Bare and Free

Be sure to attend our Annual Business Meeting on March 14. We will eat at 1:00 and meet at 2:00. There are no grounds fees for those who attend the meeting.

Several important matters will be decided. There are three bylaw proposals to (1) tighten control over misuse of our name on the internet, (2) end the experiment of no grounds fees for female members, and (3) officially reduce student fees from two-thirds to one-half the regular rate. Read the proposed bylaw for details.

We can also adopt or reject two new fee schedules. The first would simply comply with bylaw proposal 3, if passed. The second would also reduce membership and annual lake fees. Background: In 2001, the club increased fees sharply to speed up the purchase of land. In December of 2003, we decided we are not in a position to buy land at this time, and reluctantly let the matching funds from the Kurt Thalheimer estate expire. If we continue with our current fees, are we collecting money under false pretenses? On the other hand, we barely broke even this last year. Some people say it is irresponsible to reduce fees and run the club into a deficit. Other people believe that reduced fees would attract so many more people that income would actually rise. Unlike the bylaws, we can still adjust and compromise with these numbers at the meeting:

	Before 2001	2001-2003	Plan A	Plan B
Membership
General	30	45	45	30
Student	20	30	22	15
Daily Lake Fees
Member	7	10	10	10
AANR/TNS	10	12	12	12
Non-Member	12	15	15	15
Student	5	5	5	5
Monthly Lake Fees
Member	20	25	25	25
Student	15	15	12	12
Annual Lake Fee	120	135	135	120

Despite a promising weather forecast, cold weather kept so many people away from our December membership meeting, that we postponed selection of a club logo until our Annual Meeting in March. The options are displayed below. We will be voting on the concept. (The initials are wrong on some of them; that can be changed. Some were submitted in black-and-white, others in color; that can be changed.) We don't have to adopt any of them if we are not satisfied, but we have held off the design and printing of new membership cards and business cards until we reach a decision.

We have a problem in electing our board of directors: not enough people have qualified themselves by attending meetings. The bylaws allow for a temporary suspension of the rules whereby we could open all positions (except president) to anyone who has attended club-affiliated events during the past two years--as evidenced by the sign-in sheets. But such a decision would have to be unanimous. This is the official notice that the question will come up. If anyone is willing to serve on the board, let Grant know before the meeting.

Members who cannot attend can vote on all of these matters by proxy, but the rules are specific: You must seal your vote(s) in an envelope, and get it to Paul before the meeting. On the outside, put your name and reason for not attending. Based on your reason, those present will vote on whether to open the envelope.

There will be a brief organizational board meeting after the membership meeting.

Bylaw Proposals

Any new wording is in italics. Any proposed deletions have been ~~crossed out~~.

Ban misuse of the club name(s) on the internet by amending Article X, Section G to read:

3. Diversion of club membership list, mail, money, equipment, or land arrangements for personal or commercial use.

5. Handling or removal from a vehicle of any firearm without unanimous consent of all board members present.

7. Abusive or reckless behavior -- with or without the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

10. Distribution of names to non-nudists, or photographs to anyone, without the person's permission.

11. Unauthorized misrepresentation of the club to the press or others. This includes adoption of a name (on the Internet or elsewhere) so similar to the club's name(s) as to cause potential confusion.

12. Any act which threatens the very existence of the club or its continued use of lands. This includes visiting the land on days when it is not rented for club use.

The statute of limitations on any act shall be one year from the time two board members became fully aware of it. Under no circumstances, shall polite criticism of the way any club officer is performing his or her duties be misconstrued as grounds for expulsion.

End the experiment of no grounds fees for female members, by amending Article XI, Sections A-1 and A-3 to read:

1. Membership rates shall be the same, whether for a person, couple, or family. The one exception is that annual dues for students, and the daily and monthly grounds fees for ~~male~~ student members shall be approximately 2/3 the regular member rate.

3. The first day at the lake is free for prospective members. This shall not apply to casual visitors from other clubs. ~~Women who join may continue to attend free.~~ Children are never charged grounds fees.

