Connecting, Advocating, Protecting: The Heart of GAT
This is the Convention issue, and I must admit I didn’t make it to the convention in person. I’ve missed very few in the last decade as GAT Chair, but this one hurts. I wanted to be there to be able to reconnect with friends I missed since the COVID-19 shutdown. It’s true that we meet monthly via Zoom, but the in-person connection is important.
We see that in GAT too. We write to legislators, but when you can meet in person, you can get more done. Sometimes, a casual chat with someone is more important than a letter you can write for mutual support for a cause.
One person who knows that better than most is our Executive Director, Erich Schuttauf. Erich has a charm he uses when he is meeting people whom we need to court. His ability to pull up facts from prior meetings and guide discussion to areas or causes of concern to AANR and nudism in general is impressive.
In 2010, we visited Washington, D.C. for AANR. Whether it was meeting with a senior counsel, a chief of staff, or a legislative assistant, it is clear that when we show up in Washington, they pay attention. Erich was key to pushing our agenda forward. We got an occasional snicker when we announced who we were there representing, but just that greeting of “Hello, I’m here from the American Association for Nude Recreation” brought staffers out to see who could be striding into their offices so confident that we were there on a legitimate business visit. Erich’s smile and an offer of an AANR pin won over the staffers each time we got an office visit.
This past year, as we moved beyond COVID, Erich again was key to guiding AANR’s legislative efforts and fighting for our rights in many court cases. I think the efforts have been taking are well documented, from helping advise counsel in custody cases in Arkansas and Canada support for a club facing issues with their neighbors in Texas, to providing precedent law to use in cases where members and other nudists have been charged with crimes for just being nude on public lands.
The Florida Region uses Erich’s resources for events in Tallahassee that other Regions don’t get to use as easily. Erich is quick to offer support in person and on the phone with Florida’s lobbying efforts and provides documentation to their lobbyist on a regular basis.
To those who have been on the GAT Chat or met or seen Erich’s presentations, his passion for nudism is apparent in his enthusiasm for protecting and expanding our acceptance by non-nudists. It is with great pleasure that I announce that Erich Schuttauf was this year’s winner of the Government Affairs Memorial Award.
Tim Mullins
AANR Government Affairs Chair
