I would love to see more information on the Naturist Bodies "organising" naturism in your country. Do they do a good job, or a bad job. How do they succeed and how do they fail - do they have negative traits in common and what can they learn from each other. RnR have shared a wonderful Member Blog here https://www.anaturistworld.com/member-blog/45932/naturism-is-it-as-inclusive-as-we-think-it-is-rn-r-blog that aks us to think about some of the concerns they see in their national federation.

We know they all do some pretty important stuff - so don't forget to underline the positives - but we musn't forget those negatives - as unfortunately the human race takes more note of the bad stuff than the good - and we all want naturism to be recognised as something to be enjoyed and relished. 

So don't be shy - this isn't about not being patriotic or offending the body you are a member of - it is about creating a list of dos and don'ts that are happening all over the world in the organisations that represent our lovely life choice. 
 
   

We think we outlined our observations and frustrations in our blog. We were not attacking BN, we actually agree they have done some sterling work to support natusim, but they are inconsistent at times, especially when getting events to match their advertised narrative. They are not souly to blame here, but they do feel hesitant at times to take the bull by the horns and deal with matters, especially in regard to ensuring that event organisers follow certain publicly stated goals.

The biggest problem with UK naturism, is it has become far too southern centric. We live sort of about just half way up the UK, but that for us entails four and five journeys to attend events, which for a family, is like a military operation. They do the Blackpool event and the camping weekend in the lake distric. Blackpool is more adult focused since they allowed a small group public voices stop the pool event. Camping in the lakes would be awesome for us, we love camping, but in that regard, it is price that prevents us.

They are far too preoccupied with naturist beaches, which they do promote, but as we have said before, in order to really get a larger membership and expand naturism (Their critera for exhistance) we feel they should become more urban. City centres have lots of oportunities, and yet they tend to avoid them. We did the bike ride in the heart of Manchester, it was forty minutes away, Manchester has parks, museums, and galleries, that could easily be booked and would appeal to many age groups, and yet they stand almost empty most days, we are sure naturists would love to visit in the buff.

In order to move forward, people need an open mind and positive attitude, and to be honest, at the moment, it feels very much like BN is stuck in rut and is floudering, as members do not renew their membership. We do not want to see BN die, we want it to grow and prosper, but we feel, without some new change of direction, it will fade away.

Definitely we hopefully all want our national bodies to grow and prosper because in doing so they represent naturism growing and prospering. Maybe some thoughts in this forum will show how they can grow and prosper and not fade away. 

There has been an increasing trend to imagine that national bodies and clubs have seen their day and the future relies on independent travelling/globetrotting as encouraged ironically by most blogs and websites not linked to the club network. Steve and I see the importance of travel in naturist terms and the importance of independent holiday venues/villas etc offering non-club linked holidays but we believe that the spirit of naturism as a social lifestyle needs the local and national membership. After all could it not be argued that in their hey day they allowed the world to trust and accept naturism and in return saw larger membership. The naturist families that filled clubs around the world with activity showed that naturism was a universal life style for all. Today with numbers decreasing and the average age increasing the acceptability of naturism in people's eyes is changing. The rules of the clubs and national bodies may have appeared "controlling" to some but the no rules, lets get naked and do it our way attitude that started to replace the clubs also saw the lack of trust growing. Naturists going on holiday without children - raises doubts - why aren't children there? Before long we have the down fall of Cap D'agde and clubs choosing the Libertine path. As boring as it may seem we need rules. 

The trick is to have the rules make sense and to not appear to be rules for rules sake. Look at Twitter, ANW and Facebook. Twitter has no rules and nudity 99% of the time is sex, ANW has (we hope) a few rules to ensure we stay naturist appropriate, that make sense and also encourage a respectful community, Facebook has rules that don't make sense, are illogical, and leave the user feeling controlled (so many of my posts get removed yet I try to follow the rules of suitability - but there is no logic and worse still no system to communicate and fine out why) - yet Facebook despite the control is still a place a sexualised behaviour, hate, violence and dishonour. 

This is what clubs and national bodies need to consider - rules that make sense, ideas that fit today and above all else changing the gene pool but in the right direction.

Understanding the difference between false positives and real positives. The trendy blogs may encourage readers and so seemingly encouraging naturism but many simply only encourage an interest in the blogger and not the lifestyle. You can watch James Bond but you won't become a spy no matter how entertaining. You can read about someone naked on a beach half way across the world but that does no more to sell naturism or even trust in naturism than knowing film stars go naked on beaches - it it a different world that the average person doesn't believe they can take part in. We all know that those with fame play with different rules - and most bloggers/you-tubers/tic-tockers etc are looking for a short cut to fame - like Big Brother or X-Factor.

