Leadership Montana in Havre

Leadership Montana began its tour around Montana communities in Havre this year and will spend three days learning about the businesses in the area.

Chantel Schieffer, the executive director of Leadership Montana, led Thursday's events at the Duck Inn, where Havre businesspeople spoke of their work.

"Leadership Montana is a collaboration of business, neighbors, education, government and nonprofit leaders coming in to talk about ways we can make Montana better," Schieffer said.

Schieffer said that every year Leadership Montana will take a class of around 40 individuals around the state to discuss with communities their businesses and economies.

Their tour begins in Havre and will last for eight months, taking them to various communities around the state.

Thursday, the Leadership Montana class gathered to listen to of Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Debbie Vandeberg, Enell Inc. founder Renelle Braaten, Bear Paw Development Executive Directorf Paul Tuss and Scott McIntosh, the Montana operations manager of Columbia Grain of Chinook. Shawn Bickford, the new mechanical foreman for BNSF Railway Co. in Havre, also spoke at the meeting before taking the group on a tour of BNSF property.

Braaten spoke of how she began her company, which produces sports bras for well-endowed women, and the struggles and successes she went through as the company become recognized by O Magazine and other publications.

Her bras are now sold in 11 to 12 countries and by 500 retailers in the United States. Her headquarters are in Havre, where she lives and founded the business.

Tuss spoke of Havre's economy, saying that the areas around Havre experienced dips and climbs in their economies, but Havre's stays pretty constant.

"We have a community that's pretty darn stable," Tuss said. He added that though the population of Havre has dropped somewhat in recent years, some communities have experienced much more extreme losses in populations.

He said that a good measure of how a particular area or community is doing economically is by looking at construction in the area.

"Construction is a big driving force in the economy," Tuss said.

Tuss said he made a list of new construction projects in Havre that were completed in the last year or two or are slated to be completed in the next year and found that Havre has had $50 to $60 million put into recent projects.

"That's big for Helena," Tuss said.

He also spoke of the importance of Canadian customers to Havre businesses. In a survey conducted by Bear Paw Development and the Havre Chamber, they found that 83 percent of Havre businesses said Canadian trade was either important or very important to them.

The survey also asked how much of the business' profit comes from Canadian customers. Around 35 percent said that Canadians customers made at least 25 percent of their profits.

"I don't think we talk about Canada enough," Tuss said. " ... Canada's a big deal."

The group of businesspeople will be going to Rocky Boy'a Indian Reservation today to listen to tribal leaders including representatives from Chippewa Cree Energy, Chippewa Cree Tribal Courts, Tribal Water Resource Department and Stone Child College.

After their visit to Rocky Boy, they will meet with Montana State University-Northern Interim Chancellor Greg Kegel and take a tour of the campus at 4:30 p.m.

The last day of their visit, Sunday, they will meet more Havre leaders for conversation at 7:30 a.m. and then take a tour of the U.S. Border Patrol Station.

The next community Leadership Montana will visit is Missoula.

Vandeberg said this is the third time Leadership Montana has been in Havre since the program was begun 10 years ago.

"I think it's, obviously, to network and meet people but also to educate Montana leaders on the diversity of the state and understand opportunities and challenges that are going on outside their communities," Vandeberg said. "It's to make Montana a stronger, healthier state."