There U Glow Radical Educational Electronics Camp Fundraiser

There U Glow is back this year babes! The more help we get from you the stronger and more effective our vision will be. We also promise that however this goes we are coming back big and strong.

In essence, There U Glow is a popular all femme and queer founded, centered and run annual 5-day open air pop-up camp at the Portland regional burning man event. It is also a thriving generator of open source technical information of a far better caliber by and for self-proclaimed "non-technical" folks and artists. All of that is documented and free online. It is also deeply hooked into the local Portland community and has plans to integrate further into other local physical space. It does all this while remaining grassroots, community run and funded, radical and flexible for its members and the public.

✨The Pitch (current context and situation):✨

This is our fourth year of existence, and third year of running our physical space. This is a tenuous time for us. Even visions as popular and vital as ours tend to feel increasing weight as they reach the size and age we are at. We need to balance the health and well-being of our team, community and efforts. We need to be able to take feedback and stay flexible, even when it's not fun, all without the stability of a more established endeavor.

We are also taking on heavy political and mental weight from current cultural shifts. We consistently push against massive, unrecognized technical gatekeeping embedded over generations and work to shelter and assist vulnerable and unfairly suppressed folks inside and outside of our camp.

Because we are in a position to function as a safe(er!) space for a lot of deep pain, we are called to do so at a higher rate now. Our reputation has put us square in the middle of being asked to rise to a horrifying political situation for all of our women (cis and trans), queer, poor, disabled folk, and more. I think if you are here and reading this, you get it. We're here for it. We're built for it. And also, it is a *lot* .

As another small weight, previously we were spun up on the stable incomes of a few members, all of whom are far more financially unstable at this point.

So, we appreciate any financial ease we can get! We'll keep at what we do no matter what assistance we get, but this is your chance to amplify those dreams exponentially.

↪️ For more information and resources visit www.thereuglow.club

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✨Where this money will go:✨

Thanks for getting through that heavy context! Now we can share some of what we are excited about fundraising for this year.

↪️ For more context on what we get up to, check the About Us below and our website at www.thereuglow.club

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✨About Us:✨

There U Glow is a rare women, trans, femme & queer led technical educational space. We specialize in helping folks with their busted glowing/technical needs. We do this by enticing folks into our orbit through the magic of glowing, rainbow LED lights and what it takes to run them.

There U Glow heavily centers and focuses on self-described “non-technical” and traditionally marginalized folks. We also fight to raise technical women and queer folks up as the unparalleled experts and precious individuals they are, (without giving them more work to do along the way).

We teach people of all ages, but specifically focus on femmes and queers ages ~20 and up. We know that we are fighting generational and cultural pipeline problems these days, not fostering technical interests in childhood.

Forged in the welcoming sandbox of Oregon’s Regional Burning Man Event, SOAK, There U Glow first emerged as a dynamic theme camp and has since transcended boundaries, evolving into a popular annual experience and a trailblazing online knowledge hub. There U Glow has also made a significant mark on it’s local Portland Oregon maker and artist communities. Though we change shape flexibly to accommodate everything we balance, we don’t plan to stop anytime soon.

To picture There U Glow, imagine a chill, aesthetic, welcoming pop-up outdoor space designed carefully to engage a variety of marginalized people in electronics, LEDs and soldering for the first time, or the millionth.

We provide intentionally low-pressure, curious space, like a learn-to-lockpick lounge, workbenches, soldering stations, presentation space, a take-something-leave-something hardware/craft scrap swap, educational zines and swag swap space, and more.

We have activities like an "Intro to LEDs for Artists and Non-Technical Babes" workshop, a beginners soldering workshop with custom PCB art badges (custom designed by There U Glow), and interesting educational, colorful custom decor for every wall.

This structure and dream expands beyond our physical pop-up camp experience. We have a camp Discord server that we are slowly rolling out to community, a new website we continue to expand with links to open source resources, and our physical resources and supplies are used in other educational spaces throughout the year.

↪️ For more context on what we get up to and access to a lot of our open source resources, check out our website at www.thereuglow.club

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✨Sliding Scale Guidelines:✨

If you are unsure of how much to contribute, PLEASE don't feel undue guilt and pressure. There's more then enough of that flying around right now. To mitigate stress, feel free to review the sliding scale below for some guidelines on where you may fit into this fundraising:

IF YOU:

- Frequently stress about meeting basic needs and don’t always achieve them

- Have debt that sometimes prevents you from meeting basic needs

- Rent lower-end or have unstable housing

- Do not have a car or have limited access

- Are unemployed or underemployed

- Qualify for government assistance

- Have no access to savings

- Rarely buy new

- Cannot afford vacation or time off

PLEASE DO NOT FEEL ANY PRESSURE TO GIVE

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IF YOU:

- Stress about meeting your basic needs but still meet them

- Have debt but it does not prohibit attainment of basic needs

- Own or lease a car

- Are employed

- Have access to healthcare

- Have some expendable income

- Are able to buy new and still thrift

- Can take vacations and time off annually or every few years

PLEASE ONLY GIVE IF IT FEELS COMFORTABLE, IN A COMFORTABLE AMOUNT

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IF YOU:

- Can comfortably meet all of your basic needs and assist your loved ones

- Have some debt but it is not a large stress

- Own property or rent higher-end

- Own or lease a car

- Are employed or do not need to work to meet your needs

- Have access to savings that brings security

- Have expendable income (might mean you can afford coffee or drinks, go to moves or concerts, buy new clothes, books, etc regularly)

- Can take vacations and time off regularly

PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING GENEROUSLY TO OFFSET OTHERS, AND TO MAKE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE SUCCESS OF THIS CAMPAIGN AND ME

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Sliding scale and full credit from here: https://www.rootedheart.ca/blog/2018/3/17/accessibility-sliding-scale-pricing-and-energy-exchange