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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Sep 25, 2009 |
"The world is neither a prison nor a palace of ease." Walter Breuning of Great Falls, Montana - Oldest man in the world. http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Lots of great events in the next few days. Be sure to check the MATR Events Calendar: http://matr.net/events.phtml
Montana SBA
Idaho National Laboratory
- Study Highlights Importance of Specialized Education for Future Innovative Entrepreneurs
Students who took an entrepreneurship class were more likely to have engaged in three types of “innovation”
- Toward Effective Education of Innovative Entrepreneurs in Small Business: Initial Results from a Survey of College Students and Graduates
Small business management courses aim to provide students with solid foundations in managing and operating existing companies, while entrepreneurship courses cover the activities involved in originating and developing new growth ventures.
PrintingForLess
- Idaho High School Career Fair, 9/23, Salmon, Idaho
“We hope this expo will inspire students from rural Idaho communities to set education and career goals that will help our state remain vibrant and prosperous in the future,” said Merry Logan, manager of the Idaho Department of Labor’s Salmon office.
- OriginOil execs unveil new algae productivity model developed with Idaho National Laboratory
“We knew that the first company to actually come out and openly document the real productivity picture would face a tough challenge,” said Barry Cohen, executive director of the National Algae Association. “OriginOil did it and now we have the beginning of an industry model.”
Highway 12 Ventures
- BigFoot Sighting at Montana State University Job Fair
“We were setting up our hiring booth for potential job applicants, and it was very quiet,” says Marne Reed, PFL Vice President of Human Resources. “Out of nowhere, a huge, ape-like creature walked up to us, grabbed a handful of job applications and disappeared. It was scary.”
Come Home Montana
- Why Highway 12 Ventures Invested in Alliance Health Networks
For us, the most important element in any of our investments is the team behind the business.
Montana Business
- Montana Career Opportunity - Controller - Great Falls Development Authority
Responsible for financial management of economic development non-profit serving Great Falls trade area.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Computer Support Specialist - Montana Department of Public Health and Human Serivces
- For Dr. Kathie Voigt and family, Shelby, Montana feels like 'coming home'
A Renaissance woman all her own, Dr. Voigt sums it up by saying, "My practice will be shaped by my personality as I have a hard time believing that I would ever let someone else dictate my future. It hasn't happened yet."
Montana Economic Development
- Rocky Mountain Rigging of Missoula, Montana brings world-class stage to concert venues around region
"This is by far the funnest thing we've ever done. You feel like you're doing something right."
- Bob Tutskey has formed Tutskey Marketing & Public Relations
Regional Economic Development
- Business representatives to push Montana senators to support bills addressing climate change
Participants in the Friday telephone press conference are scheduled to include members of the wind energy, biofuels, tourism, health care and energy efficiency industries.
- Climate legislation means jobs for Montana
The business owners who signed this opinion piece are part of a larger group of over 80 Montana business leaders that will deliver a letter to Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester this week asking them to pass strong climate legislation this year.
- Snowy Mountain Development gets USDA grant to encourage economic development in rural areas.
The federal agency announced Thursday that the Lewistown economic development group was one of 58 groups that will receive a portion of $8 million as part of the rural business enterprise program.
Careers
- Homegrown Responses to Economic Uncertainty in Rural America
Three strategies for homegrown reinvention include place-based development, economic gardening, and creativity and talent cultivation.
- Generating Local Wealth, Opportunity, and Sustainability through Rural Clusters
The economic value of clusters as a focus for economic development had been well researched and widely acknowledged.
- If rural and urban areas don't work together, they might not work at all.
What makes more sense is to focus on regional economies and recognize that most regional economies have both rural and urban landscapes within them…..and then build regional economic opportunities around the regional assets that already exist. This can be done and needs to be done in a way that all boats---rural and urban—rise at the same time. What might these regional economies look like?
- Montana, Wyoming wind power sought for $3B lines - TransCanada
The two lines would move 3,000 megawatts of power from each state. That's more than three times as much wind power as Wyoming currently produces and eight times what Montana has.
- Country-bound boomers may enhance rural economy
“Communities should work more closely with local tourism and recreation people, as well as realtors. Focus on people who had to move away for education or employment but might be open to moving back as boomers looking to retire but remain active.”
- An Inside Look at the Decline of America's Rural Communities. The Rural Brain Drain
Rural areas have been losing population for decades, creating what some are calling a "rural brain drain". According to this article, the hollowing out of these rural areas will have negative impacts beyond the borders of those small towns.
Funding and Building your Business
- Finding the job that fits
Superficial questions about a company's culture aren't enough to determine if a job will be a good fit.
Montana Education Excellence
- Finding angels isn't easy for startups - In economic slump, only strongest will come through, experts say
Pity the poor startup.
- Gates Foundation explores making loans, investments
The $400 million set aside for program-related investment can be used for loans, loan guarantees and equity investments.
Regional Business
- Group seeks innovative ways to improve higher education in Montana
Because the United States has slipped in global rankings for the percentage of students getting college degrees, it's important to look at what other countries are doing.
- Aber Day Kegger Documentary To Debut At University Of Montana Homecoming ‘09, 10/08, Missoula
Rarely seen footage of the last three Keggers as well as photographs, news clippings of the day and live interviews with the participants, planners and opponents of the event will tell the story of the meteoric rise and fall of the Aber Day Kegger.
- Montana University Regents told to boost college graduation rates
Montana ranks below the national average for the number of high school students going to college and is 45th in the country for the six-year graduation rate for bachelor's degrees.
