Did you know that Seattle Free School was at Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp last year talking about how to run a nonprofit without money? We were! And now there's lots of links for you to look at and listen to if you weren't able to make it.
Here's the link to the podcast.
Here's the link to our slides.
Here's a link to the brief interview we did after our talk.
And perhaps most importantly, here's a link to how Seattle Free School has helped bring grass roots activism to China!
Showing posts with label Starting a Free School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Starting a Free School. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Starting a Free School Response Part 3
How do you manage without any money?
I think the better way to think about this is to ask what you need money for? Space can be found for free at libraries, local community centers, other nonprofits, etc. It takes work to find these places but many of them know that in this economy having people come and learn about them while they're learning about other things is very beneficial. Start small on this. I spent way too much time trying to find space that so far we haven't really needed. The library and one other location actually serve our needs well. The occasional coffee shop rounds out our space requirements for now. We'll have more need in the future (I'd hope!) but that can happen when it's necessary rather then in advance.
Flyers?
You can print out a few on your printer. You can bug your friends and family and others to print out a few of these. Printing out 5 flyers in black and white costs virtually nothing for anyone so why raise a bunch of money for this when you can do relatively well for a few pennies from various people in your network? Plus since these people are probably distributed around town you solve the problem of having to get flyers to people to hang.
Marketing?
Haven't needed it despite being told that we would. The more you spend on marketing the more people will know about you quickly and the more you'll struggle to keep up with the growth. Growing slow has huge benefits if you don't have deep pockets to hire developers and others to help you.
Website?
My friend in Paris is hosting the site for free. That being said there were plenty of people that were willing to host a website. While you're still running a free site (from googlepages or one of the other free website places) this is irrelevant but eventually you may want another better site. This only became important as we got bigger. All this being said there have been several community members who have offered hosting space. We've also received lots of free tech help from folks in the community. There's a ton of open source people here (and everywhere) and most of them love the idea of a free school. Finding help is easier then you might think.
As for the website design our local community college came to us and asked to do the new website design. Amazing really. There are other resources but most likely you have someone that could design a site for you for free. Don't do this right away... struggle with a free ugly product for a while. You'll learn more about what you want and don't want and be able to request what you need when the time comes for something better.
I'm not sure what else you'd need money for.... people can bring their own supplies to classes and sometimes instructors will bring their extras (what knitter doesn't have a bunch of yarn they aren't really going to use?)
Some of these things cost a bit of money from me but its way easier to spend $100 a year or so then raise money so I don't have to spend this personal cash. The only real cost that I can think of that is directly Seattle Free School is the $10 domain registration fee. Really that's about it as for legit costs.
I think the better way to think about this is to ask what you need money for? Space can be found for free at libraries, local community centers, other nonprofits, etc. It takes work to find these places but many of them know that in this economy having people come and learn about them while they're learning about other things is very beneficial. Start small on this. I spent way too much time trying to find space that so far we haven't really needed. The library and one other location actually serve our needs well. The occasional coffee shop rounds out our space requirements for now. We'll have more need in the future (I'd hope!) but that can happen when it's necessary rather then in advance.
Flyers?
You can print out a few on your printer. You can bug your friends and family and others to print out a few of these. Printing out 5 flyers in black and white costs virtually nothing for anyone so why raise a bunch of money for this when you can do relatively well for a few pennies from various people in your network? Plus since these people are probably distributed around town you solve the problem of having to get flyers to people to hang.
Marketing?
Haven't needed it despite being told that we would. The more you spend on marketing the more people will know about you quickly and the more you'll struggle to keep up with the growth. Growing slow has huge benefits if you don't have deep pockets to hire developers and others to help you.
Website?
My friend in Paris is hosting the site for free. That being said there were plenty of people that were willing to host a website. While you're still running a free site (from googlepages or one of the other free website places) this is irrelevant but eventually you may want another better site. This only became important as we got bigger. All this being said there have been several community members who have offered hosting space. We've also received lots of free tech help from folks in the community. There's a ton of open source people here (and everywhere) and most of them love the idea of a free school. Finding help is easier then you might think.
