Drumroll Please...It's Time for the Membership Drive!

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!