly in the beginning stages of a company's life cycle, the question of where and how funding is found can greatly impact the ultimate success or failure of the company.
Regional Economic Development
- The Entrepreneur: Developing a Board of Advisers
Building an advisory board is similar to Noah constructing his ark. You want a variety of people with varied experiences. Let's break down the process into four pieces.
- Why You Need A Mentor
Mentors aren't your parents, friends, or even your more generous investors. They are business veterans whose only role is to tell you what you really need to hear about your company. Mentors do plenty of cheerleading, of course, but their real value is in the objective, unvarnished advice they can provide.
- Venture capitalist, Tim Draper, explains what firms draw his interest
One of the best-known venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, Tim Draper has made his mark with savvy investments in hugely successful startup companies, such as Skype, which was purchased by eBay, and Hotmail, snapped up by Microsoft.
- Inside Entrepreneurship: A startup fool and his cash are easily parted
Here's my list of top foolish statements entrepreneurs make to investors, bankers, partners, first employees and advisers.
- How Personality Assessments Can Improve Your Company’s Performance
As part of an overall strategy to increase employee performance many business executives and managers are turning to personality assessment tools to give them insights to better hire, manage, promote, train, motivate and develop their human capital.
Utah Business
- Green-Collar Jobs Key to Nation's Economic & Ecological Health
Big business has finally realized that there's lots of money to be made in the transition to a clean-energy economy. Van Jones wants to make sure working-class and minority Americans realize it too.
- WEDA-MEDA-EDA Conference “Best Practices Of Regional Economic Development”, 5/9-11, Cody, Wyoming
Bringing Montana and Wyoming Economic Development Professionals and those interested in a better regional economy together. Hope you'll be able to attend.
Idaho Business
- Utah businesses worry about employee pool. No. 1 concern
Finding qualified employees is the No. 1 concern of Utah business leaders, according to a new survey by Dan Jones & Associates.
University TechTransfer
- Wireless Internet proposed for Ketchum, Idaho
City officials in the tony resort town of Ketchum may install a citywide wireless Internet service, so that tourists who don't want to get away from it all don't have to.
- Billionaire Base Camp to focus on business and entrepreneurship held for Idaho high school students
The organizers of Idaho Business Week, a week-long camp for high school students focusing on business and entrepreneurship, have renamed the program Launch and are in need of donors and volunteers.
- Students at Meridian Technical Charter school and Boise High were supposed to do an assignment but ended up launching a Web hosting, service business
They not only wrote a business plan for a company that helps create Web sites and store data, they started the company.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Regents clear way for University of Arizona to get research ideas to market
Getting ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace is a vital mission for research institutions like the University of Arizona.
- Take care with university ‘franchises'
Montana's Board of Regents may have opened a can of worms the other day by approving an unorthodox business-licensing deal involving a couple of University of Montana professors. The decision deserves broader public discussion.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- Regents endorse unique licensing agreement - "Reverse Tech Transfer"
“This whole thing is asking the regents to revise what they do and this is rather mystifying,” Morton said. “We are bringing outside intellectual property into UM and asking, ‘Do you want to be part of this?' ”
Small Diameter Timber Utilization
- Butte, Montana will host the National Folk Festival for 3 years beginning in 2008
It’s an undertaking of monumental proportions.
- Teaching Musicians to Be Entrepreneurs
Critics say music schools still aren't doing enough to prepare students for the real world. "How in good conscience can we continue to graduate thousands of students a year who have no hope of getting a job in the field they were trained for?"
Connectivity & Communications
- Salmon,Idaho company gets grant for small-diameter wood products plant
Forest Fuels Solutions of Salmon will receive a $250,000 woody biomass utilization grant to be used with matching local dollars to operate a small-diameter wood products plant, the U.S. Forest Service said.
Community
- Video: Tim Berners-Lee on the Semantic Web
The inventor of the World Wide Web explains how the Semantic Web works and how it will transform how we use and understand data.
- Brazil offers free Net access to Amazon tribes
The goal is to "encourage those peoples to join the public powers in the environmental management of the country," Francisco Costa of the Environment Ministry said in a statement. "The government intends to strengthen the Forest People's Network, a digital web for monitoring, protection and education."
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Montana dream sours for some rural dwellers
"There's a tradition of strong property rights, which I think is great," Voight said. "But along with that come responsibilities and neighborliness. If this guy was doing this in downtown Columbus, this would probably be an issue."
- E-paper comes of age
Electronic paper, long hyped as the technology that would make newspapers and books obsolete, is finally making its way into consumer products, powered by E Ink Corp.
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