As for the website design our local community college came to us and asked to do the new website design. Amazing really. There are other resources but most likely you have someone that could design a site for you for free. Don't do this right away... struggle with a free ugly product for a while. You'll learn more about what you want and don't want and be able to request what you need when the time comes for something better.
I'm not sure what else you'd need money for.... people can bring their own supplies to classes and sometimes instructors will bring their extras (what knitter doesn't have a bunch of yarn they aren't really going to use?)
Some of these things cost a bit of money from me but its way easier to spend $100 a year or so then raise money so I don't have to spend this personal cash. The only real cost that I can think of that is directly Seattle Free School is the $10 domain registration fee. Really that's about it as for legit costs.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Starting a Free School Response Part 2
How did you start?
Basically just start. Without money there doesn't need to be a grand scheme of how things will work. You'll figure out things as you go based on what will work for your community.
How long were the planning stages?
Virtually nonexistent. Basically I tried to figure out if there was a free school in Seattle already, met with someone and got going. Creating a poor but functional website and setting up an email address were the first steps. Once that was done "spamming" friends, neighbors and coworkers and anyone else on my email list was next. From there I scheduled the first class (you'll probably need to step up and teach a number of classes to get the thing rolling... people are much more confident about teaching if they aren't teaching the very first class... but who knows you might find someone that is ready for that in your community) and sent out press releases. These releases were poorly written by me and certainly not professional. Basically I went around finding free papers, picking up a copy and including email addresses from these folks into a "press" group. Pretty simple really.
Other then that things happened as they happened. With no money to raise, no board to answer to and no metrics required to prove our success things happen when they do. Do things in a way that makes logical sense to you. For me, being a computer worker in a town of computer users the website and email was most important. It could be that having classes is the way to start depending on the size and needs of your community. Eventually people will want someplace to look to find out more and thus a website is a good thing to have early on.
And, how did you gain community support?
Social networking basically. I emailed my friends and begged them to pass it along. We use facebook and other tools to spread the word. Newspapers picked up on it and we got a ton of press early on (most likely because we don't operate with any donations). We hung flyers around and that helped spread the word. We also looked at other places to post, like craigslist, etc and pushed out the word there. Basically things grew organically and at a steady pace. The only time we had a serious jump in involvement was when we made the front page of the local section of the Sunday Seattle Times. Our enrollment in our email list bumped up over 100 people in less then 24 hours thanks to that press.
Basically just start. Without money there doesn't need to be a grand scheme of how things will work. You'll figure out things as you go based on what will work for your community.
How long were the planning stages?
Virtually nonexistent. Basically I tried to figure out if there was a free school in Seattle already, met with someone and got going. Creating a poor but functional website and setting up an email address were the first steps. Once that was done "spamming" friends, neighbors and coworkers and anyone else on my email list was next. From there I scheduled the first class (you'll probably need to step up and teach a number of classes to get the thing rolling... people are much more confident about teaching if they aren't teaching the very first class... but who knows you might find someone that is ready for that in your community) and sent out press releases. These releases were poorly written by me and certainly not professional. Basically I went around finding free papers, picking up a copy and including email addresses from these folks into a "press" group. Pretty simple really.
Other then that things happened as they happened. With no money to raise, no board to answer to and no metrics required to prove our success things happen when they do. Do things in a way that makes logical sense to you. For me, being a computer worker in a town of computer users the website and email was most important. It could be that having classes is the way to start depending on the size and needs of your community. Eventually people will want someplace to look to find out more and thus a website is a good thing to have early on.
And, how did you gain community support?
