Drop Out by evan, the fungus kid, and corinna from the drop out collective
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Drop Out is a youth collective with it's intentions of informing the public about the alternatives to traditional methods of schooling, and to be a support system for those who are considering something different for their education. The mission of Drop Out is to promote honesty and diversity in education; to be a resource and support for the community, especially those whose educational needs have not been met by the school system; to maintain a physical space where people can be validated and empowered to affect change; to be a voice against compulsory schooling and for youth liberation. The tools we use to carry out this mission include our radical resource library, the resource center, the events we put on, and the Drop Out zine. We fund these projects exclusively through donations and fundraisers.
Drop Out began as a zine by Pam Davis as a personal project with people who were interested in submitting articles and helping her out. The first issue came out in March of 1995 and was a combination of reprints, articles by Pam, and other original content. By issue five Drop Out evolved into a collective, and has been operating for two years.
Now it's August of 1999, and we are about to being work on Drop Out #8. The way the zine is put together has evolved somewhat in the last few years. Once the collective decides to start production on the next zine, a date is set for the first meeting. During zine meetings are where people interested in working on Drop Out come together to read the various submissions, choose articles to go in the zine, get publications to review decide who is going to write what, choosing ads and graphics, and laying out the zine. There is no one editor since this is a collective process, so everyone working on the zine is an editor. Zine meetings are announced via calling everyone on our phone list, and distributing flyers around town. Zines meetings are typically weekly, or bi-weekly.
The Drop Out zine is a sixteen page tabloid style newspaper and we print 6,000 copies. Drop Out's are mailed to subscribers, contacts for distribution, zine trades, and free to prisoners. All in that order too. We distribute the zine at events, infoshops (radical libraries, and places like Drop Out), local businesses, by travelers or bands coming through town, and by collective members or friends of Drop Out. With all these various forms of distribution, Drop Out reaches people throughout the United States and Canada with some making it's way outside North America. The zine is how Drop Out began and is a big part of what keeps it alive because of the volunteers and money that it brings in.
The office (or resource center) is the physical space where most of the work related to Drop Out takes place. It's where most things like our meetings and discussions occur. Our office also contains information and resources such as pamphlets, an alternative education library, the zine library, and our big general lending library with books along video and audio tapes on various topics. It's really nice and convenient to have so much in one space. We also have a bulletin board where we post info about local events, and other pertinent info other people might find of interest to them.
As a resource center, we are open Monday to Wednesday from 3-6pm, a time chosen so kids can come by after school. We are also open by appointment. Office shifts are filled by different volunteers. During their shift, a volunteer typically keeps the office in order, attends to daily office work such as mail, and assists people who drop by.
For our decision making, we have monthly general meetings to discuss our current situation with money, the zine, and other stuff pertinent to Drop Out, and it's collective members. At certain times, we also form committees to deal with projects that require more time. Work gets divided amongst us all. An example, lies in the zine committee (as previously explained). We also at one point also had a free school committee, a finance committee.
We keep the ebb and flows on money and volunteers fairly consistent by promoting Drop Out in a variety of different ways. Besides the zine, there are three main ways we use to get the word out about Drop Out and the things we believe in. This includes tabling at events, speak or holding discussions at events, and holding events of our own. But, word of mouth is still a great form of promotion, and seems to be how we've gotten most of our volunteers now. Raising money has always been a big concern for us and has required a significant amount of work for us. Drop Out is not for profit, but we do don't have non profit status since we haven't filed for it. All the money we get from donations, and other fundraising goes directly in the different elements of drop out: Taking care of the office by paying rent/electricity/phone, and the other expenses for the zine. Our finances are divided into a general fund, and a zine fund, which we take money from.
Generally, we make our money through various fundraisers such as shows, and rummage sales. Those are the two main money makers that we try to plan every so often. We also have made a little money through tabling at events. Drop Out owes a great dear financially to the generous people who send us money on a regular basis.
So that's Drop Out in a nutshell. We are approaching the 5 year anniversary of the zine, and things are only getting better and better. As we venture into other avenues of media like television and radio, we hope that you can come join us too.
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