Election Addresses
Election Address for President: John Paine
Posted by bnchange on May 20th, 2007
I am standing for President to help BN meet the challenges of the 21st Century. BN needs better management decisions, a review of what it does for ordinary naturists, a strategy to counter the nuisance caused by sex pests on naturist beaches. Should you elect me as President I would undertake urgent action on these.
A naturist for over 30 years I have visited many naturist sites and Clubs, and met many naturists, in the UK and Europe. I regularly write articles for UK naturist magazines. I am 63 years old, a member of three Clubs.
A retired community development officer, I have been BN national Research & Liaison Officer. On the EC (2004-2006) I worked hard, with fellow EC members Richard Burnham and the late Rex Watson, to get better management practices, and to open up the bizarre secrecy that surrounds BN’s top decision making.
As RLO I helped naturists on beach issues at Studland, Eastney, Brighton, Sandwich Bay, Margate. During my Ainsdale Inquiry, in July 2006, Sefton Council asked BN to help create an official naturist section at Ainsdale Beach. Sadly, some within BN’s current management did not allow me to pursue that. I will continue to actively support the work of present RLO Malcolm Boura.
Present policies lose BN thousands of members every year. The latest published BN accounts (for 2005) show income was £292,376, yet BN management still made a 2005 net loss of £49,312! Current BN annual income of £322,000 should be sufficient. It does not require increased membership fees – it needs sound financial management!
I will help Chairman Richard Daniels make the hard decisions that BN needs. Despite all the resource devoted to commercial activities in recent years BN membership still drops. Most BN members don’t belong to landed Clubs. The future of BN lies in individual members, with sound leadership, dealing with key issues that ordinary naturists feel are important. That is how BN will attract many more thousands of UK naturists.
A vote for me is a vote to change BN’s direction. I stand for open and competent management, good governance, financial prudence. I want BN to become an effective campaigning and representative national body for naturism. I want improved representation of naturists’ interests. Make your vote COUNT to move naturism out of the closet and for it to become a valid lifestyle choice in mainstream society.
Election Address for Vice-Chairman: Reg Barlow
Posted by bnchange on May 20th, 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.
Election address for International Officer: Stuart Troughton
Posted by bnchange on May 20th, 2007
Well I said I would be back, and I am. A little older and hopefully a lot wiser. One thing that has certainly changed is that I am no longer single. Yes, I got married about six months ago. Nothing else has changed. I am still committed to opening up BN, to making sure that the members come first and ensuring that any decision made is good value for money. I am even still prepared to listen when you complain! To make sure that your complaints do not fall on deaf ears I am standing for International Officer this time.
Yes, it is a change of direction, but one that I feel may help British naturists most. Our commitment to the INF and other bodies is very laudable, but at what cost to the members of BN? Ask yourself one question, how much benefit do you get from INF membership? I think it is time the focus should be principally on our membership here at home, not just our image abroad. Image is nothing without substance!
I know that BN has been failing for a long time. Falling membership numbers and the loss of money that brings are both well documented. It appears that the scale of the problem is in dispute. Stuff the scale, it’s how we cure it that is the important question. Want an answer?
BN is more than just a collection of clubs and a few individuals. Now the individuals outnumber the clubs, but what both the clubs and the individuals want is a place they can all be heard. BN should be, needs to be, that place. What you must ask yourself is, why isn’t it?
BN seems to be run by a few for the benefit of a few. What BN needs is to be run by the few for the benefit of all! I firmly believe that the only future that can work is an open, fully accountable BN, one run for the benefit of all members, both club and non-club.
Unless we have open meetings that any member can attend as a guest, full minutes of every meeting published without spin, and proper roles and responsibilities then this is all going to end very soon and very badly.
You know what is at stake. You now have a chance to do something. Still waiting to know what to do?
Election address for Treasurer: Duncan Heenan
Posted by bnchange on May 20th, 2007
BN is sick. I want to help make it better.
In the two most recently published years’ accounts BN spent £82,049 more than its income, running cash reserves down below the level of the outstanding creditors. At the same time our membership numbers have been falling for a decade, and now stands at not much more than half what it was at its peak. BN’s Executive has responded to this decline with a policy of commercialism in recent years which I believe is both wrong in principle, and has been badly carried out. The result is financial weakness with little to show for it. We ignore this at our peril.
Even more importantly, I see little real progress having been made in BN’s prime task – of making naturism more widely acceptable. To me naturism is a lifestyle, not a hobby. I feel BN’s role as a National Representative Body should be to proactively campaign to make this marvellous lifestyle more liveable for anyone who chooses it. To focus the organisation on this means leaving some things to the Clubs and commercial organisations which they can do better.
So who am I, and why do I think I can help? I am 58 and have been married for 36 years. Throughout this time we have been naturists, including being members of 3 sun clubs and various swims, helping on the committees, and have been BN members since 1980. I am a Chartered Accountant with a successful business career ending up in general management, which allowed me to retire early. I keep busy now with charity and church involvements, but am happiest in outdoor activities such as sailing, swimming, gardening and rambling – naked whenever possible. I am standing for election as I feel that BN needs both better management and governance, plus a general change of policy direction. I feel qualified to assist with all of these.
A vote for me is a vote to change BN’s direction, which I believe has been failing for some time. I stand for open and competent management, and good governance; financial prudence; restructuring BN to become an effective proactive campaigning and representative national body for naturism; and improved representation of individual members’ interests, with proper 2-way communication. Vote to move naturism out of the closet, to become a valid lifestyle choice in mainstream society.
