Welcome to MEDA Online News

Welcome to MEDA Online News. The purpose of this webpage is to serve as a communication link within the MEDA membership. It is to be a member-to-member site to inform MEDA Members as to news within our organization. Let’s keep it simple: MEDA will send you an email to let you know when articles have been updated. If you would like to submit an article, an idea, a comment—please do. Let’s keep in touch and keep our network strong. Previous editions: January 2006; February 2006;    March 2006;   April 2006;
May 2006;   June 2006;  July 2006; August 2006; September 2006; October 2006; November 2006; December 2006; January 2007; February 2007; March 2007; April 2007; May 2007; June 2007;

JULY 2007


CRDC Update: It is all set. Due to a collaboration between Beartooth RC&D/CRDC and Big Sky EDA, the community of Laurel is preparing for a Resource Team Assessment July 11th and 12th. Al Jones, MDOC/RDO is serving as the Team Leader. Tracy McIntyre, Executive Director, Eureka Rural Development Partners will be on the team so that she will be prepared to hold three resource teams in Lincoln County in September. Beartooth RC&D/CRDC and Big Sky EDA staff will also be "in training" so that they can conduct resource teams in other communities in their region.

Something new was tried in Big Sky last week - a mini Resource Team. Josh Kellar, Northern Rocky Mountain RC&D/CRDC and Bob Hietala, Prospera Business Network worked with MEDA and the leadership in Big Sky to put together a team, identify issues and meet with community leaders. It was a great success. A summary of the meeting will be posted on the MEDA website soon. (photo below)

Big Sky Team

MEDA Membership Update: MEDA gained seven new members in June including Rob Gilmore of Indigo Key, Inc.; Roy Jones, Lewistown Job Service; Jon Knokey, Xionetic Technologies; Steve Olson, Eastern Montana Job Service Workforce Center; Mike Strotheide, Montana West Economic Development; Steve Zeire, Big Sky EDA and Rebecca Wales, Big Sky EDA. Welcome!  
Print the MEDA Membership Directory.     

Grant and Funding Opportunities:

MEDA FALL SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION NOW OPEN -
Review the criteria and download the simple form on MEDA's website. It is fairly certain that IEDC training will be in Montana the last week of October....so be thinking of applying for a scholarship.

Workforce Training Grant (WTG)
    Montana businesses will have a new opportunity to obtain financial support for employee training starting July 1, 2007. Approximately $4 million in Workforce Training Grant (WTG) program funds will become available July 1, from the Montana Department of Commerce. Interested applicants can find guidelines and current state and country average wage rates on the web at: http://www.mtfinanceonline.com/WorkForceGrnts.asp

Check out the resources provided by the Horizon Program:
    Horizons offers a comprehensive community leadership and capacity building process to benefit small, rural communities that have seen significant decline in population, income and resources. It draws people together with programs and activities to forge the dynamic leadership they need to take on difficult challenges like economic decline, poverty and demographic changes. It also has a terrific summary of grant sources.


Working Groups...Are Working!:
Get ready for some interesting reading as our working groups have been very, very busy. Take advantage of the research these groups are doing - learn from what they are learning as chances are you are dealing with the same issues. Four working groups were active in June: Tourism, Housing, BEAR and Transportation.

Housing The MEDA Housing Working Group, chaired by Charlie Wright, MDOC/RDO, continues to grow and remains very active. Minutes of recent meetings are available at http://www.medamembers.org/housing.html. The group has divided into three committees to address Communication, Housing and Public Policy. The committees met the last week in June.

Transportation Tony Rudbach, University of Montana -Missoula Vice President of Research, has agreed to be the new Chairman for the Transportation Working Group. The working group members that met with Department of Transportation officials in May are hoping to plan a joint conference with MDT in the near future. Learn what the MEDA working group learned by reading a summary of the meeting at http://www.medamembers.org/transportation.html

Tourism The Tourism Working Group, chaired by Steve Simonson of Sanders County Economic Development is off to a great start. During the first meeting, recent legislation was discussed as well as the state tourism plan. It was very obvious that communication needs to improve between Montana tourism personnel and economic developers. Read a summary of the June 15th meeting at the website: http://www.medamembers.org/tourism.html. MEDA members are encouraged and invited to join this working group to learn more about tourism and economic development connections in Montana.



Opportunities For You: Interested in sharpening your professional skills as an economic and community development practitioner? Looking for new tools to place in your economic development tool box? Check these out.

    If you are a MEDA Member you qualify for free registration (email for details) to join your colleagues around the region for the dynamic annual PNEDC conference in Helena, MT on July 15-18, 2007. The agenda, registration, and accommodation materials are now available online at www.pnedc.org
    WIRED MAP Academy will be held August 14 – 16, 2007 at MSU-Northern, Havre, MT. Learn about Montana's Agro-Energy plan and much more. Details available soon.