Social networking basically. I emailed my friends and begged them to pass it along. We use facebook and other tools to spread the word. Newspapers picked up on it and we got a ton of press early on (most likely because we don't operate with any donations). We hung flyers around and that helped spread the word. We also looked at other places to post, like craigslist, etc and pushed out the word there. Basically things grew organically and at a steady pace. The only time we had a serious jump in involvement was when we made the front page of the local section of the Sunday Seattle Times. Our enrollment in our email list bumped up over 100 people in less then 24 hours thanks to that press.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Starting a Free School Response Part 1
Well, we'd hoped to post this a few days ago but things came up. Rather then posting the whole long response in one blog we'll split this up into a few key questions so here's the response Part 1 (Edited a bit for space and clarity).
I was wondering if you had any advice for somebody trying to start such a school in their community?
There are a ton of considerations to think about... will you take money, will you be politically affiliated? The biggest thing to think about for me was that I didn't like the idea of raising money for something that wasn't even in operation. Something about that just felt wrong to me. The idea of simply doing without seemed far more exciting then the idea of raising money, becoming a 501c org, registering with the government, etc etc. In reality raising money actually costs money most of the time because it takes a lot more time and energy and thus often requires a paid position. Plus, for those of us involved the idea of not raising money made Seattle Free School a fun challenge and a great learning experience. Most of us have or had worked in some capacity for a regular nonprofit. We know how raising money works or how it doesn't. What we weren't sure about is if it could be done without money. Turns out it can, definitely, and perhaps with greater success then if we would have gone the other way.
Politics for us was something that we left out to be as all inclusive as possible. While we all personally have our thoughts on politics there was no reason to limit people based on that idea. It could of course be said that people who chose not to come to a class because the politics are self limiting and yet we all have been in situations where we might not want to affiliate with a specific group even if a presentation seems attractive. In this case the message is sent just as well by sticking strictly to the mission of the free school, sharing information and doing it for free. For many this is a radical idea in and of itself. And for many this is simply the way things have been done for ages. That's the beauty of it... it can appeal to everyone so why not keep it as open and inclusive as possible?
How many people do you have helping to coordinate the free school as far as volunteers go?
I do most of the running of the school on the administrative end... posting classes, updating the blog, sending emails etc. Of course every teacher is a volunteer and they all help flyer for their classes at least. Dani is also a founder and helps with posting on other sites (craigslist etc) as well as helping with events etc. We've tried to be very inclusive of volunteers but so far it's been difficult to find a good way to split responsibilities that doesn't just wind up creating more confusion and work. Also, since I spend quite a bit of time on the computer for several of my jobs it just makes sense for me to be answering emails and doing whatever computer work is necessary. Eventually I'm thinking we'll need to split things up among a larger group as I think about heading out to other adventures but how to best go about that in a way that makes good, clean, logical sense and doesn't make us all nuts trying to figure out what's going on has been tricky thus far.
I was wondering if you had any advice for somebody trying to start such a school in their community?
There are a ton of considerations to think about... will you take money, will you be politically affiliated? The biggest thing to think about for me was that I didn't like the idea of raising money for something that wasn't even in operation. Something about that just felt wrong to me. The idea of simply doing without seemed far more exciting then the idea of raising money, becoming a 501c org, registering with the government, etc etc. In reality raising money actually costs money most of the time because it takes a lot more time and energy and thus often requires a paid position. Plus, for those of us involved the idea of not raising money made Seattle Free School a fun challenge and a great learning experience. Most of us have or had worked in some capacity for a regular nonprofit. We know how raising money works or how it doesn't. What we weren't sure about is if it could be done without money. Turns out it can, definitely, and perhaps with greater success then if we would have gone the other way.
Politics for us was something that we left out to be as all inclusive as possible. While we all personally have our thoughts on politics there was no reason to limit people based on that idea. It could of course be said that people who chose not to come to a class because the politics are self limiting and yet we all have been in situations where we might not want to affiliate with a specific group even if a presentation seems attractive. In this case the message is sent just as well by sticking strictly to the mission of the free school, sharing information and doing it for free. For many this is a radical idea in and of itself. And for many this is simply the way things have been done for ages. That's the beauty of it... it can appeal to everyone so why not keep it as open and inclusive as possible?
How many people do you have helping to coordinate the free school as far as volunteers go?
