As previously mentioned we paid for a regional letter to be sent out to KSER members & clubs by BN Head Office. At the last KSER meeting many hadn’t received it including myself.

I have been resent the letter from the BN General Secretary who advised that they “posted 314 letters to BN members in the KSER region and we sent 290 emails to BN members in the KSER region” on 30th April, 2009.

Find below the missing item in case you didn’t receive it …

To all members of CCBN- KSER
 
Dear member,
 
Traditionally the Kent and South East Region of CCBN – your Region – has been a forum for representatives of all of our regional naturist Clubs and naturist Swims. (Prior to the formation of CCBN, naturist clubs within the region had formed their own association, the KSERA). As such both organisations have represented the region’s naturist interests for over 56 years, but it is increasingly apparent that the naturist scene is changing and our current format is not truly representative of all naturist lifestyles.
 
There are currently 820 members of CCBN within our region of whom are also members of our 10 naturist Clubs and 3 naturist Swims. There are of course many other ways to enjoy a naturist lifestyle, but what is clear is that the current efforts of your KSER delegates to conserve and promote naturism within the region are not making the best use of our full membership and perhaps many ideas, talents and opportunities are being lost to us. Whether a private or social naturist this is an open invitation to you to consider and hopefully take part in the future direction of naturism within your region.
 
Outside of the Clubs and Swims there are many wonderful naturist beaches that are special to us and to which we should have a collective responsibility.  In these uncertain times perhaps your involvement in the development of ‘Beach user groups’ is but one way of using our collective voice to ensure the future of some of our naturist beaches – or maybe you have views and internet skills as to how we could develop better and more local communication through better understanding and use of our Regional Forum pages on the BN website ? –  Do you know about all of our Clubs and Swims and that there is a naturist camping and Caravan Club within our region? – How many of us have a hot tub or sauna at home that we may wish to share with other naturists?
 
This is therefore an invitation to all members to get to know each other and hopefully modernise our Regional Constitution to encompass all membership interests to our mutual benefit.  For example it may be a surprise for you to know that direct email or postal contact can only be made via BN HQ at present because of the necessary restrictions of the data protection legislation – hopefully many of you will wish to sign-up to a future Regional contact list and maybe also take part and vote in any Regional discussion or debate.
 
The next KSER get-together will be by way of our Regional meeting and AGM at Little Oaks on Saturday 9th May when all of the excellent naturist facilities of the Club will be available for use.   Apollo Club is again hosting a KSER Open Day on 22nd August and we also have a KSER Beach Day at Brighton listed for Sunday August 9th – but we could do with some help in running it from those of you who regularly bask there!!
 
Please get in touch and give us your views on how you see the future of naturism within your region – better still why not come along to at least one of the above events or help to organise even more.  We hope to see you soon.
 
Best wishes,
Tony Crittenden
KSER Chairman
Date: April 2009

Regards
Steve
KSER Chairman

Nice to see an item on my local ‘freebie’ paper’s website about TNF. I’m waiting to see if the item appears in all local printed editions. Despite being close to Orpington, I get the Bexley edition and sometimes items are omitted due to location.

Well done to Trevor, Carol & John for being featured.

Steve
KSER Chairman

.. that this small site has passed the 3,000 visitors mark since started in May. I know other sites rave about thousands of visitors a day but hey I appreciate every visitor to help spread the word of our existence in this BN region.
Thanks & keep visiting !
Steve
KSER Chairman

PS. Only a few KSER clubs link back here, if you belong to one of those clubs that don’t, please have a quiet word with your webmaster.

Mentioned at our last KSER Meeting that I wanted a Swims section here but unfortunately our meetings don’t have email addresses or websites for reference.

People don’t understand how difficult it is to get regular naturist swims arranged over the winter months. At the mentioned meeting our secretary Ian has had to stop his Gravesend swim not due to small numbers but the need for a life-guard !

Both Dover & Eastbourne run naturist swims from October to April, the latter was mentioned in a local paper with a promise of a video report to follow. Well done for running for 25 years.

If you are local to either, please check them out as you’ll find that they’re a friendly crowd.

Steve
KSER Chairman

The below was sent to the stated persons & clubs …

“Dear KSER members/clubs

With a bit of spare time I thought that I would give you my reflections on attending my first BN AGM meeting held yesterday at Diogenes Sun Club.

Having arrived, parked, registered I entered the meeting room via the wrong entrance and sat waiting without the necessary voting papers, so a quick dash to the adjoining room to discover where to sign-in with the BN General Secretary, where also there was the BN Shop and another regional display.

Like chairing my first KSER meeting, this was a new experience for me and with flashing lights from the BN Photographer and members “stepping up to the mike” to raise issues I stayed relatively quiet and observed Agenda proceedings.

With reference to Agenda item 5, section 2 which states ..

“..To note also no nomination was received for Regional Representative for KSER and the Regional Executive Committee are therefore empowered to fill the vacancy.”

