|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Tue Sep 4, 2007 |
"We need to make sure we have the best people we can in our operations, and that is a constant challenge. There is always room to improve." -- James Packer (an Australian businessman and Australia's richest man)
A topic of several articles this week has been the ability for rural communities to attract and retain talent and high value companies. Talent is going to become a more difficult resource for communities and states to retain as the work force shrinks and employees demand a better quality of life along with salaries comparable to those on the coasts. -- Gazette Opinion: In the future, who will work in Montana? http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- Labor leaders find few takers for good jobs http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- Montana would manufacture many more jobs with a right-to-work law http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- Here's an organization that's focused on helping rural communities attract and retain new economy companies. Rural Bridges - Get Connected http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html Is your community doing everything it can to attract and retain the best and the brightest so it can compete and flourish?
Boomtown Institute
Come Home Montana
- The Agurban from Boomtown Institute - It's That Time of Year
"The work ethic is not what it used to be," commented Jerry C. Davis, the college's longtime president. "When you go out into the real world, they don't care where you went to school. They care if you show up on time, if you do the job right, if you've got a good attitude. Employers will tell you that graduates of College of the Ozarks have qualities they like."
Come Home Wyoming
- Lewistown, Montana:'Just a nice place to live'
Downtown has retained its charm, and it offers a slower pace of life, Myhre said. The city has a trail system along Big Spring Creek, which it's working to expand, and the town is surrounded by recreational opportunities.
- Two-thirds of recent Montana State University grads found jobs in Montana
A remarkable 67 percent of recent grads were working in Montana, up from 62 percent the year before, said Carina Beck, MSU's director of career services and student employment. That's based on survey responses from 1,427 graduates, or six out of 10 who earned degrees.
MAPS™ : Media Arts in the Public Schools
- 'Getting somebody to land' in Wamsutter, Wyoming
The town needs a grocery store and bank and other amenities at the same time it needs permanent work-force housing so people will begin to stick and actually require such additional services.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- MAPS and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Missoula, Red Lodge, Wolf Point, Bozeman and Kalispell are looking for teens who would like to make movies, TV commercials or music videos.
The goal of this new business is to educate and create quality jobs for Montana teens.
Funding and Building your Business
- Rural Bridges - Get Connected
Want to spend more time at your mountain retreat and at the same time, cultivate your career, maintain your work schedule, and keep your business contacts? Yes, you can.
- Exodus Of Youth Strands Eastern Europe's Aging Population
The aging population, shrinking tax base and falling birth rates in Eastern Europe mirror what has been taking place in Western Europe, but with some big differences.
- 2007 Cost-of-Doing-Business Index
Based on these metrics, America’s Heartland is the place to be. The lowest cost states are (in rank order): South Dakota, Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Idaho.
Education
- Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides Then Sit the Hell Down
Now there are pecha-nights in 80 cities, from Amsterdam and Atlanta to San Francisco and Shanghai. Why? Dytham believes that the rules have a liberating effect. "Suddenly," he says, "there's no preciousness in people's presentations." Just poetry.
Connectivity & Communications
- In its second year, Classrooms of the Future will set up high-tech centers in 255 more Pennsylvania high schools. (The State with the Best Education Wins!)
Rendell won funding for the program despite opposition from some Republican legislators, who said that laptops in classrooms had not proved their worth and would be expensive to repair and replace.
- The National Forum on Children and Nature
Program will invest several million dollars in projects with on-the-ground tangible results that address the issue of children's isolation from nature.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Faster Wi-Fi in works to transfer movies, other large data files
Poof! "You just moved a movie onto your device,"
Regional Business
- Texas start-up says it has batteries beat
A motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip without gasoline.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- Labor Day 2007: Rural Americans at Work
Once a year, we take a day off work to honor work. This Labor Day, the Yonder sends its best to all those in rural America who are on the job.
Montana Business
- The Redevelopment of a City is an Art
Charles Landry, 58, is considered one of the world's leading urban researchers and is the author of "The Creative City." He talks to SPIEGEL about how cities can harness their inhabitants' skills so they show up on the international radar and the German tendency to make cities too neat and tidy.
- Yellowstone winter packages offered
The "Lodging & Learning" programs are a collaboration between Xanterra Parks & Resorts and the non-profit Yellowstone Association Institute.
Legislative Newsletters
- Philipsburg, Montana engineer turned cyclist invents new bicycle seat - The MoonSaddle
"One of the primary reasons people don't enjoy riding their bikes is the seats are uncomfortable," said Cara Seekell, marketing director for Philipsburg-based New Concepts Development, MoonSaddle's parent company. "This was designed to take that problem away."
