Our "Rivers of Life" Economy
The Model
“We never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something,
create a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
~Buckminster Fuller
U of Earth’s Rivers of Life Economy
Our “Rivers of Life” educational economic model is based on the natural pattern of a river system with tributaries growing upstream and benefits flowing downstream to nourish the entire system. Borrowing from the genius of the multi-level business model we have created a model of education that is self-supporting and life enriching while helping protect us from further economic contractions.
Students who enter our Degree Mentor’s program can begin earning money after the satisfactory completion of one course by facilitating the studies of new students in courses they have already completed and at the same time deepen their own studies of the subject. By recruiting new students or selecting students from the pool through U of Earth administrative staff students create their own tributary and stream of income as they earn their degrees. Students can earn over $30,000 while completing their degree program by facilitating the course work of up to twelve students.
Students who graduate and serve as U of Earth Mentors earn 70% of all UE course fees for students in their tributary or $6,300 of the $9,000 of the total degree program fees. Working part-time, a Mentor can earn $31,500 annually by graduating five students per year. Once a Mentor has five graduates serving as Mentors in their tributary and each of them is graduating five students per year the Mentor earns an additional $22,000 per year for a total of over $53,000 annually, and still working part-time. Create another stream of five Mentors graduating five students and add an additional $22,000. Of course, as a Mentor’s tributary both expands and extends the flow of income increases to the Mentor.
This is the true “Trickle Down Economy” and because none of us value money over life it is my anticipation that many of us will divert excess income flow to other projects or those in need in other places.
Time vs. Income
Using the figure of $6,300 for each graduating student, Mentors can estimate the amount of time they want to spend mentoring and the amount of income they want to earn. Aside from the amount of time it will take to complete your own studies I have found that I spend about an hour per assignment for each student: for example 5 students requires approximately 5 hours of mentoring every two weeks (assignments are usually due every two weeks).
Once you graduate or a course is completed the time commitment becomes only mentoring as the readings and assignments are already complete and saved in a word file to be edited and reposted to the new students.
Of course, graduates have the option of developing a private practice as an EcoTherapist, EcoLife Coach or EcoEducator as well. My practice has been quite successful using the model and skill set offered in our curriculum.
The Magic of the Tithe ~ Thrice
Here is how the flow goes.
70% of all income goes to the Mentor
10% of all income goes to those downstream
10% of all income goes to support the work of authors of course books and to support UE staff and projects
10% of all income goes to UE to create and maintain our life-enhancing EcoRetreat communities.
Estimation of Income Stream
The chart below depicts the amount of income generated and where it is distributed for increasing levels of participation.
|
No. of Mentors graduating
5 students/year
|
Support
|
U of Earth
|
Mentors
|
Down Stream
|
|
1mentor/ 5 graduates
|
4.5K
|
4.5K
|
31.5K
|
4.5K
|
|
5/5 = 25 graduates
|
22.5K
|
22.5K
|
225K
|
22.5K
|
|
25/5 = 125 graduates
|
122K
|
122K
|
1.125M
|
122K
|
|
125/5 = 625 graduates
|
562K
|
562K
|
5.625M
|
562K
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Summary
Our model is living and evolving like a river system and the figures above are estimates, but they serve to give you a sense of what could be. As you can see, as our Rivers of Life model grows the revenue generated grows, providing both greater numbers of individual incomes as well as greater revenue available to create and maintain our EcoRetreat centers.