Internships at oob

An internship at off our backs can be a radicalizing experience. An opportunity to spend a summer or a semester in the U.S. capital city. Writing, graphics, web design: you choose your area of focus.

Email your resume and a writing sample to:

oob@offourbacks.org

Or mail them to:

off our backs
2337B 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009

The basics:

Money: The internship is unpaid. (We know that really sucks and we wish we could pay interns, but as of right now we honestly don't have the funds!) Fortunately, DC is a great place to intern and there are mucho resources for student interns living in the city.

Housing: Because there so many people intern in DC there are lots of opportunities to sublet people's places or find group housing. Just a mild warning: DC housing is quite expensive, so group housing situations or hostels are often ideal financially.

Transportation: Easy, wonderful, efficient...you can get just about anywhere without a car. We are located in the part of Washington called Adams Morgan, which is accessible via walking, biking, and bus, and there is a metro stop not too far away.

The off our backs office
Off our backs is a collectively run newsjournal. This means that there is no formal hierarchy and there are no "bosses" in the office. Right now there are 5 women who are making sure that the paper gets out to all of our subscribers (they are the collective members living in the DC area). There are other collective members who contribute to the paper in various ways but do not come into the office very often. We have three staff members, one full-time and two part-time, some of whom are also on the collective. Our other collective members work other jobs to pay the bills, and their time spent on oob is done on a volunteer basis. Although much of the work of the publication is done by the office staff, evenings and weekends are when volunteers do some of the publications work of designing and proofreading the upcoming issue.

Interns are encouraged to attend our collective meetings (Monday evenings) to get an understanding of how collective feminist stuff works. We also encourage you to spend a Saturday or two with us to work on layout and production. oob is informal and flexible and a fun place to work, but there is a lot of work to do that must be done to professional standards.

Intern Duties:
Interns are expected to help with routine administrative and office work such as sending out back issues, responding to e-mails, opening mail and updating web page stuff, entering subscriptions into the database, and sending out renewal cards. The fun stuff you get to do is write articles, design/graphics/art, help with layout and editing, book/music/concert reviews, reporting on events, interviews etc.... We also really need people to do some grassroots outreach stuff to get the word out about the paper and get more subscribers. This can mean going to women's events and festivals and setting up a table, doing formal marketing work, or standing on a street corner with copies of the paper in your hand. The key is that you are the one that makes your internship experience valuable. We also want our interns to pick one major project that they would like to work on while with us, which can be coordinated once you get here.

As you are making your decision about interning, it will be helpful to check out one or more copies of our publication. You can find oob at many university libraries, public libraries and feminist bookstores.