I do most of the running of the school on the administrative end... posting classes, updating the blog, sending emails etc. Of course every teacher is a volunteer and they all help flyer for their classes at least. Dani is also a founder and helps with posting on other sites (craigslist etc) as well as helping with events etc. We've tried to be very inclusive of volunteers but so far it's been difficult to find a good way to split responsibilities that doesn't just wind up creating more confusion and work. Also, since I spend quite a bit of time on the computer for several of my jobs it just makes sense for me to be answering emails and doing whatever computer work is necessary. Eventually I'm thinking we'll need to split things up among a larger group as I think about heading out to other adventures but how to best go about that in a way that makes good, clean, logical sense and doesn't make us all nuts trying to figure out what's going on has been tricky thus far.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
More about starting a free school...
Another letter, this time from Concord, North Carolina, posted with permission, response will be posted on the blog tomorrow:
Dear Seattle Free School,
I am a homeschooling mother in Concord, North Carolina. Over the years of basically unschooling my children I have become very interested with learning in non-traditional ways. I was a public school teacher and I have learned from my children that there are so many more positive learning alternative than typical education.
I was recently re-reading one of my John Holt books...Instead of Education, and I came across the idea of free schools for a second time. I was interested in them years ago, but my children were young. Now that they are older the idea has come back around, so I started looking on the internet to find out what was out there in other areas. We have nothing like this in Concord. I stumbled across your fantastic website.
I was wondering if you had any advice for somebody trying to start such a school in their community? How many people do you have helping to coordinate the free school as far as volunteers go? How did you start? How long was the planning stages? And, how did you gain community support? How do you manage without any money? I love this idea, but just having trouble wrapping my head around how this all works.
I am just in the planning stages, but your website really resonates with what I was seeing in my mind about how such a school would work.
Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
Shannon
Dear Seattle Free School,
I am a homeschooling mother in Concord, North Carolina. Over the years of basically unschooling my children I have become very interested with learning in non-traditional ways. I was a public school teacher and I have learned from my children that there are so many more positive learning alternative than typical education.
I was recently re-reading one of my John Holt books...Instead of Education, and I came across the idea of free schools for a second time. I was interested in them years ago, but my children were young. Now that they are older the idea has come back around, so I started looking on the internet to find out what was out there in other areas. We have nothing like this in Concord. I stumbled across your fantastic website.
I was wondering if you had any advice for somebody trying to start such a school in their community? How many people do you have helping to coordinate the free school as far as volunteers go? How did you start? How long was the planning stages? And, how did you gain community support? How do you manage without any money? I love this idea, but just having trouble wrapping my head around how this all works.
I am just in the planning stages, but your website really resonates with what I was seeing in my mind about how such a school would work.
Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
Shannon
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Starting a Free School
Some time ago I posted that I would be writing up my experiences about starting a free school and posting them here. Due to time constraints this simply hasn't happened yet, but as more and more people contact us about starting a free school in their community (how exciting is that?!) I wanted to post some information here. Tara from the Dallas Fort Worth area was one of the first people to contact us with a request for information. Her letter and my response is posted here.
Much of this is my (Jessica) personal opinion and experience. I'd love it if others from other free schools would jump in and discuss this from your end since we all operate so differently.
Tara's Letter:
Hi,
I'm in Texas and just found out about your group. I'm interested in starting something like it in my area. Is there any information or advice you could provide on how you find classroom space, cover the costs of flyers and other basic materials, etc.? Thanks!
My long winded response:
Tara,
Gosh, there's a lot to talk about.
The first thing to know is that we operate very differently from other Free Schools (if you google you'll see the list on wikipedia). The main difference is that we're not politically affiliated and we don't take cash donations ever from anyone... so it's a completely volunteer effort. To be honest I think these things have helped us get a ton of press that we wouldn't have received otherwise and it's also more inclusive of course by leaving it open to anyone of any political affiliation. The other schools are of course open to all, but getting folks of different political ideologies to come to an "anarchist" school might be more difficult.
