Practice

Last weeks practice was amazing.

Vi O’Lence and Miss Elmyra ran the practice and had the girls doing plough stops, t-stops, derby stops, baseball stops and knee drops.  It was amazingly good fun and we all managed to work up enough energy to forget about the cold.

Lots of conversation went on in regards to the shortage of stock of Riedells in the UK and the girls are clubbing together to bulk order which will be so much easier for us in terms of being able to use different venues who don’t have skates for hire and so on.

Girls are flying practice without me this week as hubbies birthday has stopped play for this roller girl – but its only for a week and turning 30 deserves to be honoured

Names and membership are coming along well and once two evils gets through the backlog and okay our requested names we will be all set!

Its been a while

Hey, long time no post, how are you guys ticking along?

Well Christmas and snow have conspired against the Notts Roller Girls and last weeks ‘back to the track’ skate practice had to be cancelled due to freeeeeezing venue and dicey, death like roads.  But we deciede to have a committee meeting instead in the Sir John Borlaise Warren and it was actually really useful in giving us some off track time to chat, sort out Derby business and generally have a nice drink without the derby induced skate pain.

But that aside i am sooooo pleased that tomorrow we are back to practicing.  I feel i have forgotten everything i had learnt and it will be nice to be back on wheels.

Venue wise – I am really keen to get to a position where we will be able to move venue to a place with a better floor than our current one.  Whilst Take 1 had been amazing for us at the beginning, i think clean shiny floors would make a lot of difference to our skating skills.

And in respect to Derby Names, some of us have come up with some great ones.  My excellent name of Queen BodaSeeYa! unfortunately fell at the first hurdle, when i was contacted by another derby girl to say she had been using the name for a while and had registered it a while back – ah well, great names are hard to fine and seemingly even harder to come by

But a weekend is a long time, and i think i may have a new one already……. will keep you posted.

Falling behind

Wow – as the team comes together and the practices go into full swing, my time to do other things (like this) seem to become less and less – sorry.

Well, third practice tonight, forming a committee, sorting out a constitution, opening a bank account and generally sharing out the load between the ladies who have come and stayed

we are quite a formidible bunch of girls at the moment, the skating is coming along well and everyone is excitedly coming up with their derby names….

Tonights practice is going to be run by some of the other girls – should be cool.

Am trying to sort out Insurance for the team, but the quotes are either no or really expensive, but we need insurance, a committee, bank account etc, in order to be able to apply for funding, get access to practice venues and so forth, so it is all a balancing act.

Anyway, must fly, work to go to (and that is really hectic at the mo, which isn’t the most helpful) christmas is flying into view and hubbie is in the US for a conference, so pet survival and house not burning  down responsibilities are all with me – yikes.

will try to blog more often….try……

second practice, balancing cash and managing the council

second practice is sorted – venue booked, ladies invited and 15 confirmed – yay!

had a bit of trouble sorting out the cash after the practice (seemed to have dropped a fiver at some point – arse).  but on the whole we managed to cover the cost of the venue with the subs (just )

have been in contact with the council sports sector about getting us some help, funding and hopefully access to venues, they have been really slow at getting back to me, but hopefully something good will come of it – either that or it will be a complete waste of time – but i will only know by going through the process.

Need to sort out a proper committee and consitution in order to apply for sports grants and the like, so that is going to be job number 2……..

first practice

First practice went great, about 12 of us showed up and by the end of the session everyone was skating around (some more wobbly than others, but all skating) and no one fell down YAY!

Trying to sort out second practice now, hopefully they let us have the venue again, but am still waiting for confirmation.  Keep getting contacted by more girls interested in getting involved which is amazing.  It was great fun (although i did feel muscles i haven’t felt before the next day )

looking forward to next thursday and then carnival of the strange at the weekend……

Setting up

Have been and bought the team a cash tin, receipt book and got some forms for setting up a bank account so when we start having to handle money at Thursdays practice things will be done the right way from the start.  Do need a couple of signatories for the account so everything is done in the right way, so am in kinda a catch 22 need to see the team to set things up, but need to set things up before i see the team.. ( i know i could do this after the team meet on Thursday, but i am keen to get everything sorted before i start my new job on Monday so that everything is sorted….)

