*Erich Schuttauf, Executive Director*
*AANR Nakation in a Box Makes CNBC’s List of Holiday Gift Ideas!*
CNBC – the very popular cable news channel is featuring the Association’s Nakation box on its list of “unusual” gifts along with the question, “[is this gift] stupid or cool?”
I won’t sugarcoat the voting responses collected to date—a majority aren’t keen on the idea. However, the 26% who say it’s cool are right in line with other poll results that show more than 1 in 4 of those in North America have given skinny-dipping a try, and that about 1 in 5 would find visiting a nude beach or resort while on vacation a very desirable experience.
You can read the CNBC article—and perhaps vote to help boost rankings a little—by clicking here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/34243306/page/3/
More important than the article at hand is what it represents: the increasing importance of having an active presence on the World Wide Web in many, many forms. While not every Web audience will be as accepting as others, the people who are reached represent thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of people. The Web is where opinions are formed and questions are answered. Ultimately, it is of course where customers and visitors to your clubs are recruited.
*Important Utah Government Affairs Development*
I deeply appreciate several members who alerted us this morning to a late-breaking, important story about a county in Utah that is citing persons for public indecency who appear nude at Diamond Fork Hot Springs—located on U.S. Forest Service Land within the county.
An article relaying one journalist’s first-hand account appears here:
http://www.catalystmagazine.net/component/content/1048?task=view&ed=40
Earlier today I personally contacted the Utah County Sheriff’s office seeking clarification on their position regarding nudity at the Springs. I am awaiting a return call from the detective lieutenant overseeing the issue. Our office is also currently in the process of contacting a fellow member who is a licensed attorney in the state.
AANR members and clubs should know that your dues and support made it possible for AANR to staff a booth at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Salt Lake City a few years ago where we spoke to a number of state officials. These included the then-Speaker of the Utah House, Utah’s House Majority Leader, *and* the state’s Senate Minority Leader—and that we received a cordial response. (Coverage of our attendance at that time made it into one of the state’s leading newspapers – see: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/print/595078954/Get-your-clown-nose-here.html )
This gives us direct ammunition to rebut claims that the legislature intended for mere nudity to be treated as something lewd. The attorney I previously mentioned worked with my wife, Georgie, and I to staff the AANR booth.
*Cherokee Lodge Gathering Again*
Those of you who enjoyed visiting Cherokee Lodge in Crossville, Tennessee, during a past AANR or AANR-East Convention will be pleased to know that the team there is working to bring the gang together again with plans to re-open.
For the time being, Danny Davis, Donna, Sally, and others are preparing for a New Year’s Eve/ Reunion celebration scheduled December 31st. For additional details contact them at 931/277-5140.
*Kudos to…*
Dale Felton of Lone Star Resort in Texas and the leadership of the AANR-Southwest Region who have launched an all-new advertising campaign to promote awareness of AANR-SW clubs, as well as other clubs throughout North America.
Per a message from Dale this week, the region committed $4,000 to secure a full page color ad coming out in late December in the *Escapees Travel Guide *. The Escapees is an RV travel club comprised of approximately 60,000 members across the U.S. and Canada.
Every member of the Escapees will receive a copy of the travel guide. It is national in scope, so the ad will benefit clubs across the entire country—not just the clubs in the AANR-SW Region. AANR-SW challenges other regions to place similar ads in other publications, or to help pay for the same ad to run again.
AANR-SW has also placed advertising in the *Texas RV Directory* which lists all RV parks and RV related businesses in Texas. It goes out to approximately 90,000 people throughout North America, albeit focused on Texas.
As Dale points out, the only way we to effectively gauge whether such efforts are working, is for clubs to ask the all-important question “How did you hear about us?”
Please ask that question of your guests in the coming months, and let AANR and its regions know what you learn.
*Attending TANR Next Week*
Beginning on Sunday, I will be traveling to Hidden Beach Resort to join AANR President John Kinman and club owners and managers in attending the annual Trade Association for Nude Recreation conference. Should you have an emergency next week, please call AANR at 1-800-879-6833 and ask to speak with my assistant Nan, who will know how to reach me. Thanks.
**
*Linda Berry, Director of Publications*
*The Alltogether*
AANR’s blog continues to increase in traffic. Read and comment at: http://blog.aanr.com/.
**
*The Bulletin*
In the publishing world, we’re already celebrating 2010. The January issue is in production.
*Carolyn Hawkins, Public Relations Coordinator*
*Positive Publicity*
A GREAT article discussing a number of AANR clubs in the Buckeye State appeared online this week. Numerous AANR facts and figures round out stories from Cedar Trails and Paradise Gardens. Read the full article and post a comment if you wish by clicking here. http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-19451-taking-it-all-off.html.
Congratulations to AANR-Midwest and thanks to all of the people quoted who such a great job making this possible.
This story doesn’t mention AANR but it talks about skinny-dipping.
Experience Nature at its Best with Reckless Abandon and Plunge Into SKINNY DIP
http://www.travelandescape.ca/shows/showdetails.aspx?sid=9534
*Earth Day Announcement*
Earth Day is always on April 22. In 2010 it will be celebrating its 40th anniversary, so there will probably be plenty of opportunities to tie in publicity with it and the coverage it will generate.
Ypartnership would like to send out a pitch to the media, so we are looking for annual events which your club may hold in reference to Earth Day. We need this information by December 10th in order to get it to the media.
Do you know of any clubs that have annual events they can share to include in our pitch to the media? Please send them to me at pubaffairs@aanr.com.
**
*Terry Justice, Club/Member Liaison*
Naked Volleyball has a new address in California. Delete the New Jersey address.
505 Avenido Presidio San Clemente, CA 92672
Sequoians California has a few changes which are:
Please remove the 800 telephone number it no longer exists. New website: www.sequoians.com
We have a new provisional, co-op, non-landed club:
Pandabare. 23110 SR 54 #269 Lutz, FL 33549 813.857.2561 www.pandabare.org rox262@gmail.com
The Directory has been brought up to date. Thank you to all of you who submitted your new changes. If anyone should need an updated copy, please e-mail me at clubinfo@aanr.com. I will be more than happy to send you one.
Have a wonderful weekend. _______________________________________________ eNews mailing list eNews@aanr-nw.org http://aanr-nw.org/mailman/listinfo/enews_aanr-nw.org
The AANR-NW eNews is an opt-in newsletter. You may view current and archived issues at http://www.aanr-nw.org . See the sidebar for recent posts by date or category.
