[AAACE-NLA] Help Needed-Constructs for the Message

[AWilder106@aol.com]

Debbie,

At the risk of further offense to anybody who might not like business lingo--I find useful myself the idea of operating costs and capital expenditure.  For all I know you use this language yourself, so apologies for any redundancy.

As a business person I want to know how much it costs to run a program without any expansion, just  keeping it going,and I do use the term operating costs, myself. As I indicated in a previous post, I am a small (125lb!) business person;  I don't live above the store, I live IN the store. If I want to add a shed, I have to know about initial expense for such a capital improvement, and also its operating cost--how much to keep it going--upkeep.

Then there is capital expansion and capital investment--adding on, with operating costs for the add-on figured in.  You assume you can attract more people, perhaps, with a capital investment.

There has recently been an interesting discussion of integrating technology into adult lit programs, over on AALPD.  If I were a business person I would ask what you are doing about computer technology.

My feeling about adult lit students is that we shouldn't think of them as add-ons to the general population, they aren't kids, we should be able to figure out how to get them computer skills as fast as possible--which may be slow, depending on resources, but even one software program is a start. 

Are any of your potential business people knowledgeable about  putting together computer networks?  Often business people will prefer to contribute goods and services rather than straight out cash.

By  the way, I used to help run a private school (progressive) and these problems were in our face all the time.  When parents asked (still do)  me where they should send their kids, I always advised them to find out where the school's students went when they LEFT the school, and if they liked that answer, they should apply.

Personally, from reading your posts in the past, I bet you know all this.  Please let us know what happens!!!!

With you in your endeavors,

Andrea