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Sunday, March 2, 2014

March Membership Madness!

As you may have heard we have some awesome plans for 2014!  A lot of these plans revolve around how we can maximize the benefit of being a BWI of North Central IL member.    Our goal is to make being a part of this chapter fun, educational and rewarding.  We have been hard at work preparing some special incentives for chapter members. We hope you are as excited as we are about them!

March Membership Drive

From March 1st - 31st we will be holding a membership drive with giveaways  and incentives for members of the chapter!  We are setting a goal of 30 new memberships or renewing memberships this month which will allow us to purchase some amazing items for the lending library.  As we move closer to our goal we will also have some exciting prizes for you along the way.  I will talk more about those later though. Right now I want to talk about the benefits of being a member because there are so many!

Benefits of being a member


Lending Library Access

When you become a member of BWI of NCIL you pay $30 for a 12 month membership. During that time you can check out 1 carrier a month from our lending library. This means  You can wear your child everyday for a year for only $30!  This is such an incredible value! There are not many carriers on the market for that price and when you consider the quality of carriers and the variety available in the lending library you will undoubtedly find something to meet your babywearing needs.  You can view some of our current carriers here.

You will be Supporting Our Mission

The goal of our chapter is to support and educate caregivers about the art of babywearing. As a non-profit organization the leaders spend countless hours preparing for and running monthly meetings, doing paperwork,  planning, promoting, continuing education and more. As volunteers our payment comes in the form of seeing the chapter grow, helping caregivers find the love of babywearing and seeing little ones safely and happily enjoying a "ride" (as we call it at my house!).  We  know that like us, each of you sees babywearing as a valuable parenting tool. What  better way to show your support of something you love than to become a member of an organization that shares that idea?

Member Only Discounts

We have partnered with some local and online businesses to bring you special discounts and offers!

becomingIsis - 12% off regularly priced items of $10 or more*
Fluff Envy - 5% off *
Iddy Biddy Pool School - One open swim pass for each member
Marsupial Mamas - 15% off
Purple Elm Baby - 15% 0ff**
Zerberts - 10% off through April 15th and 5% off through 2014

We hope to add additional businesses to this list so keep watching for more offers!
Existing members can contact a leader to obtain special coupon codes.
* Some restrictions may apply
**Must sign up for Purple Elm Baby's newsletter to qualify. This offer is open to all verified members of BWI of NCIL's Facebook page.

Member Workshops

Introducing member workshops which will be held once a quarter and will  focus on different skills/carriers. We are really excited to offer these! They are perfect for broadening your knowledge base on certain carriers and working on more advanced skills.  These workshops will be open to members and non members. Members will receive priority registration and free admission. Registration for non members will be opened up as space allows and will be $5 per person.  Our first workshop will be Saturday April 19th and will be a Wrap Workshop! We will have more details on this specific workshop in the coming weeks but there will be something for beginners to advanced wrappers.

Additional  Benefits 

  • Each month we will draw a name for a member to check out an extra carrier from the lending library for that month.
  • We will have drawings from time to time at meetings for items such as gift cards or small prizes. 
  • We also have an awesome opportunity once a quarter for someone to borrow a Natibaby tester! These testers are new releases from Natibaby that we would love feedback on.  They are available for you to borrow for a month in addition to your usual check out. You can do a guest blog post or review about your time with the wrap or if blogging isn't for you (I never thought I would do it, but it's fun!) just enjoy your time with the wrap and this amazing opportunity.
As you can see there are so many benefits to being a member of BWI of NCIL! In addition to these great benefits you will also get to know other caregivers, make new friends and become a part of an awesome community of people!

The Goals

As I mentioned we have a goal of 30 new or renewing memberships this month to help us add some carriers to the lending library.
We have a tiered system to help keep track of our progress. Here's how it's going to work...

When we reach 5 memberships:
    We will give away a set of Sling Rings and we will purchase a new Comfy Joey Ring Sling for the lending library.
When we reach 10 memberships: 
    We will give away a $25 Comfy Joey Ring Sling voucher and we will purchase 2 Zanytoes water Ring Slings,
     1 Comfy Joey Water Ring Sling and a GMBB water wrap for the lending library.
When we reach 20 memberships:
    We will give away an Ergo and purchase a Toddler Tula for the lending library.
When we reach 30 memberships:
    We will give away a wrap and purchase a wrap conversion mei tai and a new Kinderpack for the lending library.

The Giveaways


 How you qualify 

  •  Each member that has a current membership as of 11:59pm on Feb 28, 2014 will receive an entry for the drawings.
  • Any new or renewing membership in March gets an entry. 
  • For each person you refer who becomes a member during March you get an entry. 

This brand new Ergo could be yours! 


The wrap giveaway will be for one of the wraps pictured below! 


The fine print

You must be a BWI of NCIL member to win a giveaway. There is no limit to the amount of referral entries you can receive.  Any renewal membership will have 12 months added to the end of their existing membership. 
We will do the drawing on the day after we hit a goal.  All memberships that have been paid in full by 11:59pm on the day of hitting the goal will qualify for the drawing on the following day. There are no restrictions to the amount of times you can win. We will use Random.org to generate a winner. We can get your prize to you at the next meeting you attend, you can come pick it up at a leaders house or if you would like to cover the cost of shipping we can mail it.

A Method to the Madness

International Babywearing Conference

Some of you might be aware of the International Babywearing Conference (IBC) coming up in Arizona this summer. The conference and this membership drive are sponsored by Babywearing International, our chapter's parent organization. I mentioned earlier about our leaders' continuing education and the IBC is a great place for us to do that. This month for every membership NCIL gets we will get a raffle ticket in a drawing for funds to help offset the cost of travel for the leaders who will be going to the conference.  We will also be entered into a drawing for a Pavo Textiles woven wrap for the lending library!

We want all caregivers to be able to experience the joy, freedom and cuddles that babywearing provides.  We need your help to do that though.  By supporting this chapter you're supporting  the practice of babywearing.  Making it visible and accessible to more and more caregivers and little ones in our area.  We hope you will come along for the ride!

If you would like to become a member today please visit the "Become a Member Tab" at the top of this page.  You can also join at the next meeting, you can contact a leader through our Facebook page or you can email us at bwiofncil@gmail.com