Logo - Bare and Free Volume 15, 2, March 30, 2003

In This Issue:

Annual Business Meeting March 9: Keeps Things the Same
Three-Club Picnic This Saturday - April 5
Time to Renew
We are Looking for Investors
Small Crowd, Tight Contest
Memoriam of Watasawah
Calendar of Upcoming Events

Annual Business Meeting March 9: Keeps Things the Same

    Heavy morning rains kept attendance low--though the weather cleared in time for the picnic, and the sun actually shone during our Annual Business Meeting.
    Grant reported that club membership seems to have bottomed out, and is now headed back upward. Paul added: The bad news is that we have only half as many members as we did three years ago (131 to 67), and that we have lost most of our Georgia members. The good news is that (1) recruitment of new members is up, (2) our student membership is up, (3) the Full-Moon Skinny-Dips have been rescued from near-extinction, (4) our AANR membership is back up in safe numbers, and (4) we have moved from our usual 50% couples to 70% couples.
    All of the bylaw proposals passed. The members decided to keep our fees unchanged for another year. (Besides the announced proposal, one member had sent an e-mail suggesting philosophical shifts in the way we charge women and couples. We have put that topic on the agenda of the April board meeting, though no change could be enacted until next year.)
    We re-elected most of our board members:
President--Grant
Vice-President--Don
Treasurer--Doug
Recording Secretary--Paul
Corresponding Secretary--vacant, to be filled by appointment
Member-at-Large--Rob
Member-at-Large--Gloria
    Grant made these committee appointments:
Grounds--chair: Don
Land Search--chair: Doug
Social--chair vacant, Kim, Shauna
Political--chair: Paul, Rob
    Other volunteers are not only welcome, but needed. Talk to Don about lawn work, I'm sure he'll keep you busy. I as editor would love to hear some new voices. I'm sure Kim and Shauna would love ideas for social events. There is always do. All you need is to talk to the right person.

    At the board meeting following the annual meeting, the new board reappointed these people:
Legal advisor--vacant
Bookkeeper--Doug
Newsletter editor--Jamie
Webmaster--Mike

Back to Top

Three-Club Picnic This Saturday - April 5

    We have been invited to a three-club picnic on Saturday, April 5, at Sunny Oaks Haven near Live Oak. Northeast Florida Naturists from Jacksonville will also be there. The plan is to eat at 2:00. Allow at least one and one half hours driving time from Tallahassee.
    There are eight north Florida clubs within thirty miles of the Georgia border:
    For the last year, we have been trying to arrange some kind of get-together. This picnic may be the beginning of something.
Sunny Oaks Haven is only charging $5 per person for the event. You should also bring a potluck dish to share and something to drink if you want something other than water. Please let Paul (850-222-1886) know if you are attending, so he can let Sunny Oaks Haven know. They want to be sure to have enough ribs avaliable for everyone.
To get there, take I-10 to Exits 260 & 262. Go left (north) on State Road 255 about 3 miles to US 90. Turn right (east) and go about 7 or 8 miles and cross the Suwannee River. Take the next RIGHT turn onto River Road, across from the Truck Inspection Station. Go south about 1 3/4 miles. When you see the I-10 overpass, turn left onto 50th Street and go about 8/10 mile to the 199th Place sign on the right marking a grassy right-of-way. (There is also a white mailbox and a natural wood sign saying "Private Property, Keep out.") Turn right onto the dirt road which runs straight down the grassy right-of-way to Sunny Oaks. If you get lost, their phone number is (386) 658-1233
    To arrange car pooling, call Paul at 222-1886. Also call us so we can be sure they order the right amount of ribs.

Back to Top

Time to Renew

clock         Everyone's club membership expired March 31. To rejoin please, bring your money to the lake, or send a check to:
Tallahassee Naturally
  PO Box 6866
Tallahassee, FL 32314
    Renewing members are expected to deepen their commitment by joining at least one of the national organizations, as well. But which one?
     If you want to learn about nude recreation opportunities, enjoy pictorials of travel destinations, and stay up to date on club activities and events, then the American Association for Nude Recreation is for you. (You can also get discounts of travel opportunities as the American Association of Nude Recreation and Bare Necessities Tour and Travel - http://www.bare-necessities.com/aanr.html - have joined forces to provide quality nude vacations at low rates for AANR members.) If, on the other hand, you want to see your money going to protect nude beaches, and you enjoy reading a quarterly magazine filled with cutting-edge issues, you should join The Naturist Society. Many people belong to both.
    To learn more about each of these national clubs, check out their web sites: American Association for Nude Recreation - http://www.aanr.com/ or for The Naturist Society - http://www.naturist.com/
    More and more of our members are discovering the ease and economy of paying annual lake fees, rather than messing with daily or monthly payments. Here is the fee schedule:
Tallahassee Naturally--annual membership
$ 45 single/couple/family
$ 30 single student
Tallahassee Naturally--lake rental fee (FREE for female members & children)
$135 one year (starting at the beginning of any month)
$ 25 one month (starting at the beginning of the month)
$ 10 one day (pay on arrival)
(Male students: $5 a day, or $15 a month)
The Naturist Society (Club membership required)
$ 50 single/couple/family
$ 40 student/senior citizen
American Association for Nude Recreation (Club membership required)
$ 54.50 couple
$ 31.00 single
$ 12.50 student
    Bring your money to the lake, or send a check to:
Tallahassee Naturally
PO Box 6866
Tallahassee, FL 32314

