The Commitee Member's Lament

Oh give me your pity, I'm on a committee,

Which means that from morning to night,

We attend and amend and contend and defend,

Without a conclusion in sight.

We confer and concur, and defer and demur, And reiterate all of our thoughts

We revise the agen1a with frequent addenda,

And consider a load of reports

We compose and propose, we suppose and oppose,

And the points of procedure are fun

But though various notions are brought up as motions,

There's terribly little gets done

We resolve and absolve, but we never dissolve, Since it's out of the question for us,

To bring our committee to end like this ditty, Which stops with a period – thus.

The NZNF bi-monthly supplement January-February 1989

ONE HUNDRED & NINETY NINE DOLLARS
FOR FIVE

That's how much it cost for two adults and three teenagers to attend the national NZNF Rally this year at Palmerston North Club. Including all the entertainment for seven nights, camp fees for eight nights, morning and afternoon teas, the odd breakfast, a magnificent New Years Eve Dinner and a Maori Hangi. Throw in the good weather and convivial company and you must agree, at $40 per head on average, we had a bargain.

The hypnotist, who entertained us for over 3 hours, was a show stopper. We have not laughed so much for a long time. Imagine more than half a dozen members being hypnotised and told to replay their childhood at three years and seven years old. You had to see it to believe it. Adults and teenagers playing brrrum brrum cars on the ground in a crowded marquee or protecting their cuddly toys from other more unmanageable “three year olds”.

Flashers, concert conductors and singers were all part of the show and judging by the conversations throughout the following day the show was one out of the bag.

Feeding 250 people on New Years Eve also presented a challenge to the host club, but as the last guest to be served I can truly say it was well planned, there was still plenty of food available.

Most of the hardened rally goers know that 250 people requiring a shower between 7-8 in the morning and having only 6 showers to go round must mean cold showers. So they went at other times and were not disappointed.

Then there was the lady at the shop who apologised profusely for running out of papers and not being able to supply one. This epitomised the rally team's aim to ensure their guests were happy and well looked after.

We enjoyed going offsite to the local village hail for indoor bowls. The place smacked of old world charm complete with mothball smells.

There were skydivers, microlite rides, aerobics, the concert, childrens entertainment, which was rated high by the younger members, massage lessons and

of course the Top Tribe (Top Town) competition so ably organised by Dave Clark and so entertaining.

All in all an enjoyable rally which was summed up by two teenagers and their mother who had never been to a rally before. "Nine out of ten," they said.

Levy Increase Approved

Council approved at the last AGM a 50 cent increase per member bringing the annual levy per member to $2.50. This increase will bring in an additional $1000 and will enable further expenditure to be made on public relations activities.

The Federations reserves are at a satisfactory but not excessive level.

Treasurer Elected Promotions Officer

Kevin Sampson, currently National Treasurer was also elected as National Promotions Officer, at the last NZNF AGM. Kevin, who would like to give up the job of Treasurer at the next AGM, (it requires 3 hours commitment per month), sees his main task this year as getting the new members promotion package together and issued in time for the beginning of the summer season.

June Campbell-Tong (WSC) was re elected President, as was Norm Wilkinson (CSC) as SIVP, Jack Carr (WSC) as Secretary, Bevan Tong (WSC) as Trophy Secretary, Graeme Brown (AOHC) as Editor - Naturist and Fraik Murphy (AOHC) as Naturist Business Manager.

Les Olsen was elected as NIVP replacing Roy Coxwho did not seek re-election.

Les Olsen was elected to the NZNF Executive as non voting member in the capacity of Archivist as was Roy Cox in the capacity of Editor of In-Touch.

The remit to discontinue the use of red tags at rallies was approved. In future all members will be issued with white tags but written permission must be obtained to use photographic or video material for promotional purposes.

The next National rally will beheld at the Wellington sun Club. The 1990/91 Rally will be held at the Canterbury Sun Club.The 1989 mid year seminar will be held in the South Island.