On the fund raising front we could have raised funds but again, I think we get a lot more press (and thus more people knowing about the school) because we don't and that makes us more interesting. Plus, to be frank, the idea of spending my time raising money isn't something I wanted to do. It would have taken a ton of time away from writing press releases and teaching classes.
As for classroom space we started here in the public libraries as most have meeting rooms that are free to use if you're not selling anything, are open to anyone and everyone, etc... basically all the things we want in classes too so it worked out well. We put out on the website that we were looking for other places to have classes and when we talked to the press we talked about how we hoped to partner with other nonprofits to use their spaces as a win win type of situation as it brings our people to their space and gets more awareness for them. It's also part of our decision not to take donations as we'd rather people give money to orgs that help us out then us having to go out and do it and take money out of the pool so to speak.
We're able to have free website space from google and have been using their email program as well. We've run into a problem with their email as you can't send messages to more then 500 people in a day. We're currently working on a list serve and have friends that have helped us out (just from our "we need help" part of the website and from other people we know) both to host our eventual good website and our listserve as well as a ftp site for documents. I can talk to you more about this later, but basically our website has cost us $10 at the moment and other people are donating the rest... from stuff they already had anyway.
As for flyers we don't do ANY professional printing as it costs a fortune. We make basic flyers and have people print them out at home... the people on our email list. We send them out with our weekly email or now as we've grown we've moved to having "flyer hangers" specifically for it. Silly for us to drive all over the place and hang flyers when other people are already in the neighborhood. Of course at first we did this a bit, mainly in areas that were local to us. From there we grew up enough to not have to do it so much.
As far as basic materials teachers provide that. So my cheese making class for example. I bring the milk and everything else and make the cheese. The difference is that people don't get samples, I take it home and eat it myself. No one seems to mind this, after all they aren't paying for anything. And then I teach classes when I need to make cheese or have something to do with it. The same is true of knitting classes or whatever else. Students bring their own supplies and teachers bring their own supplies and no one is expected to give away anything.
In general we don't have handouts in classes since much of it can be written up on a whiteboard and then written down by students. Occasionally we'll have something but it's always small and doesn't require any expensive printing.
Basically it does cost something to run this, more because I've donated all the soap I'm making to shelters (or will be) but if it weren't for that it would cost very little. For me it's the difference of giving away money to another org or spending <$100 a year on the basic stuff I need to run this thing. We also have some groups affiliated with the local college that have printing abilities thanks to what the college provides for them. If they aren't using what they have then they give it to us.
SFS is really a huge testament to thinking outside the box and we had tons of folks telling us we couldn't do it the way we're doing it. But again, I honestly think that we're as successful as we are because we didn't heed that "advice". If whatever you're thinking about doing costs a ton of money then don't do it, you can find another way to do the same type of thing for free or very cheap.
If you decide to move forward with this please feel free to email me with your thoughts and concerns. I'm more then willing to help out as I can (from here!)
-Jessica
Much of this is my (Jessica) personal opinion and experience. I'd love it if others from other free schools would jump in and discuss this from your end since we all operate so differently.
Tara's Letter:
Hi,
I'm in Texas and just found out about your group. I'm interested in starting something like it in my area. Is there any information or advice you could provide on how you find classroom space, cover the costs of flyers and other basic materials, etc.? Thanks!
My long winded response:
Tara,
Gosh, there's a lot to talk about.
The first thing to know is that we operate very differently from other Free Schools (if you google you'll see the list on wikipedia). The main difference is that we're not politically affiliated and we don't take cash donations ever from anyone... so it's a completely volunteer effort. To be honest I think these things have helped us get a ton of press that we wouldn't have received otherwise and it's also more inclusive of course by leaving it open to anyone of any political affiliation. The other schools are of course open to all, but getting folks of different political ideologies to come to an "anarchist" school might be more difficult.
On the fund raising front we could have raised funds but again, I think we get a lot more press (and thus more people knowing about the school) because we don't and that makes us more interesting. Plus, to be frank, the idea of spending my time raising money isn't something I wanted to do. It would have taken a ton of time away from writing press releases and teaching classes.
