Solar West NLG Inc

Newsletter #1, January 2006

Web Edition

Welcome:

Hello to you all and welcome to 2006. We hope you had a great Christmas and a peaceful new year. Yes this is our first newsletter of 2006, which does contain hopefully all that you need to know to start our new year of swimming with Solar West. As this is going to new people as well, the first thing is to tell everyone a bit about ourselves, so here goes.

Solar West Swim Nights:

Solar West is a family oriented swim night and currently we are accepting couples and families. Our swim night starts at 7pm and continues until 10pm. We have supper at about 9pm and we ask all members and visitors to bring a plate of food to share. Our venue has first aid trained lifeguards, 3 pools (a toddlers pool, a medium size pool (about 1 metre) with water slide, and a 2m lap pool), a steam room, sauna and spa. We also provide a professional masseur ($15/30min), table tennis and board games when requested. We are also currently trying out a few new ideas to help our nights become more enjoyable.

Christmas Party 26th November 2005:

This night was quite a success and was enjoyed by all. We had a special visit from Santa Claus, who brought lolly bags and candy canes for the children and read them a special story. The children seemed to enjoy sitting on his knee and telling him what they wanted for Christmas. Both adults and children joined in a fairly disorganised treasure hunt, with one family joining forces to win a prize. The adults also seemed quite taken with the gingerbread Gingerbread Man

nudes which had been baked as a special gift for them. Some even wanted to buy more! Perhaps a future fundraising idea? We were very happy to see the night a success, especially after the huge effort put in by so many of you. Thank you, it was very much appreciated.

Emails and Web Address:

Solar West now has a new website at http://members.optusnet.com.au/solarwest and our email is solarwest@optusnet.com.au We need to update our records with your email addresses. If you have one, please either send us an email or write it down (legibly please) so we can send updates and newsletters via email. This would make it a lot easier for the committee. Thank you. We won't sell the list, or spam you, and as we don't do Windows, we don't get or pass on any viruses either.

Dates for 2006:

      January               February               March       
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S   S  M Tu  W Th  F  S   S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7            1  2  3  4            1  2  3  4          Jan:
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14   5  6  7  8  9 10 11   5  6  7  8  9 10 11          Feb: 11^th, 25^th
15 16 17 18 19 20 21  12 13 14 15 16 17 18  12 13 14 15 16 17 18          Mar:       25^th
22 23 24 25 26 27 28  19 20 21 22 23 24 25  19 20 21 22 23 24 25
29 30 31              26 27 28              26 27 28 29 30 31

      April                  May                   June       
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S   S  M Tu  W Th  F  S   S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
                   1      1  2  3  4  5  6               1  2  3          Apr:  8^th, 22^nd
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8   7  8  9 10 11 12 13   4  5  6  7  8  9 10          May: 13^th, 27^th
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15  14 15 16 17 18 19 20  11 12 13 14 15 16 17          Jun:       24^th
16 17 18 19 20 21 22  21 22 23 24 25 26 27  18 19 20 21 22 23 24
23 24 25 26 27 28 29  28 29 30 31           25 26 27 28 29 30
30

        July                 August              September       
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S   S  M Tu  W Th  F  S   S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
                   1         1  2  3  4  5                  1  2          Jul:  8^th, 22^nd
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8   6  7  8  9 10 11 12   3  4  5  6  7  8  9          Aug: 12^th, 26^th
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15  13 14 15 16 17 18 19  10 11 12 13 14 15 16          Sep:  9^th, 23^rd
16 17 18 19 20 21 22  20 21 22 23 24 25 26  17 18 19 20 21 22 23
23 24 25 26 27 28 29  27 28 29 30 31        24 25 26 27 28 29 30
30 31

      October               November              December       
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S   S  M Tu  W Th  F  S   S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7            1  2  3  4                  1  2          Oct: 14^th, 28^th
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14   5  6  7  8  9 10 11   3  4  5  6  7  8  9          Nov: 11^th, 25^th
15 16 17 18 19 20 21  12 13 14 15 16 17 18  10 11 12 13 14 15 16          Dec:
22 23 24 25 26 27 28  19 20 21 22 23 24 25  17 18 19 20 21 22 23
29 30 31              26 27 28 29 30        24 25 26 27 28 29 30
                                            31

Photos:

On occasion, we take photos of special events. Recently, we had a photoshoot at the Footy night for TAN magazine, and the Xmas party, featured above. Such photos are taken either by committee members or professional photographers, for club use only and are not published without written consent. People are not photographed without consent, and have the right to review all pictures taken. You can also obtain copies of pictures, but only of yourself or if ALL parties depicted give consent. Any pictures of children will only be provided to their parents. Cameras (including phones) are otherwise not allowed. There is an ongoing discussion regarding possible posting of reduced-resolution (individuals not identifiable) images on the website for promotional purposes, and any input into this discussion is welcomed. No images will be posted unless and until we can come up with a policy agreed to by all.

