Belated Birthday Blog

Photo by Janelle

Winnipeg notes

  • FIVE years of NP
  • Global Run Day
  • Yearbook photos next Wednesday- theme is denim
  • June 21- Trash Stigma with Junel at Garbage Hill
  • July 17- Workout at Investors Group Field

Yesterday, we celebrated five years of NP Winnipeg. Five years of showing up for each other every Wednesday morning at six in the morning. Five years of building community and connections. Five years of changing the chemistry of the city we live in. Five years of birthday workouts.

We filled those stairs in front of the CMHR and it may not have been our biggest turnout for a birthday, but it was definitely one of the hardest workouts. There were a heck of a lot of sweaty and smiling faces by the end of it. We had a whole bunch of new faces out there this morning, largely thanks to lululemon bringing the hype with the speakers and a big group of lemons. read more

NP Homework – Runaround

The time has come for another NP Homework brought to you by our friends at Knockaround and this one has a pretty sweet prize for the most creative submission! But before we get to that, let’s talk about:

Theme. “Runaround”. What does Runaround meant to you? Running fast? Running slow? Running in place? Running in circles? Running solo? Or with friends? There are no right or wrong answers so show us what you got! Runaround.

Rules. To enter the contest, post a photo to Instagram and make sure to tag @knockaround @novemberproject and use hashtag #NPKnocks. In your photo, you must be wearing a pair of Knockaround sunglasses. Bonus points for #GrassrootsGear. You’ll be judged on creativity, fun, humor, x-factor, and authenticity so photoshop or other photo altering software will not be allowed. If your Instagram account is private make sure you open it to the public otherwise we won’t be able to see your submission.

What if you don’t have a pair of Knockaround sunglasses? This weekend only go to http://knockaround.com and with code NPKNOCKS receive 35% OFF your entire order. The sale kicks off at midnight EST Friday and will end at midnight PST Sunday, June 2.

Timeline. We’ll be accepting submissions starting Saturday, June 1 and going all the way through Friday, June 21. Our friends at Knockaround will pick 6 favorites, which will be hosted on their website for the world to vote on. The voting will start on Sunday, June 23 and will end Friday, June 28. The photo with the most votes will be named a winner and officially announced Sunday, June 30th.

The Prize. A trip for one person to November Project Summit in Las Vegas, NV (flight and hotel) + a different pair of Knockaround sunglasses for every NP workout week for a full year (52 pairs of sunglasses)! Incredible, right!?

So get your creative hats on and start cranking those homeworks out.

LOUD and PROUD

Winnipeg Notes:
-5th Birthday on Wednesday

Gaston, we are glad you are here. Winnipeg, Gaston is glad you are all here.

Without Further Ado, our guest blog from our guest co-leader Gaston:

Today we celebrated the start of Pride month with a special Pride workout led by very loud and proud member, Gaston. Today’s blog post is a guest post from him, his lived experiences with fitness, November Project, and his passion for everything that he stands for (and no, we are not talking about going for coffee after the workout). read more

Welcome Willie, Birthday Bob

Winnipeg Notes:
-NEW COLEADER!
-BIRTHDAY NEXT WEEK, 5 ON THE 5TH
-PEG City Scramble, Thursday

When I say ‘oh’ you say ‘yeah’

OH YEAH! What a great morning! We brought on a 3rd leader! Willie “Oh Yeah” Mac, is here! But we will circle back to that later in the blog, so put a pin in that hype. This morning we ran PR (hopefully the maps made it clearer than last time), y’all pushed and crushed it. Also this morning, my Dad, Bob turned 60! So I made him wear a helium balloon during the workout, and we did 60 of a whole bunch of exercises! Happy Birthday Dad, thanks for being a good sport! read more

Name Game (YWG)

good doggo

Wisconsin notes:
– We did the full tubthumping burpee workout
– We got to know everyones names
– Megan and I will be in Edmonton this weekend; guest leaders for the Friday morning workout
– Next Wednesday- prize for whoever recruits the most people, and tagging shirts for PR day
– Next Thursday- Peg City Scramble, details here
– June 5th- Birthday workout, Facebook event here, and global run day event in the evening, event details here
– Amie Seier’s new gym is open, go check it out here read more

NINJA (dracarys)

Wisconsin Notes:
-Ninja workout- full stealth
-NP YWG turns 5, June 5th
-PEG City Scramble IV -May 30th
-free dragonboat team, sign up
-MB Marathon June 16th, race or cheer

Now you see us, now you don’t. This morning was our ninja workout and we went full stealth. We were sneaky, we were tricky, we were ninjas. We worked out at the Lower Fort Gary for the first time and it was wicked. Super cool to explore and utilize a new area, thanks to Derek for that brain wave and for scouting it out! Y’all showed up in all black. Mike B was so disguised I didn’t recognize him until the workout was half over, he also COMMITTED to a ninja accent/ persona. Desiree brought a sword. Derek wore a black vest to hold all his things, for hands free stealth. Spike stayed on theme, Carter did not. Danielle crushed it on photo taking. Shelby won Shabooya. We forgot to birthday boom Brian. Oh, you weren’t there, and you feel like you missed out? Well, you did. But don’t worry, you can join us any other Wednesday or Friday, we have about a bzillion amazing things coming up. read more

Fast Times at NP High- Guest blog by Toby (YWG)

Today, we have a guest blog from Toby Bergmann. All 49 November Project cities are dropping guest blogs today, and we chose Toby for a few reasons. He is one of the few high school students that come to the workouts, and he shows up every single week. Also, he is fiercely competitive. Not many high school students will wake up at 5am to go do a workout before going to school, so we commend his commitment. read more

Don’t be sad, cuz sad spelt backwards is das, and das no good (YWG)

Wisconsin Notes:

  • Plogging recap
  • Today’s workout recap- legs on fire
  • It’s not goodbye, it’s see you later

Sunday, we did some spring cleaning around the Forks. The Forks has been NP Winnipeg’s meeting spot for over 5 years now and we decided to give a little bit of our time to give back to the place that means so much to us. Thank you to all of you that showed up and plogged around (and even brought your kids, which made my heart feel all mushy on the inside because kids are the best and basically the future of anything and everything!!) read more

A Peek Under The Hood

November Project Members embrace at Pre-Boston-Marathon workout

In the past few weeks, we’ve made an announcement about adding new sponsors to the global November Project family. We also stated that November Project will start accepting donations as we are now a non-profit organization. Since then we have received requests for more details regarding how we will allocate the funds donated. Hopefully, the following breakdown will help answer those questions:

Leadership Support and Training:

Our leaders are our most important assets. Their willingness to selflessly wake up before dawn and lead workouts is the only reason that this movement keeps growing and prospering. It’s vital to us that we continue to provide them with support and resources so they can continue to excel in leading their city. One way we do that is by connecting them with other leaders at our annual gathering we call the Meeting Of the Minds, or MOM for short. At MOM, the leaders have the opportunity to share stories, learn from each other’s successes and failures, and foster relationships that transcend geographical boundaries and time zones. We discuss everything under the leadership umbrella such as creative ways to recruit new members, how we can improve inclusivity, ways to plan an efficient workout, as well as addressing ‘Corporate’ topics with strategic decisions that we at NP HQ are working on. We also bring in specialists who have a unique perspective on diversity and inclusion to challenge us to shift paradigms. And even though the hashtag #safetythird has seen its fair share of usage on social media channels, we take the safety of our members very seriously and offer CPR certification classes to every co-leader interested.

Day-To-Day Operations:

November Project, Inc. has two full-time employees, Brogan Graham and Bojan Mandaric, and one part-time contributor, Laura Green. This trio is in charge of all non-workout leading operations including, but not limited to, designing and executing NP strategy, planning and operating an annual budget, communicating with leaders, growing the new and existing NP locations, and collaborating with our sponsors, partners, and local communities. As we move into this new space, the job description is now expanding into the growth of the non-profit/youth program and fundraising that may require bringing on more hands on deck.

Administrative Cost:

And finally, the not-so-sexy yet extremely valuable tools associated with administrative duties which include website hosting and maintenance, accounting, legal expertise and compliance, mailing, and printing, just to name a few.

We hope this gives you a more transparent view on how your donations are used to grow the movement we all love and appreciate. If you’re interested in supporting November Project, click here.

Brooks x November Project = Awesome

Today we’re proud to announce Brooks as the official footwear and apparel sponsor of November Project. Brooks has been woven into the fabric of NP Seattle since the early days. From the CEO down to the newest hires, they celebrate the culture of bettering the world through running and movement. Based on these shared core values, it didn’t take us long to get excited about the potential of our combined reach. The Brooks influence will be multifaceted, including financial support, access to new footwear and apparel, resources for our leadership training and the annual November Project Summit, entries into Brooks-sponsored running events, and activations on a local and global level. We’re ramping up to do some very cool things together and couldn’t be more excited.

#NPSUMMIT
This year’s annual gathering of all November Project members from around the world will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 15-18 at The Rock’n’Roll Las Vegas. The races on Saturday (5K) and Sunday (10K, 13.1M, 26.2M) actually shut down the iconic “Strip” and don’t start until the sun sets. There is so much more to come, but for now, plan to partake in various activities that will kick off with the workout on Saturday morning and conclude on Sunday night. We will be sharing NP-specific registration codes soon but if you’re so excited that you HAVE to register immediately, who are we to say no?

We’re stoked about all the incredible things that are ahead of us but for now, please join us in welcoming Brooks to the global November Project family!