So schools can effectively be signed up and sent BW material without ever having signed up for themselves? How can that possibly be right?
Signed up, sent material and assigned to a total stranger. Do BW even check to see if the area co-ordinator is allowed to be around children?
What does the area co-ordinator do, if the assigned school refuses to have anything to do with them? That's the big cash cow, isn't it? Signing up students by the classful?
I'm confused as I thought the schools scheme was aimed at UK schools, so I don't understand why there would be international candidates. Does this mean people currently overseas who will be returning to the UK?
Possibly, or maybe it just acknowledges that you could do most of this on-line. 'Distance education' I believe is the term.
You could be anywhere, 'encouraging' and 'developing' and, certainly 'selling' over the 'net.
So companies can become area co-ordinators, using BW as a means of getting into schools and promoting both it and BW's activities?
If I was a parent of a child using a site co-ordinated for BW by a private company or trading entity, I would want to have details on what the school is doing with material being provided to my child and who takes responsibility for that material - i.e. BW or the co-ordinator. At present there seem to be two companies who have taken up co-ordinator roles:
Both seem to be perfectly legitimate companies and I make no criticism or cast any opinion on their involvement.
To put this in perspective:
- if a BW co-ordinator encourages you or your writing group to submit to the BW contest (at a fee of £10.95), then they should disclose to you that it's because they will get 10% of your entry fee, i.e. £1.09).
- if a BW area co-ordinator comes to you and offers to sign up your school, then you should be aware that they will get 50% (i.e. £50 of that £100 registration fee).
Regarding the 20% on all referrals to writing services, I'd want to know how that is calculated - i.e. is it 20% of the amount paid to that service by the writer or is there a set commission payment per referral of which they get 20%?
The 90% retention on fees paid for services provided by the area co-ordinator suggests that BW gets 10% but I would definitely want that clarified. (It could be that BW gets nothing but this isn't clear because the advert is so badly drafted).
I'd also want to clarify what that 75% on adverts for local businesses on the website means and what it's calculated against.
So you've paid £500 for the privilege of a one year position. It is entirely possible that you will not make that money back and if you make a financial success out of your area, it could potentially be the case that someone else takes the benefit of it in the next year.
All in all, I see a lot about this that I strongly dislike and an awful lot of potential for it to operate in practice as a mill for BW's writers' contest and school sign up (notwithstanding the fact that special needs and low income schools don't need to pay a fee). By way of clarification - I don't have an issue with companies making a profit from offering creative writing services whether to schools or to the wider public but particularly in the case of schools where public money may well be at stake, I do think that there needs to be complete transparency as to what is being done in return for the fee and what benefits the service provider may obtain.
All in all, I'm left with more questions than answers.
MM
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