In this Issue
- Come to the Membership Meeting March 10
- Bylaw Proposals
- Nude 5-K Run Canceled
- Everybody's Membership Expires March 31
- We Learn Things at Meetings
- Announcements
Days To Remember
MARCH
- 10 - ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING,
Picnic, Election of officers,
Organizational board meeting - 31 - EVERYONE'S MEMBERSHIP EXPIRES
APRIL
APRIL- 06 - Campout
- 07 - 18th Annual College Greek Athletic Meet (Rain date: April 14)
- 14 - Board meeting
- 26 - First Full-Moon Skinny-Dip
- 28 - First monthly picnic
MAY
- 04 - World Naked Gardening Day
- 19 - Board meeting (1 week late)
- 24 - Full-Moon Skinny-Dip
- 24-27 - Memorial weekend campout. Picnic & memorials Sunday. Lake open Monday
JUNE
- 09 - Board meeting
- 21 - Full-Moon Skinny-Dip
- 21-23 - AANR-FL convention, Suwannee Valley Resort near White Springs
- 30 - Picnic
JULY
- 04 - Sinkhole tour
- 13-14 - National Nude Weekend OPEN HOUSE & campout.
World record skinny dip Saturday.
Board meeting Sunday. - 13-21 - TNS Youth Camp, Sunsport Gardens near Loxahatchee
- 19 - Full-Moon Skinny-Dip
- 28 - Picnic & seminar
- xx - xxx
AUGUST
- 5-12 - AANR Convention, Jacumba CA
- 11 - Board meeting
- 16 - Full-Moon Skinny-Dip
- 25 - Picnic
- 30-31 - Back-to-school campout begins
SEPTEMBER
- 1-2 - Back-to-school campout.
Lake open Monday - 08 - Board meeting
- 20 - Full-Moon Skinny-Dip
- 29 - Trynudethon, Picnic & college activities
OCTOBER
- 13 - Board meeting
- 18 - Last Full-Moon Skinny-Dip
- 28 - Last monthly picnic
NOVEMBER
- 10 - Board meeting—Calendar planning
DECEMBER
- 07 - Christmas banquet & board meeting (1 day early)
General Information
- THE LAKE IS AVAILABLE EVERY WEEKEND ALL YEAR.
- Families with children are especially encouraged to come on picnic days.
- Meetings and picnics usually start at 2:00. If both are on the same day, we start at l:00.
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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 and Free is the official Newsletter of the Tallahassee Naturally. Articles appearing in Bare and 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 encouraged to submit , articles news items, and photos for publication. Please address all submission to: Tallahassee Naturally, P.O. Box 6866, Tallahassee FL, 32314 or info@tallahasseenaturally.org.
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Come to the Membership Meeting March 10
Our Annual Business Meeting and first picnic of the year happen on Sunday, March 10. We eat at 1:00 and meet at 2:00. (That is also the beginning of Daylight Savings Time; don't show up hungry at two.) Later, there will be a short organizational meeting of the new board.
Besides hearing reports on how we did last year, we will elect our officers for the coming year. A couple of bylaw proposals are listed below.
Bylaw Proposals
The board is recommending approval of two bylaw changes. Both are housekeeping chores that change nothing from the way we have been operating for many years. New wording is underlined.
Proposal 1: Update Section V-L-1 to include modern communication, so it reads:
1. For operational decisions which cannot wait until the next regular board meeting, board members may be polled in person, electronically, or by telephone. Any board member who could not be reached shall be informed of the board's action as soon as possible. Results of the polling shall be entered in the minutes of the next board meeting.
Proposal 2: Add a new section X-K to state longstanding practice:
K. All club members are responsible for maintaining standards, and should speak up when necessary. If immediate action is needed, all board members present shall reach a consensus on how to handle the situation. In the absence of other members of the board, any board member has the authority to expel a misbehaving person from the grounds for the rest of the day. Any such action must be communicated to all other board members as soon as possible.
