March Membership Madness!

Look at that sexy alliteration up there!

BWI mothership has thrown down a challenge and so once again, it's membership drive time.  I won't do the guilt trip this time.  I suspect that last June was good enough, right?

In all seriousness, it's good for us to have membership drives a couple of times a year.  The baby years are such a fleeting time in our lives and thus the lifespan of a dues-paying member is generally only a year.  However, our needs are constant and we must find new members to help us continue to build our library, create educational materials, and keep BWI of Atlanta a worthwhile organization to join.

The truth is that we are growing rapidly, and it is no longer feasible for us to bring one library, or even multiple libraries, to multiple locations.  Our goal, then, for this membership drive is to separate our current library into three libraries, each as well-stocked as the other.  This means the library tab on the webpage will have a tab for each area instead of one large tab with a giant, confusing wall of text.  It makes the checkout process easier for all of us and will help us better track usage statistics for each area.

Our drive isn't going to get us everything we need, but it will be a very good start if we can hit our goals.  Here's the breakdown:

5 memberships: 2 wrap conversion ring slings
10 memberships: 1 wrap conversion mei tai by Chrysalis Designs
15 memberships: 1 Didymos ruby hemp indio, size 5
20 memberships: 100 (or more!) BWI of Atlanta car magnets, one for every member who joins or renews during the drive, and all members in good standing
25 memberships: 1 standard Tula
30 memberships: 1 standard Kinderpack
35 memberships: 2 size 4 Natibaby hemp blend wraps
40 memberships: 1 standard Tula
45 memberships: 1 standard Kinderpack
50 memberships: 1 Hop-Tye
50+ memberships: ?????

Current members who would like to renew their memberships may renew during the drive and extend their current membership to a year past their original renewal date.  So, for example, if Sally Slinger joined in July of 2013 and she renews during this drive, that would extend her expiration date from July of 2014 to July of 2015.

50 members feels like a lot, but our last drive was a huge success!  We smashed our goals and then some.  I think we can do this!  We can do this!  Tell everyone you know to join!  BWI members get many, many perks throughout the year, from a running discount at New Baby Products to special members-only workshops and giveaways.  Becoming a member of BWI is worth your $30.00.  Trust me.

And you know, I'm not just the president... I'm a member too!

International Babywearing Week 2013

International Babywearing Week 2013 is around the corner!  This year, IBW runs from October 7th to October 13th.  Just like last year, BWI of Atlanta has a ton of events planned all around the metro area (head over to http://www.bwiofatlanta.org for a full schedule).

A lot has happened since our last update.  One important thing is... we finally have a website!  Our membership drive gave us enough funds to purchase our domain and hosting space and finally build our home on the web.  http://www.bwiofatlanta.org is our little homestead on the Interwebs.  Please check it out!  It has a lot of information.  This is an understatement.

We've also welcomed two new VBEs to the fold.  Priscila and Malia joined us in August and we're thrilled to have them!

As for our #IBW2013 celebration (Tweeps, Instagrammers and other hashtag addicts, this is the official hashtag), here's a little preview of what we've got going on:

• BWI meetings at Wilson Family Chiropractic and Baby Love
• Micro photoshoots at The Solarium and Marietta Square
• Playdate and picnic at Piedmont Park (try saying that 5 times fast)
• A Dance Your Baby session
• Marietta Square shop crawl (I cannot believe this event is going to happen)
• A ton of giveaways for our BWI members and Facebook group members, including a gift certificate to New Baby Products
• Membership drive!
• Photospam day on Facebook
• Pumpkin patch trip
• Picnic at the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse

There are going to be lots of prizes given away so be sure to join the Facebook group to see what they are.  In addition, members will get access to members-only giveaways.  It's our way of saying thank you for the contributions and support.  Stay tuned for details of the membership drive!

August meeting schedule and summer round-up

I know you've all been waiting on tenterhooks to hear the results of our June membership drive.  I have to apologize for not updating this blog in some time, but as it turned out I had a baby in mid-June (who knew?) and have been on a steady diet of coffee, optimism and hope since then.

Let's get the really important stuff out of the way first.  August is almost here!  July has flown by.  BWI of Atlanta is having its usual three meetings in August, and hopefully soon will be adding a fourth in Gwinnett County.

Our regular Saturday meeting will be August 10th from 10 - 12 at The Solarium in Decatur.  Why not August 3rd?  Because on August 3rd BWI of Atlanta is making a special appearance at The Big Latch-On!  Babywearing and breastfeeding go together quite well so we'll be representing ourselves at that event.

Our regular Friday meeting will be August 9th from 11 - 1 at Harry's Whole Foods in Marietta.

