Real Nappy Week - Auckland

[mermaid13]

very keen to help , not sure what i can do??

[PukekoPossum]

I'm in!

I would really like to hold a Cloth Nappy Know How Day just as an aside. Somewhere local (West ). It would just be a big Nappicino, that runs through the basics of cloth nappying, have a morning tea and maybe see someone make a nappy. I figure I may as well stick it in with RNW.

Would this be ok to organise?

xxx lou

[rochellej]

I would be really happy to host a good old nappicino at my house during RNW too if that is ok.

But also, with the expo, I went along to my first one last year with Ava, and I don't know if my perception of how would be was way off, but I kind of expected it to be much more like a nappicino. There wasn't really anywhere comfy for me to sit & feed Ava (I ended up leaving early & feeding her in my car). I guess I was hoping that there would be much more of a social kind of atmosphere - maybe that was more what the nappicino at Western Springs was for but I didn't even know about that until the day after it had happened & I was on here often!

And I had done an awful lot of negotiating at home to get a leave pass to come along but when I got there, there really wasn't a lot that I hadn't already seen, & the few people I did know back then were busy on their stalls or doing their own jobs... very well too I might add :smt023

So, I'm wondering whether incorporating more of a social nappicino type flavour might encourage more people along? Somewhere comfy to sit down, chat with others we already know & introduce ourselves to new people while enjoying some refreshments. You could say that at 10.30am there will be a shared morning tea (everyone who knows about it & is able to bring a plate) & I have a friend who owns one of those mobile espresso coffee vans who may help out.

Very different from the format of the expo from last year, but just my thoughts based on what I was expecting to experience when I visited - I did enjoy seeing the products & things available last year... I just wanted more

Also very happy for someone to say I'm completely barking up the wrong tree here

[PukekoPossum]

Agree with you on all counts Rochelle!

A nappicino would be great too.

We should all have a get together to bounce ideas.

xxx Lou

[sb]

I volunteered to look into hall bookings this morning and have just seen Rochelle and Lous posts above..... My hall inquires have been based on an expo.

VENUE STUFF
Real Nappy Week is 21-28 April and I think an expo is best held on a Saturday because, it makes it more accessible to those parents and expectant parents who work. Saturday April 26 is the Saturday of ANZAC weekend. So I have looked at Saturday April 19.

In light of kb's comments about the length of the day, I'm thinking of 10am-2pm for the event, with an hour each side to pack in and pack out.

I am waiting to hear back from Grey Lynn CC re. booking the hall and the two Mt Albert Halls are not available.

Sandringham Community Centre is available. It consists of three rooms, a main hall, a lounge and the playgroup/kitchen area and the outside playground. We could use the main hall and some of the outside space for wahm stalls and the lounge for breastfeeding etc. and the play area for a nappicino and demonstrations.

There is a small market day on Thursday mornings at the centre, so it works ok for markets/mini expos.

The downsides are its not as close to the motorway as Mt Albert (but comparable with Grey Lynn) and the car parking is ok, public transport is ok too.

It is $20 per hour, so it would be $120 for six hours.

EXPO ACTIVITIES

These are my thoughts
Wahm stalls (would we charge them to recap the venue hire $?)
Non Nappy wahms - but child related stalls
Demonstrations - sewing, knitting, real nappy know how (one each hour?)
Trading 'table' to sell/trade second hand naps
Coffee Cart
Hire Kits
Council Scheme information

I'd be interested to hear everyones feedback and am keen to get together to discuss further.

eta more ideas, I do my best thinking while I'm hanging out the washing

[PukekoPossum]

Awesome. Go you and your organising skills!

Where would everyone like to meet? I can volunteer my place if everyone is not bored with it.

xxx Lou

[sb]

Awesome. Go you and your organising skills!

Where would everyone like to meet? I can volunteer my place if everyone is not bored with it.

xxx Lou

I'm happy to come to yours, I cant do Thursdays and Fridays.

[ClothConvert]

Thank you karmiec and Shyrel for taking charge in organising for Akl.
sorry i have been absent for a while - it was a computer free week of sun, sand and surf holidays down in the Coromandel for us.

Shyrel, could you check out availability and cost of the New Lynn Centre that Nova mentioned and the Te Atatu Peninsula Community Centre beccahv mentioned? Sat 19th April 10am-2pm sounds like a good decision to me - we normally have a thread dedicated to RNW dates in the country so if one hasn't already been started, i will set it up after this post. Also, I will email/PM Darny to update on the main website.

I was hoping to have organised for a team of people to contact as many WAHMs as possible re having a stall at the expo, but i struggled before the xmas/ny's to get a team together It needed to be personal contact either via phone/in person/email not a mass call out on this forum as many WAHMs aren't on here on a daily/regular basis. And yes, we'd charge a fee - the bigger WAHMs expects to pay a fee, and I'd think the smaller WAHMs would consider if our fees aren't exhorbitant
It was tricky as the venue was kinda going to be dependent on the interest from the WAHMs for an expo, but at the same time we needed to book a venue asap. Anyway, i suspect now we are back in the same position we were last year - we're back to having to book a venue first, which means we will only be able to "sell"/offer x limited amount of stalls.