- Rocket Science in Butte, Montana. Aero Tec Ready to Launch!
Aero Tec is owned by the Montana Aerospace Development Association and managed by the Montana Economic Revitalization and Development Institute and MSE, a local engineering firm.
- Tribal focus underlies Montana firm’s mission. Joseph Eve - Certified Public Accountants
Eve, a Great Falls native, set out to gain a national reputation by excelling in the tribal government specialty niche of accounting.
Montana Economic DevelopmentRegional Economic Development
- Great Northern Development and the Small Business Development Center are planning fall workshops for the region.
Great Northern Development and the Small Business Development Center are planning fall workshops for the region. We have great partners to work with such as: Assiniboine & Sioux Enterprise Community, Fort Peck Community College, Chambers of Commerce, NE Montana Job Service, Nemont Telephone, MidRiver Communication, along with many local lending institutions.
- Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund Notice of Available Funding - Deadline September 30th
Approximately $700,000 will be Available for Category I - Economic Development Projects
- Community development experts complete Laurel, Montana community assessment
The Community Resource Team Assessment for Laurel is completed and available for review on-line
- Montana would manufacture many more jobs with a right-to-work law
On this Labor Day 2007, evidence is clear that the Treasure State has a major, chronic problem: It simply isn't creating enough good jobs to keep its young employees from leaving for more prosperous states.
- Gazette Opinion: In the future, who will work in Montana?
If demographics don't change, jobs may go unfilled, leaving Montanans without goods and services they want and need.
Idaho Business
- Sirti Summer Spotlight
Sirti is a Washington State-funded economic development agency. Our mission is to accelerate the development and growth of technology companies in the Inland Northwest, especially in eastern Washington.
- Global food crisis looms as climate change and population growth strip fertile land
Climate change and an increasing population could trigger a global food crisis in the next half century as countries struggle for fertile land to grow crops and rear animals, scientists warned yesterday.
- 2007 WORK FORCE TRAINING: Expanding Companies Come To Depend on State Work Force Training Programs. Montana Puts Stock in Work Force Training
The demand for a quick ROI in a new facility means that it is imperative that a company's work force is highly trained from the first day of operations.
Washington State Business
- Toward a More Entrepreneurial Idaho Education System
Students in Boise schools speak over 50 native languages, but that’s a potential resource for Idaho to tap.
Other Economies
- American Idle - As traffic congestion swamps the economy, Puget Sound struggles to find a way out
If you want a sense of how traffic congestion hurts the Puget Sound region?s economy, ask Tom Taft to tell you about the executive who got away.
- No east-west divide in Washington state's top jobs. Biggest employers the same, study finds
"When you hear all the time that agriculture is the biggest thing on the east side and manufacturing is the biggest thing on the west side, I found this interesting."
- Labor leaders find few takers for good jobs
Today, he faces an equally stubborn problem getting young people to accept a job that starts at $55,000 a year.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Dublin Bounces Back. The "Celtic Tiger"
In a single generation, Ireland has gone from being one of the poorest countries in Europe to enjoying the second-highest per capita income in the European Union. No wonder the "Celtic Tiger" has been held up as a model of progress, particularly for the new EU member states in Eastern Europe.
Careers
- College Prof, Student Build Inexpensive, Desktop-Size Supercomputer
A computer science professor with the help of one of his students has built a desktop PC-size supercomputer with off-the-shelf hardware that costs less than $1,300.
Energy
- Working past 90: 1 million elderly Americans still in work force
''I come in every day. . . . These people, they keep me alive.''
2007 Montana Legislature
- Electric Cars 2.0
Plug-in hybrids could bring gas-free commutes. But will they make it to market?
Montana Education Excellence
- "Strengthening Montana's Legislative Process: Ideas for Reform, 10/1-2, Helena
This conference is open to the general public. The sessions will be of particular interest to current and former legislators, city and county officials, the business and education communities, state agency personnel, representatives of the judiciary and non-governmental organizations, as well as legislative staff, lobbyists and others who have a role in making Montana's legislature work.
VIRUS ALERTS
- The University of Montana becoming a classroom for the world
For the past five years, the University of Montana has had the distinct honor of teaching various small groups of international dignitaries and educators about the American education system.
- Prank Starts 25 Years of Security Woes
What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta notoriety as the first person ever to let loose a personal computer virus.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page