Back to Top

We are Looking for Investors

    Every time we have considered the finances of buying our own land, we have run into the same problem: We know we can be highly profitable within five years, but we can never figure out how to meet the mortgage payments between now and then. We have floated various ideas--none of which have attracted the cash we need. Perhaps we have now found a way to bypass the banks altogether.
cartoon figure peering over wall     If three of our members invested $20,000, along with the club's $19,000, we could buy outright the smaller piece of land we have been looking at. For about two minutes, the land would belong to a four-way partnership--until the club agreed to buy out the other partners, leaving them as mortgage-holders. The investors would get approximately 8% interest (the same as the banks charge), but the repayments would not begin until five years from now. That would give us plenty of time to develop the land and become profitable. Two of our members have already expressed some interest in this plan--partially for retirement income, but mainly because they would also get free lifetime use of a building lot.
    Though we are close to affording the small piece of land, we realize that developing it alone is the least efficient way to go. Here are the estimated costs:

Small
 Large
 Both
 Development
7000
 0
 later
 Pond enlargement
5000
 0
 0
 Well
10,000
 10,000
 10,000
 Septic System
12,000
 12,000
 12,000
 Bathhouse and hot tub
5,000
 3,500
 5,000
 Clubhouse remodeling (or portable office)
1,100
 3,000
 3,000
 Fencing
7,000
 7,000
 7,000
 Card-operated gate
6,400
 3,200
 3,200
 Underground electrical wiring to main bldgs.
53,500
 38,700
 40,200
 Total

    The matching funds from the Kurt Thalheimer estate would raise a potential $30,000 of development money this year--money that we are trying to keep separate from the purchase cost. If we had no mortgage payments for five years, all of our regular income could also be poured into development.
    Still, it would be far more efficient to develop both pieces of land together. We ran our plan (minus the free lots) past people at the Mid-Winter Naturist Festival. None were in the right age bracket for retirement income, but several said we should advertise this deal nationally in The Bulletin. We are doing that. It would require six more investors (or a total of nine) to buy both pieces of land, so we could develop them exactly the way we want from the beginning. (Buying only the large piece is likewise inefficient, and does not appeal to the people already interested.)
    After five years, minimum repayments would be $2,000 per investor (with faster repayment encouraged). This means that if we buy only the small part, we must be showing a profit of $6,000 a year. Our profit this year was $1,000. A few years ago, with double the membership, we showed annual profits over $3,000. With land open seven days a week, close enough to town for after-work use, and with bath house and hot tub, we expect at least twice as much use as our current lake has ever seen.         We also are aware of sizeable losses from uncollected lake fees, that would be corrected with a card-operated gate. So $6,000 a year looks reasonable.
    Repayment for the larger piece of land would depend on trailer lot rentals. At an average rate of $200 a month, five trailers would take care of the mortgage payments on this part. Looking at the way the Bay Bares filled up with just weekend trailers, five trailers within five years looks entirely possible. More likely, we would have nearly all ten lots filled by then. If so, we could pay off the mortgage-holders even faster.
    Granted, there would be new operating expenses for electricity, taxes, and insurance. At first, they would be about equal to the amount we are now paying for rent. We don't expect much difference in outlay there.
    Anyone interested in further details should contact Paul at (850) 222-1886.

Back to Top

Small Crowd, Tight Contest

nude runner
    Our eighth annual College Greek Athletic Meet attracted a smaller-than-usual crowd, but there was some tight competition. Shauna, our energetic eighth-grader, again competed in the female athlete division, and won a victory crown. Sean of FSU came in second in the male non-athlete division, and won a crown as the highest-placing college student. The male athlete competition came down to the last throw of the javelin, when Danny won by six inches. Congratulations to all the champions.

Back to Top

In Memoriam  of Watasawah
1946-2002
flying eagle
Word has just reached us that
Watasawah's generous and compassionate heart has failed.
A venerated member since 1995, she served on our board of directors, and
maintained an emeritus membership since moving to California.
Her Native American name meant "I am Flying Eagle."
She also wrote under the pen name, Tasha Sommers,
(a name that the government insisted on using
because they didn't know how to deal with single names).
She became a Wise Woman, sought for sage advice.
In the way of her ancestors,
her home was wherever her friends invited her in, and
her children's home was wherever they chose to grow.
She walked lightly on this earth,
Yet touched many of us deeply.

Back to Top

small calendar Calendar of Coming Events

Friday, April 11--First Full-Moon Skinny-Dip of the year. This is largely a college student event. Because of road closings, we are having to move our gathering place across the street to the parking lot south of the FSU bookstore. We leave at 7:00. If you are planning to drive out directly to the lake, be sure to let Paul know. Otherwise, we might possibly look around the parking lot and decide there are not enough people to make the trip worthwhile, and you would find nobody at the lake to meet you.

Sunday, April 13--Board Meeting at 2:00. Come and join in the discussion of whether we should charge women grounds fees, and whether couples should pay more than single people.

Sunday, April 27--Picnic and Seminar. Bring a potluck dish to share. We eat at 2:00; Rob is host. Doug will tell us about his recent trip to a nudist resort in Brazil.

Sunday, May 4--Don't forget the board meeting will be one week early because of Mothers' Day.

Saturday, May 10--Beach trip--Start planning for it now.

Back to Top

Logo - Natuist Society


Tallahassee Naturally is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of naturist recreation in north Florida and nearby areas. The club is an affiliate member of both The Naturist Society and the American Association for Nude Recreation.

Bare & Free is the official quarterly newsletter of Tallahassee Naturally. It is sent electronically, though a hard copy may be requested by leaving a message at the club's web page :http://www.tallanaturally.org Articles appearing in Bare & Free may be reprinted by other naturist publications, provided that credit is given. Photos, however, may only be reprinted with written permission.

Club members are strongly encouraged to submit articles, news items, and photos for publication. Please address all submissions to: Tallahassee Naturally, P.O. Box 6866, Tallahassee, FL 32314, or contact the editor:








logo: American Association for Nude Recreation