Clothes are Optional

Another group of people calling themselves BNChange are going to have a go at rescuing BN, whose membership has dropped again this year. If you are still a BN member, I strongly advise you to read their website and vote for them:

bnchange.wordpress.com

BN has still not appointed a treasurer (vacant since Daniels became Chairman), even though one of the BNChange candidates (Duncan Heenan) is a well-qualified and experienced accountant and has offered to do the job. He is standing for Treasurer.

I have heard through the grapevine that both the unelected current Chairman (Richard Daniels) and the appointed Ressearch and Liaison Officer (Malcolm Boura) have been whinging about the amount of work they have to do and the lack of time to do it. In that case, why not involve other members to help? I made suggestions about how this could be done when I was on the EC.

Malcolm Boura has been co-opted as Research and Liaison Officer of BN. This is very good news. To the best of my knowledge, Malcolm is an honest, active, and dedicated person who will do his best for naturism. Unfortunately, he has to work with the rest of the EC. We should co-operate with him as fully as we can in promoting and protecting naturism.

However, I have cancelled my direct debit to BN, and unless something unlikely happens I shall cease to be a member when the current membership year ends. I think this is sad: I (re)joined in 1992, soon after returning to the UK.

It took some time for it to sink in that (unlike other organisations I belonged to) BN simply took my money and never asked for any involvement. In fact, when I started to make enquiries I found that my local region simply did not recognise my existence, as I was not a club member. I did try to do something about it, and, yes, I failed overall although I did achieve a few things.

My advice to others is this:

By all means, donate money to BN if you wish. But do not expect it necessarily to be used for what you thought it was for.

But do not be a member. Not until the organisation protects you with limited liability. Not until the post of Commercial Manager is properly supervised and assessed, and BN’s interest properly separated from the personal interest of the holder of the post. Not until there is a competent Treasurer in place who will ensure that the member’s money is accounted for without influence from vested interests. You will lose little by not being a member. You could lose more heavily by being a member.

In this article - click the link on the right - I describe a matter that I raised in EC and has not been resolved. The Commercial Manager is proposing to start (or maybe has started) commercial activities at the members’ risk.

For the public record, I have posted here the ‘BN memories’ that originally appeared in uk.rec.naturist. These describe, as factually as I can, my experiences on the Executive Council (EC) of British Naturism (BN) during 2004-6. There are things here that should be of interest to members of BN. See the links on the right.

In particular, nos. 4 and 5 describe the liabilities of members in an unincorporated association, such as BN is, and the financial shenanigans when BN ran out of cash in October 2005, just before the AGM.

Duncan Heenan was there, and he has written an account of the meeting which he has placed in the public domain. You can find it in the links on the right here.

As from 19 August I have resigned as Regional Representative for the North West Region of British Naturism. I was unable to attend the AGM on 22 October, but I understand that the chair refused to allow the reasons for my resignation to be raised or discussed.

In my resignation letter, I wrote: “I have made no secret of my dismay at the lack of financial and other responsibility on the part of BN management and the Executive Council that was elected by members to look after their interests. I am concerned that my membership of the EC has exposed me to financial, legal and ethical risks over which I have no control, and to which a majority of EC turn a blind eye.

“I am also aware of the attempt made at the last AGM [in October 2005] to deceive the members over membership figures and the financial state of the organisation in advance of a vote on membership fees. This deception was exposed by concerned members, yet the anger of EC members was directed at the members concerned, with no attempt by the EC to assess its own actions. I consider the interest of the members must be considered above others, and therefore I am dissociating myself from the EC in advance of the AGM this year.

“I am willing to collaborate, to the fullest extent I can, on specific projects that I believe will benefit naturism and naturists. However, I feel it is necessary to review my future membership of BN.”

I have posted detailed information in the uk.rec.naturist newsgroup, and on the website http://go-bare.org. I’ll also post them here as and when I can, but not in the main blog, as most people find politics boring.

Here are the links I am keeping on the site. Eventually, they will be integrated into the new-style site.

• Travel reports: South Africa (2005) (auch auf Deutsch), Little Crugwallins, Cornwall, England (2003, 2004 and 2006), Domaine de la Sablière, France (2000 and 2002), Iceland (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005), La Jenny, France (1997), The Netherlands (1996, 1997 and 2003-4), Cap d’Agde, France (1995), Morfa Dyffryn, Wales (1994).
• Some information for naturists/nudists visiting the UK.
• Naturist and clothing optional Bed and Breakfast and other accommodation.
• Email me

I decided to close most of my old ‘Clothing Optional pages’. Some of the articles were over a decade old. Instead, I shall take advantage of the newer technology of ‘blogs’ to post articles here as and when I have something to write. If the old pages are still relevant, I’ll update them and post them here.

Blogs had not been invented when I first put the Clothing Optional pages online in 1995! In fact, there were only a few of us around the world who were pioneering web sites about naturism and nudism. Ah, those innocent days…

I have left my trip reports up as they may well be of interest to prospective travellers to those places. See the links for the details.