Oh, man! I'm losing respect for you, tat.
I hope you're not referring to Jacob/Laura's school??
Now I'm positive you've never met Jacob/Laura. Nor have you ever set foot in their school. These guys have been in a financial mess for over a year now and Laura has had to take a job to make ends meet. So if you call raffling off their Shaolin weapons on eBay for 1/2 of what they paid for them 'doing quite well", then you're not too shrewd a businessman.
These two are in debt to their ears and have been planning a breakaway for some time for financial gain.
But that's another topic for another time. Let's not get too off base here.
Now let's talk about that letter and SMGG and EMGM.
If you think that SM Grooms and EM Mullins are going to let these rogues just exist under them in name only without some sort of compensation, you don't know them. A Senior Master and Elder Master go out on a limb for these guys and they don't get anything out of it? These 9 schools are now in debt to EM Mullins and EM Grooms and they better get ready to pay up at some point in the future.
BD has it right that they're not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.
Now let's not get into the politics, but they're no friends of the Soards.
If you could pick up 9 schools to add to your list all in one scoop, wouldn't you jump on that? But nothing in life is free.