Election Address for Vice-Chairman: Reg Barlow
Posted by bnchange on May 20, 2007
We all know that British Naturism has been losing money in recent years; none of us know the actual reason why. Poor management? Commercialisation? No idea. The workings of the EC are not transparent enough despite publishing a condensed version of the minutes. What I am going to tell you though is what I do know. BN needs a new sense of purpose as a pro-active campaigner and I am the person to provide it.
My membership card tells me that I have been a member since January 1986 and leafing through some old copies of BN it is remarkable how little has changed. Comforting in some ways, an institution carrying on regardless of the changes in how society views social nudity and we, the members, British Naturism. Worrying in others. Nothing stays the same forever. There are now more naturists outside BN than there are in it and that needs to change.
A houseplant, fed and watered regularly will prosper until its roots fills the container it’s in and restricts further growth. Even if it’s well looked after, a pot-bound plant will eventually suffer and die. British Naturism is that pot-bound houseplant, and needs re-potting and the growing medium replaced, to give it a new lease of life. It’s time for new people and fresh ideas, competently executed to take BN into the future. I am a part of that future.
A Training and Development Manager in the civil service, I am a member of two professional bodies: the ILM (management) and CIPD (Human Resources), and often required to develop and implement practical solutions to problems encountered in the directorate I work for. I believe that this has given me the knowledge and experience appropriate for a not-for-profit organisation like BN: skills and competencies to make a tangible contribution to it and naturism, bringing about change for the better.
You are the gardener. A vote for me as Vice-Chairman is a vote to change BN’s direction, which I believe has been failing for some time. I stand for open, competent management, good governance and financial prudence. For restructuring BN as an effective, campaigning organisation with improved representation of individual members’ interests. In short, a representative body to be proud of.
Vote to take naturism out of the closet and turn it into a valid lifestyle of choice for mainstream society.