Can I just confirm it here, karmiec and shyrel are either/both of you happy to be the "commander n chief" for the Akl RNW? I felt rather responsible for it last year (not saying that I did all the work, not at all, but i did feel like I have to make a lot of the decisions cos we were short on time to allow for democratic voting then felt stressed at the thought that I was coming across as being a dictator!). This year I am committed to be the TNN rep for organising something with the WCC for RNW.

Lou, I'd be happy to come to yours too. Am also happy to volunteer my place for meetings.

[ClothConvert]

pasting from the other rnw 08 thread:

clothconvert here

1) Volunteer needed to source Signage for Community Boards

There are lots of free community noticeboards around, allocated for Not For Profit groups like us to advertise on (think where you might have seen the likes of ads for Teddys bear Picnic ) The catch is that the signs must be professionally signwritten. Here's what Kelly (kb) found out for Akl in our last RNW planning:

They are to be made on 5-7mm thick coreflute, and are sized between 1200x1200 or 1100x815, depending on site.

Who wants to volunteer for this job? You will need to find the best quotes so we know how many signages we (TNN Inc) can afford/want to get.

2) Cloth Expo.

The opportunity to sell their products at the Auckland RNW Expo this year was very well received by WAHMs. Unfortunately, it was a late decision and we only had space for 6-7 WAHMs. For 2008, can we go BIG? As in the concept of a P&C show, Dolls show, Quilt & Craft Show - so a MCN expo in the bigger cities like Akl, Wgtn, and Christchurch? This will be a huge undertaking, so a volunteer is needed urgently to contact all the MCN wahms. You will need to write or call the wahms as not all wahms are on this forum on a regular basis. I will let you know in detail the sort of info you will need to give the WAHMs.

re 1) as kb mentioned these are booked months in advanced, we may still get some spots though?

[Ethan's Mum]

I was hoping to have organised for a team of people to contact as many WAHMs as possible re having a stall at the expo, but i struggled before the xmas/ny's to get a team together It needed to be personal contact either via phone/in person/email not a mass call out on this forum as many WAHMs aren't on here on a daily/regular basis.

I put my hand up to help with this on the other thread I'm still keen to help contact WAHM's in my area. LMK if you need me

ETA: make that WAHM's in Auckland!!

[rangitotogirl]

It sounds like so much fun. Pity it's a Saturday though, cos it's the one day of the week we can't make it. Go on, you know you want to do more than one day. I don't mind helping. I just don't know where to start.

[sb]

Thank you karmiec and Shyrel for taking charge in organising for Akl.
sorry i have been absent for a while - it was a computer free week of sun, sand and surf holidays down in the Coromandel for us.

Shyrel, could you check out availability and cost of the New Lynn Centre that Nova mentioned and the Te Atatu Peninsula Community Centre beccahv mentioned? Sat 19th April 10am-2pm sounds like a good decision to me - we normally have a thread dedicated to RNW dates in the country so if one hasn't already been started, i will set it up after this post. Also, I will email/PM Darny to update on the main website.

New Lynn - both the main hall and the rec room are not available.

Te Atatu - both the hall and the meeting room are available, they are $25.30/hr, plus a $500 bond.

Grey Lynn - the hall is not available, but the garden room is available, I think we are agreed that the space is too small for us.

I was hoping to have organised for a team of people to contact as many WAHMs as possible re having a stall at the expo, but i struggled before the xmas/ny's to get a team together It needed to be personal contact either via phone/in person/email not a mass call out on this forum as many WAHMs aren't on here on a daily/regular basis. And yes, we'd charge a fee - the bigger WAHMs expects to pay a fee, and I'd think the smaller WAHMs would consider if our fees aren't exhorbitant
It was tricky as the venue was kinda going to be dependent on the interest from the WAHMs for an expo, but at the same time we needed to book a venue asap. Anyway, i suspect now we are back in the same position we were last year - we're back to having to book a venue first, which means we will only be able to "sell"/offer x limited amount of stalls.

I don't think we'll have a problem finding enough wahms, I think we need another volunteer to help Ethans Mum. As soon as we've booked a venue, we'll know how many stalls we can offer.

Can I just confirm it here, karmiec and shyrel are either/both of you happy to be the "commander n chief" for the Akl RNW? I felt rather responsible for it last year (not saying that I did all the work, not at all, but i did feel like I have to make a lot of the decisions cos we were short on time to allow for democratic voting then felt stressed at the thought that I was coming across as being a dictator!). This year I am committed to be the TNN rep for organising something with the WCC for RNW.

OK, I have another voluntary commitment later in the year, but if Karmiec is happy to be co commander in chief, I can do it.

[sb]

It sounds like so much fun. Pity it's a Saturday though, cos it's the one day of the week we can't make it. Go on, you know you want to do more than one day. I don't mind helping. I just don't know where to start.

Ummmm, I just chose Saturday 'cause it was Saturday last year. Sundays can be a bit tricky for venues too.

What do others think?

[rangitotogirl]

Any day except Saturday for me, but I'm just one of many voices, lol. If the popular vote is Saturday then that's okay. My favourite day is probably Sunday because then I have a built in baby sitter, aka DH.

[beccahv]

Sunday can be difficult at a lot of community centres as they are often used as church spaces......just something to think about?!?