critique my eager-beaver plan, please

[Xahm]

My husband and I started brainstorming about future plans together and got excited about the idea of creating a homeschool resource center/co-op in a few years. Given that I'm not even a newbie yet (my oldest child is 2), I wanted to run this by people who actually know what they are talking about to get feedback.  Feel free to pat me on the head and call me an eager beaver.

The plan:

-Acquire (by purchasing and renovating or by building) a home with several "public" rooms, including one large space. Preferably a large room that could be used to host everything from big family dinners to small science fairs to dances, a room that could become a laboratory, and a library-type area. These rooms would be multi-use so we could also host classes.

-Go as crazy as we want buying learning resources for our children, like science equipment, books, so on.

-Once the resource center is reasonably well-stocked, open it to the public to become a member for a reasonable annual fee. The idea would be to have as wide a selection of curriculum as possible so that people could peruse before ordering, or borrow it if we have multiple copies. We would allow the use of science equipment, either at our facility or to reserve and take home. 

-Have some classes at our facility. These would focus on lab sciences, foreign language, group discussion classes, presentations, and anything else where it makes sense to bring kids together to work more easily. 

-Host events from time to time like science/social science fairs, dances, awards banquets, and so on.

-Potentially have a space where, for example, a piano teacher could come and give lessons or a math tutor could come and tutor.

 

Our primary reasons:

-To create a strong academic and social environment for our children.

-To help homeschoolers in the area have access to resources and a like-minded community

-To justify buying things, like telescopes, that we wouldn't really use all that often ourselves, but that we would love to be able to share.

 

We wouldn't be looking at this as a money-making venture, but it would be good to break even.

Background: We are in a large metropolitan area in the southern US. Our degrees are in the humanities, but we are strong in math, science, and languages. We are Christians who accept evolution. We aren't wealthy, but we could probably swing this without risking our retirement or anything.

 

My questions:

If something like this was in your area, what resources would be beneficial to you or those you know?

Are there any books or websites I should study to learn about this sort of thing?

How ridiculous am I to be thinking of this at this point in my family's life?

What potential pitfalls do you see coming if we do this?

 

Thanks for any feedback you can give. I will be back to see it and answer any follow-up questions, but we have church tonight and I sleep occasionally.

[Rebel Yell]

This is what I dream about but never had the time or money to do.

 

Include a room with an actual dance floor (and only allow dance shoes/socks- never outside shoes) and I'd fly in to take classes there. :laugh:

 

Seriously, though: Look into insurance and tax laws. This seems to be the financial undoing of many small co-ops. Even if you dream of offering all of this for free, you will likely need a source of money to pay for insurance, attorney fees, and accountant/taxes. WIll people who come in to teach a class be independent contactors or employees?  (Look carefully- many people avoid taxes by saying an employee is an independent contractor- not cool.) If they want to offer a free class, what about liability?

 

Have a few of your classrooms include a sink for washing hand or brushes or lab equipment.

 

A kitchen- both for lunch time and for cooking classes.

 

STORAGE STORAGE STORAGE! Will teachers store equipment there?  Rental fee?  Secure lockers or cabinets with locks? Plan for more storage than you need, especially open shelves and cubbies. I hate going to a co-op and all I can see is cr@p piled everywhere because there is no where to put it.

 

And coat racks/coat room. Covered car thingy- port-a-cochiere (sp???) for dropping off at the door in the rain.

 

Automatic doors wise enough to roll a twin stroller through.

 

A real full-size gym. And the auditorium can have chairs with desks that fold down to the sides for classes, but out of the way for shows.

 

Just droolling and dreaming here... but homeschoolers will hold classes in a coat closet if they have to. (BT,DT) A nice place would be fabulous.

[kiwik]

It sounds wonderful. But yes you would have to look closely at insurance, tax, liability etc. Also wind-up or ownership. The only I dependant school here closed because no-one would take it on.

[Coco_Clark]

I think it's do-able but difficult. There is a woman trying to do something like this in our area for the past 3-4 years, but hers is volunteer run and free. It seems her main difficulties are:

 

1. Finding a location large/cheap enough.

 

2. Finding teachers with classroom skills, which are very different than homeschooling skills. Getting them to stick around.

 

3. Getting regular students. Maybe it's just our area but homeschoolers are flakey.

 

 

I'm a negative nancy so here are the pitfalls I see:

 

Location. It sounds like you are talking about running this out of your home. But what happens if you vacation? Or if you are sick? Do others have keys to your home? Are they authorized to use your home when you are not there? Does your personal schedule rule the schedule of the organization or vis versa? Are you cleaning up after this all the time? Do you really have the money to purchase a home with several rooms your family does not use? Do you really want to?

 

There is also a tax/insurance/liability web of doom that could = a high chance that if things ever went south you would potentially lose your home. I personally know a woman that just this year lost her home because her business went bankrupt. When money starts changing hands you are talking about running a business. And running a nonprofit is worse, trust me, I've been running one for 4 years now.

