MATR Newsletter – December 3, 2021
The state with the best education wins!

People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said – but- they will always remember how you made them feel.

Come Home Montana

• The Heart And Soul Of Montana Is The Small Towns And These 7 Have The Best Downtown Areas

  Montana has been described as one small town with a lot of roads in between. And considering our largest city has a population of 109,000, which would be a mid-sized city at best in most other states, it’s safe to say our small towns are the heart and soul of the Treasure State.

• Montana ranked #2 state in America for record breaking job resignation rates – New Career Opportunities in Montana

  We actually spoke with someone who recently quit their job. She says she felt underappreciated, underpaid and she wanted to do better.

• Montana Career Opportunity – Native American Cooperative Specialist – Montana Cooperative Development Center

  This position will support projects of the Montana Cooperative Development Center within the Indigenous communities focusing on enterprises using the cooperative business model within the agricultural industry sector and…

• Montana Career Opportunity – Regional Food Systems Program Manager – Mission West Community Development Partners

  JOB DESCRIPTION   Job Title:             Regional Food Systems Program Manager Reports To:         Center Director, Cooperative Development Center FLSA Status:       Full Time/Salaried Location:             Remote within the region. Office space available…

Northwestern Energy

• “Realizing Opportunity in Western Electricity Markets & Rural Solar Innovation.” – 12/8 – 10AM – Webinar

  Presenters and panelists will join us from the Montana Public Service Commission, Renewable Northwest, NorthWestern Energy, Energy Strategies, Glacier Electric Cooperative, and Heart Butte School District.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Blackfeet tribal members file lawsuit against 3 Rivers Communications, alleging racial bias

  Plaintiffs say the failure to distribute capital credits “is one of many examples of disparate treatment by 3 Rivers of its members of the Browning Exchange.” Specifically, plaintiffs allege that 3 Rivers upgraded its service from copper cable to fiber optic cable for “all other members,” excluding members of the Browning Exchange.

Housing

• Meet the man who wants to electrify every building in America – Montana PSC warns natural gas bills could rise 50% or more

  Donnel Baird’s startup, BlocPower, has already electrified 1,200 low-income buildings in New York City—and he’s just getting started.

• Own Nothing and Love It

  The conversion of the high-rise office space into what urbanist Richard Florida describes as the “the last relic of the industrial age“ suggests a future more likely dispersed than concentrated. The shift to remote work covers a large part of the workforce which historically filled high-rise offices—media, analysts, programmers, marketers, and designers.

• CBS Evening News – Boise is least affordable housing market, study says

  Some of the least affordable housing markets in the U.S. are not what you’d expect. Mark Strassmann takes a look at the housing boom in Boise, Idaho.

Montana Business

• Are there Montana Made products under $25 that are great Holiday presents for your employees?

  If your company is offering products that are under $25 that will make great Christmas and Holiday presents for employers to give to their employees, please add a comment to this post.  

  Montana Made for Christmas!

• After death of film cap, Missoula investors look to electric freight trucks

  On Thursday, Shadowcast Partners closed on a $1.5 million offer for several Missoula County lots in the Development Park, where the company now plans to construct a distribution center for electric freight trucks.

• Google tries to make finding a doctor less of a nightmare

  New insurance and language filtering tools could help.

• VisionNet – Newsletter December Edition – The latest news for you – Career Opportunities

  Vision Net is proud to offer a workplace that values hard work, innovation, and teamwork! Start a rewarding career at Vision Net.
  Check our career opportunities here.

Funding and Building your Business

• Don’t hire someone because of their résumé. Look for this instead

  Advanced degrees or years of experience aren’t always good predictors of future success.

• How to Use Machine Learning and Other Technology to Make the Most of Your Data

  If your company isn’t treating data like an asset, you could be missing out on a major growth opportunity.

• One Way to Fight the Great Resignation? Re-recruit Your Current Employees.

  A conversation with consultants Debbie Cohen and Kate Roeske-Zummer on retaining employees.

Regional Economic Development

• Headwaters Economics – Outdoor economy, funding equity, Indigenous areas, new staff

  Using new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Headwaters Economics updated its analysis of the outdoor recreation economy. Interactive maps, charts, and graphs make it easy to see the impacts of the outdoor economy in every state. While this sector declined by 19% from 2019 to 2020, it is still one of the most significant in the U.S. economy.

Regional Business News

• Alaska Airlines’ Santa Fantasy Flight for needy Spokane kids to mark 25th anniversary

  It’s a story that not only won’t get old but perhaps becomes more needed each year. Maybe particularly this year.

21st Century Education Initiative – “You Should Care…”

• University of Montana brewing science beer on tap at Draught Works

  “We’re learning the very hard science behind it all, which I think is very cool,” said Lillian Vaughn, a student pursuing the certificate.

• Montana Family Farms: Farm to School programs grow during supply chain, staffing shortage issues

  Montana Farm to School Coordinator Aubree Roth said more than 120 schools and afterschool programs across Montana are involved in their procurement, education and school gardening programs.

University of Montana & Montana State University Tech Transfer

• MSU spinout Resilient Computing wins $90,000 NASA entrepreneurship prize

  “This is the culmination of a lot of effort to move this technology out of the lab and into the private sector,” said LaMeres, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering. “A lot of people, especially at MSU, have helped us get here.”

Transportation

• If we put the chargers in the right places, we can get more people into electric cars

  A strong, accessible, and visible EV network will induce EV ownership.

• Tesla launches $1,900 Cyberquad for Kids

  You can’t get the Cyberquad yet, but your kids can!

Cool Stuff That’s Coming

• Welcome to the (Synthetic) Meatspace

  Inspired by Matrix Resurrections, the new issue of WIRED explores the future of reality, which may include lab-grown meat and synthetic organisms. Back in 1997, we took another crack at predicting the future that looks … a bit overly optimistic today. But the sidebar on potential spoilers, which recently resurfaced on Twitter, really held up.

Energy and Climate Change

• Record Montana temperatures may impact drought, predicted by climate models

  “It’s not surprising given what we know about future climatic changes.

  We’ve always often talked about those changes in terms of increased temperatures in our winters and our summers as a thing and phenomenon that’s going to happen in the far and distant future.

  But in reality, that time is now and we’re starting to experience those [climate] changes firsthand.” – State Climatologist Kelsey Jensco

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