Recruitment Drive

Clubs and individual members will be rewarded for recruiting new members.

As a volunteer and campaigning organisation, British Naturism (BN) is nothing without members - paying annual fees that go towards the work we do, standing for election to the official posts and running the organisation, or volunteering help in so many other important ways, to create a vibrant organisation and make sure that naturism in the UK thrives.

Naturism is clearly gaining more acceptance and participants – perhaps through the efforts of BN over the years – and so it can hinder further progress if membership of the national organisation falls, as it has done over the last few years. People don’t renew their membership for a variety of personal and financial reasons, not all of them within our control, and we’re not the only membership organisation faced with the challenge of recruiting and keeping members. No doubt the current state of the economy has also forced more people to think about how they spend their money. Also, 10 to 15 years ago you had to join BN to find out about naturism, but now comprehensive information is easily found on the Internet - and it’s free. However, we’re not doing badly - it’s great to see that in each of the last eight years at least 85% of the previous year’s members have renewed. When the number of new recruits is added, the worst net fall we’ve had in that time was last year, leaving us with 91% of the previous year’s total.

So, we’d like to see membership numbers go up and want members’ help for which we will pay a reward.

To help you we’ve listed the benefits of membership below and the current fees are listed here. Your recruits will obviously be interested in what’s in it for them, but perhaps the greatest benefit is “Supporting the cause”, which requires no more action than paying a subscription, and becomes a personal benefit when naturism is ‘better’ as a result of our work. Everyone likes to feel they’re “doing their bit”. Members say they get more out of their membership the more they do, though - see the list of “A (baker’s) dozen ways to get more out of your BN membership” that was on the cover sheet sent with BN179, now on the website here. Brand-newcomers may be interested in reading Roni Fine’s excellent guide for newcomers to naturism from BN179, now available on our website here.

Publicity – including a poster for display - will be sent to clubs with the next club mailing and our head office will send a “Details pack”, which includes a copy of the magazine, to anyone who wants more information. Our “What is naturism?” leaflets here and paper application forms are also available from the office (or pick them up from the BN shop at events), and your new recruits can also join online here.

Getting new people into naturism and making British Naturism stronger is in everybody’s interest and we hope to see great success for this initiative.

If you have any queries please contact me.

Email: commercial.manager@british-naturism.org.uk Andrew Welch

Earn a £10 reward for each person you recruit

Clubs
Many people in membership of our clubs are also BN members, but a great many are not - and we would like them to come on board. So we are asking club members, officers and committees to spread the word about the initiative and we will give a reward of £10 to a club for each new member recruited from their ranks. We will be letting club members know how many of their colleagues - according to the figures we hold - are not currently members of BN. In many cases, particularly amongst the larger clubs, this equates to a tidy sum! Very handy for that special project you’ve been fundraising for, the urgent repairs or upgrading of facilities you need, or just something in the bank for a rainy day.

Individual members
We will also pay a reward of £10 to an individual member for each person they recruit – naturists and newcomers alike. There is no limit to how much you can earn - recruiting three people would effectively mean your own membership is free. If every member recruited just one person, our funds would double.

Terms and conditions:

1. The offer cannot be combined with any other membership initiative offer that we may be running.

2. The offer applies to people who have never been a member of British Naturism or allowed their membership to lapse at or before the end of 2007. The reward will not be paid for anyone who was a member last year, but has not yet renewed.

3. IMPORTANT! We cannot offer the reward retrospectively. The name of the club or individual claiming the reward must be entered on the application form (whether that be a paper form or online) at the time of joining.

Details of the benefits of BN membership are available here.