As for classroom space we started here in the public libraries as most have meeting rooms that are free to use if you're not selling anything, are open to anyone and everyone, etc... basically all the things we want in classes too so it worked out well. We put out on the website that we were looking for other places to have classes and when we talked to the press we talked about how we hoped to partner with other nonprofits to use their spaces as a win win type of situation as it brings our people to their space and gets more awareness for them. It's also part of our decision not to take donations as we'd rather people give money to orgs that help us out then us having to go out and do it and take money out of the pool so to speak.
We're able to have free website space from google and have been using their email program as well. We've run into a problem with their email as you can't send messages to more then 500 people in a day. We're currently working on a list serve and have friends that have helped us out (just from our "we need help" part of the website and from other people we know) both to host our eventual good website and our listserve as well as a ftp site for documents. I can talk to you more about this later, but basically our website has cost us $10 at the moment and other people are donating the rest... from stuff they already had anyway.
As for flyers we don't do ANY professional printing as it costs a fortune. We make basic flyers and have people print them out at home... the people on our email list. We send them out with our weekly email or now as we've grown we've moved to having "flyer hangers" specifically for it. Silly for us to drive all over the place and hang flyers when other people are already in the neighborhood. Of course at first we did this a bit, mainly in areas that were local to us. From there we grew up enough to not have to do it so much.
As far as basic materials teachers provide that. So my cheese making class for example. I bring the milk and everything else and make the cheese. The difference is that people don't get samples, I take it home and eat it myself. No one seems to mind this, after all they aren't paying for anything. And then I teach classes when I need to make cheese or have something to do with it. The same is true of knitting classes or whatever else. Students bring their own supplies and teachers bring their own supplies and no one is expected to give away anything.
In general we don't have handouts in classes since much of it can be written up on a whiteboard and then written down by students. Occasionally we'll have something but it's always small and doesn't require any expensive printing.
Basically it does cost something to run this, more because I've donated all the soap I'm making to shelters (or will be) but if it weren't for that it would cost very little. For me it's the difference of giving away money to another org or spending <$100 a year on the basic stuff I need to run this thing. We also have some groups affiliated with the local college that have printing abilities thanks to what the college provides for them. If they aren't using what they have then they give it to us.
SFS is really a huge testament to thinking outside the box and we had tons of folks telling us we couldn't do it the way we're doing it. But again, I honestly think that we're as successful as we are because we didn't heed that "advice". If whatever you're thinking about doing costs a ton of money then don't do it, you can find another way to do the same type of thing for free or very cheap.
If you decide to move forward with this please feel free to email me with your thoughts and concerns. I'm more then willing to help out as I can (from here!)
-Jessica
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Book on the Blog
Several times Seattle Free School has been asked for information about starting a free school. Rather then writing something for print publication I (Jessica) am thinking I'll just post my thoughts and experiences about it here. I'll post "chapters" as I write them and welcome any and all feedback from other people about their experiences and thoughts. Might as well use this blog as a learning tool too right?
Here's the outline (anything else we should cover??):
STARTING A FREE SCHOOL
What is a Free School?
Issues
Money- Taking money or going without
Space- How to find it
Promotion- How to spread the word and get interest
Teachers- Getting other people teaching
Politics- Politically affiliated or not
Community- Knowing your community-its wants and needs
Partners- Working with established groups to get space, spread the word and grow
your School
Getting the Word Out
Email- Growing your email list, proper emailing and how to not make people cranky
Website- What information do you want to share and how
Printing/flyering- Getting the word out in the material world
Press- How to get coverage and publicity
Growing Pains
Email list serves- when regular email won’t work anymore
Hosting website and list serve- finding friends
A better website and registering your name- upgrading your site
Sign up lists- how to know if people are coming to your class
Forms- using the internet and free tools to do the work for you
Not Ready for a Free School?
