MATR Newsletter – March 7, 2022
The state with the best education wins!

City of Bozeman Economic Development

• Bozeman, Montana pursues signing onto gender equity convention

  The city is considering passing a resolution to sign onto a decades-old convention aimed at gender equity and eliminating all forms of discrimination against women, and activists involved hope the move will be about more than just words.

• Bozeman to pursue incentive-based affordable housing policies

  City staff members are proposing ways to incentivize affordable housing, how to incorporate increased departures designed for affordable housing into the city’s administrative review process and how the planned unit development process — which essentially allows developers to skirt some city standards if they can provide enough public benefits — can be retooled to focus on affordability.

Great Falls Development Authority

• Great Falls Housing Summit – March 15 9:00 – 11:00 am Great Falls College MSU

  Start off by learning more about the recent Housing Study presented by Adam Seidman from the Concord Group, a national leader in housing studies. He will present their market findings generated from the housing market demand study with a Q & A period to follow.

Kalispell Chamber of Commerce

• More multi-family units will ease Montana housing crisis

  Montana’s population between 2010 and 2020 grew by 10%, but only added 7% more housing units during that same time.

• Workforce expert offers retention strategies

  Primary among Caldwell’s strategies is an emphasis on company culture.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Butte, Montana’s business park flying high as tax sunset nears

  “I think it’s probably one of the best-kept secrets in Butte and it shouldn’t be because there are a lot of positive things happening out there,” said Mick Ringsak, a longtime member of the board that oversees the Tax Increment Finance Industrial District, or TIFID.

• Lockwood High, Montana students help run the school as part of new education program. More school systems should follow their lead.

  As part of the newly formed alternative education program, 37 students aged freshmen and above are serving as aides for younger students, helping in classrooms, shelving books in the library, and supervising in the cafeteria and at recess.

• Women business owners lend support to Hamilton, Montana area nonprofits

  With International Women’s Day on March 8 and March being Women’s History Month, it’s a good time to celebrate the many women business owners and leaders in downtown Hamilton who are working to draw attention and support for two local nonprofits.

• Helena businesses get boost from city & MBAC’s post-COVID loan, grant programs

  Charmayne Kaminski, a loan officer with MBAC, says they received four applications for the loan/grant program and 19 for the direct grants.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Fort Collins, Colorado Gets City-Owned Broadband Network Off the Ground – The Law Stands In the Way of Progress in Montana

  Federal funds are coming for broadband expansion, but some local governments, like Fort Collins, Colo., have already been working to build their own city-owned and operated networks.

Montana Business and Govt. Agency Collaboration Success

• International Study: Montana faces higher temps, less snow, more drought

  Montana is one of many regions that have much to lose if the world doesn’t take immediate action to stem the effects of climate change, according to a new report.

Housing

• Coalition begins housing needs assessment on the Flathead Reservation

  Lake County, Polson, Arlee, Ronan, Hot Spring and St. Ignatius also make up the coalition conducting the survey.

• The high price of housing history in Bonner, Montana

  Century-old mill homes in the once working-class neighborhood have been caught up in Montana’s housing boom.

• Conservative real estate firms offer “sustainable homes in Montana and Idaho designed with integrated ballistic and defensive capabilities” to those seeking escape from liberal politics  – “It’s a challenge to civility.”

  “The division gets wider and wider,” Navarre said, adding many of the new arrivals are changing the civility of the community. “My concern is there are so many people who are not nice.”

Montana Business

• Tandem Bakery shows growth of small businesses in Missoula

  The growth in Downtown Missoula has made for a thriving economy with the 2022 Downtown Missoula Partnership Business Activity shows 13 new businesses opening, and one store closure, to date.

• Gallatin County Commission to consider appeals against glamping development

  The proposed development is on a flood-prone island west of Mill Street Bridge in Gallatin Gateway.

• High-end fly-fishing apparel company, Skwala launches in Bozeman, Montana

  The online retailer Skwala launched on Tuesday joining the ranks of other outdoor gear and apparel brands in Bozeman like Sitka, Stone Glacier and the fishing equipment and gear brand Simms.

Visit Montana

• “The only big fear I have is not succeeding”: Legally blind 15-year-old Jacob Smith shredding expectations in freeride skiing at Big Sky, Montana

  This is Big Sky, Montana – home to some of the steepest and most challenging ski slopes in the country.

  And that is Jacob Smith who is blind. Three years ago, he was just 12 years old as he made his way to the top of the 11,000 foot high lone peak to ski down it.

Funding and Building your Business

• To Lure Workers, Companies Are Giving New Employees Their First Weeks Off, Speeding Up Retirement Plan Access—And Piling On The Cash

  In a tight labor market where candidates hold much more power, companies are increasingly pulling out all the stops, trying new time-off programs, investing more in wages and benefits and adding more or bigger sign-on bonuses for positions from the very top of the organization all the way down to the front lines.

• Why established companies need to think like entrepreneurs

  Best-selling author of ‘The Lean Startup’ and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, Eric Ries discusses the challenge of turning established companies into entrepreneurial hotbeds. This is ‘The New Human Movement’—where we feature bold thinkers and radical doers who reimagine work, management, and capitalism for a new age.

• How to build a business with a higher calling

  Paul Polman is the former CEO of Unilever (2009-2019), coauthor of ‘Net Positive,’ and cochair of Imagine. In this episode, Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini discuss with Paul how to build a business that services all of its constituents—and merits their trust.

• All job postings in Washington will likely soon include salary information

  Under the proposed legislation, employers with 15 or more workers would have to disclose the hourly pay rate or salary, or a range of what they could be, as well as give a general description of benefits and other compensation that could be offered in a job posting.

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

• The education equity con game being sold by Montana’s leaders

  Today, Montana educators have no doubt what equity, inclusion and diversity mean to the students they teach.  Unfortunately, Montana is now getting caught up in a nationally orchestrated effort, apparently supported by our governor, attorney general and state superintendent of public instruction, to turn these words into cusswords, especially “equity.”

• A Business School Aims to Mint Leaders Who Think About More Than Profit

  The world is changing faster than business schools, and some deans—cajoled by students and employers demanding different skills from MBAs—are responding to the shift.

Careers

• ‘Lying flat’: Why some Chinese are putting work second

  The idea of ‘lying flat’, or tang ping in Chinese, means taking a break from relentless work. The tang ping movement took off during 2021 as many felt they were coming under increasing pressure to work even harder and out perform their peers.

MATR Newsletter Supporters: