E.R.O.C. II; There is no stopping this virus

EROC II: Day one




So this weekend Bear City of Berlin is hosting the second European Roller Derby Organizational Conference. And we are here with 5 of us representing the Amsterdam Derby Dames.
Belle Anger, Lola Rock 'n' Rolla, Vegan Vengeance, Sweet 'n' Sinister and me.

Yesterday we started with a nice dinner and registration. To be honest, this dinner was all ready exhausting! After being in a car for about 7hours, we went to the dinner. And there is a restaurant filled with all the amazing derby people. To much to handle... I was surprised to see I all ready knew quite a few people. And it was nice to see awesome people like Tigre from Helsinki again, after I met her first in Helsinki last year in June.
So you can imagine the dinner was a good time to network and drink with new and less new derby friends. And therefore it was all really exhausting. Lots of talking and hugging and stuff like that. :)

The Netherlands is well represented at EROC. As I have said in earlier blogs, there are now 7 roller derby leagues in The Netherlands, which is, to be honest, pretty amazing! We are this tiny country and ADD only started a year and a half ago. In that time Dutch Roller Derby has grown out to the new up and coming sport for women in the Netherlands.
I am side tracking all ready, so as I was saying, lots of Dutch Leagues at EROC! East side Rock 'n' Rollers (Enschede), Rock City Rollers (Eindhoven), Arnhem Fallen Angels, Rotterdam Death row honeys, Dom City Dolls (Utrecht) and us. So actually the only ones not here are the brand spanking new league from the north of Holland; Northern Lightning Roller girls (Groningen).
It was so nice to finally meet everybody.
As one of the inter league people at ADD I have been in touch with all the Dutch leagues. But it was good to finally put real faces with the Facebook profile pics! ;)

So we started the day of at 9 in the morning with a breakfast. Which was great.
At 10 all the workshops, trainings and Q&A's started.
I had taken the liberty to make a schedule for our own league reps, to make sure we would maximize the information intake. Cause OH MY GOSH....there is so much info! And there is so much we don't know yet! Luckily we also found out there is stuff we do know, and all ready do :)

I am not going to recap each workshop I have been too, cause I would be typing for another hour and it's all ready to late, as it is. :)

But a couple of high lights (and it was alllll great, just not enough energy to write about it all..)

- On skates training by master Blaster and Devilina. This was absolutely amazing!





- The League organizational structure workshop by Dr. No-No.... No-No has the amazing quality of saying and explaining stuff as it is, but making you feel good at the same time. She gave me the feeling that we are doing a good job with our league and that all leagues and a lot of (womens)organizations have the same kind of issues. Which is so good to realize.


Of course you know you are not alone, but at the same time, because it's new and we are (almost) all new at this, you can still feel isolated and alone sometimes.
But to quote Dr. No-No:
"There is no recipe on how to organize your roller derby league" and "No Roller Derby League is perfect. They are all run by (in-perfect) humans, we can and should strive for perfection, but we are not!"
Which of course I know, but it's good to hear someone say it all so clear and with a really positive vibe.

Well, there is so much more to talk about, recruitment workshops, Dutch leagues discussion, Low Country meeting, etc etc :)

For now I will stop, cause I really need to go to sleep. More EROC tomorrow, including a beginners scrimmage (!!!) Which will be my first ever scrimmage... I am all ready scared shitless!


- Furrrocious