The Relevancy of National Nudist Organizations

North America is served by two naturist or nudist organizations; the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) and The Naturist Society (TNS). While it seems that many nudists and naturists have a rather apathetic attitude towards membership in those organizations, I make no apology for the fact that I am a staunch supporter and member of both. In fact I at every opportunity encourage others to join one or both organizations. While I allow that it isn’t likely necessary to be a member of both, I choose to be because I think there are some differences between the two organizations that cause membership in both to have value for me and others who enjoy social nudity. Another thing is that both offer excellent periodicals and I wouldn’t want to forgo receiving either of them. AANR publishes a monthly newspaper, The Bulletin and TNS publishes quarterly, a full color magazine, Nude & Natural, often simply referred to by naturists as N.

What do these organizations do besides collect dues from their members? In a nutshell, AANR is primarily responsible for the oversight of nudist clubs and resorts. They have core values such as associated organizations must provide an environment that is family friendly and free of any sexual atmosphere. They promote positive body acceptance. AANR also by committee does become involved in issues where governments or other entities attempt to infringe on the rights of people to engage in responsible social nudity.

You could say that AANR is the “nudist” organization and is most concerned about the more urban practice of social nudity. TNS on the other hand, has the more naturist type philosophy and is primarily concerned with the preservation and expansion of the rights of naturists to responsibly utilize public beaches and other public lands for nude recreational purposes. I think it fair to say that TNS is the “green” organization as they promote responsibility in interaction with nature and the environment. TNS is also active in protecting nudists and naturists from those unfriendly to social nudity. They have a legal adjunct called the Naturist Action Committee which regularly intercedes when federal, state or local governments raise issues designed to restrict the use of public lands by naturists.

Recently I submitted an article to the editors of Nude & Natural for their consideration. In part that article encourages all naturists and nudists to unite under the umbrella of a national coalition by becoming active and participating members of AANR, TNS or both. In the article I drew a comparison between naturists and nudists and gun activists, citing the effectiveness of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in shaping legislation that affects a citizen’s rights to own firearms. I see some compelling similarities in mission between the NRA and the national nudist organizations. While it is the mission of the NRA to protect and preserve what they view as the rights granted under the Second Amendment, both AANR and TNS seek to protect and preserve nudist rights from a First Amendment issues perspective.

While I’m not going to give away the whole of my proposed Nude & Natural article since that wouldn’t be fair to TNS until they make a decision about whether they will publish the article, I would just like to expound a bit more on the idea of how naturists could benefit from following a model similar to that of the NRA. The NRA is consistently rated by members of Congress as the most powerful lobbying organization in the country. NRA members are noted for registering to vote, showing up at the polls, calling their congressmen and holding their representatives accountable for the kind of legislation they introduce or support. NRA members support their organization through dues, donations and active participation in volunteer activities and recruitment. In 2004, the annual revenues of the NRA were about $240 million. Yet no matter how large NRA becomes (estimated now to have more than 4 million members), they remain true to their heritage as a grassroots organization that very effectively serves the interests of their membership.

The biggest successes I find in the NRA model are there ability to grow and retain their membership base through active and aggressive recruitment and their ability to attract additional revenues in the form of donations, allowing them to finance court challenges when necessary and support the bills and politicians that they believe are most aligned with their member’s interests. Big money and a large membership of individuals standing together, ready and willing to engage in the political process are the secrets of the NRA’s success.

In comparison, the two largest nudist organizations combined have an estimated dues paying membership of less than 100,000. While I have no figures on their annual revenues, certainly it would pale in comparison to the NRA simply by virtue of the huge difference in numbers of members. This is not to say that there are only 100,000 or so naturists in North America, as I am certain the number would easily surpass a million or more, yet that doesn’t count for much when they haven’t banded together to present a united front. 4 million members and about $240 million in annual revenues get people’s attention on Capitol Hill and in the various statehouses. That to me is a lesson that naturists must not only learn but emulate if we are ever to win the battle for respect and legitimacy that we have been fighting for since 1929. Since that time it seems we have vacillated between trying to “fly beneath the radar” and escape the notice of non-nudists or else we have been engaged in a war for the hearts and minds of clothed society through diplomacy. Neither of those strategies has brought us much success. My personal belief is that we are never going to enjoy becoming a part of mainstream society and gain at least tolerance from non-nudists until we become, to borrow a phrase from Al Gore, an “inconvenient truth” that the political forces in this country are forced to reckon with. Individual naturists need to look deep inside and find the will to become participating parts of a vital and effective united group and our nudist organizations need to discard the old ideas that haven’t worked and look to new and innovative ways to attract broad support from those who embrace naturist principles. If we could learn to shape public policy and legislation in the manner the NRA does so effectively, I think we would then be light years ahead of where we are now.

