Missoula’s Scot Meader is regional fair manager of the year.

The manager of the Western Montana Fair and Missoula County Fairgrounds received the Kermit Fleming Fair Manager of the Year award at the Rocky Mountain Association of Fairs annual convention this month in Great Falls.

The Idaho-based association was originally chartered in the 1920s in Montana, and boasts 110 fairs and festivals in Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and two Canadian provinces. Fleming, of Casper, Wyo., was one of the original directors when the association was reorganized in 1969.

Last year’s winner was Howard Gernant of the Big Horn County Fair in Basin, Wyo.

“I’m so grateful to receive this award from an organization that I really respect,” Meader said in a released statement. “The (Rocky Mountain Association) brings hard-working fair professionals together to learn from each other.”

Meader came to Missoula from the Central Montana Fair in Lewistown in 2002. He was named Missoula County’s employee of the year in 2007. Last April he became one of only about 200 fair managers in the nation to be recognized as a certified fair executive.