The same is true of trendy Hashtags like I am the Face of Naturism or Normalise Nudity or independent naturist "symbols". They are moving us around in circles. Naturists applaud them like the Blogs imagining that because we "get it" that it is doing some good. It simply isn't. What non-naturist understands or cares about any of this? It is all about selling ideas (and merchandise) to existing naturists. It doesn't take us beyond ourselves and pull in new blood. What in the world does I am the Face of Naturism mean? The single part of the body that is seen when we wear clothes - and we shouldn't be individuals saying look at me - we should be groups saying look at us. As I wrote in H&E a few months back we should say "We are the Body of Naturism." As it is our whole bodies that join naturism and we are social so we should promote as groups/organisations/bodies. Normalise Nudity - as I have said before for something to need normalising suggests in the mind that it is currently abnormal.  What are you buying into when you buy a naturist symbol product? It is a product selling a symbol that sells more products. It is commercialism for commercialism sake we advertise it on their behalf just like wearing a jumper with GAP written across it. These are all examples of false positives. At least by buying into your national body you are supporting growth, clubs, laws, beaches, events...

So where are the true positives. Well I think ANW is a true positive (though am I not bound to think that?) but others exists. But why - well because we offer a club feel across national borders but with the same level of friendship and respect. We as mentioned above have rules but hopefully they make sense and ANW isn't just about me and Steve but about  us all. The lifestyle. As a unit members write not for fame but for sharing in the community, we post images not for attention but to share the joy, ANW like any club needs funding - but that funding covers costs and allows (or at least partly helps) Steve and I to devote silly hours to ANW and hence naturism - we have no want to sell ourselves (in fact we are hugely shy and it is our love of naturism that drives us) but sometimes when you care you have to step out of your comfort zone. ANW is we believe an example of how naturism could be run on a small local scale and also how a "social media" site of any type could be run. In fact the internet itself. Being upfront and honest about rules, funding, membership and in return expecting and seeing the community doing the same. We can guarantee everyone but the overwhelming feeling is good natured - serious and fun. Something else we do is turn away promoters/advertisers that we don't feel represent naturism (sadly we have had many seedier websites/venues enquire) we have seen websites,
 blogs and even national bodies advertise opportunities that they should not wish to be connected with - you have to be true to the nature of naturism - otherwise what are you telling your followers/members...ANW is not alone there are other sites devoted to sensible promoting, information sharing and learning of the lifestyle. Run by people who love the lifestyle more than they love themselves. 

And isn't that the biggie. One of the things that came across in our December Survey was that people joined their National bodies (for the same reason they joined ANW) to support the promotion of naturism and to be part of a community. The boards of the national bodies need to recognise that they are not self serving politicians or directors of large faceless companies they are dealing with a human commodity. Naturists who love naturism and don't join for what they can get but join to be part of something - to feel connected. National Bodies need to put members first - make them feel special and nurtured. The members are the product - and the products success relies on the members being happy and respected. Not just a few, not just those in the know, but the majority. You cannot please all the people all the time but you can give it a good try. Most people in the survey who declared not being in their national body said it was because they felt disconnected, not served and that the body existed for an elite few making decisions. We have heard these same complaints from local clubs too. If naturism is about equality then we simply don't want dictators. 

This is another big True Positive - the biggest. Naturist bodies have naturists to sell the lifestyle and their organisation. If everyone who like ANW tells as many people as possible then are membership and in return the community will grow and get more exciting and then more people will be told and so on. National bodies should be doing and encouraging the same. People on social media shouldn't be brandishing symbols that sells symbols that should use a ANW logo (we should have a transparent one available for download)  and /or their national body logo - display pride in a community connection and promote community spirit not just a symbol with no body of people behind it. Be a community- remind people that naturists are not just individual oddballs but groups of organised. respectful, bodies who actually connect more positively than most groups. If we want naturism to grow we have to show that it already has a considerable following - not just random globetrotters or extremist rebels but for generations we have been large groups of cross sections of people. If national bodies don't want their numbers to decline they should make sure that they respect their existing numbers and get them working to help grow their membership. 