I am halfway through writing a team constitution and hopefully sorted in terms of the paperwork needed.

Exciting stuff

Well, i have 13 girls interested in being on the team, which considering i have done nothing to advertise us is amazing!!! i am kinda tempted now to just get going with the girls we have, let people find us by their own interest and then if we have people drop out of the team, consider recruiting at that point (also by then we will maybe have some funding and a more stable set up)

It seems like there might be some issues with the original practice day and making sure we can pay for venue hire and skates.  But have tried to persuade some people to give us some money, so will have to see if anything comes of that – but in these credit crunch times i am not so confident.  Hopefully our fairy gothmother will come along and wave her magic pointy stick

If anyone out there is reading this and has some great ideas for sponsorship, grants or just wants to donate some funds to get your local roller girls on their way, please give me a buzz  nottinghamrollergirls@googlemail.com

off out to look at sparkly explosions and say ahhhhh, oooohhhhh, mmmmmmm now – bye bye!

slacking off and sorting out first practice

I have been rubbish of late sorting things out, but i am trying to make up for it all today

as a result, i have a venue for the first notts roller girls practice sorted – 12th Nov, Take 1, Nottingham.  I have invited most of the ladies who are interested via facebook.  I have looked into different organisational structures for the team.  Considering Not for Profit, Limited Company, Community Amateur Sports Teams and now i am going to write a constitution and apply for some funding.

I also need to figure out how i apply for a bank account and get some formal books sorted before i start collecting subs off people for practice.  Do i need receipts to give to people when they pay me subs?  (will collect them for money paid out)  oh the nonsense involved in setting this thing up is crazy – the skating seems to be fading into the background! .

Well, at least once the practices are established, then it will all start to get a bit easier (i hope).  So, the whole thing kicks off next week.  Bit worried about how little time i have spent on skates of late, but if regular practices are put in place this will help (also the fear of looking like a complete tit in front of all the others, will inspire me to spend some more time with slippery wheels strapped to me).

Wish i understood more about everything involved, it takes so much time to research and find it all out.

Here she is!

Check out our beautiful new logo as promised!

Notts roller girl logo

thanks charlotte!!!

In terms of Skating Practice, just had a quick roll about in the dining room – floorboards but not much space.  I still need to work on my posture, need to get the right balance of knees bend to straight back etc.  I came away today with a sore back, so i think i am doing something wrong in terms of posture still   But everyday i get on those wheels i learn something new.  I realise that it is going to take me a long time to get up to derby standard, but the long road starts with the first step (or some such nonsense).  Well must keep going.  Think i have about 7 ladies (plus me) interested in joining the team (and that is without any advertising)  am meeting some of them this week and hopefully i will be able to get a few things kicked off, get some practices scheduled in and get this show on the road.  I think i am going to have to toughen up and prepare for the pain and bruising that proper practices are going to bring – yikes !!!

If you don’t ask you don’t get.

So in the spirit of just launching into it and seeing what happens, i decided that my first attempt at a logo for Nottingham Roller Girls just wasn’t going to cut the mustard, so after stumbling across a website of a local artist, Charlotte Thompson and thinking her style looked ideal for a new logo, i took it upon myself to email her and ask if she would draw something wild and wonderful for us.

Receiving the email from her this morning with the new logo attached was very exciting, and when i actually saw the drawing she had done, my jaw literally hit the floor.  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. better than i could have ever imagined (and never drawn myself in a million years).

She is just finishing off the last few final touches for me in the next few days and then i will post the final lady in all her glory for you here for all to see.

If you want to get an idea of the kind of style she has and what so inspired me in the first places, check out her website here……

Charlotte Thompson website

Why not commission her to create your very own portrait?  I am sure you will be amazed with the result.

And for me, time to start producing some recruitment flyers