Thanks for posting this David and Anne, it is good to hear such positive news. Here in the UK it is not always easy to get Stateside information, so this helps guide us better at understanding yet another aspect of Global naturism. We will look at the link and do some reading. 

During this week there have been two posts shared on the activity feed that have had me pondering the work put in by natioanl bodies in promoting and protecting naturism. 

One involved a male who was made to feel unwanted at a venue that quoted: "Please, important to know: Men who are not accompanied by a female, must be members of the INF (International Naturist Federation). Otherwise, the reception will ban them from entering."

We wrote: "The questions here are why just single men? If they have a policy for singles it should be aimed at both sexes. And if they see being members of the INF as proof that you are well behaved, why not demand it of everyone? That way they wouldn't be singling out single men as the problem.
Sadly being part of a couple or part of a national/international body is not proof of morality or respect for naturism. Swinging is very much a couples thing! Most of the complaints we have had about members of ANW who push boundaries have been couples attempting to flirt with other couples. A venue with a broad mix is a venue we would trust much more than one that said couples only.
And we have definitely removed people from ANW who are members of the INF/national bodies."

and "There are other unpleasant aspects linked to this sort of discrimination. We have come across venues that charge single men considerably more to attend. What is that saying? We don't really want you but if we let you in we want you to pay twice the price women or couples pay. Naturism should be free from this nonsense. If a venue wants to be couples only, men only, women only, families only...then that is their choice but they shouldn't then twist it by saying men need to pay more or jump through higher hoops to prove themselves or single women are heartily embraced."

and another " Last year I read that they had drastically reduced the size of the naturist area by two-thirds. It has now been relegated to a small corner of the resort. All the best bits are now in the non-nude area. ( upto 2025 the entire resort was nude.) I don't know if this is a growing trend or just coincidental that a lot of resorts I have been to or intended to go to have shut or have reduce opening/size."

Dand A replied" Unfortunately, this is a growing trend.
And it’s a vicious cycle.
The number of naturists is declining (significantly).
As a result, resorts are reducing their size, converting to clothing-optional facilities, or closing down.
This, in turn, dampens naturists’ enthusiasm, which unfortunately leads to a further decline in their numbers.

We need to take action!"

and I wrote: "It would be interesting to know how people around the world view their national bodies approach to this issue, certainly in the UK it seems our national body is actually encouraging this problem to grow. They appear to be concentrating their effort into selling tickets to their own organised events rather than growing naturism and encouraging the use of venues, clubs and beaches. I get it that hey want to see their events prosper but the bigger picture should be about seeing naturism embraced by more - this will give them a bigger customer base to sell events to anyway! So what is their to lose? They also seem very reluctant to promote naturism as a life choice suitable for all that can be part of life in many ways - and seem to be gearing it as a lifestyle aimed at childless party people within narrowing parameters and putting great importance of sexuality. The whole approach, from what I can see, is leading to a decline in numbers, as their effort seems aimed at encouraging people who will buy tickets to specific events rather than aimed at everyone. It is a little like an organisation existing to promote the love of music only being interested in encouraging people who like rap music to join because they run rap concerts. They may see an increase in selling tickets to the rap concerts but the knock on effect is that they put off everyone who feels rap music is for them. Incredibly short sighted, and it is also arguable that they are no longer fulfilling their duty of care to naturism." 

So what do you think? What is you national body doing to help promote naturism to the public? What are they doing right, what are the doing wrong and is it working?  

Until now, we have not been members of any national naturist organizations. 

We did not consider this important because there was no activity of any kind to speak of. Neither programs nor opportunities for engagement were offered on their part. 

Local clubs organized more and better events. For example: hikes, water excursions, spa evenings, wine tastings, nude theater, ...

Interestingly, these events have also started to dwindle, and the number of participants is decreasing. 

Instead of national organizations and clubs, self-organized programs have come to the forefront here. We’re having a good time. The problem is that over the past 8–10 years, there haven’t been any couples or families in our circle interested in naturism. 

We would expect a national naturist organization to promote the movement. It appears on countless forums. It is featured in various media in an educational manner. 

In contrast, there are just a few articles a year and the occasional news item on a TV channel. But even these aren’t the result of local organizations’ efforts. 

I feel that this process must begin at the individual level and work its way up toward the organizations.

This is an extremely complex, ongoing activity that requires a great deal of time. It is a task that yields few results these days. However, if it remains in the public eye, it will have an impact in the medium term.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that our national naturist organization is striving to showcase the naturalness of naturism or to encourage people to try it.

If artificial intelligence is already making its presence felt in certain areas of life, then natural nudity should be just as prevalent.

There is no doubt that when you talk to someone about helping organise an event, they refuse on the grounds that it is “Too much work.” We will not deny, it does take up time, but framing a whole argument for a refusal as Time consuming is to a degree disingenuous. Yes it take a lot, but the rewards for doing so are multi layered.

