|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Tue Jul 20, 2010 |
"Investment in early learning has a far greater return than literally any other (social) investment you can make." Mike Halligan, executive director of The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation and a former Montana state lawmaker. "Washington Companies, nonprofits raising funds for early childhood education in Montana" http://matr.net/articl ... .html
Several great career opportunities in Montana: "Come Home Montana" http://matr.net/news.p ... ntana --- Excellent opportunity to learn from the best about Economic Gardening "Professional Development Training In Economic Gardening, 9/24-27, Big Rock Valley, Michigan" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Everlog™ Systems
Idaho National Laboratory
- EverLog™ Systems Newsletter July 2010 - Fire Season 2010
EverLog™ Systems' family of concrete based fire resistant products provide year round peace of mind. By combining EverLogs™, EverTimbers™ and EverLog™ Siding with fire-smart construction and site maintenance homeowners can greatly reduce the risk of wildfire damage or loss.
- Stillwater River retreat in Montana's Beartooth Mountains is anything but a "traditional" log home.
Made out of a patented composite, they are crafted to have the exact character, texture and warm appearance of quality wood logs, minus the maintenance. They are also fire resistant – a significant advantage when building in forested areas.
"Montana's Race To The Top - The State with the Best Education Wins!"
- Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson steers $600 million to Idaho National Laboratory in DOE spending bill
The legislation would provide the lab with $174 million for new buildings, renovation of existing facilities, new programs and operation of the Advanced Test Reactor. It also includes $422 million for the Idaho Cleanup Project.
Blackfoot Telecommunications Group
- Online teacher preparation program now accepting applications
The NPTT program is designed to help seasoned professionals who possess degrees in endorsable majors transition into careers as secondary school teachers. The program leads to secondary teacher licensure, which is the same license as that earned with a four-year education degree.
- Washington Companies, nonprofits raising funds for early childhood education in Montana
"Investment in early learning has a far greater return than literally any other (social) investment you can make." Mike Halligan, executive director of The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation http://www.dpwfoundation.org/ and a former state lawmaker.
Visit Montana
- Blackfoot Sponsors A FREE Technology Conference To Cooperative K-8 Schools, 8/3-5, University Of Montana, Missoula
The main conference goal is to help rural schools integrate effective teaching technology into their classrooms that bring "lessons to life."
- Montana Career Opportunity - Vice President – Customer and Marketing Operations - Blackfoot Telecommunications Group
Must have superior interpersonal, leadership, teamwork, and supervision skills, plus a proven track record of executing successful business decisions, and enjoy working in a fast paced, high energy organization.
- Montana Career Opportunities - Network Engineer, Systems Integration Analyst - Blackfoot Telecommunications Group
Blackfoot Telecommunications Group (BTG) is a diversified telecommunications family of companies offering a wide array of voice, data and security services in western Montana.
Come Home Montana
- Visitors get a true taste of Montana at the Last Chance Ranch
Life is good at the Last Chance Ranch.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- Montana Career Opportunity - County Recreation Coordinator-Full Time Richland County - Montana
Salary: - $35,000.00 - $41,000.00 per year depending on qualifications and internal equity. Pay in lieu of benefits may be negotiated
- Montana Career Opportunity - Vice President – Customer and Marketing Operations - Blackfoot Telecommunications Group
Reporting to the CEO responsibilities include oversight of the Customer and Marketing Operations Department including all aspects of customer service, call center sales, billing, strategic marketing, and community relations.
- Montana Career Opportunities - Network Engineer, Systems Integration Analyst - Blackfoot Telecommunications Group
Blackfoot Telecommunications Group (BTG) is a diversified telecommunications family of companies offering a wide array of voice, data and security services in western Montana.
- A Q&A with author Ivan Doig, whose latest novel is 'Work Song' (Butte, Montana in 1919)
Why Butte, Montana in 1919? Doig answered that and other questions:
- Montana Career Opportunity - Development Director - Child Care Resources
Child Care Resources is seeking an experienced, full-time Development Director to strengthen special events, corporate giving and to launch an individual donor program which will help the agency achieve its goal to strengthen early childhood development during the critical first five years of life, thereby establishing a strong foundation upon which life success may be built.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Visionary/Manager/Marketing Guru/Partner/Hero - Timeless Seeds
The ideal candidate would be someone with deep experience in an appropriate field, who has a desire to join a company and earn through helping it grow.
Three Cups of Tea - The Central Asia Institute
- North Dakota entrepreneur Hopes to Make Veneta, Oregon a Destination Spot
"If you look at all the communities who've done this, it's brought great economic growth."
Cleantech
- Unlikely Tutor from Montana Giving Military Afghan Advice - The books that changed the way people think about changing the world: Peace Through Education
Mr. Mortenson, 52, thinks there is no military solution in Afghanistan — he says the education of girls is the real long-term fix — so he has been startled by the Defense Department’s embrace.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Clean Technology Lifts Venture Funding to Highest in Two Years
Venture capital funding in the second quarter jumped to the highest level in almost two years, as investors increased their bets on alternative energy and biotechnology.