Our regular Monday meeting will be August 12th August 19th from 10 - 12 at New Baby Products in Atlanta.

Onto the results!  Our members came through and the drive was a huge, and I mean HUGE success.  We gained over 50 new members and more members are still joining.  We've been putting that money to good use.  We were able to get the following:

- BWI of Atlanta membership cards for all members
- BWI of Atlanta static cling decals for all members joining or renewing during the drive
- 2 keep calm and wear your baby t-shirts
- A $25 gift voucher to Comfy Joery
- A $50 gift voucher to wovenwraps.com
- Sleeping Baby Productions ring sling
- Kalea Baby ring sling
- Standard/standard Kinderpack with kool knit
- Chimparoo mei tai
- Babyhawk Oh Mei! half-buckle mei tai
- Didymos Jack size 6
- Lenny Lamb bamboo rainbow size 6
- Didymos bleu nino size 4
- Natibaby hemp blue/green clovers size 6
- Infantino wrap and tie
- Vatanai Koira 4.5m
- Vatanai Orkney 4.5m
- Vatanai Glaciar 3m
- Wrapsody Bali Stretch Alyssa
- Pikkolo

I am blown away by how many members joined us and how we have been able to expand the library.  Checkouts are at an all-time high and people are spreading the word about Babywearing International of Atlanta.  All thanks to our members!

There are more things to talk about, like the wrap workshop and the upcoming carrier-specific members-only workshops, but I think this blog post is long enough and I will leave the rest for later.  See you at the meeting!

Next meeting: 5/4/13

April was a whirlwind of activity but it looks like May is going to be just as busy. Here are the upcoming meetings:

- Saturday, May 4th at the Solarium in Decatur from 10-12
- Friday, May 10th at Harry's Whole Foods in Marietta from 11-1
- Monday, May 20th at New Baby Products in Atlanta from 10-12

We've got a bonus meeting this month.  Actually, it isn't a meeting - it's a class.  BWI of Atlanta is pleasantly chuffed to be offering a workshop on shorties led by Aisling and yours truly!  With warm weather coming up, we'd all love to be wearing less, and that includes our wraps.  Short wraps have been used around the world for centuries.  They're economical, lightweight, and traditional.  Why not learn how to use them?  Wrap workshop: Shorties 101 will commence at New Baby Products on Tuesday, May 7th from 1:30 - 2:30.  No shorty, no problem!  We'll have some there.

If our class is successful, we'd be happy to offer a continuing series or repeats of the class around the Atlanta metro area.  I'm looking forward to laying a lesson plan out and getting some teaching on next week!  Having a large repertoire of carries has been one of my passions when it comes to wraps, and other than being a mom, my day job is as a teacher, so when hobby meets career passion, it's a beautiful thing.  I'm excited!  We'll be covering the following topics:

- Slipknots
- No-sew ring slings
- Rebozo
- Simple hip carry
- Half-Jordan's back carry

If there's time, or if the class is particularly skilled, we will also cover knotless ruck.

As always, see you all at the meetings!

Meetingpalooza

April is just packed with meetings in a short timespan.  We have three meetings coming up this weekend/early next week!

The next Marietta meeting will be Friday, April 12th at Harry's Whole Foods Market from 11-1.

The next Decatur meeting will be Saturday, April 13th at the Solarium from 10-12.

The next Atlanta meeting will be Monday, April 15th at New Baby Products on Cheshire Bridge Road from 10-12.

If you want to know more about upcoming meetings, please join our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/bwiofatlanta/) or check out our Google Calendar (http://tinyurl.com/b5hatx3).  Please do not join the old Atlanta Babywearers Facebook page.  That page is now defunct and no more new members nor posts will be added.

See you guys at the meetings!

New Baby Products...

Just this week we met with New Baby Products on Cheshire Bridge road to explore hosting our Tuesday meetings in their space.  We found out they just finished building a classroom in their space and they are looking for activities to fill it.  The classroom is housed in their big furniture building which is the lefthand building when facing their property from Cheshire Bridge Road.  It is a wonderful space for us and a step up from Glenlake Park where we were somewhat exposed to the elements.  While Glenlake was awesome to use with the playground right next to us, we are thrilled to move to an indoor space that is dry, warm or cool during the summer and free for our non-profit group!

Our first meeting there will be held on Tuesday December 18th from 10-12.  We have not locked down future dates there as of yet but are working to get this squared away and will keep you posted!  We will continue to offer our during the week class at New Baby Products but most likely will change days of the week.

So, come one out to check us out next week and we look very forward to seeing everyone there!!!  Find out more about New Baby Products at http://www.newbabyproducts.net/.