Further amend Article XI, Section A-1 by reducing the fees for student members from approximately ~~2/3~~ to approximately half the regular member rate.

Our Club Gets Exposure on PBS Special "Our Town"

Tuesday, March 16, the local PBS channel 11 (cable 5) will broadcast "Our Town, Monticello." Our club has a three-or four-minute segment in it. Kim did the filming back in November when it was too cold for most club activities. So Paul talked to the camera, while Grant and Doug swam by. Unfortunately, their polar bear swim ended up on the cutting room floor. We had done about 45 minutes of filming, with the full knowledge that only a small portion would be used. We also submitted several still photos from our bulletin board. They were used, but with certain body parts blocked out.

The film premiered February 21 at the Monticello Opera House. Paul, Jamie, and Shauna attended.

College Greek Athletic Meet - March 21

We sponsor the ninth annual College Greek Athletic Meet on Sunday, March 21. (Rain date is April 4.) This is the world's only authentically nude re-enactment of the ancient Greek Pentathlon (long jump, discus, 200-yard dash, javelin, and stand-up wrestling if needed for a tie-breaker).

While scholars of the Classics and track stars are welcome, no experience is needed. People of any age may compete, but the traditional victory crowns of leaves go to the top college student in each classification: male athletes, male non-athletes, female athletes, female non-athletes.

It's free for participants. Nude spectators that day pay a special rate of $15 per person, family, or couple. Registration starts at 10:00, with demonstrations and practice in the ancient methods at 11:00, and competition at 1:00. For fuller details, check our web page: http://www.tallahasseenaturally.org/greek_athlet.html

There Will Be No Anti-Camp Bill in the Florida Legislature

Last summer, the American Association for Nude Recreation decided to emphasize their family orientation by inviting major reporters to their Florida youth camp, which Paul had started many years ago. But when The New York Times printed an enthusiastic story, little-known Florida politician Mark Foley seized on it as a campaign issue he hoped would propel him into retiring senator Bob Graham's seat. The publicity Foley got turned sour, and he withdrew his candidacy in early September. Meanwhile, he had stirred up a lot of political trouble.

There were three camps in 2003--in Florida, Virginia, and Arizona. The year before, there had been an experimental weekend camp in Texas, with the idea of eventually starting a week-long camp there, as well. A special session of the Texas legislature was already in session, so an anti-nudist-camp bill quickly went into committee. The Naturist Action Committee moved decisively to kill it.

Meanwhile, representative John Quinones (from Kissimmee) promised to introduce a similar bill in the 2004 session of the Florida legislature. From the beginning, South Florida Free Beaches insisted that any law regulating camp staff or parental permission apply to ALL camps, and not discriminate against nudists. And South Florida Free Beaches had plenty of friends in the legislature to introduce such amendments. Ten years of political lobbying were beginning to pay off. By February, Quinones confided that he had already milked the issue for all the good publicity he could get out of it, and realized that any further publicity would turn against him. He did not want to explain to parents why he was harassing Boy Scout and church camps in an election year. There will be no bill.

But Virginia is a different story. When a bill appeared, requiring every nudist parent to attend camp with their children, the less politically experienced AANR and AANR-East took the lead there. It was their camp, after all. They thought they had made inroads in the House committee, but when the bill reached the full House, it passed 98-to-1. And the one person who voted against it did so because he wanted to outlaw all childhood nudity, even with the parents present. Now the bill heads for a senate committee. Stay tuned.

FL Clubs' Newsletters Posted on the Internet

More and more clubs have gone to electronic newsletters, so we have fewer to post on the wall. Last year, we arranged for a gateway site to Florida club newsletters on the internet, but it soon became useless when Yahoo changed the rules. A new site has now been established: http://www.geocities.com/flnaturists. Go to the site shortly after the beginning of each month, and find out what is happening around the state.

Calendar of Coming Events

14 Picnic, Annual Membership Meeting, Election of officers, Organizational board meeting

BARE AND FREE