MATR Newsletter – January 10, 2020
The state with the best education wins!

Come Home Montana

• Montana Career Opportunity – Executive Director – Habitat for Humanity of Missoula

  The Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity of Missoula is the leader of the organization, leveraging the power of relationships and networks across private, public and corporate sectors of Missoula County.

Montana Department of Commerce

• More than 100 MSU nursing students pursuing bachelor’s degrees to help with 2020 census

  The project, known as Nursing Counts for Montana, aims to ensure that every person living in Montana is accounted for in the census, which happens only once every decade.

• Commerce Director Rice Announces Opening of New Montana Historic Preservation Grant Program

  “Preserving and promoting Montana’s histories and cultures gives a boost to our charming towns,” Commerce Director Rice said.

Big Sky Commerce

• Donation from Big Sky Commerce brings Stevensville student new snow tires

  People are calling him wanting to leave donations so that more high school kids can get snow tires.

Great Falls Development Authority

• GFDA Top 10 – Here is our first Top 10 for 2020 celebrating work and successes to grow and strengthen the Great Falls regional economy.

  We’re hungry to grow and strengthen the Great Falls Montana regional economy and ready to fly into the New Year!

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Making Our Towns Better Places to Live

  A holistic approach to community development means looking beyond strict economics to other factors that sustain rural communities.

• Montana NextGen Project – an analysis of Montana’s economic and community development tools, programs, and funding mechanisms.

  Montana needs to do its homework and consider anew what tools and strategies are needed to maximize economic future. Let’s get this work done and then let’s have the conversation about strengthening each of our communities.” Steve Arveschoug, MEDA President and Todd O’Hair, Montana Chamber

The Telecommuting and Gig Workforce in Montana

• California’s new gig worker law is disrupting the music industry and threatening all performing arts

  California has overreached in its effort to address the challenges in today’s tech platform gig-work economy.

Gov. Steve Bullock

• Montana Governor Steve Bullock urges businesses to help guide energy future

  Gov. Steve Bullock told members of the Montana Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday to focus on Montana’s energy future to ensure it goes down a path led by Montanans.

Montana Business

• Missoula housing prices soar to record high

  Since 2010, when it was at $200,500, Missoula’s median home sales price has increased by 57.1%.

• 2019 Best Tech Startups in Montana

  All companies must be independent (un-acquired), privately owned, at most 10 years old, and have received at least one round of funding in order to qualify.

Funding and Building your Business

• Make your next meeting agenda a list of questions

  Two ways to shorten meetings are to make the agenda a list of questions to be answered and to gather outside of a conference room, writes Steven Rogelberg.

• Would You Hire Someone to Hack Into Your Company? These CEOs Did–and They Think You Should, Too

  “Everybody talks about what keeps you up at night,” he says. “For me, the thing I worry about at 3 a.m. is being the target of a cyberattack.”

• Hackers Are Targeting Your Small Business

  Small businesses are being increasingly targeted by hackers, and it’s important to understand the threats and have contingencies in place.

• What every business needs from its board

  Every company, regardless of size or structure, can benefit from a diverse, objective board of directors that examines financials regularly

Idaho News & Events

• For-profit California college firm plans 2 Idaho nursing schools, including 1 in Boise

  The owners of a private California nursing school see a market opportunity in growing Idaho.

• 2020 Best Tech Startups in Boise, Idaho

  In doing our research, we considered several factors including but not limited to:

Wyoming Business

• Visit Casper, Wyoming launches new ‘The One & Only’ campaign, touting city as place like no other

  Still, that mistake has served the city in a way — there’s no other place on earth named Casper.

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

• Missoula County Public Schools wants broad input for new school plan

  “We want everyone to participate. We sent the survey to all of our high school students. We want parents, we want community members, whether they have students in the schools or not. They really care about high quality education. So, we think people want to tell us their ideas.” Hatton Littman

Education News

• Missoula robotics team gears up for competition

  Missoula High School robotics team gears up for this year’s competition! The team is primarily funded through donations. Please consider supporting them and local STEM education by donating to their GoFundMe page.

2020 Montana Politics

• Four issues to track as Montana lawmakers gather for Legislative Week

  The event is billed, in part, as an opportunity to explore whether Montana would be better served by annual sessions.

Government News & Events

• Zero bikers or pedestrians were killed by cars in Oslo last year: What can the U.S. learn from its success?

  “In most of our U.S. cities and our nation, we don’t prioritize human life.”

• Today’s TED Talk -What a digital government looks like

  What if you never had to fill out paperwork again?

Government Technology

• The Powerful Potential of Anticipatory Government

  New technologies can move the focus from cleaning up problems to preventing them, while putting taxpayer money to more efficient use. But governments lag the private sector in employing these evolving tools.

• “Code Is the New Concrete” – How Cities Can Digitize Their 21st Century Mobility Policies

  MDS is a set of data specifications and data sharing requirements that force mobility companies to report basic data on the location and use of their equipment.

• No more lines: Missoula County launches online vehicle title service

  We were really desperate to find ways to lower the wait time in our office.

Hellgate Venture Network

• Hellgate Venture Network Presents: Paul Kingsford & Bert Chessin Leiser’s Footsteps – 1/16 – Missoula

  Paul has shed his brilliance in advertising agencies from London to Missoula.

Careers

• How to find a better job in 2020

  Here are some tips that will make your search more successful this year:

Transportation

• The next big thing in transportation? The ‘un-car’ The automobile industry will look a lot like the airline industry if manufacturers don’t rethink their offerings. Enter the un-car.

  In a world where ride-hailing companies are now incentivizing people to give up their cars and rethink transportation as a service rather than a piece of hardware, we will only need a couple manufacturers to make fleets of urban taxibots.

• Should Passenger Trains Return to Bozeman? [POLL]

  Advocates are working to return passenger train service along Montana’s southern route.

• North America’s First Pilotless Air Taxi Takes Off in Raleigh

  “Autonomous connected vehicles of any type are where transportation is headed.  We want to bring these kinds of opportunities to make sure that we’re economically competitive.”  North Carolina Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon

• The latest evidence that bike lanes are good for business

  A new study in Toronto supports what other cities have found: trading street parking for a bike lane doesn’t hurt the local economy, and often helps.

MATR Newsletter Supporters: