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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Feb 12, 2013 |
"If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them and half as much money." Abigail Van Buren
Is your school's Internet access fast enough for digital learning? http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- City of Missoula, Montana Launches New Website http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Montana Department of Commerce
2013 Montana Legislature
- Montana Department of Commerce Business Resources Division Newsletter WINTER 2013
The Montana Department of Commerce has created this quarterly newsletter to update you on the status of our business resources financing programs and other program news. Contact information for each program is provided. Feel free to contact any Business Resources staff when you have questions about our programs, or to discuss potential applications.
- Montana Finance Information Center
The Montana Finance Information Center provides summary information for the most significant financing resources available from state, federal, and local institutions.
Visit Montana - Montana Dept. of Tourism
- Billionaire fracking brothers top donors to Montana political campaigns
It found that the largest donor to legislative candidates was Dan and Farris Wilks and their wives, who all list Texas as home. The group donated to more than 70 candidates, all Republicans, and generally gave the maximum contribution allowed by law to legislative candidates.
Blackfoot Telecommunications Group
- Yellowstone Association teaches in nature's classroom
This region is the Serengeti of North America -Yellowstone National Park -- the ecological balance, the abundance of wildlife roaming free in a landscape larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
- Retire Here: Montana
No Montana home would be complete, it seems, without hiking boots, skis and fishing poles.
- Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations: Montana
Tony explores the snow-capped mountains, majestic big skies, winding rivers and roaming cattle of Livingston, Montana, once was an inspiration for adventurous Americans and locals alike.
Inteneo Systems
- Project Management Meeting - PMI Montana Chapter , 02/12, Missoula
It's a great opportunity to learn and business network at the same time.
Come Home Montana
- Health IT chief Mostashari: We're "just scratching the surface" of what information sharing and data analytics can do
"Innovative thinking lies in data, not only for population health management and to predict things, but data that gets shared within the ecosystem," he said. "We're just scratching the surface on having patients be the aggregators of their own information."
- Big Data in Banking - Demystified
The three V's of big data are abstract technical concepts, but when translated into the customer experience, they are all very important. I'll discuss each one briefly.
Montana Business
- Montana Career Opportunity - Customer Advocate - PrintingForLess.com
We are seeking a well-organized, high energy team player who enjoys customer interactions and building business relationships in a sales environment.
- Montana Career Opportunity - College President - Salish Kootenai College
The Salish Kootenai College Board of Directors seeks a culturally mindful, dynamic, visionary leader who can build upon its academic and programmatic strengths, promote the distinctive quality of its postsecondary educational opportunities, and help students meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Montana Economic Development
- Backpacking Light Raises $29,000 on Kickstarter to Fund PACKRAFTING Documentary & Online Instruction
Backpacking Light (http://www.backpackinglight.com) is in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign that will change the sport of Packrafting
- Stinger Welding to Close Libby, Montana Plant
Recently, a legal dispute between Lincoln County and Stinger had spilled into public view. In October of last year, the county port authority filed a lawsuit alleging Stinger failed to comply with a 2009 economic development agreement.
- Swanson's Mountain View Orchard and Distillery in Corvallis wins national small business award
Swanson's Mountain View Apple Orchard and Distillery is currently the largest and oldest orchard operation in the state of Montana. Many of the Bitterroot's commercial orchards closed decades ago.
Careers
- Reinvesting in Anaconda, Montana: Small businesses renovate, freshen downtown storefronts
"This helps us tremendously. The more we can improve, the more people will be happy to shop here and travel from other communities to shop here."
Idaho Business
- Relax! You'll Be More Productive
Like time, energy is finite; but unlike time, it is renewable.
Other Economies
- Turkish company wants "Idaho" name for products
"Essentially, you just always have to watch when you've got a very well-known trademark or you want to develop and protect the reputation your state or region might have,"
Regional Economic Development
- California Becoming Less Family-Friendly
Policies have helped turn California into a state that looks less Sunbelt and more like the long-aging centers of the Northeast and the Midwest.
Workforce Development
- Oneida Nation Representative Recognizes Former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer at USET Conference
"In his eight years in office, no governor in the country has been more responsive to Tribal Nations than Governor Schweitzer. As Governor, he ensured that Indians were acknowledged, respected, and included in all state operations.
- The State of the States - How is your doing?
In July The Hechinger Report said that Montana "raised the percentage of its 25- to 64-year-olds who have finished college by more than 6 percent over the last three years, the biggest improvement in the nation, during a time when the rest of the country barely edged up on this measure by 1 percent."
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- Treat internships as a tryout
The employers who offer internships are simply trying to prepare future workers for the real world.
Education
- S.E.L. -- social emotional learning -- that teaches kids to relax, calming themselves into a state where they are better able to learn.
"How much faster literally can we go, until you are so distracted all the time that you're actually missing your life?"
- MacArthur Foundation researchers find a new digital divide in school that's hard to cross
This divide is between kids whose families have the means and know-how to layer an extra helping of education on their children and those who don't.
- Be true and be brave - Annual Girls for a Change conference aims to empower high school girls
But there are some things these girls can do to become successful. Be self reliant, but also don't be afraid of asking for help. Step outside your comfort zone and gain a little perspective. Find the right balance.
