1987-01-16 Char-Koosta News

              VOLUME 15, NUMBER 22 THE SHOOTING MONTH JANUARY 1$, 1987
Tribal electronics enterprise's quality rating moves up a notch
PABLO -- The management of S & K Electronics recently learned that its production-standards quality rating has been upgraded to the second-highest level of the military's four-layer system.
SKE board of directors chairman Bob Gauthier reported to the Tribal Council Jan. 9 that the Tribal electronics firm had just been certified for "MIL-Q" work by the Department of Defense (DOD).
Acting general manager Larry Hall explains that products are judged under four sets of increasingly-stringent standards. The first is "commercial", followed by "MIL-I", "MIL-Q", and NAS\-quality.
"MIL-Q is the highest standard of product not going into space that the military will buy," Hall said.
In addition to the vote-of-confidence aspect, the certification means SKE can bid for a wider variety of projects against a smaller roster of equally-capable firms. "There are a lot of electronics companies in America, but not many are MIL-Q certified, " Hall said. A smaller group of competitors may mean more business for the Pablo company.
In other SKE news, board chairman Gauthier said indications are that the enterprise, which was incorporated a
The Salish Kootenai College Upward Bound Program has openings for students from the Flathead Reservation community. The program is designed to assist students who would like to go on to college after high school. This is a federal program that is open to all residents of the Reservation, regardless of race, religion, or national origin.
In order to qualify for the program, students must be either first-generation college students or low-
little over two years ago, may be profit-making sometime this June. They are actively seeking contracts with a variety of private-sector companies, in addition to continuing work on three current contracts with the military, he said.
Gauthier also reported Jan. 9 that general manager Rick Farrell had resigned "because he has been offered another job". He said he didn't expect any problems to result from Farrell's move. "It's a team effort up there," he said. "Rick was the right guy at the right time."
Another new face around the place will belong to a new board member, whose selection hasn't been announced yet
The young firm, which is located two miles north of Pablo, employs around 30 people, Gauthier said, 85% of which are Tribal members.
income. A first-generation college student is a person whose parents have not received a four-year bachelor's degree from a university. The federal guidelines say that two-thirds of our students must qualify in both categories. The other one-third of our students may qualify in only one of these categories.
The Upward Bound application has several sections: one for the student to complete, one for the parents or (Concludes on page two)
Attention, high school students:
College in your future? Check 'Upward Bound'