WIRD's first planning meeting

1st planning meeting for WIRD - Oxford Hotel

Slogan for today: Roller derby is a virus - infect everyone you touch!

In a brilliantly successful first planning meeting derby and its logistics were discussed in the beer garden of the Oxford. The conversation was so interesting that after the meeting broke up several people from the surrounding tables approached and asked for stickers and fliers. Spread the virus which is derby, ladies!

The need for outdoor equipment (the lower numbers in the gradings for wheels - around 88), protective pads and learning to fall properly all made an appearance in our chats.

Sue and Danielle J have kindly volunteered to tackle a logo for us - we're looking at something which will lend itself well to stencilling and which is hot. Hot.

Several ideas have been tossed around re: fundraising and sponsorship and hopefully some small activity will start with this stuff soon.

Purple, black and green were chosen as the base colours for the league, so start picking up those bits that scream, 'You NEED to wear me for DERBY!' There was also mention of a possible fundraiser involving stencilling and our future hot logo, so keep that in mind.

The documents we referred to during the meeting included the WFTDA official rules and its appendixes, 'Track Design and Specifications', 'Minimum Skill Requirements' and 'Officiating Handsignals' (www.wftda.com);Skate Australia's Roller Derby Individual Membership form (http://www.skateaustralia.org.au/web/files/pdf_repository/1226532021-Roller_Derby_Membership_Form_2009.pdf) And Wikipedia's info on the members of a board of directors.
We probably should have looked at this form from Skate Australia about sports insurance (http://www.skateaustralia.org.au/web/files/pdf_repository/1229492957-QBE_Personal_Accident_Insurance_Policy.pdf)

Another meeting will happen a month from today (around 21/2 February). Fundraising and forming a board of directors/executive committee will be on the agenda.

Happy Birthday to WIRD, Happy Birthday to WIRD

Situation to date:

• After the ABC's screening of 'Roller Derby Dolls' the topic of roller derby just wouldn't drop. After several months of complaining about the lack of RD in Wollongong I decided to make it happen.
• Researched RD on the net and started the Wollongong-Illawarra Roller Derby facebook group in late December, 2008. By 25 January we have 72 members, including regional derby girls, international derby girls and a strong core group of locals.
• A meat and greet is organised for January 25 and I started organising enough information to run a (hopefully) productive meeting.
• Posters (A4 - photoshop - printed at home) go up on January 3 in several venues around Wollongong. Have info for 1st meeting.
  
• I started collecting information from other derby groups including Sydney (SRDL), Ballarat (BRDL) and Newcastle (NRDL). All the women I approached were incredibly helpful and I received sample constitutions, dvds of training and great info sheets on everything from 'what to expect in your first year of derby' (NRDL) to 'how to deal with stinky pads' (SRDL).
  
• Before our group is even one month old we've been completely embraced by the NSW roller derby community. WIRD has been invited to an upcoming scrimmage in Sydney, offered help with training and info on the best local places to buy equipment.
• I rock up for our first meat and greet with a folder full of info, some dodgied up fliers and my happy loud voice on.