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!

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!

Next meeting: Monday, 1/21/13

Is it that time again?  It is!  BWI of Atlanta's next meeting will be Monday, January 21st from 10-12 at New Baby Products on Cheshire Bridge Road.  We'll see you there!

In other news, we have been officially announced by BWI as BWI of Atlanta!  We've been waiting for this for a long, long time and we're so excited finally to be under the BWI umbrella.  This gives us more access to carriers for our lending library, and more promo for us as a group.  Soon we'll be changing our names, officially, from Atlanta Babywearers to Babywearing International of Atlanta.  We'll even have a shiny new logo to put on the blog.

Becoming BWI of Atlanta also allows other babywearing groups in the area to come shelter under our eaves, since the bulk of the work has already been done by us truly.  So it's very possible that in the years to come, we'll have a BWI of Cobb County, or a BWI of Gwinnett.  The more the merrier, I say!