July 22nd, 2018

TMN Update- December 2017
For all of you that have been a part of this journey by supporting the idea, connecting us with other Montessorians or cheering us on, I wanted to give everyone an update after a very successful MACTE conference and meeting with the Montessori Leaders Collaborative in Alexandria, Virginia!
A brief look back at this past summer’s notables…

Summer 2017 Highlights

• July - Established Trust For Learning/Montessori Leaders Collaborative (TFL/MLC) connection (Stephanie Miller-Exec Director TFL and Marianna McCall)
• Very good feedback from TFL/MLC
• TFL/MLC thought so much of the Montessori Network idea that they connected us with the groups below and invited us to their annual MLC meeting in December: 
  • Montessori Foundation
  • Montessori for Social Justice
  • National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector (NCMPS)
  • MPPI
• August- Above groups provided great feedback

·       Additional connections in the works with: Montessori Administrators Association, MACTE and NAMTA
 
After those calls over the summer we processed the feedback, tweaked and refined the Montessori Network proposal. A few highlights:

• At its core the content that would be made available first would be conferences, workshops, refresher courses and make those available to heads of school, teachers and staff 
• We are refining the “start-up” number of schools needed to launch the network and estimating that range to be in the 500-750 schools
• Concerns surrounding AMI and AMS resisting conferences being made available on the network and taking away attendees in person would be dealt with through either putting embargo on content for a few months or not releasing conference content until a minimum number of attendees in person is met.
• Subscription costs to The Montessori Network for schools would range in cost estimates depending in number of schools subscribing. Estimate would be $750-$1500

Heading into our meeting with the MLC these were our goals:

• Goal #1- understand and gain clarification surrounding any concerns from MLC individuals and organizations they represent with regards to The Montessori Network
• Goal #2- gain MLC support of The Montessori Network initiative
• Goal #3- partner with MLC members to communicate TMN and gain insight into what they would consider to be an effective communication plan with schools and Montessori community
• Goal #4- After clarifying assumptions and an intellectually rigorous examination of ideas, schedule meeting with key AMI and AMS personnel to present and gather their feedback and questions 
• Goal #5- Gain insight from AMI, AMS, MLC members and their organizations surrounding what they consider to be key steps in initiating the TMN plan.

 
These are the headlines and takeaways from attending the MACTE conference and the MLC meeting/Q&A/feedback session:

• A good number of concerns that were expressed previously were dealt with
• Dr. Stephen Hughes (MLC member, noted presenter in Montessori community) is very excited about this concept and will help advocate
• The understanding of what OTT is, what The Montessori Network really is and the potential it has takes time for folks to comprehend or take it all in
• It was suggested that we make a video describing the Network…we call it a “sizzle reel” or movie trailer type short video to let everyone see what it looks like and how it works
• Also suggested we create “screen grabs” of what the TMN front page would look like
• The idea of going vertical has come up a few times, “The Ideal Learning Network,” would incorporate Reggio, Waldorf potentially other Trust For Learning early childhood education platforms to help TFL reach their 20 million children
• Question came up about Non-profit vs Profit approach
• Is this a Business to Business or Business to Consumer setup
• Stephanie Miller- Executive Director of Trust for Learning and head of Montessori Leaders Collaborative stated at the end of the meeting, “I was somewhat hesitant when I first heard about this but I have to say after hearing everyone's reaction today I am feeling very good about The Montessori Network and how it is developing!”

We have been working on the “sizzle reel,” and screen grab examples to help everyone get an idea of what The Montessori Network looks like. Our next steps are:

• Follow ups with AMS, AMI, MACTE
• Build sizzle reel and screen grab examples
• Consideration how to get the info in front of schools
• targeting the February AMI refresher course and March AMS Conference to hopefully have had enough time for schools, personnel, AMI and AMS to take it all in and get closer to the “ask” of the schools.

Our current consideration is how do we get this in front of the schools. Do we make the sizzle reel and explainer elements available to them as a teaser? Possibly send out a survey to some schools and try to determine interest that way after they have viewed the sizzle reel?
As I’ve mentioned before these topics are much more enjoyable to discuss in person over spirits of choice but the steps we made over the past few weeks have been significant! Very exciting to say the least with lots more work to be done!
Any and all suggestions or feedback is encouraged! Hope everyone has a great holiday!