- Five Reasons Why Green Tech Has Such a Tough Time In America
The U.S. has long been a leader in green technologies. It has also long been a leader in fumbling that lead. Look at the historical record:
- Cleantech Payday: An Expensive Lesson in Patience
While investors often have enjoyed quick returns in software, many of the opportunities in cleantech require longer-term commitments and overcoming some of the challenges outlined here.
Leadership Montana
- Iceland: Conquering the Economic Crisis with Entrepreneurship
The stream of positive signs I noticed began in March this year when Iceland replaced the United States as the INSEAD world champion in innovation.
Missoula Public Schools Excellence
- Why do CEOs fail, and what can we do about it?
Why is this leadership crisis happening?
Montana Business
- Program provides free breakfast and lunch to children in need over the summer - Kids eat for free at Missoula Summer Lunch Program
During the academic year, meals at school are an important source of nutrition for students from low-income families. But the food and the need for it don't go away in the summer months.
Montana Economic Development
- Montana’s Wood Products Companies Say Revolving Loan Fund is Helping Keep Montana’s Industry Alive
One hundred percent of the respondents said their business has benefited from receiving a Wood Products Loan. One hundred percent of respondents also said receiving a Wood Products Loan enabled their business to continue operations.
- New Report Shows 94.0 Percent Of Montana Small Businesses Eligible For Health Care Tax Credits
The tax credit program, a key element of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, targets small employers with up to 25 workers. In Montana, this means 27,100 small businesses will qualify.
- Parties interested in Frenchtown, Montana plant as Smurfit-Stone exits bankruptcy
"Now that the company is out of bankruptcy court, they now control their own destiny," said Dick King, executive director of the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp. http://www.maedc.org "Now that they are out they can make decisions about what to do with the property and they have communicated with us that they are seriously interested in finding a buyer."
Regional Economic Development
- Shelby, Montana's Energy Park buzzing
The park will be an ideal location for value-added-agriculture and biofuel companies, said Larry Bonderud, director of the Port of Northern Montana and mayor of Shelby.
- California utility wants to invest $600 million in Montana wind farm
"We think this might be a very unique investment opportunity."
- Triangle Business Education Grants available for Rural Community Conference
The conference focuses on rural prosperity and attendees will be discussing leadership development, increasing assets and wealth, engaging and attracting youth and entrepreneurship.
Bill Payne
- Idaho seeks to boost tech business by learning from the Utah Tech Council
A Utah program has spawned thousands of jobs by building a network between research and the private sector, and Idaho could benefit from their work, the head of an Idaho technology advocacy group says.
- Civic Tourism, and the Importance of Place
Dan Shilling argues that tourism should be an enabler of healthy place-making, not only an economic tool.
Careers
- “Operation Payne” – What We Did on Our Five-Month Vacation in New Zealand
I’ve been asked to summarize my observations and suggestions related to the entrepreneurial community in New Zealand. We have traveled from Whangarei to Dunedin and many towns and cities in between.
Economic Gardening
- Help Wanted - Report Projects Job and Education Requirements Through 2018
Employers will need 22 million new workers with postsecondary degrees—and the report shows that we will fall short by three million workers without a dramatic change in course. In addition to national projections, the report also includes state-by-state analyses.
Funding and Building your Business
- Professional Development Training In Economic Gardening, 9/24-27, Big Rock Valley, Michigan
This course is designed for professionals that are either starting or currently running a local economic gardening program to support entrepreneurial growth.
Incubators and R&D
- Want to kill motivation? Shorten the workweek
"Here's an idea -- give up the evil kung fu grip on office hours and give a telecommuting day per week. See how much discretionary effort you get as a result of that move vs. the four-day workweek."
- Developing new startup ideas
If you want to start a company and are working on new ideas, here’s how I’ve always done it and how I recommend you do it.
Montana Education Excellence
- Montana State University researchers develop new antenna design to improve mobile phone communication in rugged and rural areas.
The project began about six years ago when MSU researchers wanted to design and demonstrate an antenna that could form a beam in a particular direction, find another user it wants to communicate with and track that user as it moves around.
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developing higher-quality batteries
A cell phone battery could fully charge in 10 minutes rather than two to five hours using technology developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory http://www.pnl.gov/ , Princeton University and a Maryland company.
- Rural towns try business incubators
“The chances of getting somebody to move here are not the greatest. But we know we can grow our own.”
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Montana schools spent millions lobbying
Montana's public universities paid lobbyists more than $4.3 million over the past decade in efforts to win millions more in federal aid, a practice they and other universities defend as necessary but which, critics charge, is contrary to their core mission.
Idaho Business
- Locomotive biodiesel project is launched in Montana
The impact of having Montana - grown and -processed alternative fuel tested, in Montana, by a major railroad could be immense.
Oregon Economic Development
- Idaho leads nation in business spam
Idaho is the leader for the second year in a row.
- Idaho governor needs to upgrade his business attitude
When Otter touts high-tech, he couches it in a supporting role - as another set of tools to help Idaho's resource-based industries compete globally. Frustrated, some high-tech leaders see a slight, and evidence of a governor stuck in Idaho's rural past and out of touch with a changing economy.