Much of the hostility and depreciative attitudes we get from a large segment of society is because we are viewed as being a fringe group of questionable morals, character and I suppose intelligence. Those kinds of opinions must be dispelled along with all the ridiculous misconceptions that many people harbor about who nudists are and what we are about. Our culture, our philosophies and our practices are good and noble and demand the same respect as those of any other alternative lifestyle. Gaining that respect is an achievable goal if only we will take a united stand. Instead of being perceived as a group of weirdoes who are always fighting city hall, let’s plug into the system and learn to use it effectively to achieve our purposes and secure the rights that are due us. As Confucius reportedly stated, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” We may be facing a proverbial thousand mile journey but we can and should start taking those steps now. If the “almost” 100,000 members of the AANR and TNS would individually commit themselves to convincing just one other confirmed nudist they know over the next 12 months of the importance of membership and help to encourage them to join, one year from now the memberships of those organizations would be double their present size. Yes, 200,000 is still a far cry from 4 million but it’s a start, a first step on that thousand mile journey; a step towards the expansion of rights and access; a step towards respectability and viability of our lifestyle, beliefs and practices.

Shock and Awe Part 2: Overwhelming Power

To most effectively employ this point of strategy, I think where we would get the biggest bang for our buck is through standing together under the umbrella of one or both of our national nudist organizations, either The Naturist Society or the American Association for Nude Recreation. Become a member, encourage other nudists you know to become a member and get active. Writing a check and putting another membership card into your wallet or purse is not enough. Seek opportunities to get involved within the framework of one of the national organizations. As I’ve said before, I’m not the activist type in the sense that I’m not likely to join in a public nudity protest and risk being fined, arrested or imprisoned. I think those who do engage in this kind of “in your face” activities do have their hearts in the right place and have the best of intentions, but I think these kinds of demonstrations are really counter-productive to our cause. They offend people and really only serve I think to make nudists look like a bunch of wild-eyed, extremist nut cases. Extremism has never been well tolerated in American society. Even though patriotism is foundational to the American experience, even extreme displays of patriotism are likely to garner public criticism and even the negative attention of governmental agencies. But when any group stands together in large numbers and presents a unified front, people take notice. One need only look to history and see how effective was the Civil Rights Movement and the Gay Rights Movement to see why naturists and nudists need to bid a speedy farewell to our past failed strategy of individualism and get it together as a group. This means not just those that have the desire to engage in social nudity but home nudists as well should secure membership in TNS or AANR.

As far as getting actively involved, there are many less extreme things we can do than participating in public nudity demonstrations. Both TNS and AANR offer free printed material that can be handed out or posted in public venues. You can support organizations like the Naturist Action Committee and the Naturist Education Foundation with your checkbook. You can get involved with the national organizations by offering, no demanding some innovative changes. For one thing, when you look at the web sites of both TNS and AANR you find an awful lot of stuff, but I can tell you from personal experience, if you are interested in joining, you really have to look hard to find membership information. It’s almost as if they are apologetic for offering memberships. I think they need to make some changes to their own models of doing business. Membership should be the most stressed and highly visible part of their web site presentation. Not only information about how to join but why it benefits you to join. Join one of the many nudist social networking sites and use the forums to post cogent and well articulated arguments for why being a national nudist organization member makes good sense for all nudists. If you are open about your status as a naturist or nudist and given to public speaking, you could contact local non-nudist social and fraternal organizations and offer to serve as a guest speaker at one of their meetings where you would have the opportunity to present naturism and nudism in a positive way to groups largely ignorant of what our lifestyle is all about. I think you might be surprised by how receptive some of these groups might be to such overtures. Not all of course, but some. If you are a member of The Naturist Society and regularly receive their excellent magazine, Nude and Natural, you could do something as simple as leaving your copy in the reception area of your local dentist or doctor’s office or other public area after you have finished reading it. Yes, perhaps it might be thrown out as soon as it is discovered but perhaps a few people might read too.

If you are a business owner, you could consider if appropriate, including AANR and TNS printed materials in your product packaging, providing low or no cost product rebates and discount coupons that AANR and TNS could use as a membership benefit or premium, provide links to AANR and TNS on your business web site, donate a product or collectible for use in AANR and TNS recruitment campaigns, make a cash contribution to help TNS and AANR fund membership development through direct marketing and web outreach or donate advertising space in magazines, catalogs, web sites or on any television show you produce or are associated with. Come to think of it when is the last time you saw a television ad for TNS or AANR? Think never! Both organizations could easily come up with tasteful advertisements that could be acceptable and non-offensive to anyone that could help get our message out and likely it is lack of financial resources that prevents them from doing so. Yes, the Internet is largely taking dominance when it comes to advertising these days but there is still plenty of room for effective outreach through television and radio spots. Doesn’t it seem obvious how this could really boost a more mainstream perspective for naturists and nudists? I admit to being more than a bit enamored with the effectiveness of the National Rifle Association model for furthering their Second Amendment rights agenda and they employ many of the same methods I have just suggested to wildly successful effect. We as naturists and nudists could do far worse than copying their model to further our First Amendment rights agenda. In summary the keys to successful employment of Overwhelming Power is organizational membership and active participation. Similarly to the real “Shock and Awe” battlefield concept, imposing this overwhelming level of power against the adversaries of social nudity on an immediate and sufficiently timely basis could allow us to seize the initiative with respect to public opinion and so paralyze and overload our adversary's perceptions and understanding of events that they might be rendered incapable of resistance at the tactical and strategic levels.

Next Installment - Shock and Awe Part 3: Dominant Battlefield Awareness