 

Resource Lending Library. How many members are you imagining? I can't imagine collecting enough to supply them with what they want. New stuff comes out all the time, and several families will be using the same thing. Also things get ruined/lost, how do you keep track of it all, do you charge for lost/stolen items, what if they don't pay, do you send to collections? Running this alone would be a full time job. I would potentially pay for access to a lending library with dozens of every popular curricula in good quality (thousands of dollar enterprise) I would not pay if there was a high chance everything "good" was taken. And I definitely wouldn't pay to just see the curricula. That's what curricula fairs are, and they would beat you every time.

 

Classes. Are you hiring teachers? Are the contractors, are they employees, are the volunteers? If they are volunteers do they choose the class they teach? Do you? Do they choose the day and time? Do you? Every co-op I've toured with unpaid volunteer teachers has had a very wide margin of class quality and a huge yearly turn-around. But you expect that, because its a co-op and its free/cheap. If I was paying a membership I'd expect paid and qualified teachers. Managing this would be another full-time job.

[SebastianCat]

I highly recommend you read Carol Topp's books.   She calls herself the "Homeschool CPA" and her website is homeschoolcpa.com.   Her ebooks are available to download on her website for less than $10 each.    They have been very helpful to me.

 

I am the treasurer for a medium size co-op (27 families).   We recently went through the process of becoming a nonprofit corporation, obtaining business banking services, and are starting the process of applying for 501©(3) tax exempt status.   The situation you describe would require every one of those steps, and they took a LOT of time and effort.   They are absolutely do-able, but you are wise in starting now to think through that process.

 

The biggest surprises we've encountered have been the need for and cost of liability insurance, the need for liability waivers (required by insurance), and the amount of effort required to put together documentation of policies and procedures.    You will absolutely need to put together a board of directors, because trying to be the director, secretary, treasurer, plus handling marketing, communication, collections, and logistics is too much for one person to orchestrate alone.    Purchasing buildings and paying teachers are a whole 'nuther issue - you will need to learn IRS rules and regulations before you start, and be prepared for the paperwork required.   I can't recommend highly enough that you talk to a CPA who knows homeschool co-ops before you dive in any further.  

 

I think you are wise for thinking this far in advance, and your plan sounds like a place I would have loved to have when my kids were younger!

[wintermom]

It does sound really cool. Here is my initial thought: you are making plans for when your children will be much older than they currently are and you really don't know what your personal situation may be at that time. You may be homeschooling and loving it, and still think a group-type setting is what you want. You may be homeschooling and loving, and not really want a group-type setting. You may not be homeschooling at all. So much can happen. I would personally keep this seed tucked away to think on and perhaps let it grow into something once you've experienced homeschooling for a couple years. 

 

For me personally, now that I've been homeschooling 10 years, I would just buy my own family telescope. It's WAY cheaper and less demanding. You can create the other things you listed in your own home or on a temporary basis for specific classes. It sounds really interesting, and it sounds like a full-time job to run. I'd rather spend that time with my own dc.

[Xahm]

Thank you all for your encouragement and for your warnings.  They are very, very helpful to me.  If we do this, I want to be able to plan it out in advance and not be blindsided by reality.

Kinsa, I've bookmarked FEAST's website and will look more later. That looks bigger than I could imagine being, though.

I know that taxes and insurance are going to be things to talk to a good lawyer about. It would probably involve setting up a trust of some sort.

My ideal for starting out (I can dream bigger, trust me) would be to either buy something like a small church that has, sadly, gone "out of business" and renovate part to be a home, part to be the center, or to build a home with an extra 3 rooms and a very large dining room in between the "home" part and the "center" part. The dining room could then be for our big family gatherings (large extended family) or the center.  Locking outside-type doors between family space and center space no matter what the set-up, though. We would then not have to worry too much about people being there if we are not, though someone else would have to be authorized to let them into the center. And if we did this and then decided to close up shop, we'd repurpose the rooms to be a nice in-law suite or something, which we would likely include if we were building, anyway.

I will also have to get help with creating a viable business plan, though I have some family that should be able to help with that, some. My initial thought is that some folks, like a piano teacher, would be independent contractors, just paying us basically a rental fee for the space. Then we would likely teach some classes ourselves and hire a couple of people part-time for others. I don't think I want the kind of place where parents must sit in on the class, and I know that raises the liability and therefore the costs. The resource center aspect of it is partly the library but also the "here's a science lab that you can come and use, either independently as a family or in this class." For those paying for classes, there would be no additional fee for the library, but I'd try to have something set up so that if someone really doesn't want a group setting at all, they can pay just a little to come and use some equipment. 

This is an idea that may fizzle out as my kids get older as you say, Wintermom, and I really am fine with that.  I just know that as several posters have pointed out, if we are going to do it, it will take lots of work in advance, not just opening up shop one day 10 years from now.

[Xahm]

A friend set up something like this, I think in Canada. So it's do-able!

Do you happen to know the name?  I'd love to read more about it, if they have an online presence.

[Starr]

Are you trying to make some money beyond cost for all the time involved?

[Xahm]

Are you trying to make some money beyond cost for all the time involved?

Not really. I don't want to sink our own money into it on an ongoing basis, and I wouldn't mind paying myself a salary, of course, but the primary purpose would be to make my kid's education as full as possible. Secondary purpose would be to help out others. After my kids are grown would be a different story, a bit. Either focusing on it more as a business or using the experience gained to get another job,