"The Racine Unified Board of Education started Policy Governance training with the Aspen Group in the Fall 2005.  The training was intense, professional and provided valuable insight and strategies for proper and powerful Board governance.  Our Board approved going to the new governance model on December 19, 2005.  We are very satisfied with our experience with Aspen.  Both Linda and Randy have the experience, positive attitude, and political acumen to work with any school board and make it a rewarding experience.  This is cutting-edge governance and one additional strategy to increase student achievement."

William H. Schalk, Former President
Racine Unified School District, WI
1. Q: What types of clients do you serve?
A: Virtually all our clients are government or non-profit boards, their CEOs and senior staff. We enjoy and accept engagements with related entities, but in all instances our work focuses on governance, top-level strategic leadership, and accountable organizational performance.
2. Q: Does The Aspen Group have a specialty that distinguishes it from other similar organizations?
A:
A substantial portion of our work is with public school boards. We specialize in serving clients who choose to adopt Policy Governance®, John Carver's governance model, or our own variation, Coherent Governance.  To be clear, our Policy Governance work with school boards represents an adaptation of the model to more powerfully drive systemic and systematic organizational performance in this very different kind of organization. Both models are described in the Governance Training and Services section of this site.

We also offer custom governance work for boards that want to achieve excellent governance and organizational performance by developing new governance processes without affecting their existing traditional policies.
3. Q: Why do you offer an "adapted" version of Policy Governance for school boards?
A: Our experience has proved to us that school boards face issues and challenges that make them different from other types of boards in some important ways.  They face fierce community scrutiny, legislative mandates, comparatively frequent leadership turnover, complex student needs, uncertain funding, and inadequate training.  They deal with instructional issues, discipline issues, and staffing issues that are more complex than those faced by most other boards. We believe that school boards must have written policies that other boards may not need in order to express their values and concerns about the organizational actions and decisions they would find unacceptable.  Our adaptation assures that all important operational concerns are addressed, leaving no critical gaps. The school board safely can delegate operational decision-making to its CEO with assurance that it will not need to dwell on day-to-day operations. It can govern, not manage the manager!
4. Q: How has the model been adapted to accommodate these differences?
A: For the most part, the Policy Governance model as applied to school boards is fully intact and "pure." The only part that has been adapted for school boards is the Executive Limitations section, which is where we believe adaptation is required in order to meet the unique challenges facing school boards.. We include policies addressing operational areas such as those identified above.
5. Q: What is the difference between your Coherent Governance and Policy Governance®?
A:
Between the Aspen partners, we have more than 60 years' experience in working with boards to help them perform better. For years we focused exclusively on Policy Governance® as the preferred way to help boards perform as they were intended. But we continued to be challenged with complaints that Policy Governance was "too rigid," and the Executive Limitations were "too negative." While we understand the counter arguments to those concerns, we finally concluded that we must build a variant that overcame those issues. Our Coherent Governance model eliminates the "double-negative" language of the Executive Limitations policies, and substitutes a combination of "do this" and "don't do this" provisions. In addition, it contains many policies dealing with operational concerns that the "pure" application of Policy Governance would not include. Overall, the language of the template policies is, we believe, much more easily understood. We are convinced that Coherent Governance is one of the best, most efficient and effective means for boards to create and sustain a meaningful new culture for themselves and their organizations.
6. Q: Why school boards?
A:
Most of our professional careers have been spent in service to or for school boards.  We know the special challenge they face to achieve good governance: they usually are political; they are populated by lay people often with little or no board experience or education expertise; the organizations they serve are surprisingly complex; they account for a community's greatest expenditure of tax dollars; and they have power over the welfare and success of our children. We believe the performance of these supremely important boards must be self-disciplined and properly focused on students and their achievement.
 