- Montana Among Worst In Nation For High School Completion
“Nowadays, you can't even work at McDonald's without some type of education.”
Idaho Business
- STATE BUSINESS TAX CLIMATE INDEX, 2009
California placed No. 48 on the tax climate index, just ahead of New Jersey. "The numbers reflect the totality of the degree to which California is hostile toward employees," said Ken Fisher, founder and chief executive officer of Fisher Investments, a $30 billion California investment firm.
- The Best States For Business - Montana moves up 11 places - Montana - You Could Be Here Building Your Business and Living Your Dream
Our Best States ranking measures six vital categories for businesses
Utah Business
- International Isotopes completes million-dollar private placement
International Isotopes Inc. makes nuclear medicine calibration and reference standards, high-purity fluoride gases, and a variety of cobalt-60 products.
Washington State Business
- Digital media hot in Utah
There's room for — and need of — artists and writers and math experts and more in an industry that embraces a broad range of people.
Education
- Biotech Pioneer Steve Gillis on Life as a VC, How Today’s Entrepreneurs Can Make It, and Seattle’s Future in Life Sciences (Part 1)
Most Seattleites would probably list Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Howard Schultz, and Jeff Bezos when asked to name local entrepreneurs who built not just successful companies but entirely new industries. But they’d be forgetting Steve Gillis.
Community
- Universities Pilot Amazon.com's Kindle DX in the Classroom
"I think part of the strategic vision for IT at the university is to try to move students' educational experience closer to the way they live, which is increasingly digital."
- "eBay for teachers" makes its debut - EduFire
The one-year-old site has recruited and attracted more than 5,000 teachers, who offer 150 to 200 online classes a day to some 30,000 students.
- Obama education chief Duncan to push schools reform
"After 50 years of school reforms, court rulings and "watershed" reports, we're still waiting for the day when every child in America has a high-quality education that prepares him or her for the future."
- New initiative offers Florida college students free digital versions of pricey textbooks.
The move appeals not just to students' pocketbooks, but to their tech-savvy nature. They already listen to course lectures on iPods and use sites like Blackboard.com, where professors post practice quizzes and other course material. So why not textbooks, too?
- Education Secretary Arne Duncan interview: best education ideas aren’t in Washington
“Never before have there been so many good teachers in so many [US] classrooms as there are right now” Arne Duncan
Energy and Climate Change
- NINE new grant opportunities
- Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes turn to new media to tackle old problem - TheRezWeLiveOn.com
Montana's Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau, said "'The Rez We Live' on is a valuable and innovative tool to learn more about the complex and often misunderstood relationships between tribal and non-tribal entities on the Flathead Reservation. This contemporary approach to Montana tribal issues can be used by schools across the state to advance the goals of Indian Education for All in a fun and dynamic format."
- SEVEN New Grants
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Oil Rig of the Future: A Solar Panel That Produces Oil
In the ongoing hunt for alternative fuel sources that are also cost-effective, researchers are looking into making biofuel from genetically engineered diatoms, a type of single-celled algae with shells made of glasslike silica.
- Britain to Build Giant Wind Turbine Blades - Clipper Windpower
The 230-foot blades — still under development — are expected to weigh more than 30 metric tons and will be designed for Clipper’s 10 megawatt, 574-foot offshore wind towers. Energy generated from the turbines could displace the use of two million barrels of oil per year, the government suggested, offsetting the need to dispel 724,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
- Pacific Gas and Electric quits U.S. Chamber of Commerce over climate change denial policy
“We find it dismaying that the chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored,” Peter A. Darbee, the chairman of PG&E, wrote in a letter to the chamber.
- Poop-to-power plant now online
Dairy farms produce huge amounts of manure that can ooze into groundwater and eventually into streams and rivers to cause pollution problems.
- Home / News / Local Conference at University of Montana looks at forest biomass as 'game-changer'
"We're trying to integrate it into all the other uses we have for forests. And climate change will fundamentally alter the structure of our forests. We can grab this opportunity to use these materials and reduce our carbon footprint, or we can allow it to burn and enter the atmosphere once again."
- Biomass plant idea faces obstacles in Lincoln County, Montana
“The biggest hurdle, of course, is do we have enough feed stock to feed a biomass plant?” Vincent said. “We have enough to feed a couple of them so the question is, can we access it?”
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Two-meal diet aids in oldest man's longevity - 113 Year old Walter Breuning of Great Falls, Montana
"You get in the habit of not eating at night, and you realize how good you feel. If you could just tell people not to eat so darn much."
Government Technology
- Amazon.com to Expand Food Delivery to All of Seattle
“For a significant portion of the population, they’re going to find that the convenience, selection and pricing of online grocery shopping is going to be really compelling.”
- Details on Twitter’s Imminent Geolocation Launch
Twitter will soon be able to store location data–that is, latitude and longitude coordinates–on a per-tweet basis, and for your user profile.
Non-Profit News
- Accessibility and Web 2.0
Governments with a presence on social networks still need to ensure that citizens with disabilities can access their pages.
- GREAT Opportunity for NONPROFITS working in Low-Income Communities
Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program
- Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation celebrates 25 years
“The landscape is changing fast. The hunters who’ve always been the backbone of the Elk Foundation are declining,” Decker said. “A growing population and increasing demands on open space mean our organization needs to work at a feverish pace, and I worry about getting it all done before it’s too late.”
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