Meet MEDA's New Members: You will be able to meet MEDA's newest member, Joe Durlgo, at the fast approaching MEDA Spring Conference. Joe is a member of the State Tribal Economic Development Commission and is affiliated with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Also new to MEDA is Toni Schneider, Business Development Representative for CTA Architects Engineers in the Billings office. Toni is already registered to attend the spring conference - so you can meet her there, too. Do remember that the MEDA Membership Directory is updated monthly and easy to print out at http://www.medamembers.org/directory.pdf.
Meet an out-of-state MEDA Member: Ron Fine, Partners for Pearl River County in Picayune, Mississippi is an economic development professional dealing with the never-ending Katrina disaster. Ron would love to move his family to Montana. Read about our interesting colleague at http://www.southmississippi.biz/
Grant and Funding Opportunities: It is amazing what you find when you are looking for something else. Check out this interesting website: State of Montana Invitations to Bids and Requests for Proposals. It is that time of year again- for the HUD FY 2006 SuperNOFA covering 39 separate programs involving approximately $2.2 Billion in assistance. To see the notices related to your program area, go to: http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm#grants. If you have not already done so, be sure to register with Grants.gov; and, even if you registered last year, you must update your registration. Don't wait until the last minute as the process can take several days.
Don't forget to apply for the Rick Jones Memorial Scholarship provided by MEDA.
Working Groups...Are Working!: MEDA's Working Groups have only existed for five months; much has already been accomplished. Time (not nearly enough) has been set aside during the MEDA Spring Conference to hear from several working groups that have much to report. The MEDA office was able to participate in an outstanding meeting with the MEDA Transportation Working Group and Montana Department of Transportation program leaders. The purpose of the meeting was to open communication between the economic development community and those involved with transportation. Be watching (and listening at the conference) for a summary from Chairman Craig Erickson as to what was learned from this outstanding session.
Training Opportunities: Interested in sharpening your professional skills as an economic and community development practitioner? Here are some outstanding training opportunities.
For Your Tool Box: Check out these practical resources.
Joanne Gilbert, CDBG Program Assistant, has made several CD's of the following CDBG Publications for your convenience: CDBG 2005 Grant Admin Manual, Community Needs Assessment, Documenting Benefit to LMI - Feb. 2004 (does include the new 2006 HUD Income Limits, FFY 2006 CDBG Planning Grants App & Guidelines, FFY 2007 CDBG Public Facilities App Guidelines (includes the new 2006 HUD Income Limits, Oct. 2005 Public Facilities Uniform App. Contact Joanne Gilbert at 406.841.2791.
This in-depth site was shared acros the Economic Gardening listserve and contains great information on Brownfields Redevelopment opportunities, including how-to's:
About Remediation
MEDA 2006 Spring Conference Update: The agenda is online and the MEDA office is awaiting your registration. Throughout the conference you will learn of economic development activities in Indian Country, meet the State Tribal Economic Development Commission, develop partnerships and relationships with Indian organizations, tour the Salish Kootenai College, the People's Center, Mission Valley Power and S & K Electronics. You will also be treated to a performance by Two Eagle Plume Cultural Club Dance Group and the Chief Cliff Drummers. On the second day, if you are a paid MEDA member, you will be able to vote in our first ever membership elections, assist in prioritizing the MEDA legislative agenda, hear of the progress from our working groups and...much more.
MEDA Words of Wisdom from....Linda Twitchell. Linda is the Executive Director for Great Northern Development Corporation and had this thought to share with you: "One of the challenges that face economic development professionals is remembering who our clients are. We have a tendancy to start either serving ourselves or serving our funders or seving each other, and we always need to remind ourselves that our client is the average person walking down the street."
