Message from President Royce Engstrom.

No organization marches into the future without a plan, and that certainly includes The University of Montana. Last spring, thanks to the hard work of faculty, administrators, staff, students, and other supporters, we released UM 2020: Building a University for the Global Century, setting out our vision and our goals for where we'd like your state University to go. It's an ambitious document, but one to which we've committed ourselves as we continuously adapt to the ever-changing educational environment in which we operate.

No plan can be made, however, without a solid information base. That base includes the business and economic conditions that are likely to prevail in the coming years. And when it comes to our economic future, it has been our good fortune for the last 37 years to have a resource that is the envy of many other states--the Bureau of Business and Economic Research's annual economic outlook seminars.

What you see in this issue of the Montana Business Quarterly is the Bureau's latest snapshot of the economic landscape, both for individual communities as well as for our most important industries. The Bureau's researchers, along with experts from our sister institution Montana State University, presented their take on where they see things heading in nine different Montana communities in the last two months, and we're happy to share their insights with you. We're certainly paying close attention to what's ahead for the economy, and I'm sure you are too.

Here's hoping this year is a good one for you and your business or organization.

Royce C. Engstrom

President

The University of Montana