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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Jul 17, 2009 |
Montana is “last in the West” and among the last in the country for the number of adults currently engaged in some kind of higher education. Money is part of the problem. Montana's 2-year colleges hail Obama's aid announcement http://matr.net/articl ... .html
Montana Matters - What you can do to help guide the future of Montana
Idaho National Laboratory
- Creating a family legacy - The Sawtooth Ranch in Ravalli County is preserved through a Conservation Easement
Ravalli County voters approved the $10 million bond program to help preserve open land through the purchase of conservation easements in 2006. The county is one of four - including Missoula, Gallatin and Lewis and Clark - in Montana with similar open lands bond programs.
Highway 12 Ventures
- Technology is key for biofuel success - Idaho National Laboratory
New study from the Idaho National Laboratory shows it takes more than efficient equipment to make renewable energies cost-effective
City Club Missoula
- Karma
Well, what I’m about to share with you is one of the all-time great business Karma stories.
MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association
- City Club Missoula - Montana WorldTrade Center Wants Artists to Know How to Market Their Work
The big question: How do Montana’s creative minds market themselves to places beyond Montana’s – or even America’s – borders?
Come Home Montana
- The Montana Economic Developers Association (MEDA) Applauds Governor Schweitzer's Efforts on Behalf of Stillwater Mining/GM Contract Issue
Together we must work to protect Montana jobs and strengthen our American economy.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Career Opportunity - Community Manager - Vann's
Vann’s has created a special website just to facilitate the search for the right person to fill this newly created job. Vann’s will utilize Social Media, including Facebook and Twitter, for recruiting a Community Manager.
Leadership Montana
- Political Space for Innovation
Government should help social entrepreneurs find creative solutions. The best way to do that is to remove barriers.
Montana Biotech
- Leaders: Don't Get "Old"
We need to make sure, especially as leaders, that we're not letting ourselves get "old" in how we show up at work.
- Emotional Intelligence Skill-Building Can Enhance Leadership Competencies
Leadership in today’s business world matters more than ever, and while more money is spent seeking to develop leadership competencies, the quality of leadership is still a concern.
Montana Business
- Rocky Mountain Biologicals of Missoula, Montana Expands
Today, the Missoula based company is one of only two companies in the world making bovine serum products essential to biopharmaceutical and clinical diagnostics industries.
Montana Economic Development
- Monsanto buys Montana-based WestBred for $45 million to gain access to wheat market
Privately held WestBred, with offices in Butte, Bozeman and and Great Falls, specializes in wheat germplasm, the genetic material of a seed.
- Progress made for payback from Sustainable Systems LLC to farmers who sold them their crops
“Soon, within the next two to three weeks, whatever it takes us, when we get the additional money in there will be another payment made to the growers,” Greg Ames, director of the department’s science division, said. Because growers are being paid proportionate to amounts owed, no grower will be paid in full until all have received a proportionately equal share.
- Kalispell, Montana's Semitool Inc. Teams With Zinc Air to Develop Flow Batteries
"The technology behind flow batteries is a natural extension of Semitool's core competency in electrochemical processing and plating technology.
- Forrester Research Spotlights Zoot of Bozeman, Montana for Meeting Emerging Banking Needs
As a strategic partner, we are helping financial institutions address critical banking issues including decreased ROI, new legislation, and increased customer friction.
- Adventure Life of Missoula,Montana: Voyage to the top - Inc. magazine names travel business a ‘dream company'
Brian Morgan's Adventure Life business in Missoula has grown much like he has, from the local scene to national fame.
- Stillwater Mining wants court to enforce GM contract
Stillwater's two Montana mines supply GM with palladium and other metals used in vehicle catalytic converters to prevent air pollution.
Regional Economic Development
- Create a clean-energy economy in Montana
Montana Business Leaders for Clean Energy are united in their support for building clean-energy industries and jobs in Montana.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Community colleges central to Obama's plan for U.S. jobs
"In the coming years, jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience," Obama said. "We will not fill those jobs — or keep those jobs on our shores — without the training offered by community colleges."
- The Great Plains Since 1950
With 18 percent of the land but only three percent of the population, what's not to like about the Great Plains? A Census demographer reviews 57 years of population change in the Plains.
- Warnings: Stimulus money could swamp agencies
Auditors in five states have reported management and oversight problems in the past four years with weatherization programs, which provide energy-efficient heating or cooling systems and other improvements to lower utility bills.
- What's the big idea? - The West is once again the new frontier for innovation
Our region has tremendous cultural tolerance for experimenters. Our people are ready and willing to try new ideas that are sometimes a little crazy, and we are energetic about shooting off in new directions—not hampered by musty, cobwebbed, traditional thinking, the way New England and the Midwest and the South can sometimes seem.
- Inland Northwest Economic Developments, Summer 2009
The Inland Northwest Economic Alliance (INEA) is an alliance of 10 regional economic development agencies representing 14 counties in Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.
Funding and Building your Business
- Does the Clustering of Venture Capital Centers Make Sense?
