Backstage with Portland’s Rock 'n' Roll Camp For Girls
The music camp’s band-inspired management structure and DIY spirit has kept it thriving for seven years
By Keidra Chaney
Published: May 14th, 2008 | 9:15am
Portland’s pioneering Rock 'n' Roll Camp For Girls is a blueprint for how to grow a community arts organization from the ground up, DIY ethics intact. Started in 2001 as a weeklong summer camp at Portland State University, it’s expanded into an independent non-profit organization with six paid staff members, year-round afterschool programs for girls ages 8 to 18, and a weekend-long Ladies Rock Camp for us grownups not lucky enough to have a girls rock camp when we were kids.
All of this in addition to a critically-acclaimed documentary, “Girls Rock!,” a new book, Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls: How to Start a Band, Write Songs, Record an Album, and Rock Out! (Released by Chronicle Books in June), and sister organizations in New York, Philadelphia, Oakland, Atlanta, and even the UK and Sweden. Rock 'n' Roll Camp For Girls is more than just an organization – it’s a movement. “In the DIY world, we’re like grandmas, “ said camp Artistic Director Marisa Anderson during a break at the April 2008 Ladies Rock Camp. “[DIY projects] normally last like two, three years. People travel, go to college, have a baby, buy a house, and the project ends. But with Rock Camp, it’s like ‘Holy shit! You’re dinosaurs!’”
But as with all movements, growth hasn’t been easy. To thrive in the face of a daunting economic environment for many arts organizations, the camp relies heavily on community support. “When the rock camp started there was an incredible amount of inspiration, energy, and goodwill. That’s how we got our feet on the ground,” said Anderson. Members of Portland’s dynamic music community are big supporters of the camp, including indie-rock luminaries Beth Ditto of the Gossip, who volunteers as a vocal coach during the girls camp, and Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, who also penned the introduction to the upcoming book.
Luck and enthusiasm can only get an organization so far, however; it’s financial support that keeps the doors open. The camp receives very little corporate funding, and only a few small grants. Not dependent on foundations or government money for support, camp tuition makes up most of Girls Rock Camp’s income, along with money raised from the Ladies Rock Camp and individual donations. “I’m talking $5, $10, $20, $100 donations,” said Anderson. “People for the most part aren’t kicking out checks for $20,000.”
To guide the camp’s growth, the board and staff developed a unique management structure to help guide its future while holding true to its mission of girls self-sufficiency and empowerment. “We’re committed to working together in a way that is very much not what the status quo is, even for the non-profit world,” said Anderson. Office operations such as fundraising, bookkeeping, and program development are run collectively by a four-member executive team, comprised of an Executive Director, Program Director, an Artistic Director [Anderson], and a Director of Operations. “We all have a title, but there is no one boss,” said Anderson.
The camp staffers were familiar with the idea of working in a team to get things done. Most of the staff comes from a background of performing in bands. “When we started to conceptualize how we wanted to do the office, it was coming from a band framework.” said Anderson, a guitarist and former member of Santa Fe-based honky tonk-punk group Dolly Ranchers. “In band relationships, everyone is dependent on each other to make things work. The bass player has to be locked in with the drummer. The guitar player has to be checked in with everybody. “
But even the most self-reliant DIY projects need a little support once in awhile, and Rock 'n' Roll Camp For Girls found it the form of a 30+ year old Portland organization called TACS – Technical Assistance for Community Services – that provides legal support and organizational advice to community groups. “None of us have a non-profit background. [TACS] really had the big picture, the vision to tell us ‘This is where you are, and these are your choices for what you can do as an organization, here are other organizations that have been where you are now.’”
Asking for infrastructural help, not just for money or volunteer time, was crucial for the growth Rock 'n' Roll Camp For Girls, and for any community group ready to move into self-sufficiency, said Anderson. ”You’ve gotta say ‘We don’t really know what we’re doing here, but we have really good ideas and good intentions, and we need someone older and wiser to coach us.’ You’ve gotta be humble.”
Learn more about Rock 'n' Roll Camp For Girls at girlsrockcamp.org/main
Issue #35
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