I replied as your new chairman, as agreed at our last meeting, that we look forward to the appointment. The BN President stated that the position will be advertised.

During the lunch-time break after cutting short a brief chat with the BN Chairman ( my apologies ), who was asking again if I wanted to be Regional Rep, explaining again my 3 time refusal, I caught and met our KSER Youth Officer for the first time.


In a rushed conversation I pointed out due to her BN Youth Officer’s responsibilities, something she was rightly praised for at the meeting, whether it would be a good time to hand over her Regional role to someone else. As someone who has only been attending KSER meetings/events just this year and like the majority attending the AGM, we have no younger blood coming through our ranks ( yes we’re getting old ! ) and in order to encourage this I need someone in the role ( like for the Regional Rep role ) who attends our 3 meetings & 2 main events ( Beach & Open Days ) and reports back. She also pointed out there is no youth regional activity to report as it’s happening at national level. So as previously mentioned to the BN Chairman, their gain is our loss. Also got the chance to meet & chat to KSER members during the interval.

On returning to the meeting room, I managed to ask the BN General Secretary about our regional letter that we paid BN near £120 ( out of our very small budget ) to be distributed to our members, only a few had received it and majority at the last KSER meeting hadn’t received it, as Chairman I’m still to receive my copy.

A personal observation: I mentioned earlier the flashing camera, looking forward to the photos being published as like our Beach Day there was no branding ( BN sign ) in the meeting room. Despite his long & optimistic speech, our BN Commercial Manager needs to improve his event managing skills, a simple banner over the staged table or in front would signify to anyone/outsiders viewing or entering the room that it was a BN meeting. Also the manager’s future plans for social networking was of interest as KSER already has a Twitter account which I set up with our website and based on his comments I set up a trial Facebook page last night to attract some interest to our regional site.

Finally my voting was mainly in accordance with most members, one being the name change from CCBN to BN which was accepted. The BN President ended on schedule thanking everyone for the good attendance, I noted probably 10% of the audience was KSER members. Thanks to everyone.

I hope this is helpful to members unable to attend and might encourage them to attend the next one in .. Manchester.

Steve

KSER Chairman”

In reply to my comments from the BN Commercial Manager

Thanks Steve, just a quick response. Organising the AGM is not my responsibility, it’s all done by the Vice Chairman. As we have discussed before, banner and signage are always useful, but expensive for the small number of times we’d be able to use them. In any case, only BN members are permitted to attend the AGM and so indicating that the AGM is a BN event is possibly redundant.

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to attend the KSER Meeting yesterday. Many thanks to The White House Club for hosting the event and Val’s much appreciated efforts in the kitchen for lunch. If you wish to read the items discussed see our new agenda page.

Being my first chair, I was a little nervous but we managed to finish on time ? Just a shame it was a little windy/chilly to use the pool after. The sun has reappeared today, just our luck.

The next meeting will be at The Naturist Foundation on Saturday 20th February, 2010, so please make a note in your new diary and support local naturism.

Steve
KSER Chairman

The next KSER Meeting will take place at The White House in Surrey on Saturday October 3rd and start at 11.00 am.
Contact the club via their website for directions.
Your chance to see me chair my first meeting – should be interesting.
Hope to see you there !
Steve
KSER Chairman

The Apollo Sun Club for letting us have our KSER Open Day yesterday. After some early grey cloud and rain, it was a sunny afternoon in Sussex. Thanks to Chas & Pauline for making me feel welcome on my morning arrival.

As mentioned at the BN Forum everybody who made the effort to support the day had a good time with our friendly hosts. Alas didn’t stay for the evening chicken barbie but I expect it was finger lickin’ good.

Nice to see some new faces and hoping they will check out this site ( now past 2100 ) and KSER activity at the mentioned forum.

Thanks and here’s to the next one !
Steve
KSER Chairman

Next Saturday will be our annual KSER Open Day, Apollo have set up a page with details.
If you are going & staying for the evening barbeque, please contact the club to let them know also to get directions like I will be doing.

Hope to see you there !
Steve
KSER Chairman

One of the most popular clicks here are for the Beaches page. After a hot sunny day at Brighton, on Sunday,  thanks to all who  made the effort to attend – mainly male and quite a few Steves – 4 at one time !  Tony did a grand effort bringing & handing out the hot teas & coffees.

One of the topics chatted there was the unofficial beach up the road at Shoreham which seems to be popular with locals. I have been asked previously about Littlehampton and the latest being Botany Bay on the Isle of Thanet. There has been posts about the beach at the BN Forum and just watch this lunch-time BBC South East Report …

I must admit despite knowing Kent better than Sussex, when I heard the name Botany Bay, as a bit of a  Trekkie I immediately thought of the second movie The Wrath Of Khan not a Kent beach !

Here’s hoping for a second Kent naturist beach.

Steve

KSER Chairman