I set up three EOT groups on Meetup in London about six months ago.  One for evening conversation practice using our self-study materials beforehand, another for taught EOT classes scheduled to start and finish in free public places and the third for teachers interested in teaching EOT.  There are now over 150 people who want to learn and improve their English the EOT way and 35 teachers who are interested in teaching EOT. That's a small school really, but with no school premises.

I have now invited anyone, student or teacher, or more than one person ("the more the merrier") to take over and 'go for it'!  Here are the messages I sent out to everyone. sorry for being a bit long-winded, that's just me... ;-)

Hi everyone...

We have 180 students doing EOT in London this summer and I have outsourced those groups to an experienced teacher. We have 35 teachers who are interested in teaching EOT.

If you all communicate and get together...students wanting cheap and effective teaching....teachers wanting extra well paid teaching work in London....IT COULD HAPPEN, EASILY!

So, read this email I just sent it to the 111 members of the evening conversation group and the 35 teachers...with all of you in this 'taught lesson' group....we have 165 students of English in London who want effective help and 35 experienced teachers of English who want to teach students in a different way that values their time more than it has been to date.

Get active, speak to each other, join all the groups on Meetup and post messages. Anyone who wants to be an assistant organiser contact me.

Cheers

Jason

Here's that email I sent out to the other groups:

Hi everyone

I am sending you this so that, if you want, you can see what I am trying to do and that I am trying to bring the 35 teachers in our EOT teachers' group together with all the English learners on the conversation and taught lessons groups.

I want to try and get them to run it as a collective and give it some energy and love and affection that I unfortunately cannot give because I now live miles from London and am caring for my kids part time (two small boys) and am working on the online publishing of our materials.

BUT...you and the teachers in London don't need me!

If you join the teachers group and say 'hi':

http://www.meetup.com/London-English-Out-There-EFL-ESL-teachers-group/ (35 teachers looking to teach you)

try to persuade a teacher or two to take a class. They are scheduled here:

http://www.meetup.com/English-Out-There-London-3-hour-taught-lessons/

To make it economically viable we need about 4 students per lesson, paying £10 each for the three hours. This can be sustainable....

I can make you or them 'assistant organisers' and you can run the London EOT courses in London, with no premises....providing cheap, hiugh quality and effective English classes for everyone who wants them, change the prices. Just do it together as a collective.

Teachers get to keep all of the fees paid by students...so you will get committed, well paid and flexible teaching, if you help to organise things yourselves.

I just sent this to the teachers....it has info abiout what I have been doing and links to some cool stuff, most notably the book we have had created for us that has been endorsed by Steven Pinker, the world's most famous linguistics expert...

Get active....create your own school....we have the proven method, materials and we now have a lot of interested students on this site and 35 interested teachers in London...go for it!

Cheers

Jason

Here's that message I sent to the teachers:

Hi guys

I'm not going to be able to make it again...profuse apologies, but, you don't need me!

I've had brief email exchanges with two of you who seem interested in EOT and the prospect of this becoming a kind of informal London teaching collective, which is cool by me, as I am publishing stuff and lives miles away now and really want some sustainability to creep into the things I have put on Meetup (evening conversation practice and taught lessons).

Here are the taught classes scheduled:

http://www.meetup.com/English-Out-There-London-3-hour-taught-lessons/ (54 members)

and the evening conversation classes (£3 a pop, so if you run one and get 10 people that's 15 quid an hour!):

http://www.meetup.com/English-Out-There-London-English-conversation/ (111 members) - 6 yes, 3 maybe for Tuesday at the Museum Tavern in Bloomsbury...I think Maria ia away (Maria let me know if you are going to do this one as someone else could step in?).

We've got 180 students doing EOT in July and August and Steve Jackson is organising all of that, as I have 'out-sourced' it to him for precisely the reasons that I mentioned above...but also because it could be a sustainable summer business, year on year, that could easily, with some collective effort, become a year round thing. Steve is paying very well for teachers but I think he might have all the teachers he needs now, but do drop him a line if you are interested, he is in this group.

So, Steve has the summer club and hopes to keep it and would, I am sure, employ teachers who teach or have taught EOT...so the evening group and the scheduled lessons are up for grabs by anyone who has the energy and the time.

The deal is there is no deal.....I will promote it on our website and if we get bookings (and we still have some agents sending) I will just charge a normal agency fee and pass the rest on. Anyone who you can get to sign up, you keep every penny.

Anyone want to take the next session on the group and try to make this happen? There are a number of reasons why I think this has legs:

1) More and more people are booking language courses online and looking for inexpensive courses online
2) It is different and flexible (and works, but that's by the by)
3) More 'real practice/real world' courses are springing up and the concept will undoubtedly grow...just happens that we blazed the trail...so the 'hard yards' of getting teaching out of the classroom accepted are almost done.
4) When students find out that all the money goes to the teachers and it is a true collective..they will hopefully think that they are getting committed teaching and real pro-active help and feel all warm and fuzzy inside and book a lesson or two.

There you go...up to you guys now. I will help in any way I can too.

BTW - our first review has been published on TEFL.net and was done by a very experienced online English teacher. I'm very happy with it because she pointed out some obvious stuff that I always miss because I am just too close to everything after 8 years of plugging away, have a read:

http://edition.tefl.net/reviews/web-sites/languages-out-there/

Have you seen the book that was created for us and has been endorsed by Steven Pinker? It

really is cool and can be seen here:

http://www.languagesoutthere.com/articles/For-Want-Of-A-Better-Word-endorsed-by-Steven-Pinker

Finally, the Intermediate TD4 (teachers course book with copiable student worksheets) has now beeen published on Lulu.com. Anyone can buy a printed version (printed and posted to you automatically for £14.76) or a ebook version which is £3.52 I think. 135 pages, 20 three hour lesson/units and all of the 'how to teach' instructions anyone will ever need:

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=636365

Once again, do please sign up to the groups above and let me know if you want to be an assistant organiser as I can can give you control of them groups.

Cheers

Jason