At a time when these pages have raised the question concerning the
adequacy of the screening of new members, a corollary paradoxically comes to
mind, namely, how courteously are the hopes and aspirations of inquiries being
treated? A voluminous letter recently came to our attention written by a
prospective nudist couple who had gone through all the prescribed steps in
establishing contact with a nudist club. After receiving a letter of admission
from the camp director as well as a detailed travel map to the camp grounds,
both of these having been procured after reading an article in a nudist
magazine outlining the steps for newcomers, the couple received a bucket of
“ice water” in their faces at the nudist park gate. The couple in question was
simply asked to leave the camp grounds by a middle-aged “hostess” who informed
the couple, while they were still seated in their car–“the letters you have in
your hands don't mean a thing; we've changed all that now. You must leave;
we're swamped by visitors.”
In the words of the unfortunate victims, “We felt like freaks or criminals or something. They didn't even have the decency to ask us out of our car. We asked ourselves is this the warm, friendly hospitality that so many stories are written about in nudist magazines... I drove out as quick as possible to avoid any more embarrassment to my wife, who cried and felt like crawling under the floor mat of the car... How can one person destroy in five minutes what it took me (the husband) well over a year to build?”
Just as a nation's greatest resource is its children; nudism's greatest resource is the untapped reservoir of potential members. Nothing should ever be done to warp a prospect's enthusiasm for the nudist way of life. In the case cited, a year's preparatory work by a young husband to induce his wife to share in what he envisioned was a wholesome, satisfying way of life, was utterly destroyed in the snap of a finger by a person who actually had no knowledge of the correspondence which had transpired between the applicant and camp owner. In more cases than the nudist movement apparently knows, there are no second chances accorded the nudist idea once the original enthusiasm of an applicant has been short-circuited. We do not plead here for superficial screening processes. We are pleading for the application of courtesy in large measures to assure a prospective member that his or her sincere intentions are being established by due processes.
Few applicants, if any, ever realize that the nudist movement is a paper organization, and that the individual camps which are the embodiment of the nudist idea are locally controlled. The rigors of financial life being what they are, the nudist movement cannot afford the luxury of farming out camp franchises to well-qualified managers. That would be an ideal situation: to have a mother organization so strong and wealthy that she could financially back with a substantial sum of money the establishment of nudist parks and control the appointment of managers. The nudist movement has had to evolve from delegated strength –strength voted to it by the nudist membership as it resides in the various nudist parks about the nation. This fact is unknown to newcomers. As a consequence, many an unfortunate meeting occurs at camp gates, as the prospective member meets for the first time the independent camp owner or his representative. The need for courtesy, the need for a constant attunement to the emotional experience which the new applicant is undergoing, the need for a constant awareness on the part of nudism's representative to be keenly aware that on this meeting truly depends the future of the nudist idea –awarenesses such as these must permeate the handling of all new applicants in social nudism.
We are always surprised how callous becomes the treatment of prospects by some of the people who actually should be the most concerned with the espousal of the nudist idea. The camp owner who insists on taking the view “It's my camp. I'll do as I please!” is nudism's most deadly enemy. Nudists aren't serfs –they don't have to humble themselves to become tailor-made copies of some abstract idea running loosely about in the hand of some camp owner. Nudists are individuals and want to become nudists for a variety of individual reasons. It is the nudist movement's right and duty to appraise those reasons and intentions, but beyond that, the range of individuals ought to be as diverse as a neighborhood population.
But since camps do accept and reject applicants on the individual whim of the camp management, maybe the nudist movement needs some alternate status for otherwise acceptable individuals –a membership in the movement with a contractual arrangement made with selected camps in each of the regionals to accept the visitations of such individuals without the slightest mental reservations. Social nudism should not have to bear the burden of defeat just because discourtesy, lack of tact, and shortsightedness prevail at the entrance gates of some camps.
In the words of the unfortunate victims, “We felt like freaks or criminals or something. They didn't even have the decency to ask us out of our car. We asked ourselves is this the warm, friendly hospitality that so many stories are written about in nudist magazines... I drove out as quick as possible to avoid any more embarrassment to my wife, who cried and felt like crawling under the floor mat of the car... How can one person destroy in five minutes what it took me (the husband) well over a year to build?”
Just as a nation's greatest resource is its children; nudism's greatest resource is the untapped reservoir of potential members. Nothing should ever be done to warp a prospect's enthusiasm for the nudist way of life. In the case cited, a year's preparatory work by a young husband to induce his wife to share in what he envisioned was a wholesome, satisfying way of life, was utterly destroyed in the snap of a finger by a person who actually had no knowledge of the correspondence which had transpired between the applicant and camp owner. In more cases than the nudist movement apparently knows, there are no second chances accorded the nudist idea once the original enthusiasm of an applicant has been short-circuited. We do not plead here for superficial screening processes. We are pleading for the application of courtesy in large measures to assure a prospective member that his or her sincere intentions are being established by due processes.
Few applicants, if any, ever realize that the nudist movement is a paper organization, and that the individual camps which are the embodiment of the nudist idea are locally controlled. The rigors of financial life being what they are, the nudist movement cannot afford the luxury of farming out camp franchises to well-qualified managers. That would be an ideal situation: to have a mother organization so strong and wealthy that she could financially back with a substantial sum of money the establishment of nudist parks and control the appointment of managers. The nudist movement has had to evolve from delegated strength –strength voted to it by the nudist membership as it resides in the various nudist parks about the nation. This fact is unknown to newcomers. As a consequence, many an unfortunate meeting occurs at camp gates, as the prospective member meets for the first time the independent camp owner or his representative. The need for courtesy, the need for a constant attunement to the emotional experience which the new applicant is undergoing, the need for a constant awareness on the part of nudism's representative to be keenly aware that on this meeting truly depends the future of the nudist idea –awarenesses such as these must permeate the handling of all new applicants in social nudism.
We are always surprised how callous becomes the treatment of prospects by some of the people who actually should be the most concerned with the espousal of the nudist idea. The camp owner who insists on taking the view “It's my camp. I'll do as I please!” is nudism's most deadly enemy. Nudists aren't serfs –they don't have to humble themselves to become tailor-made copies of some abstract idea running loosely about in the hand of some camp owner. Nudists are individuals and want to become nudists for a variety of individual reasons. It is the nudist movement's right and duty to appraise those reasons and intentions, but beyond that, the range of individuals ought to be as diverse as a neighborhood population.
But since camps do accept and reject applicants on the individual whim of the camp management, maybe the nudist movement needs some alternate status for otherwise acceptable individuals –a membership in the movement with a contractual arrangement made with selected camps in each of the regionals to accept the visitations of such individuals without the slightest mental reservations. Social nudism should not have to bear the burden of defeat just because discourtesy, lack of tact, and shortsightedness prevail at the entrance gates of some camps.
Reid Schumacher
(Source: The Nudist Newsletter, No. 87, April 1959)
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