Hello Patricia,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this.
We have many materials that we have prepared that explain the program and I
am attaching some of those materials with this email. Unfortunately all of
those documents were made to accompany a presentation and none of them give
some of the basic introductory information that would best explain it to
someone who is hearing about this for the first time. With that in mind,
let me give you a little background before you open the materials.
The most common complaint among collaborative professionals is that they
would like more cases. Although Collaborative Law is the fasting growing
ADR family law ADR method in North America, less than 2% of the population
has heard of Collaborative Law. We are just beginning to see how a well
organized professional marketing effort can make an enormous difference.
Wisconsin and Texas have led the way in showing us all what marketing can
do. Both of those states hired Liz Ferris of Ferris Consulting to assist
them in putting together a marketing campaign and saw incredible results.
Active members in Wisconsin saw their cases increase by 300% in a very short
time and saw its membership grow to 200 members. Within 6 weeks, Texas
raised almost $90,000, train 1000 additional professionals and created an
unbelievable website.
Many practice Groups who have observed the great success in these states
have wanted to duplicate these results but were uncertain about their
ability to raise the $50,000 to $80,000 necessary to develop an effective
campaign. As groups throughout North America sorted out their individual
marketing ideas, it became increasingly clear that we should be pooling our
resources to great an international campaign. The IACP then created an
International Committtee that met in Chicago last September to start working
on an International Marketing Campain for Collaborative Law. The committee
emerged with an exciting plan that will help collaborative practice grow
throughout North America in the next few years.
The first phase of the International Marketing Plan is to design and create
marketing materials, (brochures for clients and referral sources) that will
help us launch an great international campaigan and, at the same time, give
local groups much needed materials to market their local practices. We will
be spending between $40,000 and $60,000 to have Liz Ferris and others to
create these marketing materials. To raise the money to make this happen,
we initially offered licensing rights to these materials to any practice
group that pays at least that pays the following amount: $1,750 for groups
of 20 or less and $3,500 for groups of more than 20. (That price formula is
changing somewhat to $100 per member at the end of the month. ) Once I
know the size of your group, I can give you some more detail on this.
I hope you find this to be helpful. Please review the agreement and contact
me with any additional questions that you have.
Ron Ousky
-----Original Message-----
From: Patricia Plettner [mailto:plettner@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 5:57 AM
To: CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [CollabLaw] International Marketing Committee
Hi Ron: I'm just catching up on reading the listserve, and I'm new to the
concept of the Collaborative Family Law practice. Since I'm from Wisc., live
in Texas, I was especially interested in your posting. I will take you up on
your offer of emailing the Marketing Committee plans: [Central to the
International Plan is a "first phase" in which groups, by
pooling their resources together, can obtain a "turn-key marketing program"
at a small fraction of the cost. (If you do not have the information about
this opportunity, please let me know and I will email the materials to you
immediately.)]
Thanks,
Patricia Plettner
Dallas, Texas
plettner@xxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: Ron Ousky [mailto:ron@xxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 8:56 AM
To: 'CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: RE: [CollabLaw] International Marketing Committee
Hello Everyone,
I am a member of the International Marketing Committee and I would like to
respond to the important question raised by Rob Harvie and to make sure that
everyone on the listserve is aware of the International Marketing Campaign.
As many of you are aware, an International Marketing Committee was formed
through the IACP last Fall. The Committee met with Elizabeth Ferris (the
marketing consultant from Milwaukee who worked with the Wisconsin and Texas
groups in creating their enormously successful marketing plans) to create a
Strategic Plan that Elizabeth introduced at the Vancouver Conference in
October.
Central to the International Plan is a "first phase" in which groups, by
pooling their resources together, can pobtain a "turn-key marketing program"
at a small fraction of the cost. (If you do not have the information about
this opportunity, please let me know and I will email the materials to you
immediately.)
