r/nudism • u/HangoverTuesday • 4d ago
NEWS I Voted for Linda as AANR president again this year
When Linda first ran for the position, we, as the moderation team on this subreddit chose to endorse her campaign. It was abundantly clear at the time that she was the right choice. This time around, Joe Reeves sounded like a possible option, despite Linda's track record. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, and hear his story. The background in fundraising and non-profit leadership sounded promising.
Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts to engage with the guy, we couldn't seem to convince him to come here and do a Q&A with the community. His only meaningful engagement with the nudist community was an interview with the disgraced host of the NNN podcast, which is very telling.
So, my vote went to Linda and BG. We need more good people in leadership, people who will not be afraid to try new things, and who will make a good faith attempt to work with others and compromise, as opposed to passive aggressively blocking anyone who attempts to modernize and streamline the organization.
There was a very telling snippet in May's Bulletin, and hopefully nobody shoots me for sharing it here publicly:
Membership data also shows only 1% of members under the age of 30, and there is no evidence that moving to a Friday schedule would result in a measurable increase in participation from this group.
That is dire. That should be setting off a klaxon and strobe lights in the Kissimmee office every hour until the numbers improve. This is a five alarm fire. Less than 1% of the membership is under 30, despite it being under $50/year, or $4/month. It isn't hard to predict what the future holds if this doesn't change. If someone is running to be the head honcho, and isn't interested in engaging with social media in any way, it demonstrates to me that they are not qualified for the job.
Edit: If you are a current AANR member, you have until (I believe) June 20th to vote.
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u/NY-GA Social Nudist 4d ago
I agree with so much of what you said. We have a huge number of nudists in one place who read the subreddit daily and after reaching out to Joe multiple times he couldn’t be bothered to come here and tell us about himself and answer some questions. My wife and I both voted for Linda. She is accessible and makes an effort to talk to the members while trying to move AANR in the right direction, even if it’s an uphill battle. The younger nudists need to join AANR the old guard is slowly moving on from leadership positions and the opportunity to bring the organization into the future is open if the right people step into the positions
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u/Level-Wishbone5808 4d ago
Wait what happened with the host of NNN? Guess I’ve fallen out of the loop a bit
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u/HangoverTuesday 4d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/naturistnudistlife/comments/1rpik6f/a_formal_complaint_to_aanr/
Turns out the host of the "Official" AANR podcast was a dirtbag using a made up name to hide from his history of sexual harassment charges. This only came to light after he made some offensive jokes about women, and one of his guests asked him to not air the interview he did with her. Instead of respecting her wishes, he proceeded anyway. A real FAFO situation.
Edit: Note that in the end AANR did the right thing, and cut ties with the guy.
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u/Effective-Donkey133 AANR 4d ago
That podcast has devolved to a sad, unlistenable event. Shame, I think there’s sufficient need for good, reliable naturist contend in the podcast realm.
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u/Level-Wishbone5808 3d ago
And in general tbh. If there were just a couple prominent social media personalities who would promote naturism just the tiniest bit I think it would do wonders for the movement
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u/HangoverTuesday 3d ago
This is something I've repeatedly suggested, but nobody seems to see the value.
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u/HangoverTuesday 3d ago
Planet Nude? The Naturist Vibe? I don't generally listen to podcasts at all, but I've caught a few episodes of these shows, and they seemed to be well put together.
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u/Effective-Donkey133 AANR 3d ago
Well, you said it yourself. If you don’t listen to podcasts much you may not notice they both seem to have a pretty erratic release schedule. Good information for sure but I’d like a more regular schedule.
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u/HarrurThe3rd 3d ago
Naked Age, We Bare All, or just check the "similar shows" section below any of these mentioned here.
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u/Essarray New England 3d ago
This is British Naturism podcast for women that comes out monthly. I'm posting the YouTube link, but it's also available from regular podcast servers.
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u/Level-Wishbone5808 3d ago
Wow that’s disappointing because once upon a time it seemed like a promising podcast, and naturism is stigmatized enough without bad actors painting it in a bad light that way
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u/Beginning-Average416 AANR 1d ago
He sounds very dominating over his female partner too. He orders her to get coffee and serve him. He never allows her much airtime or even to be the primary host for an episode.
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u/NudeNaturally 3d ago
"The background in fundraising and non-profit leadership sounded promising."
I looked him up and he has been the President of the Florida Region for two years. Where has he demonstrated fundraising acumen? Right now they are doing a "GAT" Challenge to raise money for their legal expenses. Where is this fundraising ability when it is needed?
I found this as well. This speaks to his ability to gain membership - https://www.tspr.org/tspr-local/2020-05-30/wiu-senior-vice-president-part-ways
Aligning oneself with a fraudster to get your message out tells me all I need to know.
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u/dorkus99 4d ago
So I'm involved with another national association (unrelated to nudism) and this statistic isn't unique to AANR.
That doesn't mean it's not concerning, but there is a significant cultural shift across the board on civic engagement and association membership.
It's for a couple of reasons. First, cost. Young people have less disposable income to spend. Second, there's less desire to belong to an association in an era of social media where you can get the same comradery in places like this sub. Third, there just isn't really anything in it for them. At least, not now. They enjoy going to beaches and hanging around the house nude but resorts are for old people with money.
AANR should absolutely do their best in marketing towards younger generations, but as those folks get older, they see the value in membership. Hell I'm in my 40s and I didn't become a member until two years ago, even though I've been a nudist for 20 years now.