Who is RLC?

There is no central committee running RLC hierarchically. The Collective grew organically out of  conversations between like-minded library workers, and its membership continues to be fluid and evolving. You don’t have to be a library worker to be part of the Collective: RLC thrives on collaboration and open discussion so everyone is very welcome to contribute in whatever way and to whatever extent they are able.

RLC does have several semi-permanent and temporary committees in place. All committees have a rolling membership and are happy to take on volunteers interested in helping out. These committees do not imply a power structure: they are purely to ensure that tasks get done.

Semi-permanent committees handle administration and finance. The admin committee is currently Simon Barron, George Bray, and Kevin Sanders. They help to: manage social media, send updates to the mailing list, maintain the website and server, and organise meetings.  The finance committee manages RLC’s finances, taking responsibility for the Collective’s bank account and the active donation mechanisms including GoCardless and PayPal. They are Sarah Arkle, Kevin Sanders and Liam Livesley.  If you would like to be on either committee or have any comments/suggestions about their actions, please email rlc@riseup.net.

For national gatherings, an open and temporary organising committee is created from those members who have the time and energy to take it on for the planning period. This group does not represent RLC and everything it does, this is simply a group of people who have volunteered (via an open invitation sent to the RLC mailing list) to help create the space that RLC will inhabit on the day of a gathering. Anyone can volunteer at any stage, and can take on as small a role as they’d like. We are actively trying to mitigate the formation of a ‘clique’ or hierarchy in RLC and welcome fresh input.

At the gathering itself, all attendees are welcome to suggest sessions and facilitate them, by no means just the organising committee. Equally, all attendees are expected to adhere to our Safer Spaces policy, and it’s all of our responsibilities to enforce it.

The horizontalist approach RLC aims to take is an ongoing process that we’re all learning from. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on how to make RLC as inclusive and effective possible, please join in and send us an email.

Join us – we think you’ll enjoy it!

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