Letters to the Editor
For the sixth year in a row, our board of directors is recommending no change in fees. We charge less than any other club with land in Florida (and of course have fewer amenities). Below are two proposals by a club member and a non-member. For the first to be financially neutral, would require a 50% increase in members. For the second proposal to be financially neutral, that would require a 100% increase in members:
I am writing with regard to lowering the fees at the lake. The American economy is still hard, and gas prices are high and increasing. They will probably be higher this summer.
I am proposing a reduction by one third. Examples:
Membership $45 to $30
Daily visit $15 to $10
Student membership $22 to $15
Student daily visit $7 to $5
I feel that this is worth a try. With lower fees, we will attract more members and people.
There are possible other options—for example, make each picnic day free if you contribute food, or a rate for retirees.
With the stresses of life, being nude is good and healthy, and lower fees will make it possible for more people to enjoy the nudist lifestyle.
There will be a membership meeting the second Sunday in March, and it is my understanding that it is also open to interested parties pertaining to club and nudist issues. I hope you can attend.
Rob Kester
I am writing to support Rob Kester in his goal of reducing membership fees to grow the club.
The current fee structure is so high that potential members are being turned away, and I am one of those people. I would love to join the club, but alas I simply cannot afford the fees. I retired on November 1 of last year, and overnight my monthly take-home pay plummeted from over 3K to less than $1600, of which fully half goes to pay my mortgage. The $200 for annual membership and lake fees is far beyond my reach.
I understand that the board keeps fees high in order to grow the treasury so that the club can purchase land to develop a nudist resort. But I would argue that the attainment of that goal requires a robust membership just as much as a robust treasury. If you keep membership fees so high that prospective members stay away, you will never achieve your goal.
I realize that club by-laws allow prospective members to request “financial relief” because of “hardship.” But has anyone ever made such an appeal? Will that ever happen? I suspect not. People like me with limited incomes yet retain our dignity and our pride, even though we do not have a lot of money to spend. If we do not find an affordable niche within your existing fee structure, we will just stay away.
The high fees are particularly discriminatory for retirees like myself, who typically see their incomes halved upon retirement. And yet retirees are a valuable resource for the club, because we offer a lifetime of skills and experience, and we have unlimited time to volunteer. Excluding retirees and other people with limited incomes is a very short-sighted policy that has stunted the growth of the club. More than that, it is definitely not in keeping with the philosophy and tradition of naturism, which asserts that naturism is for everyone, not just the affluent.
I strongly support Rob’s platform of cutting fees in half, and I believe that this is the most positive move the board could make to grow the club. It would attract new members who cannot afford the current fees, and it would encourage members to visit the lake more often.
If you cannot endorse an across-the-board fee reduction, then please consider a special rate for retired people who live on drastically reduced incomes. I would also recommend a special rate for disabled combat veterans, another group that generally cannot afford your fees.
The best way to grow the naturist movement is to embrace groups such as these who would love to participate but lack the financial means to do so. To your credit, you have welcomed students at reduced rates, and as a result the Moonlight Skinnydips are breaking all records for attendance. It is time to welcome retired people and disabled veterans as well.
Skinnydipping should not be just for the rich.
Steve Haley
Nude 5-K Run Canceled
Try Twice as Hard at the 18th Annual Greek Athletic Meet
Easter bumped us out of our usual date for the College Greek Athletic Meet, which last year we paired with a 5-kilometer run the day before. So we scheduled both events for a week later, only to recently discover that the run had landed on the same day as the much bigger runs that are part of the Springtime Tallahassee celebration. We can't compete with that. We are encouraging runners to instead attend our Trynudethon on September 29, or participate in next year's Nude 5-K Run and Walks on our usual date in late March.
Of course, everybody is invited to the 18th annual College Greek Athletic Meet on Sunday, April 7. This is the world's only authentically nude re-enactment of the ancient Greek pentathlon: long jump, discus, 200-yard dash, and javelin—with stand-up wrestling in case of a tie. No experience is necessary. People of any age may compete, but the victory wreathes go to the top college student in each classification: male non-athlete, male athlete, female non-athlete, female athlete.