- Digital Town Hall Promotes Digital Learning
Technology can knock down the barriers of time that have stood in the way of learning, said Wise, the president of the Alliance for Excellent Education. That means students can learn 24/7 rather than just in class.
- Is your school's Internet access fast enough for digital learning?
Join thousands of colleagues across the nation to find out by taking the school speed test. In less than a minute you'll know the speed of your school's Internet access and the types of digital learning it can support.
MAPS : Media Arts in the Public Schools
- A Huge Month: Online Education Is Replacing Physical Colleges At A Crazy Fast Pace
The point at which online higher education becomes mainstream is no longer in some fuzzy hypothetical future; the next president's Secretary of Education will need an entire department dedicated to the massive transition.
Missoula Schools Excellence
- "Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation Donates $10,000 to MAPS"
Says Mike Halligan, Executive Director of the Washington Foundation: "It is our pleasure to continue to support the MAPS program. The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation strives to better the human condition by supporting programs and services that give people the tools to enhance the quality of their lives and to benefit society as a whole. Our foundation's continuing support of MAPS is well earned because they consistently achieve this goal."
Montana Education Excellence
- Missoula high schools rank on top among Class AA high schools in 2012 Montana graduation rate
Missoula's high schools have targeted improvement of graduation rates and reduction of dropout rates in the past three years as part of the District's "Graduation Matters Missoula" Initiative.
Community
- New MSU program designed to help students with limited income save for college - $1 Saved Earns $3
For every dollar a Montana State University student in the MESA program saves, it will be matched with $3. For every dollar a Gallatin College MSU MESA student saves, it will be matched with $4.
- Montana State University to host Mount Everest workshop for teachers on Feb. 20
All teachers who attend will receive a free climber's journal that accompanies the online curriculum. The first 50 teachers to RSVP will also receive an Everest-related prize and will be entered into a drawing to win a school visit from Anker.
- Message from University of Montana President Royce Engstrom - The University of Montana values highly the many contributions of our student‐athletes.
Let's congratulate our student‐athletes and thank them for their hard work and their role as representatives of The University of Montana.
Funding and Building your BusinessEnergy and Climate Change
- 5 Ways to Keep the Right Customers for Your Startup
You have to rank your customers, fire the troublemakers, and eliminate unfit ones.
- Needs a Sales Boost? How to Create Your Own Training Videos
These three quick tips will help you get started on creating your own virtual training process.
- A sister business - Awesome energy bars - "You can't fake awesome."
"There has never been a better time for products from small producers."
- Tech's new entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy - "It's not just throwing a check over a wall. That is the old model."
The unconventional approach, which is sure to ruffle the feathers of traditional charities that depend on financial donations, is gaining steam -- ironically -- among some old-school non-profits. With money tight in a tough economy, they may have no choice but to generate their own revenue to sustain operations -- and some are.
- Angel Insights - New Blog of the Angel Capital Association
We want to use this blog for more dialogue with our member investors, but also to engage with the startup funding and support community, policy makers, and others interested in active angel investment and the innovative startups angels support with money and expertise.
- Women Bring Their Own Style to the Startup World
Do you think men make better entrepreneurs than women, and why?
Connectivity & Communications
- PPL may sell Montana dams, power plants
"PPL Corp. is selling its hydro and coal-fired subsidiary PPL Montana as it looks to reduce its unregulated operations."
- Corn shortage idles 20 ethanol plants nationwide
what happens if the drought lingers through another corn-growing season.
- 11 inventions that help make the electric grid obsolete
In fact, in off-grid areas, the installation and maintenance of solar and other renewable energy sources is now more affordable than laying traditional cable.
- Idaho National Lab energy researcher building microgrid at home
"I wanted to take what I do at work and apply it to my home," Myers said.
Government Technology
- First Annual Accessibility Camp Conference, March 9, Missoula
It will be a great opportunity for members of the usability, accessibility, other IT, education and disability communities to interact and learn from each other.
- Please Attend And Support - Missoula Should Pursue A Commercial GigaPOP. 2/13, Missoula, Montana
In addition to faster and higher capacity broadband, benefits include reduced network latency and putting Missoula, MT on the map as one of the best spots in the West to build your innovative technology company.
- Waste Is Seen in Program to Give Internet Access to Rural U.S.
"Here you have a quasi-governmental agency that has free federal money and is spending it to provide the exact same service that is already there, competing against companies that are borrowing federally backed money."
Non-Profit News
- City of Missoula, Montana Launches New Website
Welcome to the new City of Missoula website.
- Lawmakers Promote a Free Internet
"Given the importance of the Internet to the global economy, it is essential that the Internet remain stable, secure and free from government control."
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- The Nonprofit Leadership Student Association (NLSA) at the University of Montana is looking for the opportunity to help a local nonprofit with a specific concern they currently face.
Each year we partner with a local nonprofit and provide our skills and knowledge free of cost in order to better that nonprofit in any way we can. We have a dedicated group of students who will soon be Certified Nonprofit Professionals and are eager to apply their expertise to benefit a nonprofit and the community.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Penn State postman delivers lesson in happiness
Typically, post office lines breed anger and frustration. But at the head of this queue on the campus of Penn State University in State College, Pa., you'll find nothing but joy.
- 3D printing: the promise and peril of a machine that can make (almost) anything
How will 3D printing and related technologies -- better design software, cheap computing power, biotech and tiny electronic components -- change our lives?
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