Archivist off to a good start

It has been a most interesting year getting established, says Archivist Les Olsen at the recent AGM.

Following his appointment last year Les has made contact with clubs to verify details and update listings of trophy winners since trophies were awarded. Not an easy task.

He has also compiled a set of Rally newsletters from 1958 - 1980. Some are incomplete. If you can help, make contact with Les.

The NZNF now has a complete set of NZ Naturist magazines.

Doug Cousins is compiling a photographic record of the Federation.

Les is now concentrating on club newsletters. If you have any earlier copies of your club newsletters which are gathering dust, don't send them to the tip but lend or give them to Les so that he may photocopy or keep them.

Perhaps clubs could give consideration to appointing someone as their historian and records keeper so that Les can liaise with them.

Les's early assessment is that we have retained most of the early history of the Federation and this indeed is heartening. Thanks for your efforts Les.

IN-TOUCH

Edited by Roy Cox and published by the New Zealand Nudist Federation, 123 Hill Road, Belmont, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. All correspondence to this address.

Trust Tops
$28,000

Four new loans were granted to clubs from the Percy Cousins Trust and three outstanding loans have been fully repaid. Average loan was $5000 which is higher than in previous years. This has not caused any strain or problems in meeting demands for loans.

The new loan application form has been in use for one year and certainly speeds up the loan process and saves paperwork.

The surplus for the year was $2994

Funds are available at the current interest rate of 12% and application forms maybe obtained from P.O. Box 1359 Wellington.

Sports Rule Book Update

At the NZNF 1987 AGM, Peter Bligh of AOHC was tasked with carrying out a review of the current Sports Rules Handbook.

This task has now been completed and the proposed redraft will soon be available for review by club committees and interested members.

A copy of additional texts will be circulated to each club and you are invited to forward your comments to NIVP Les Olsen, C/O Secretary, AOHC, P.O. Box 2702 Auckland.

It is proposed to amend the text where appropriate and then present the re-written booklet for adoption at the next NZNF AGM in December 1989 at Wellington.

South Islanders Have Not Migrated North

"The South Island has not floated away, nor all its population migrated North or to Queensland" says South Island Vice President Norm Wilkinson in his Annual Report.

Invercargill continues to improve their grounds and facilities and have hopes they will host a South Island seminar one of these days. Like most clubs they are suffering a decline in membership. When one or two families depa4 a small club, that's a big percentage of the original total.

The big success in the South Island is Dunedin. They have sold the grounds devastated by the slip and acquired new ones. A five bedroom house stands on 11 acres together with a bunkhouse and other buildings. A pool is now high on the list of priorities. Their membership is only 50, but with more to offer and the future looking brighter as more “old” members are beginning to return.

Timaru too has had a hard struggle. For ten years they have been seeking a permanent lease from Land- Corp. The club is now looking to buy school grounds to permanently establish themselves.

Nelson is as beautiful as ever and have recently improved their facilities in the form of caravan power points

In common with other South Island Clubs, Canturbury shares the decline in membership. Quite large sums have been spent recently on advertising and promotion, to no avail it seems. Things may improve however with the installation of the new heating system for the swimming pool.

"There was a time when I shared the view that improving grounds, providing facilities of a high standard would at least stabilise membership" says Norm. “I now believe that other social and economic changes apart, we are the cause of our own failure” continues Norm.

"Failure to promote the idea and principles of our way of life. We have become narrow and parochial, 'middle class' and elitist. Our rules are more and more designed to keep members away. Instead of naturism being a welcome release from the strictures pf modern living, it is becoming just another burden.

The answer lies not in the NZNF or 'the committee' doing something. If we are to be successful again it depends on individuals declaring that they are naturists, and more importantly saying why we choose to be naked." Norm suggest we try explaining it to our own children and families first.

"Yes, this is the nude-bathing area, but it's the non-smoking section of the nude-bathing area."