Ultimately, the project should make money AND spread Will's method effectively throughout the world. =================================== DRAFT Transparency Open communication might seem like a new idea in schools. Most of the school that we've worked at keep a tight lid on procedures, salaries of staff, profit and loss statements and personnel policies. It is difficult to get an employee's handbook unless you are an employee or applicant. Will Sutherland aims to set up a school to share his method. Students will benefit and teachers will come to be trained. Income (in addition to school fees) will come from training fees and small companies (enterprises) that the school creates. One of Will's former house captains agrees: "Will's method can be franchised." Again, this sounds like a closed system. The value of a franchise like McDonald's is in the procedures, the manual and the pricing structure that the franchisee buys into. Why would these proprietary (valuable) products be made available to the public? Let's try a "mind experiment." (Albert Einstein enjoyed these types of exercises.) Let's assume that 80% of the procedures and finances of QBE Schools are open to the public. Every teacher knows what the other teachers are making and why. This will reduce the anxiety and uncertainty of novices who want to start their own community school. Anyone can open a school and know that "when QBE did XXXX, then YYY occurred." This experience at QBE might instruct future school owners and team builders to change their strategies. The procedures, commentaries on mistakes, handbooks and guidelines for students, staff and teachers (advisors) are generally closed for schools (the public does not have easy access to these sources of information) and so for this experiment called QBE Schools, let's keep them open. Let's maintain a blog to place certain (80%) of the mistakes and refinements, discussions and descriptions of the choices on the Internet. The goal is to make money. It's also to spread the method of Betty Sutherland as widely as possible. In the 20th century, the method was to build a successful chain of restaurants and then franchise the growth. People would pay sums and guarantee income back to the headquarters. We heard that there's a Hamburger University for McDonald's. In the 21st Century, the method is to GIVE AWAY a lot of information (50 to 80%) in the hope that the marketplace will see value in the remaining 20% of the information, services and products. What if virtually all of the training given to QBE teachers were placed online? What if ANYBODY could watch how Will Sutherland and his associates train new teachers? FREE. (well, you have to invest your time to watch the videos...). Some people might say, "Hmm, we really would like to open a franchise and receive your direct guidance in building a financially healthy and educationally beneficial and efficient school and for that service we would gladly pay a royalty on income and a standard franchise fee." The franchise model might establish ten or twelve schools over the next twenty years -- Will's likely time of service as QBE's director. Consider an alternative: Thousands of parents, perhaps on other continents, might watch the videos and encourage teachers to help them start their own "Littky Style" with "Sutherland methods" hybrid schools. In twenty years there might be 2000 copycat schools. Some directors of schools would say that they use "innovative methods" (the QBE name, the Sutherland name and other items are trademarks of Will Sutherland and QBE) but they certainly could say,. "We read The Big Picture by Dennis Littky and we want to make something similar. We plan to use aspects and we are inspired by Littky, Gardner, Yuzenas, Fischler and others that appear on the VisualandActive.com website. Oh, and we found a lot of this information at QBESchool.com." Join us or copy us. Our books are 80% open and we invite you to visit ($200 per day per person, a standard fee that Metcenter charges) our school, take a sail and listen to what our students say about the school (oh, and go online to watch the videos). The second reason for useful transparency in the accounts of QBE schools is to establish a long term relationship between parents, alumni and the school staff. When all involved know that there is NOT a subsidized tuition; When all involved know that the student's efforts are part of the income stream; When all involved know that the student can rely on the school for long-term support (through Will's QBE network and support system for finding gap-year placements and ongoing career advisement)... then there will be understanding WHY the school takes "shortcuts" by asking the students to clean and work in "substandard" conditions or to suffer a little so that money can be saved. A cold classroom is more than "character-building" -- it means a smaller heating bill. It has been estimated that a dollar that you avoid spending today turns into seven dollars over your lifetime. The "rule of 72" can be taught to students with the compounded interest law: 4% interest doubles in 18 years, 8% interest doubles in about 9 years, etc. Imagine if every student at QBE applied this law and reaped the benefit in some way... perhaps bonuses could be paid to the students in appreciation of reductions in expenses that the students implemented. In short, if the school can keep 10,000 euros in the bank, that money can turn into 70,000 euros over enough time. Spending 1,000 euros NOW means there will be only 63,000 in the bank 70 or 80 years from now. SPENDING 1,000 now is really like spending 7,000. The aim of transparency is to get students to see that SPENDING now is often easier than AVOIDING the spending of money. A focus on facts (transparency) will give feedback to the students that their conservation of resources has paid off. In short, the school will set a new standard: support from donations cannot be the lifeblood of this school. It is a business. Investments can have a return and students (the employees) can be part of the system, including bonuses for good work. The equivalent of losing your job is losing your place in the school (i.e., the school could close if income stream is not maintained). So if the school as a whole is aware of the costs of running the place, people will do extra to reduce the cost of lights, reuse bags, wash clothes at a lower temperature, wear a sweater instead of complaining about the cold. Take a "navy shower." Ten seconds to get wet. Turn off the shower, soap all over. Twenty seconds of water to remove the soap. Well, the boys have to do that. Here is a sample of the statement that the pages of this website could contain. 1. You can use this material in YOUR school. 2. You have to use it in its entirety. Don't just quote parts of it. 3. You need to give credit and a back link to the QBESchool.com website and to QualifiedByExperience.com
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