We need as many groups as possible to join this effort so that the plan can
move forward. One of the most difficult issues has been setting a price
that is fair to groups throughout North America. We decided to offer this
marketing plan to groups for $3,500 U.S. ($4,000 Canadian). In my view the
materials and the plan that these "charter" groups will receive has a value
of at least ten times that amount. When it became apparent that that
smaller groups may have difficulty with that amount. Therefore, we offered
a lower price, $1,750 U.S. ($2,000 Canadian) for groups of 20 or fewer
members.
One of the questions that has come up is how to deal with "sub-groups" or
groups that want to pool their funds together, as Rob as pointed out. To
date, I do not believe we have come up with a definitive answer to that
question. (Or at least, if we have a definitive answer, it has not been
adequately communicated yet.) I am sure you can all appreciate that this is
a difficult question. We will get back to you with a clear answer very
soon.
We have had many groups, (including our group in Minnesota) join
immediately. There is no doubt that there is enough interest to make this
happen. However, we would like to have many more groups join soon to keep
this plan on schedule.
Meanwhile, we want to do everything I can to keep all of you interested in
this International Marketing Plan. I really believe that this plan has the
potential to push Collaborative Law past that "tipping point" in many
individual communities and throughout North America. I am confident that
all groups that join (at any price) will find that it was the wisest
investment that their group ever made.
So, if you have questions about the plan, in general, please feel free to
contact me ( ron@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:ron@xxxxxxxxx> ) or any other member of
the International Marketing Group. i believe the main contact person is
Brad Hunter who can be reached at law@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:law@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> . However, feel free to contact any of the
following members of the International Marketing Committee that you may
know: Alan Nobler, Jennifer Jackson, Peggy Thompson, Lisa Alexander, Kim
Davidson, Michell Sullivan, Diane Diehl, Kelly Pears, Lynda Robbins, Bob
Bordett, Marion Korn. I know some of them are on this listserve and will
probably add to this message. I am not the group spokesperson, but I wanted
to get some information out before the holidays to make sure that interest
is maintained. My main message is to stay tuned for more definitive
information soon.
'
Have a nice holiday.
Ron Ousky
-----Original Message-----
From: George B. Richardson [mailto:g.richardson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 6:18 PM
To: Rob Harvie
Cc: CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Alan Nobler
Subject: Re: [CollabLaw] International Marketing Committee
I don't know about this stuff, particularly, but I don't believe that
Alan Nobler, who is coordinating this venture is on this list. I am,
therefore, copying this to him with an invitation to join the list
serve or to send a response to me for posting. Given that we are just
about at the US Thanksgiving break, I don't know that he will be able
to respond to this question before next week.
George Richardson
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
At 5:01 PM -0700 11/25/03, Rob Harvie wrote:
Our provincial organization, the Association of Collaborative
Lawyers of Alberta, has been impressed with the material put forward
by the International Marketing Committee, which presented materials
at the Vancouver Conference. It was our initial understanding that
any "group" could enroll in the program, for a set cost, depending
on whether the group had more or less than 20 members. In the last
week, however, we have been advised that this is not the case, and
that the individual cities and towns who have their own "sub-groups"
must each pay the said cost, even though we understand that there
are Province-wide, or State-wide groups that have joined the program
already.
We believe the concept of a unified message through the IMC is a
very good idea, both in terms of promoting Collaborative Law
directly, but also in unifying the message internationally and
improving the consistency of practice, however, some of the smaller
communities and groups in our Province have declined to individually
join the IMC program.
We have no difficulty paying our fair share of the cost of marketing
with other groups in Canada and the U.S., however, as we have
several community groups in Alberta, the cost to be levied would
appear to be perhaps $20,000.00 for our Province as a whole, whereas
other Provincial or State groups may be buying into the program for
as little as $2,000.00.
I am wondering if other state-wide or local groups have had any
difficulty with this, and what might be done to address what appears
to be some differential treatment between groups.
Robert G. Harvie
Association of Collaborative Lawyers of Alberta
