Celebrating Progress, Confronting Challenges
I’d like to start by thanking AANR for the honor of being elected to the Hall of Fame at the annual meeting held at the convention at Oaklake Trails this past summer. I’m honored to be recognized by the Association. I’d also like to thank all the people who helped make this honor possible: the members of the Government Affairs Teams over the past fifteen years and the person who nominated me for the honor.
It’s a lot of work to review legislation affecting nudism, and without the teamwork, it would not be possible to stay on top of the bills. So, for each of you, thank you for your efforts. I appreciate all of you. Over the years, there have been many team members who have supported our efforts to make sure legislation is nudist neutral or not a problem we have to address.
This year, we addressed a lot of challenges, but none more important than the efforts in Florida to block legislation that will come back again next year. The commitment of lobbying funds within the Region and by AANR seems not to have been understood for how important those combined efforts were and will be again in the year ahead. It’s inconceivable to me how, after all the work and money we all put into the Florida effort, it is met with indifference by the members.
Without our fighting the efforts that were made, we would be facing bills banning kids from AANR and other nudist resorts, whether they served alcohol or not, and from public lands, or that the need continues to support the lobbying efforts. AANR-Florida’s long-term commitment to lobbying is critical to the nude recreation venues, public and private, in the Sunshine State.
We had a record number of bills we reviewed this year. The theme of protecting children is being weaponized against nudists and nudist venues. We have fought for parents to be able to bring their own children to traditional nude use beaches and resorts. This is not a fight we can afford to ignore or lose. AANR and the regions need to support lobbying efforts that will spread if they are successful in one state to other states. Florida is a hotbed of poorly written legislation that the AANR-Florida Region has fought for years. Now, some are growing complacent in the support, since we have had some level of success. That is not possible to maintain without a renewed commitment to lobbying in Tallahassee.
Other regions can’t depend on AANR-Florida doing the work alone; that is why AANR supported the requests for funds that were shared with members throughout the year. We depend on members’ support across the whole organization to help fight the fight in one state, so we don’t see it spread to others. It is not cheap, but it is much easier to fight in one spot than in all the States and Provinces of AANR.
Tim Mullins
AANR Government Affairs Chair