7. Q: Have you worked with any very large (or very small) organizations?
A: We have served clients with annual budgets ranging from $200,000 to more than $1 billion, from employing fewer than 10 employees to more than 25,000. We have discovered and validated over and over: regardless of the size or complexity of the organization, or even its type, a board is a board. All have unique challenges.  All have unique characteristics. But when the issues that face boards are reduced to their lowest common denominator, there are many more commonalities among boards than there are differences.
8. Q: Who actually does Aspen's work?
A: Most of our work is performed by our two Senior Partners, Linda J. Dawson and Dr. Randy Quinn. Linda is based in Chicago, and Randy works out of Aspen's Castle Rock, Colorado office. Depending on the nature of the work and Aspen's obligations at the time, associates occasionally are utilized. In all instances, Aspen associates are superbly qualified and skilled in the areas in which they perform.
9. Q: Do the two of you always work together?
A: We believe our work as a team increases the quality of service our clients receive.  We have found that our very different styles enhance our delivery and ability to connect with different personalities. While one of us facilitates the deliberations or does the training, the other usually records the product of that discussion, allowing us to leave a finished document of the work as the session ends. We don't like delays in your work flow and implementation.
10. Q: What is the cost of your services?
A: Aspen charges fixed fees for all its services, which in some cases vary based on the size, type and complexity of the organization: large organizations are more complex and often require deeper levels of intervention and support than smaller ones. For all work performed on a daily-fee basis, our current charge is $4,500, plus expenses. However, most of our work is priced by project, rather than by day. Project work is priced individually based on the foregoing considerations, and usually results in greater economy for the client.
11. Q: What are your business hours?
A: Our business hours are Monday to Friday 8:00 am-5:00 pm Mountain Time
12. Q: Where are you located?
A: Aspen Group offices are located in Denver's southern suburbs. Our address is:
     The Aspen Group International, LLC
     P.O. Box 1777
     Castle Rock, Colorado
     80104 USA
13. Q: How do I contact you?
A: Simply complete the form below or call us at:
303-882-9888 (Randy) or 303-478-0125 (Linda),  or fax us at 208-247-6084.
Our e-mail address is aspen@aspengroup.org
1. Q: What types of clients do you serve?
A: Virtually all our clients are government or non-profit boards, their CEOs and senior staff. We enjoy and accept engagements with related entities, but in all instances our work focuses on governance, top-level strategic leadership, and accountable organizational performance.
2. Q: Does The Aspen Group have a specialty that distinguishes it from other similar organizations?
A:
A substantial portion of our work is with public school boards. We specialize in serving clients who choose to adopt Policy Governance®, John Carver's governance model, or our own variation, Coherent Governance.  To be clear, our Policy Governance work with school boards represents an adaptation of the model to more powerfully drive systemic and systematic organizational performance in this very different kind of organization. Both models are described in the Governance Training and Services section of this site.