Other options to a full Free School- starting with a class or two
Here's the outline (anything else we should cover??):
STARTING A FREE SCHOOL
What is a Free School?
Issues
Money- Taking money or going without
Space- How to find it
Promotion- How to spread the word and get interest
Teachers- Getting other people teaching
Politics- Politically affiliated or not
Community- Knowing your community-its wants and needs
Partners- Working with established groups to get space, spread the word and grow
your School
Getting the Word Out
Email- Growing your email list, proper emailing and how to not make people cranky
Website- What information do you want to share and how
Printing/flyering- Getting the word out in the material world
Press- How to get coverage and publicity
Growing Pains
Email list serves- when regular email won’t work anymore
Hosting website and list serve- finding friends
A better website and registering your name- upgrading your site
Sign up lists- how to know if people are coming to your class
Forms- using the internet and free tools to do the work for you
Not Ready for a Free School?
Other options to a full Free School- starting with a class or two
Monday, February 4, 2008
Seattle Free School Update
Well, things are coming along nicely. We had a meeting with Olympia Free School and got to see their space which was great! They have been so helpful in starting out and Seattle Free School is on the cover of their publication so that's great.
We should be having a City Chickens class very soon and will just be asking folks to help out with flyering. The other thing that would be super helpful is for anyone with any publication connections to help us get publicity. I should have a press release about our first class soon and will send it out broadly to see what sort of publicity we can drum up. Since we won't be paying for anything connections will play a huge part in what we can accomplish.
Anyone that has any connections please let me know seattlefreeschool@gmail.com as I won't try to make some at whatever publications you already have.
Also if you think there are places that we should list classes let me know that too... I've made a tentative list but I'm sure I've left a ton of publications out.
Alright folks.... get your chicken herding hats ready!
We should be having a City Chickens class very soon and will just be asking folks to help out with flyering. The other thing that would be super helpful is for anyone with any publication connections to help us get publicity. I should have a press release about our first class soon and will send it out broadly to see what sort of publicity we can drum up. Since we won't be paying for anything connections will play a huge part in what we can accomplish.
Anyone that has any connections please let me know seattlefreeschool@gmail.com as I won't try to make some at whatever publications you already have.
Also if you think there are places that we should list classes let me know that too... I've made a tentative list but I'm sure I've left a ton of publications out.
Alright folks.... get your chicken herding hats ready!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
updates!!!
Been a while since I've posted and yet there's a ton going on. The Keeping Chickens in the city class will be happening soon... just trying to pin down a day with the interested folks and then the Seattle Public Library.
I've met with Dani from Team Victory Seattle as they were also talking about starting a free school. Very soon we'll be heading down to Olympia to check out the free school and get some much needed advice.... no need to duplicate mistakes if we don't need to! Hopefully we'll all be working together on this... the more the merrier!
Met last Sunday with DIY Seattle who is also very excited about the free school. They are going to be putting on a DIY academy during the summer and hope to have a variety of classes. I hear they're talking about silkscreening and I am definately hoping this one comes true as it's something I've wanted to learn for a long time now!
I guess that's about it. I've emailed folks a flyer (sorry for the spam) and would ask that you distribute info at will. If anyone reading this didn't get one just email me at seattlefreeschool@gmail.com and I'll get one to you asap.
K, that's it for now, see you all at a Seattle Free School class soon!
I've met with Dani from Team Victory Seattle as they were also talking about starting a free school. Very soon we'll be heading down to Olympia to check out the free school and get some much needed advice.... no need to duplicate mistakes if we don't need to! Hopefully we'll all be working together on this... the more the merrier!
Met last Sunday with DIY Seattle who is also very excited about the free school. They are going to be putting on a DIY academy during the summer and hope to have a variety of classes. I hear they're talking about silkscreening and I am definately hoping this one comes true as it's something I've wanted to learn for a long time now!
I guess that's about it. I've emailed folks a flyer (sorry for the spam) and would ask that you distribute info at will. If anyone reading this didn't get one just email me at seattlefreeschool@gmail.com and I'll get one to you asap.