TAN Magazines:

We are able to purchase copies of TAN, both for members and a club library, direct from the publisher. There is however the risk of being stuck with unsold copies. If you would be interested in purchasing TAN on a regular basis from the club, could you please add your name to the list at the door.

A Big Thank You:

We would like to thank the previous committee for the great work they did during the previous year. It is not always easy to get to the pool early enough to get everything ready, but yet these people did it for at least one year. Other commitments, illness and family can make things difficult yet they put these aside, or brought them along and gave us all their effort to help the nights run as they did. I would also like to thank the 3 extra little helpers we had, who came early with their parents, and their help was appreciated very much. Thank you all.

Activities:

February 11th:- Yes this is our first night back, but it is also a few days before Valentines Valentine's Heart

day. We will be organising something small but special for this night.

April 8th:- Easter Party. Easter Egg This is one week before Easter. We will be having a few activities for the children and adults, so we hope to get lots of participation.

June/July:- This is our 15th year, and we will be moving to the new pool in a few months. To celebrate, we will be having a Poolwarming/Birthday party and inviting all other clubs to attend. More details as soon as we know.

September 9th:- Games, Sports night. Keep an eye out closer to the date for further information.

November 25th:- Christmas Party. Xmas Holly

Competitions:

We are looking to run raffles throughout the year so keep an eye out at the door for our raffles and prizes. If you can help with the provision of prizes, let us know, as we need ideas.

We will again be having table tennis competitions, a games competition, sports competitions and a photo competition. Dates are still to be decided, but will be announced during the year.

One idea for a photo competition is to take pictures of a model on the night (cameras supplied), with everyone able to participate, and photos downloaded and judged immediately. Any willing models out there prepared to give this a go would receive copies of all pictures taken.

Special Events:

At the moment a few of us are getting together socially outside the club. We would like to be able to extend our group of people who we meet with. We will have some ideas during the year, for example a nude bbq/picnic, and a nude camping weekend (refer to below for more details) If you would be interested in this sort of thing could you please let either Julie, Fulvio or John know.

Help Us to Help You:

We appreciate all of you who come along and your different situations, and we would like to be able to cater for all of you in some way. Therefore we are asking you for any suggestions that you might have towards this club. Also to be able to help our nights run smoother and to allow the committee time to also enjoy themselves, we were wondering if there might be anyone out there who would at times be willing to give us some help. Unfortunately we sometimes do get sick, have other commitments or take holidays and it can become very stressful and rushed for the remaining committee members. If you would be able to help or willing to lend a hand, no matter in how small a way, please speak with Julie.

President's Page

There are a few things afoot which will affect our club in the future. I've grabbed the last page to give me room to discuss these in some detail. Firstly, I'd like to thank Julie for everything above. She did this newsletter pretty much single-handedly, apart from some proofreading I did just now. This is her very first publishing effort, and she did it all on her own. I think we can all be very proud of her achievement. Right... now on to the issues.

ANF and Fees:

Last year, we voted (unanimously after some discussion, if I recall) to join the Australian Nudist Federation. Since then, we've been in regular email contact with the ANF committee, and submitted an application. That application was accepted, and we were sent a delegate's pack for the convention at Running Bare on Dec 30th. Regrettably it arrived too late for us to do anything about attending or sending a proxy. I'm sure we'll be hearing about the event in due course however. The pack will be available for perusal should anyone be interested.

On the issue of fees, we have not yet paid the affiliation fee (the reason is a bit further down the page). In addition to the club fees, we also need to pay $6 per member, except for members who are already affiliated through another group. As the ANF, like most organizations, runs a financial year, we have decided it would be best to change our year to match them. Previously, we have always had a Calendar year, which means technically none of us are now members, as our memberships expired New Years Eve. It will be MUCH better to have our year end when we are most active, rather than during the summer holiday hibernation. To this end, we will now collect memberships for a six month period only, to expire June 30th. That fee will be $15, and will not include an ANF component as yet.