We also offer custom governance work for boards that want to achieve excellent governance and organizational performance by developing new governance processes without affecting their existing traditional policies.
3. Q: Why do you offer an "adapted" version of Policy Governance for school boards?
A: Our experience has proved to us that school boards face issues and challenges that make them different from other types of boards in some important ways.  They face fierce community scrutiny, legislative mandates, comparatively frequent leadership turnover, complex student needs, uncertain funding, and inadequate training.  They deal with instructional issues, discipline issues, and staffing issues that are more complex than those faced by most other boards. We believe that school boards must have written policies that other boards may not need in order to express their values and concerns about the organizational actions and decisions they would find unacceptable.  Our adaptation assures that all important operational concerns are addressed, leaving no critical gaps. The school board safely can delegate operational decision-making to its CEO with assurance that it will not need to dwell on day-to-day operations. It can govern, not manage the manager!
4. Q: How has the model been adapted to accommodate these differences?
A: For the most part, the Policy Governance model as applied to school boards is fully intact and "pure." The only part that has been adapted for school boards is the Executive Limitations section, which is where we believe adaptation is required in order to meet the unique challenges facing school boards.. We include policies addressing operational areas such as those identified above.
5. Q: What is the difference between your Coherent Governance and Policy Governance®?
A:
Between the Aspen partners, we have more than 60 years' experience in working with boards to help them perform better. For years we focused exclusively on Policy Governance® as the preferred way to help boards perform as they were intended. But we continued to be challenged with complaints that Policy Governance was "too rigid," and the Executive Limitations were "too negative." While we understand the counter arguments to those concerns, we finally concluded that we must build a variant that overcame those issues. Our Coherent Governance model eliminates the "double-negative" language of the Executive Limitations policies, and substitutes a combination of "do this" and "don't do this" provisions. In addition, it contains many policies dealing with operational concerns that the "pure" application of Policy Governance would not include. Overall, the language of the template policies is, we believe, much more easily understood. We are convinced that Coherent Governance is one of the best, most efficient and effective means for boards to create and sustain a meaningful new culture for themselves and their organizations.
6. Q: Why school boards?
A:
Most of our professional careers have been spent in service to or for school boards.  We know the special challenge they face to achieve good governance: they usually are political; they are populated by lay people often with little or no board experience or education expertise; the organizations they serve are surprisingly complex; they account for a community's greatest expenditure of tax dollars; and they have power over the welfare and success of our children. We believe the performance of these supremely important boards must be self-disciplined and properly focused on students and their achievement.
7. Q: Have you worked with any very large (or very small) organizations?
A: We have served clients with annual budgets ranging from $200,000 to more than $1 billion, from employing fewer than 10 employees to more than 25,000. We have discovered and validated over and over: regardless of the size or complexity of the organization, or even its type, a board is a board. All have unique challenges.  All have unique characteristics. But when the issues that face boards are reduced to their lowest common denominator, there are many more commonalities among boards than there are differences.
8. Q: Who actually does Aspen's work?
A: Most of our work is performed by our two Senior Partners, Linda J. Dawson and Dr. Randy Quinn. Linda is based in Chicago, and Randy works out of Aspen's Castle Rock, Colorado office. Depending on the nature of the work and Aspen's obligations at the time, associates occasionally are utilized. In all instances, Aspen associates are superbly qualified and skilled in the areas in which they perform.
9. Q: Do the two of you always work together?
A: We believe our work as a team increases the quality of service our clients receive.  We have found that our very different styles enhance our delivery and ability to connect with different personalities. While one of us facilitates the deliberations or does the training, the other usually records the product of that discussion, allowing us to leave a finished document of the work as the session ends. We don't like delays in your work flow and implementation.
10. Q: What is the cost of your services?
A: Aspen charges fixed fees for all its services, which in some cases vary based on the size, type and complexity of the organization: large organizations are more complex and often require deeper levels of intervention and support than smaller ones. For all work performed on a daily-fee basis, our current charge is $4,500, plus expenses. However, most of our work is priced by project, rather than by day. Project work is priced individually based on the foregoing considerations, and usually results in greater economy for the client.
11. Q: What are your business hours?
A: Our business hours are Monday to Friday 8:00 am-5:00 pm Mountain Time
12. Q: Where are you located?
A: Aspen Group offices are located in Denver's southern suburbs. Our address is:
     The Aspen Group International, LLC
     P.O. Box 1777
     Castle Rock, Colorado
     80104 USA
13. Q: How do I contact you?
A: Simply complete the form below or call us at:
303-882-9888 (Randy) or 303-478-0125 (Linda),  or fax us at 208-247-6084.
Our e-mail address is aspen@aspengroup.org


Hot Links to Affiliated Web Sites

www.beaufort.k12.sc.us.
www.cbe.ab.ca/default.asp
www.ccsd.net
www.columbus.k12.wi.us/
www.durango.k12.co.us

http://www.fcps.edu

www.fargo.k12.nd.us

www.habershamschools.com

www.hcsd.k12.sc.us

www.issaquah.wednet.edu
www.lacrosse.k12.wi.us/ www.lkwash.wednet.edu

http://www.mnps.org

www.newark.k12.ny.us

www.trenton.k12.nj.us

www.schoolhousecom.com

Aspen Public Schools, CO
Austin Independent School District, TX

Beaufort County School District, SC

Calgary Public Schools, Alberta, Canada

Clark County School District, NV

Columbus Public Schools, WI

Durango School District, CO

Fairfax Public Schools, VA

Fargo School District, ND

Habersham Public Schools, GA

Horry County School District, SC

Issaquah School District, WA

School District of LaCrosse, WI

Lake Washington School District, WA

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, TN

Newark School District, NY

Trenton School District, NJ

Schoolhouse Communications, Lesley Dahlkemper

 

 

 

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Aspen Group
International, LLC.
All rights reserved.