RVA Rope is a “rope collective” centered in Richmond, Virginia that is managed by a board of members who volunteer their time and talents to organize events and create resources for the local community.
Our goal is to provide social, skill-share, and educational opportunities and resources that promote the responsible and risk-informed enjoyment of rope bondage and rope bondage art in all of its many forms and styles for all participants in the region. We welcome all experience levels, styles of rope, body types, abilities, races, gender identities, and sexual orientations.
RVA Rope Board
RVA Rope is managed by a board of volunteers. Board members take responsibility for various events and activities, address concerns from the community, and provide direction and guidance for the future of the group. The board aims to have a minimum of 3 members and a maximum of 7 members at any given time. New members are added on a volunteer basis provided they meet the requirements in our Policies & Procedures.
Other Contributing Members
We solicit the input and assistance of all participants of our events. This can be informal, through submitting ideas online or in person and by helping with setup, cleanup, and the general smooth-running of our events. However, this can also be formal, and we have a number of participants who are not on the board but who nonetheless have committed to helping with one or more events, activities, or needs for RVA Rope. For those interested in a more formal contributing role, please see the details on our Volunteer page.
Brief History of RVA Rope
In January of 2013, the first Rope Bite Richmond event was held in an apartment with about 10 people cramped together around the edges of the main room. Eventually, we moved to the back room at Fallout. We started meeting once a month, typically with the same 10 people or so. But eventually, the numbers grew. After about a year, they grew so much that we were given the main stage/dance floor area for our meetings. And when that got crowded, we increased our meetings to twice a month.
For a while, we tried to do some structured and more advanced instruction on an “every other meeting” basis, but there was never enough consistency for folks to make real progress, and new people would still show up at the advanced meetings. So, in 2015, we started our first structured curriculum course: Foundations. That grew into a regular fall and spring offering, with partial suspension added to the curriculum soon after. (These courses are now part of Rope Study, a separate entity that provides in-person instruction and online support materials to promote risk-aware rope bondage education for tops and bottoms.)
Around the same time, we started doing “Top-less Tying” self-tying meetings and, eventually, acro-shibari meetings. As these started to happen more regularly, we decided we needed to find a way to consolidate things a bit … from being spread across various FetLife groups and accounts into a single organization: RVA Rope.
So, in late 2016, we officially consolidated into RVA Rope and in 2017 established the first RVA Rope Board. Now, all of the events and activities are managed through RVA Rope.
Most recently, we’ve had our first major turnover in staff for the board as people balance “real life” with rope. During that process, Rope Study branched off into its own entity, to allow for more focus on curriculum and instruction, but still works in close partnership with RVA Rope.
Through navigating pandemics and new ways of collaborating, we’re looking forward to discovering the future of RVA Rope as it continues to grow and evolve.