A number of years ago the MSBO Board made the decision to try to leverage MSBO’s resources by utilizing partnerships to help achieve our goals. I felt then, and still believe, it was a wise decision.
We partner with many organizations in many ways. First and foremost is our partnership with the Michigan Association of School Administrators (MASA) and the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB). For those of you who haven’t been to our offices, MSBO shares a building complex with MASA, MASB and the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP). We share a conference room and our kitchen/break facilities with MASA. We are currently adding 3,000 square feet of office space and enlarging/renovating our conference room because the Michigan Institute of Educational Management (MIEM), which is a partnership between MSBO and MASA, is growing so much.
We partner with MASA and MASB on a number of business services and products. One of the largest of these is the Michigan Liquid Asset Fund (MILAF) which provides investment services for schools and has assets in excess of $1 billion. We call it the “Sleep Well Fund” because it takes a conservative approach to protecting school district funds. A board comprised primarily of business mangers actively oversees MILAF. We also do purchase cards, an electronic payment service and a number of other things together. Additionally, we meet with these organizations on a regular basis about legislative matters. They help us in many ways and we, in turn, help them.
MSBO also partners with private companies to bring innovative products to our members. We are very, very excited about our newest partnership with a company called RFP Depot. They have an incredible web-based purchasing product that is being used by large consortia and municipalities across the country. We had about 15 of our members review it before we agreed to work with the company. They gave it rave reviews. We’ll tell you more about RFP Depot in the future, but from my perspective, it is the most exciting company we’ve worked with in my time at MSBO. I anticipate that it will help our members do their jobs at a higher level AND reduce prices and transaction costs. If you want to learn more know, visit their website.
In another sense, we partner with government entities like the Michigan Department of Education (MDE). We jointly sponsor a conference with them each year and they provide us many speakers for many functions. We provide MDE with input through groups like the Bulletin 1022 Committee and for ad hoc issues, like the food services management contract. We also work with the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) as part of a steering committee. These are partnerships in which we represent our members and provide what is hopefully useful feedback.
We also see our relationship with you as a partnership. MSBO’s dues are relatively low and only support about 12% of our operations. To earn your respect and support, we must offer programs, products and services that you value. We work with our regional groups to solicit member feedback on a regular basis. We want to serve your needs and to do that we have to listen to you.
The point of all this is to tell you a little about how a small organization like MSBO can do many things. We rely heavily on partnerships to create a synergy that allows us to go beyond what we could do on our own.
Working together we can all accomplish so much more than if we work alone. This is not really a zero-sum game. Partnerships are the basis for reducing a winners and losers mentality, and for building a better world together.