Shortly after Rick Stroup and I established the Center for Political Economy and Natural Resources at Montana State University, we received a major grant to host national conferences on resource economics. A foundation president advised me to consult with an LA media expert. I dutifully called him. He asked if we were going to hold our program in DC or New York. No, I told him, Bozeman.

“Bozeman?” he asked. “Is that hotel in Chicago?”

No, I replied, Bozeman is a town in Montana, its fifth largest. And actually we would be at the Lone Mountain Ranch, an hour away.

The LA consultant assured me this was a huge mistake: no one of significance would come; those invited would be offended; the program would fail; and this would be my last grant from that foundation. I explained that the seminar was on Western environmental issues and he replied, “Well, if you’re determined to have it in a hick town, at least choose Denver or Dallas.”

We, of course, stuck with Bozeman and the seminar was covered by the Wall Street Journal. It put the MSU Center on the national map. Rick now heads the MSU Econ Department, and I’ve run FREE, Inc., an independent foundation, for 20 years. And, contrary to the consultant’s prediction, the supporting foundation still funds my work.

In those early years, we produced many more seminars. They brought nationally prominent individuals from academic, business, and governmental organizations to Montana. Decades later, FREE’s seminars attract leaders in biotechnology, environmental science, jurisprudence, terrorism, and telecommunications. Several Nobel laureates and hundreds of federal judges have attended these programs. In addition to MSU professors, the seminars feature renowned scholars from Chicago, Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, NYU, Stanford, UCLA, and Yale.

We don’t filter speakers on political philosophy but only on three characteristics: academic excellence; ability to present complex topics to intelligent nonspecialists; and conviviality, civility, and open-mindedness.

Whatever their political leanings, successful individuals who deal well with policy issues are smart, honorable, convivial, and respectful. Such folks argue but get along well. (Here’s a key to understanding the world: It’s easier to deal with winners than with whiners.)

We have clear rules for participants in the five-day seminars. Speakers don’t parachute in and catapult out. Rather, they normally stay for the duration and mix with our “students,” mainly federal judges. We require up to 200-plus pages of assigned readings and around 18 hours of formal class time.

How can this possibly work? Why do these folks join us? Federal judges can’t accept honoraria and they have life appointments. Unlike lawyers, they don’t need Continuing Legal Education credits. And how do we attract the nation’s top scholars, individuals such as James Q. Wilson, Tom Schelling, and Robert L. Thompson? (Google these three and you’ll get several million hits.) The answer is not high speaking fees, for we’re at the bottom for such programs.

The keys to this success are quite simple. First, a summer seminar in Montana is attractive, especially for those who live in a city such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, or New York. Second, the judges greatly appreciate the co-sponsorship of MSU. Third, FREE’s staff is exceptional and the programs run smoothly, e.g., we always start and end each session on schedule and treat everyone with respect. Fourth, there are fewer than 1,000 active federal judges; they serve together for many years and trust one another’s evaluations. The testimonies of our “graduates” to colleagues provide our recruiting strength.

Of our five programs in ’05, one will be at the National Conservation Training Center near DC, and another in Wisconsin. The topics cover water resources and fisheries, telecommunications and social change, illicit drugs and the environment, terrorism and energy security, and biotechnology and risk analysis. Featured scholars include Pete Emerson of Environmental Defense, Ray Gesteland of the Eccles Institute of Human Genetics, George Gray of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, and Tom Schelling of Harvard and the University of Maryland.

If you are interested in exploring our work, please check our web site, www.free-eco.org. We’ve posted agendas and lists of speakers for the past decade’s programs. I think even the LA consultant would be impressed.