RPS is looking for members! We love being a part of the DIY (Do It Yourself) scene, but for this to be a sustainable movement it must also be a DIT (Do It Together) community. We are looking for folks who are eager to contribute their creative vision to the collective and who are excited to be stewards of a community space. We need folks to fill a few specific roles, so check them out and see if you’re interested.

How does one become a member of RPS? There’s a few steps involved. Very simply they are:

• Read the membership packet.
• Fill out the form on the final page of the packet and bring it in to RPS.
• Train to work in the store and commit to working one four hour shift a week for six months.
• Link up with one RPS member who will serve as your guide for this period. She will introduce you to core members and volunteers as well as familiarizing you with all the different programs of RPS.
• You and your RPSer will also come up with a project for you to work on.
• When you have finished your six months in the store and completed your project, decide if you are still interested and what it is you want to work on as a core member of RPS. Then, if the collective is in consensus, you will become a member!

If you’d like to read the about the membership process in greater detail, download our membership packet.

These are the primary responsibilities of core RPS collective members:

• Attend the weekly collective meeting.
• Head at least one program committee or participate in at least two committees.
• Work in the store at least one shift a week.
• Attend RPS events
• Have visionastic passionate driviness.
• Work with others and represent RPS to the public.

Want to help out, but not on such an intense commitment level? Don’t worry membership isn’t your only option. You can volunteer! Rather than being a core member of the collective you can be a volunteer.

What’s the difference? Well, for starters, volunteers don’t have to attend every single meeting we have. And volunteers can choose how much they want to help out. You could work in the store once a week, help catalog the zine library once a month, or coordinate a fundraiser. Whatever you want (well, almost whatever you want.)

If you think you’re interested in volunteering check out the volunteer page.

So these are, in a nutshell, all of the various masks we collective members wear. Take note if any strike your fancy, because that makes you an excellent candidate!

Admin Coordinator/Support – Every meeting’s a party in the RPS Admin Committee! As a committee member, you will not only be invited to all of these parties, but will serve a vital role in keeping the machine that is RPS well-tuned and running smoothly. Responsibilities include: keeping track of RPS�s income and expenses from all of it’s programs using Quickbooks and an amazingly elaborate, yet simple, binder/folder/paper system, counting money, making weekly bank deposits, knowing secret codes, and crunching numbers. Long-term visions for Admin include making a yearly budget for RPS, setting fundraising goals, and forecasting the future!

Artslab Coordinator/Support – The Artslab is a project RPS concieved quite a while ago and holds dear to our hearts. However, we are still as of this writing getting that project together. Artslab is space for people to work on art/craft projects as well as a collection of resources to use towards this endeavor. It’s also meant to be a place to practice your craft around other folks who are doing the same. Artslab will be open whenever RPS is open.

We are close to launching our first artslab program – the Artslab sewing shop. We would like to develop the other resources we have gathered into further programs. We also have a goal of developing the physical space where Artslab resides and steering the program as a whole.

Classes Coordinator/Support – The RPS Classes Committee is a party all the time. And we get some stuff done too. Beyond putting together the monthly class calendar, the classes committee seeks out new and exciting classes, and brainstorms how to promote our programming throughout the bay. Two goals we have set for the classes program are:

1. To seek out (and create) partnerships with other east bay organizations – partnerships that produce awesome classes.
2. To recruit a bigger classes teacher/volunteer base in order to sustain and develop our regular (like clockwork – eg. sewing night, screenprinting, etc.) classes programming.

Community Outreach Coordinator/Support – RPS needs help to get the word out about our programs and open up our space to a wide array of local communities so that we can better represent and serve Oakland. Our goal is to strengthen RPS�s accessibility by actively networking with community organizations, schools, and small business owners and create programming that fosters such partnerships. Future partnerhsips include: St. Vincent�s, First Friday Community Events, and afterschool programming at Metwest High School.

Development Coordinator/Support – RPS needs to pay the rent and the development committee is here to help do that. Through writing grants, cultivating private donors, and organizing fundraisers. Development is also into helping RPS plan for the future – whether it’s by looking into non-profit incorporation versus continued fiscal sponsorship or by researching other alternative organizational models. Development is also a social butterfly – networking with awesome inspirational folks around the bay and around the world, taking long walks on the beach with potential funders, and just plain having fun.

First Friday Coordinator/Support – Art Murmur is a big time of the month for RPS. We need someone or several someones to organize us to work the store and the street as well as outreach to our community to get awesome artists, craftspeople and community groups to do their rad thing on the street.

Gallery Coordinator/Support – The Gallery is committed to exhibiting emerging artists, underrepresented groups and artists, and looks to encourage creative collaborations. There are many elements to putting on an art show. Duties include: conception of the show, sending a press release, having digital images ready for advertisement, making fliers/posters, distributing the fliers/posters, hanging the show (including price list, artist list, signage), making art sales, de-install of the show, and making sure that artists get paid.

Retail Coordinator/Support – Our store is a vital source of income for the collective which caters to people of all tastes, it needs up-keep on inventory such as merchandise (toys, clothes, cards, etc) and prints which is all sold by consignment, to stay happy and fluorish. Ways of supporting our store are to set oppointments to review merchandise, log consigners on the contact sheet, gain interest at first friday events with an info booth, organize visual displays and overall store atmosphere.

Volunteer Coordinator/Support – Since RPS is comprised of volunteers it’s vital to recruit volunteers from local communities, contact interested people, make sure they receive proper training and orientation, write training guides and create a formalized volunteer program that includes appreciation barbecues. We love our volunteers and we want them to know!

Website Coordinator/Support – So there’s always more stuff to put up on the website. This page for instance; It needs to go up but it’s late and this part of the website committee is getting tired. There’s always pictures to put up and beyond that it would be cool if there was always someone taking pictures to put up.

There are a few projects too that we’re working on:

1. Videos of classes and events.
2. Site Redesign to make it a little more useful for members, volunteers and the public to communicate and easier to maintain.

Youth Coordinator/Support – We offer two types of internships to youth: one a partnership with Metwest High School youth who intern twice a week at RPS 11am to 3pm; the other, a more open-ended internship in any of our program areas depending on the interest of the intern. Current and past internships have included organizing the zine library, developing a retail rack for youth, creating a clothing line, organizing a fashion show, and airbrushing business development. We are also developing a separate classes program specifically for youth.

Zine Library Coordinator/Support – We’ve got a zine library for people to come in and browse whenever we’re open. And it’s always growing so it it always needs some cataloging and organizational love. It also needs some promotional love to spread around. And it could use a comfy loving space for it to live – somewhere in our cozy little store.