The authors advise that anything a region can do to increase the number of successful venture-backed investments in a region can greatly increase the likelihood of future deals. Once a region has experienced a few successes, they are much more likely to become the home of branch offices, which in turn are prone to invest locally.
Montana Education Excellence
- Retrain your brain from 'left' to 'right' to fit into new economy
"Those old jobs are just not there anymore, so to survive you have to think outside the box."
- A Strategic Pathway to the Rapid-Growth of New Startups: Niche Marketing and Strategic Investment
This paper presents 16 startups that ultimately grew to become Fortune 500 corporations through niche marketing in 30 years or less.
- Engaging the Customer – The New Rules
The current economic crisis has forced consumers to alter their purchasing habits, leaving many to question an old set of standards and values that just don’t make sense anymore.
- Keeping the Millennials
The rising Millennial generation, born between 1980-1999, is going to challenge the status quo, rewrite the rules and revolutionize the workplace.
Idaho Business
- Montana's 2-year colleges hail Obama's aid announcement
Obama announced a $12 billion, 10-year effort to improve two-year education.
- Montana Office of Public Instruction Superintendent Denise Juneau Announces Funding of the 21st Century Learning Centers
These centers serve as safe and nurturing environments where children can participate in enriching activities during times when school is not in session - after school and, in some locations, during the summer.
- Remote controlled learning: MSU computer engineering labs going online as part of pilot program
Montana State University computer engineering students will soon have the ability to control real laboratory equipment from the convenience and comfort of their home computers, thanks to a $148,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
Washington State Business
- Nominations are now being accepted to the fourth annual Idaho Innovation Awards program
The program recognizes innovations, innovative professionals and companies throughout Idaho.
- Diversifying North Idaho's economy from timber dependent to being focused on emerging industries with high wage jobs
By aligning education and workforce development to construction, manufacturing, aerospace, tourism and biomass development, the 300-member task force believes North Idaho's economy can improve.
Education
- Bio Architecture Lab Raises Cash, OVP Invests in Limerick, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
Raising money and making deals were the trends of our life sciences stories this past week. And sometimes more than just business executives benefit.
Montana Meth Project
- A plan to put an Amazon Kindle in every backpack
The group’s proposal requests that the government fund a pilot program that would equip some 400,000 students with Kindles, or other electronic reading devices, for an entire year.
- Tribe doles out nearly $2M dollars for education
"Like the chairman said, we're reinvesting in the community, our neighbors," LaSarte-Meeks said. "Our future is tied to the future of our friends and neighbors here in Idaho and that's what this money is. It's an investment in the future."
- A Virtual Game to Teach Children Languages
“Hundreds of millions of people experience the same problem worldwide, particularly in Asia,” he said. “People study languages, but cannot talk, cannot communicate.”
Connectivity & Communications
- Stanford Law & Policy Review: The Montana Meth Project
We are pleased to share a recently published article by the Stanford Law & Policy Review The Montana Meth Project: “Unselling” A Dangerous Drug.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- NTIA Releases Details of Federal Funding for State Broadband Maps and Planning
The State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program will provide approximately $240 million in grants to assist states or their designees to develop state-specific data on broadband deployment and adoption.
Non-Profit News
- Researchers build car for the blind
New prototype uses lasers and force feedback to give the blind a chance to drive
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- Club members who give half their money away - http://www.boldergiving.org/
Every year, the average U.S. household donates about 3 percent of its income. Yet deep in the heart of this recession there is a growing group giving away at least half of what they've got.
Transportation
- Montana's badlands provide a perfect venue for a “staycation”
Since the state’s residents can enter the park for free with a Montana license plate, Shultis said not only does Makoshika offer a fun and educational adventure, but an affordable experience as well.
- Great Falls artist Bob Kercher's work now even more puzzling
Folks who admire Great Falls artist Bob Kercher's work now have a new way to purchase a reproduction of one of his images. Kercher recently broke into the mass-production market in a big way — through puzzles.
- The Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana may be the most polluted place in the country. Top tourist attraction gets upgrade
"This is one of — if not our top — tourist attraction in Butte," said Lucich. "This is a lot of people's first stop." It was Lucich's goal to make sure it wasn't their last.
- Glacier National Park Centennial eNews- July 2009
Wherever you are, I hope that you are getting outside and enjoying your summer!
Hydrogen News
- Bike sharing that creates energy – and pays you to ride?
What will the auto industry of the future look like? What new ways will we generate energy? How will urban planning change to facilitate these new advances?
VIRUS ALERTS
- Hydrogen power plant in works
Jetstream Wind Inc. officials said the $219 million plant would use electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen.
- Warning about Texas company saves small Montana business a bundle
"There's isn't an investigation into the company, but we have received five calls from business owners about Company Funds, and I think all five decided not to sign a contact with them after speaking with our personnel," O'Brien said. "The sixth inquiry happened after the Office of Consumer Protection received one of Company Fund's recorded messages on their office answer machine."
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