The morning demonstrations and practice time are important. Some people plan to camp over Saturday night. Sunday's schedule is:
10:00 Registration
11:00 Demonstrations and practice in the ancient methods
1:00 Competition
In announcing this year's event, the March AANR Bulletin has a picture of Aaron, Chris, and Luke as students in an ancient Greek gymnasium.
Everybody's Membership Expires March 31
We are now accepting membership renewals. Remember that renewing members are encouraged to deepen their commitment by joining at least one of the national organizations. But which one? Many people join both.
The American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) card gives you a 20% discount when you visit most nudist clubs. (Many clubs won't let you in the gate without one or the other national card.) You get a monthly newspaper, which has become more interesting than it used to be. And you get the satisfaction of knowing your money is going to AANR's continuing public relations effort to make nudity popular and acceptable.
The Naturist Society is fighting to protect free beaches, by stopping bad laws before they get made. Their quarterly magazine brings you thought-provoking and sometimes controversial topics. Their card is accepted just about everywhere that the AANR card is. And you can join a free Special Interest Group of naturists nationwide who share your hobbies or concerns.
Tallahassee Naturally—annual membership
$ 45 single/couple/family
$ 22 student
Tallahassee Naturally—grounds fee (lake rental, use & upkeep) fee
$ 155 one year single / couple / family
$ 75 student—one year
$ 15 one day single / couple / family (pay on arrival)
$ 7 student—one day
The Naturist Society
$ 60 single / couple / family ($110 for 2 years)
$ 50 student / senior citizen ($ 90 for 2 years)
American Association for Nude Recreation
$ 68.50 couple
$ 38.00 single
$ 12.50 student
And of course donations to our Legal Fund or Land Fund are always welcome.
We Learn Things at Meetings
In the last few weeks, Paul attended two important meetings. AANR-Florida regional board meetings are usually dull routine affairs. But AANR-Florida has suddenly come alive. There was a surprising variety of invited speakers—voices who have been on the outside too long. Fresh ideas were flying all over the place.
We went specifically to loosen up the scholarship requirements which had become so restrictive that our students were likely to graduate from college before ever becoming eligible. We succeeded in that.
We also learned that the average age of AANR members is 59.6. That didn't sound like us. So we did some calculating, and found that the average Tallahassee Naturally member is 43.6. We are surely the second-youngest club in Florida—behind only Sunsport Gardens, which has lots of kids. We have always maintained about a 15% college student membership—better than any other nudist club in the nation.
At the Mid-Winter Naturist Festival, Paul conducted workshops on how we succeed in attracting college students, a showing of our Greek Athletic movie, and a scholarly slide show on the ancient Gymnosophists (or naked philosophers whom Alexander the Great met in India). He also got to meet the founders of Young Nudists / Naturists America, a New York group with whom we have been in correspondence.
This was the 25th Mid-Winter Festival. The organizer had been to all 25. Paul and one other man had attended all but two. Nobody else even came close.
Announcements
Thanks go to Wayne for the load of gravel. And thanks to Richard, Rick, Bruce, Grant, and Paul for spreading it in our driveway. Bruce also did some chainsaw work.
2012 was our second-best year of attendance. But that was not reflected in our income, because most of the increase was children and people at our Full-Moon Skinny-Dips. Those swims have always been free because we recognize that (1) most students do not have cash to spare, and (2) without an office, it is hard to keep track of people coming in after dark. But we also notice that some of our full- moon regulars have graduated by now and have paying jobs. So we will begin setting out a donation box at the full-moon swims, where those who can afford to do it can contribute whatever the experience is worth to them.
Does anybody have a ~2 pound plastic coffe container? (Or plastic container of similar size.) We could use a new one for the ... facility. We do not need a lid.