There is a lot of concern that is being voiced and we read a lot of worries, frustrations and anger in the ANW survey in December. But it isn't all bad news either and some organisations were getting the thumbs up in the survey, while others seem to be failing in certain specific ways according to members, and yet some seem to be offending others almost through existing and some expressed a concern that they simply didn't have the best interest of naturism at their core anymore. These feelings may be personal and based on individual experiences, but there were patterns and in some ways very worrying.
There’s certainly an issue of fear of speaking out at our national organisation. There have been certain members (that I won’t mention by name) who claim to have been kicked out for questioning a lack of openness within the organisation. They accuse certain board members of wrongdoings and covering up certain events. Weather they just have an axe to grind or their accusations are true, are anyone’s guess, maybe a bit of both. While the banned members are very open to talk about it, the organisation is not. All this is common knowledge for most of us, but anyone who wishes to criticise the organisation, must have that fear of ‘what if I go too far? ‘ and May decide it’s better to keep quiet. Clearly this is not a good situation to be in. Has ANW approached any world national organisations and asked if they would like to come and talk with us, or maybe be represented here, is a better way of saying it?. Interestingly there’s currently a thread on the BN forum asking how they can encourage others to join. As I look now, there’s over 106 replies, I’ve been following the thread, and there’s a few good suggestions, but I don’t recall anyone criticising the organisation for its possible flaws, strange that. 😉
We sent out an email to all national bodies when we first launched. We have also sent out some specific ones since. The New Zealand Naturist Federation has been wonderful and has got involved. Some others have been mmming and ahhing. But the boards are often too confusing, and changing, and people passing things over to someone else etc.
We are in the process of reorganising the Explore section and feel that as our 4th birthday is approaching it is time to send out emails to organisations and clubs etc again.
If ANW members want to suggest that their bodies and clubs get in touch then do pass on our contact email [email protected] and we will be delighted to chat about how we can help them and work with them to hopefully improve the understanding of naturism around the world and encourage memberships and interactions.
at April 19, 2024 9:33 PM BST 
We have had personal conversations with a few national organisation officers and one board member, and handed over several information cards, as we urged our national organisation to get involved with ANW, as yet there has been no response to date, which is frustrating.
We do feel that a refusal to listen to constructive criticism is a huge negative for a national organisation. They need to be open to suggestions as they are all supposed to be member led. If a member is expelled for raising concerns that is not good practice, and we will openly admit, our own national organisation did on occasion find us very challenging, not because we were being rude, but in our case it was more about pointing the lack of families within their organised events. Our frustrations at being ignored or asked to shut up is what ultimately led to us making the choice not to renew.
We do think if an organisation induces fear of reprisal in its membership, it is not representing its members correctly. As we have added earlier in this forum, we engaged with over 500 people last year in Wales, and requested their views on many things, of which our national organisation was one of them. The result of those questions gave us a figure of well above 50% who did not wish to return, which we felt was sad.
But even considering that, we did try to make a case to communicate through officers with the EC a few ideas and things that could help, and in a few cases, we have noted a change of language on some subjects, so even though we did discuss unpopular topics with them, which they did not enjoy, ultimately they did eventually listen, which is all that counts.
On a positive vibe,
I am at one of Naturist Society's events, one of the US national bodies, and I got to hear Bob Morton talk about things from legislative bills that are threatening Naturism to changes in legal terms that we need to have an eye on. I was blown away hearing all the knowledge he knows and the stories and tidbits. And writing this comment learned he had a wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Morton_(naturist) He is an amazing source if you want to know everything about Naturism Laws and US.
He is Naturist Society member but due to some changes in Naturist Society he "switched teams" to work with AANR to help with their legislative needs. AANR pays for the expensive software to monitor all the state legislatures. And when there are events they need to act on he and a team of people are working to figure out a way to fight and if they need to hire lobbyists. But hearing him there is so much nuance in the game of politics and the naturist not fully agreeing which actions to take such as hiring lobbyists since they are not cheap.
at April 27, 2024 7:58 AM BST 