BWI of Central Virginia 2014 Membership
Drive
Back by popular demand, it's the 2014
membership drive! Our June 2013 membership drive was a smash hit
with all of you and allowed us to nearly double our membership in a
single month. We had such a great time that we're doing it again,
this time culminating in a huge party to celebrate International
Babywearing Week (October 6-12, 2014).
Why do we need YOU to become a member?
Babywearing International is a
non-profit organization. The educators who help out at meetings,
answer questions on our facebook page, and write posts for this blog
are all volunteers. Beyond occasional reimbursement for expenses,
none of us receives a dime for the time, effort, and love we put into
running this group. Babywearing is important to us, and if you're
reading this post it is important to YOU too!
Your membership dollars help us to keep
spreading the babywearing love here in the Richmond metro area. In
the past year we have taken some big leaps: we added a third meeting
location in Midlothian, we started a successful Babywearing 101
series through the Bon Secours Love and Learn program, and we
embarking are on a partnership with the Centering Pregnancy Program
and a carrier drive to benefit the Mama Bear shop. In addition we've
built up and refined our lending library using membership dollars:
some popular purchases from the last year include Kinderpacks, Tulas,
Sleeping Baby Production ring slings (including 4 water slings!),
Lillebaby Completes, lots of wraps, and more—all carriers that are
hard to get donated in the numbers we need, but greatly enjoyed our
members!
And your membership benefits the
organization in other ways too—having a larger membership base
makes BWI of Central Virginia look better to carrier companies when
we approach them about donations, or when we talk to local companies
about fundraisers, and BWI National is beginning to offer benefits
that take into account the number of paid members we have too.
So, in other words, we really, really
want you to become a member. But, I hear you wondering, “What's in
it for ME?”
Well, lots, actually...
First off, of course, there is the
lending library. Our library has nearly 90 carriers with a total retail
value of over $7,000. Wow, that's quite a stash! Even if you can't
make it to meetings every month to check out carriers, BWI membership
is still a great value. Need a water sling for your beach trip?
Save $$$ and borrow one from the library! Want to try a woven wrap
(or try a new length?)? Save yourself the hassle of the swap and
borrow one from the library! Want to have a carrier on hand for your
new squish? We have lots of great newborn carriers as well as plenty
of fantastic options that let you “try before you buy” with your
new baby! If you borrow just one carrier over the course of
the year vs. buying a new one your membership has more than paid for
itself.
Next there is the warm, fuzzy feeling
you get from supporting a non-profit that you love. Even if you
never make it to a single meeting, your membership dollars help us
grow and provide all of the services mentioned above.
And finally, we're going to make it
worth your while. We are planning a huge membership raffle at our
International Babywearing Week party. Members will get at least 30
tickets (worth $1 each, making your membership basically free), with
the opportunity to earn more. If you're a member you can also tell
us in advance how you want to allocate your tickets so that even if
you can't be at the party, you can still win! The raffle is really
going to be epic. We already have three carriers committed and a
whole bunch of other great goodies (too many to list here, trust me,
but we'll be putting up some sneak peeks over the next few weeks!).
To help achieve our goal of DOUBLING
our membership between August 23 and the end of International
Babywearing Week, we've set up some goals. For every five members
who join we will either purchase a highly sought after carrier for
the library OR give away a perk to members!
5 Memberships: All members will
receive a member goodie bag at the International Babywearing Week party with coupons and lots of fun freebies.
10 Memberships: We will acquire a
Didytai wrap conversion mei tai for our lending library.
15 Memberships: We will have BWI
of Central Virginia membership cards printed for all members.
20 Memberships: We will acquire a
Little Frog wrap conversion ring sling for our lending library.
25 Memberships: All current
members will receive wrap scrap key fobs.
30 Memberships: We will acquire a
“toddler-worthy” wrap from a company not represented in our
library (members will vote on what to buy from the following list:
Pavo, Ovolo, Cari Slings, Poe Wovens, Noonamoochie).
35 Memberships: One randomly chosen member will receive a free BWI of Central VA t-shirt (or a tote bag if we meet this deadline after the t-shirt deadline has passed).
- 40 Memberships: We will acquire a
five pack of carriers from Babylonia (A BB Slen wrap, Bbtai Mei Tai,
two wrap conversion ring slings, and a stretchy wrap).
- 45 Memberships: Every member will receive an “Extra Rental” coupon in their member goodie bags good for an extra carrier rental for one month (subject to carrier availability).
50 Memberships: We will acquire a
high end carrier chosen by our members (members will vote on which
the purchase from the following list: Preschool Kinderpack, Infant
Kinderpack, Emeibaby, or a Tehkni wrap)!
Membership costs just $30 per year! To
join, please follow this link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1B3MQnzTo21OomXiDF5Czo0lGV6aBlFmsPC3XP0CtiLU/viewform
and either pay via paypal or email us at
centralva@babywearinginternational.org
and we can send you an invoice payable with credit/debit. Or you may
bring cash, check, or a card to any meeting to join in person!
During the membership drive we also accept donation of lending
library carriers in lieu of payment (subject to approval—no
stretchy wraps, narrow seated carriers, pouch slings, padded rail slings, or anything already
over-represented in the library).
So what if you're already a member?
You can still help us achieve our goals!
Renew your membership! You can renew
at any time and extend your membership by a year (so if you purchased
a membership on January 1, 2014 and renewed it now, your membership
would run through the end of December 2016). We can put your member
dollars to work in the community right away, and you get another full
year of benefits.
Refer a friend! For every friend that
you refer, you will get an extra 5 tickets for our International
Babywearing Week Raffle, so spread the word about how great it is to
be a member (one set of extra referral tickets per new member).
Give a gift membership! Membership
makes a great gift—consider buying a personalized gift certificate
for a pregnant friend to be redeemed when they are ready to activate
their benefits. You also get an extra 5 raffle tickets for buying a
gift membership.
Consider making a tax deductible
donation! We can accept donations in any amount via paypal or by
cash or check at a meeting or we have a wish list of carriers that we
could use for the lending library if you prefer to make an in-kind
donation. Each donation of $30 or more (or a carrier for the library
from our list) will “count” as one “membership” towards
reaching our membership drive goals! (So if you join or renew and
make an additional donation of $30 we will be TWO memberships closest
to our next membership target!) Note: donations do not come with
membership benefits but we will give you 1 raffle ticket for every $1 you donate or 30 raffle tickets if you donate a carrier we need for our library (subject to approval). If you want a
second set of library benefits (two carriers at a time, two goodie
bags, etc.) consider getting a membership for a spouse, partner,
parent, or your child's caregiver!
Thanks to everyone who has already
joined or renewed! We appreciate your support and are looking
forward to a great year ahead!