Subject to ratification, I will be proposing a new fee structure for the 2006/07 year. The current structure is complex and leads to delays at the door, while we work out who pays what. I believe we should have a flatter fee base, so everyone pays the same. Now, when I discussed this with a handful of members last year, there were howls over the elimination of discounts. That was never my intention. I am NOT proposing putting everyone up to $20/family. Quite the opposite. I would LIKE to see everyone on $15, or even $10! Obviously this is not attainable, at least right now. The reality is that our attendances have been dropping for years, our venue currently costs around $400/night, and the new venue will almost certainly be dearer once the first year is over. So we need to be careful, and we need more members, immediately.

What I propose is that we move to a charge of $9 per person, with children under 18 admitted free. Members attending alone, and members' guests also to be charged $9. Non-Members to continue paying a flat $25 per couple/family/single. Yes, we DO sometimes admit singles, in special circumstances, such as interstate visits for example. I also propose scrapping the $3 non-swimmers fee. I will be proposing a special membership for the only member who regularly pays that fee anyway, as recognition for long-standing service to the club. As for yearly fees, I propose we increase them to $40, again per "family unit", plus the $6 ANF affiliation fee. Note that the ANF fee is NOT optional. We are required to pay this for all our members, unless they show a current ANF or INF passport.

The biggest impact of these proposed changes would be to make attendance more attractive I believe. Currently, we have a large number of people who we see only once or twice a year and I would hope that moving some of the costs to the fixed annual fee, while reducing the admission charges, might play a small part in the decision to attend or not on any given night. We now have a few months to discuss and reach a decision, so please give me as much feedback as you can.

Committee Positions:

I have been informed that we will be losing at least one of our Executive Committee members, and possibly a second, due to personal reasons. I can't name names as I have not yet received the necessary letter(s) of resignation, however I have spoken to the committee and we will be "promoting" people into the position(s). This will then leave open ordinary committee member position(s), which we will need to fill. Could you all please consider your availability/willingness to serve on the committee? Apart from duties at the pool, and input into discussions/decisions, there is not much to it, and anyone can do it. Really. Elections will be announced and held the following swim night, as soon as I have the resignation(s) in hand.

This highlights another problem that we have, which is continuity. We have always replaced whole committees, with very little carryover. I feel this is a bad thing. Most recently, it left us unable to issue cheques (among other things, leaving the ANF fees unpaid, and paying for the pool in cash). I propose to fix this by implementing a 2-year term of office for the committee. Many organizations already do this, and it provides stability and ongoing availability of valuable knowledge held by the former committee. I will be proposing that we hold elections for the entire committee in July/August (moving the AGM to fit better with our new year). Four positions (President, Secretary/Public Officer, and two committee members) for a 2-year term, and four (Vice-President, Treasurer, and the other two committee members) for a 1-year term. Each year thereafter, elections to be for the four positions becoming vacant that year. I hope all of you would support this change.

Social Events:

As Julie has already mentioned, and as I have previously told some of you, we are actively trying to make this club more "social" in nature. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, its more fun to do things with people you know than strangers. I stopped going to Sunnyside because people there weren't friendly and wouldn't give you the time of day. I believe a group like ours can be much friendlier than that, It has been proposed that we hold events, especially during the summer months, where people can go away together for things like beach days, camping trips, etc. We have access to at least one privately owned venue an hour or two from the city, in Gippsland, which is available for camping, and has all the basic amenities. A second venue a bit further away is being discussed. I would like some feedback from you regarding these initiatives, before we pour a lot of effort into it. If you really don't care and won't be involved, say so. If the interest isn't there, we won't waste our time. If it is, we'll work harder to make it happen sooner.

As this is our 15th year, and the new pool is nearing completion (the Maribyrnong Leisure Centre, across the road on the south side from Highpoint West. Piccies are on the wall, or go and have a look for yourself, you can get up close now the carpark's finished), we will be holding a Birthday Party/Poolwarming, around June/July (exact date not yet finalised). All other clubs will be invited to attend, and we will be selling tickets, probably around $10-12 per person, through the clubs. Ideas for activities would be welcome, and this is the ideal opportunity to bring ALL your friends, even if they're single (a rare opportunity for those on their own). The more, the merrier, and the more we can afford to provide on the night, Lets make this event a HUGE success, and if you have ideas, please share them.

Remember this is supposed to be a FUN lifestyle. If its not fun, we may as well sit at home in front of the telly, where its probably somewhat warmer and the seats are definitely comfier.

- Fulvio