It isn't easy in some ways - the years that this has not been happening has left a generation gap. On top of this many of those natural seeking naturism have instead found nudity on the internet which has lead to them opting for the sexualised nudity or rejecting the idea. We need to find a way now of bridging that gap, healing the harm that 40 plus years of naturism slowly losing its way and then being pummelled by the internet has done. We need people like RnR and their eager daughter. Naturism grew originally as a cheap, healthy escape from reality. Don't we need that more than ever? The world is tough, harsh, expensive, cold - how many youngsters, families, couples are there out there that would relish reconnecting to nature and the "wellness" that brings? Instead we have representatives of naturist bodies who say - I go on holiday to adult only venues because I don't like the way young people behave. Seriously I have had this sort of attitude expressed to me. Just as I have had bloggers say things like - we don't approve of what you are doing because it involves joining and the club side of naturism is damaging to the future of naturism which should just be individuals doing things the way they like. Can body spokespeople not see that families and children are the future of our lifestyle and if children don't know how to behave they will only learn by example, by being in social settings. Otherwise these children will become the adults and where does that leave us? Can the bloggers not see that naturism only exists because of the social aspects - if people hadn't connected as clubs to fight for naturism we wouldn't have the ability to go off and do it our way. Are bloggers "followers" just like a "fan club" are not bloggers requests for donations or patreon support not just the same as "club fees"? but at least by joining a club the members can take part themselves. 

As RnR write in their blog there are foolish rules - single men, age limits - cost are often too high, families and family events few and far between. National bodies fear promoting families, they are too eager to encourage women (which just feels creepy) and have a tendency to concentrate on women who are looking for confidence which suggests that happy balanced women will find no need to be part of it. Naturism appears to the outsider to be populated by retirees and the slightly younger rebel with an axe to grind. We have to break that mould, we have destroy the idea that boards are remote and wrapped up in themselves, sitting passing judgement on those below them who will never really appreciate naturism the same way they do. Surely the truth of the matter is that they love naturism. They should be naked and social. They should be on places like ANW talking about how much they love naturism, why they do it and making friends and connections. Allow people to see that they one of them and even better realise that they are just like all the other naturists out there. Steve and I when we created ANW wanted to be part of a a community - even in our blog A Naturist Family we wanted to sell naturism and not ourselves. That is what the boards should be doing - getting to know naturists and finding out how we tick, looking at how we connect and figuring out what we do to move forward. 

How we all move forward working together and united with the common goal supporting each other in our attempt to support naturism. Working together we are more than capable of changing the way naturism is perceived, working together to change the notion of joining groups in people's minds and working together to show that naturism and families is fine, naturism can be fun for the young adult and that in the spirit of equality anyone (man or woman) is welcome and equally will be ejected when not behaving. We must not deny people simply because of a quota but because of behaviour - and we should like wise not show positive discrimination. Let naturism show what really modern equality means and not some forced PC fakery. We have more chance of encouraging the young and women if we encourage everyone - after all I was introduced to naturism by a single man.

What do you think?

I think Anna's post deserves a good thought out answer. I'm replying now with nothing to say just to outline how it's making me think and how much I want to see and take part in this discussion. 

In Italy there is a naturist federation, FENAIT, which brings together the various naturist associations.

Only this year we joined a naturist association, ANITA, just to get the international card.

Previously, we got a negative impression of ANITA, when we signed up to their forum, and received a not too welcome treatment from one of the administrators.

We thought: "Oh well, he must have had his balls turned" (how do you say in English when one person is so unfriendly as to treat badly evryone else?)

At a fairtrade fair we personally met members of the various associations, and we discovered that given the geographical length of Italy and its coasts, practically every region has its own local association, which are then headed by ANITA, which is 'member of FENAIT.

We signed up, and we discovered the reality of Italian naturist associations:

• the original ANITA forum is closed for missing administrator
• all messages, coordinations, meeting are handled mainly using Facebook group, they say that is more modern...but it has also the Facebook rules, no nudity, plus others: I did try to publish a bunch of wildflowers photo that I collected for beautify my helmet and my bike for WNBR, I did share the same photo here, but it was rejected because it was not inerent with naturism.
• the main page for ANITA, even has a good impression but is only in Italian
• there are a lot of rumors about the new forum: le piazze di Arcadia, we saw it, but it is not clear how it works, furthermore is always only in Italian
• member are often polemic in online discussion
• the goods are that ANITA and the others affiliated associations are very active promoting sites, beaches, feasts and others

The ANITA management was renewed recently, so we are expecting something new, but at the last assembly the speech are always the same:

How we are increased, good, brave... how much there is more to do.

Sincerely it seemed to me like the managers briefing in my old company, hosanna for  all the company does!In conclusion, the Italian associations do a good job, promoting naturism in Italy with parties, rallies and new sites for naturism, but they totally lack in promoting Italy to foreign naturists, as a country where naturism can be done somewhere. .

Also, but this is my problem, I thought that the sites of the associations, or the pages of the Facebook groups, were places where you can cultivate friendships between people who love this lifestyle.
I imagine that the Forum Friday is a bit like being among friends in an armchair, drinking and chatting about things we have in common, here I was expecting something like this ...