K, that's it for now, see you all at a Seattle Free School class soon!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Teaching Clarification
Just wanted to offer a bit of clarification about Seattle Free School. While currently the classes are largely craft based, there is no need for this to be the case. If you want to teach classes on just about anything, you're welcome here. Foreign language classes, photography classes, business classes, football appreciation classes, basketball classes... really, you name it.
And if there are classes you would like to see please let me know that too... and I'll do my best to hunt down someone to teach it.
The other idea is that you really don't need to be a pro to teach/facilitate a class. I've been making soap for about 2 years... I'm in no way a professional, but I've got enough experience to teach what I know to people that haven't ever done it before. Really that's all that's needed. Of course, if you're got a bit more knowledge you can always offer an advanced class... that's welcome too!
On a different note, I have a couple of people signed up for the beekeeping class and a couple for the chickens class. Once I've had a chance to put out a few more flyers I'll be arranging a time for these. If you'd like to be on the list please let me know.
And if there are classes you would like to see please let me know that too... and I'll do my best to hunt down someone to teach it.
The other idea is that you really don't need to be a pro to teach/facilitate a class. I've been making soap for about 2 years... I'm in no way a professional, but I've got enough experience to teach what I know to people that haven't ever done it before. Really that's all that's needed. Of course, if you're got a bit more knowledge you can always offer an advanced class... that's welcome too!
On a different note, I have a couple of people signed up for the beekeeping class and a couple for the chickens class. Once I've had a chance to put out a few more flyers I'll be arranging a time for these. If you'd like to be on the list please let me know.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
SLOWLY...
Well, today my friends and family were finally spammed about Seattle Free School. Hopefully folks will pass it along as it's all word of mouth at this point. Received a few responses and we're well on the way to having a Chickens in the City class together soon... so if you're interested, let me know!
Not too much more to say at this point... just plugging away on getting things up and running. Please feel free to spam your friends and family about this too... feel free to blame me for it if they get mad!
Not too much more to say at this point... just plugging away on getting things up and running. Please feel free to spam your friends and family about this too... feel free to blame me for it if they get mad!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Flyer available
Well, as much as I tried to post a great flyer on the website, translating from a publisher doc to a web page is far more problematic then it should be. For now there's a flyer posted that will work, so should you want to print them and put them out feel free. Or, if you'd like to print a better version just email me (seattlefreeschool@gmail.com) and I'll send you a much better version done in publisher. I can also send it as a basic word doc for those of you without publisher.
And to any and all that put up info about Seattle Free School... THANKS!
And to any and all that put up info about Seattle Free School... THANKS!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
A New Year, A New School
Well the year is almost over and the Seattle Free School has just begun. Our logo and flyer design should be done soon thanks to my friend in Paris, a great comic artist and a great friend too. We've got a possible space to use at Wayward Cafe on Greenwood for some of our classes that don't need a kitchen and I hope to be offering basic beekeeping and chicken keeping classes soon... before the time comes to order bees and get chicks. Soon I'll be plastering our flyers in coffee shops near and far and handing them out at farmers markets and any other place I can think of. I will also have them posted on the website so feel free to print them off and do the same... any help getting the word out is greatly appreciated.
I was thinking today how I really want this school to be all inclusive, people from different walks of life, different politics, you name it. A place for people to connect with each other and learn from each other... to find out that we aren't really as different as the media would have us believe....
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” - Nelson Mandela
While using a quote with the word enemy in it isn't exactly the way I'd like to start, this quote is too good not to post.
Hope everyone has a brilliant New Years Eve and a great new year too. Hope to see you all soon!
I was thinking today how I really want this school to be all inclusive, people from different walks of life, different politics, you name it. A place for people to connect with each other and learn from each other... to find out that we aren't really as different as the media would have us believe....
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” - Nelson Mandela
While using a quote with the word enemy in it isn't exactly the way I'd like to start, this quote is too good not to post.
Hope everyone has a brilliant New Years Eve and a great new year too. Hope to see you all soon!
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