- Software developed by Boise, Idaho's Tsuvo helps established companies compete and finds options for entrepreneurs
Tsuvo is helping entrepreneurs discover where there is demand for products and services, who's selling them already, and the strength of the competition.
Wyoming Business
- Oregon venture capital surged in first half of 2010
Another key factor in Oregon's growth this year has been the emergence of a new class of startup.
- Solexant to build thin-film solar plant in Gresham, Oregon - will employ 100 initially
Solexant's technique, developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will enable it to use a variety of materials. Oregon economic development officials have been trying to land a thin-film manufacturer to help diversify the state's expanding solar industry.
Education
- Green River Valley Land trust launches statewide conservation easement program in Wyoming
Green River Valley Land Trust officials have launched a new, statewide land trust aimed at helping more Wyoming landowners stay on their property through the use of conservation easements.
Missoula Children's Theatre
- Arizona State University has problems, just how its president likes it
The "rigid" structures that have come to define academe are targets for Crow, a much-watched university president who sounds as if he'd like to take a sledgehammer to the kinds of colleges and schools that exist at most institutions across the country, including, for the most part, Arizona State.
- 8 ways for business schools to support innovation
"Through outreach activities, such as business plan competitions, student consulting projects, and business incubators, business schools’ activities contribute directly to innovation in the communities they serve."
- Officials come together to align K-12 standards, higher ed
Higher education and K-12 "have frequently operated as if they reside in different universes."
Government
- Missoula Children's Theatre presents 'The Frog Prince' and other masterpieces by local children in Fond du Lac and 1,300 other communities annually.
The Montana based Missoula Children’s Theatre has been touring for 35 years and annually visits nearly 1,300 communities in all 50 states as well as internationally.
Other Economies
- Montana state employees draw line in the sand over potential for 2 more years of pay freezes
"If unable to make a salary gain when we next meet the governor's representatives at the pre-budget bargaining table, we will take our chances with the next legislature," wrote Feaver, who leads the MEA-MFT union. "Damn the considerable political risks."
Connectivity & Communications
- Denver needs vitality, vision to attract business
As the economic development community seeks ways to attract and retain companies, one out-of-state business leader offers his take on what drew his company to invest in Colorado.
- Denver CEO gets look at how Irish build communities despite differences
In the end, government, religion and business cannot alone rebuild a community. It will be people sharing their stories, seeking understanding and bridging their differences one conversation at a time. It is an excellent reminder of the power of the voice of the individual.
Energy and Climate Change
- The Zen of PowerPoint, Facebook and Twitter
I love this kind of stuff: not only can these principles improve your PowerPoint pitches, products, website, and outlook on life, but they make people think you're smart when you mention them.
- Feds Investing in Broadband for the Deaf
The grant to Communication Service for the Deaf Inc. (CSD) "intends to expand broadband adoption among people who are deaf and hard of hearing, and provide them with tools to more fully participate in the digital economy."
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Earth's upper atmosphere collapses. Nobody knows why.
The thermosphere recently collapsed in an unexpectedly large contraction, the sheer size of which has scientists scratching their heads.
- Idaho State University team creates computer desktop to help researchers worldwide access hydrological data - “HydroDesktop”
Hydrological data - information about the movement, distribution, and quality of water throughout the United States - that may have formerly taken weeks to laboriously gather, will soon be available after a few mouse “clicks,” thanks in part to a computer desktop application being created by Idaho State University researchers.
- first in time... first in time? how groundwater can change the west's water doctrine
The better water right is the younger groundwater permit.
- Paying the Costs of Wind Power
Governors from eleven eastern states have written a letter protesting plans to charge their customers the cost of transmitting wind power from the Great Plains and Midwest to the East Coast. Who will pay for moving wind power is a hundred billion dollar question.
Legislative Newsletters
- Bionic Legs Allow Paraplegic to Stand and Walk
Allen said the experience of being able to stand up and walk when strapped into his robotic legs was fantastic and he felt like a normal human being again.
Non-Profit News
- Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg - 30-Second Survey: Jobs and Economic Recovery
When it comes to jobs and the economy, do you think we are better off than we were one year ago?
Small Diameter Timber Utilization
- Montana volunteerism and national service survey - Request for assistance
ServeMontana (Governor's Office of Community Service) is doing important research on volunteerism and national service in Montana to learn about opportunities and challenges.
- Paul G. Allen Family Foundation awards $375,000 to four Idaho nonprofits
The foundation is marking its 20th anniversary this year. Paul Allen, foundation founder, also has recently announced that he plans to donate a majority of his lifetime wealth to charity. Allen has given more than $1 billion over the last 20 years. His foundation focuses its giving in the five-state Pacific Northwest region. Idaho has received $4 million in grants.
- Investors discover diversification in the woods
"If you look at commodities, you find a pattern that all of them, except timber, had a declining real price up until 10 years ago," Grantham said. "But standing timber has a long-term record of modestly rising prices."
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page