When we first became involved with the Halkyn project, we did so because we had argued our case with our national organisation repeatedly, and been smacked down. In a bid to put our money where our mouth was, we jumped in the deep end to prove the point that there was space for independent naturism to thrive alongside the national events, and show how naturism could be opened up to more people using what we saw as our fresh new ideas to help the naturist cause.

It is now three years on from our time of spending nine months working to organise and host a series of events that were open to everyone in naturism, and yes whilst it was time consuming and at times hard work, it has become something we will never regret, and at some future point will consider doing again… Let Rob sleep first. (Giggles)

We opened up naturism to anyone who wanted to be a part of it, we keep it affordable, and added a lot of activities that offered a wide range of things for visitors to do. Every time slot offered two activities to choose from, and everyone was welcome to come and go as they pleased. The Halkyn project attracted, Families, Couples, singles, and LGBT from every age group, and the result was a wonderful harmonious event that felt like one huge family enjoying naturism. Part of our organisational team included our own 14 year old daughter, who worked with everyone who arrived, and we found interacted and encouraged others to consider bringing their own children/grandchildren to the next event, and more importantly than anything else, we found our events attracted a large influx of first time naturists. Our reward, was the gratitude shown us and the warmth given to us for being the organisers. It is the most rewarding thing we have ever done as a family for naturism, and we proved that we can talk the talk and walk the walk when it comes to opening naturism to new people. Segregation kills naturism.

Sadly, our national organisation, who we were members of at the time, worked against us, and bombarded us with petty requests/complaints and nit picking arguments to lessen our viral success on their site, rather than support what was an all round positive for naturism. As a result of their behaviour, we have since withdrawn our membership and left the national organisation in favour of using more independent naturism. We learned that naturism is about far more than large events, prices, and making a profit, it matters not how big an event is, what matters is that something is provided that helps bring naturists together, even if that is just for a few hours or a day. When discussing naturism people miss the point that naturism is a uniting force for all, we placed that ideal at the centre of all we did, and it worked, it is sad that national organisations all over the world are forgetting this most important point.

All of us know the rules of naturism, and that is all we need, to simply abide by them to have successful naturism. Our UK national organisation has forgotten that, and so jumped onto the segregation bandwagon in order to look politically correct and trendy. It is true, when you push out the young and open a bar or allow alcohol, naturism becomes profitable, and that does appear to be a current modern trend within naturism today with its new party attitude to look good on a website. We partied in different ways at our events, our party was a paint fight or water fight, it was hula hoping, and kite flying, face painting and even a semi naked dress up. It did not matter if it was 15 people or 50, the enjoyment factor was real, and no left without a smile regardless of their age or sexuality.

There are many people within and outside our national organisations that constantly push the rhetoric of naturism is dying due to social pressure, and we completely disagree, and speak out against all the time. If you want our own personal opinion on the matter, we would say this:

What our national organisations lack currently, is courage. There is a lack of will to step outside the parameters of profit in order to be more engaging and relevant. There is a distinct fear of the general public that drives a distinct lack of engagement with them, and there is too much pandering to minority groups at the expense of the majority driven by profit making. Naturism currently lacks a cohesive direction at a national level to steer those dependant on it to see a clear direction, so the ship is sailing into unfamiliar waters away from what are accepted and trusted waters. In a nut shell, at a national naturism level, the ship is floundering, and there is no one holding the tila.

When I started out as a naturist, my first thoughts were to practise abroad on holiday, maybe camping at some of the French naturist sites.

The Internet suggested that most of these places required INF membership which I looked into. At that time, I was married, but my partner was not into naturism so I would have to go as a single male.

I was aware of BN, but didn't want to join if it was just going to be a holiday thing, but INF didn't take membership direct as such and worked with your own country’s naturist organisations so I joined BN purely to get the INF recognition.

I haven't been an active member of BN and after I joined, I found a lot of what they were doing a bit to much in your face for me and sometimes very opinionated, but now I realise that I was just starting out and most of what I was concerned about then is not an issue to me now. Over the years my attitude towards naturism has blossomed and I sometimes feel like shouting about it (in a good way) like here on ANW but would not be quite the same on the BN site.

I’m not quite sure why that should be, but on reflection, I probably feel more comfortable here on ANW than on the BN site. Maybe I'll push my boundaries on it one day and give it a try. I guess it is a good thing that they now have the Sunfolk site of their own which is encouraging and I hear a lot of people do enjoy their nude fest events and walks etc. So who knows I might try some of those one day. So for me, they were a necessary evil to get INF recognition abroad and proof I am a naturist if on my own, should it be required.

I have retained my membership, but my partner isn’t interested, but now I’m retired, the fees are cheaper.

Trips to beaches don’t need BN’s involvement but now I am a member of a club, they pay for association and inclusion on there website.

I suppose at the end of the day, it is what you feel comfortable with and if you don't need it then don't bother with it.