Tips for organising clothes-optional swims
By Greg DePaco, NIFTY secretary
If the NIFTY swims are too infrequent for you – or if you live too far away from Templeton Pool to participate as often as you’d like – you may have thought about starting a clothing-optional swim of your own at a local pool. We here at NIFTY strongly encourage you to do so, and would like to help if we can! Here are some suggestions if you take the plunge:
1. Contact the pool and make an appointment with the programmer to discuss rentals. (This is their title in Vancouver Park Board sites, it may be different in your area.) Arrange an in-person appointment. There’s no need to mention at this point that you intend to have a clothing-optional event, but if they ask you if this is the case you should certainly (of course) say so, just as you would answer any initial questions they might have about your rental.
2. You will likely have to buy insurance. In BC, you should contact Sport BC insurance to discuss rates and terms. This would be a good thing to have looked into before your meeting with the pool programmer. If you know another group that rents the same pool, they might be willing to share their policy with you. Talk to them and to Sport BC.
3. It’s best to bring two people to your meeting with the pool programmer, a male and a female. (Sex shouldn’t matter, of course, but given societal stereotypes about people who like to do things naked, it helps to present your group as one whose membership represents a wider cross-section of your community.) Sorry (but needless) to say, you should really wear clothes for the meeting.
4. Use your judgment as the meeting unfolds, but you should probably explain your intention to have clothing-optional events early on during the meeting, as one of the parameters of your rentals. Most programmers will probably be at least willing to consider the idea, though they may say they have to check with their superiors first. At this point, be sure to mention all the other groups (like NIFTY) that have sucessfully run clothing-optional swims and events for years without any significant problems and with wide community support. Offer to meet with their superiors yourselves if needed.
5. If the meeting ends without a firm yes or no, give them a week or so to get back to you before calling to follow up. If you do so, start the call by thanking them for having met with you to consider renting their facility to your group. (Also do this when they call with their answer, if they do.)
If you need any help with the process, just call us here at NIFTY – we’ll do what we can. Good Luck! And let us know about the responses you get.
Attention Newcomers:
Your first NIFTY swim is only $1. Please click on the image below, print, photograph or save the discount coupon on your smartphone or camera and present it at the next NIFTY swim. We accept the coupons on paper, digital cameras and smartphones.
Spencer Tunick (born January 1, 1967) is an American photographer known for shooting nude photographs that often include thousands of participants. His first human installation took place in 2003 in in London’s Selfridges department store.
NIFTY membership shall be by donation, with no minimum. Lack of financial means shall never he a barrier to NIFTY membership.
NIFTY shall be, as much as possible, a grassroots democratic organization. No president or permanent chair shall exist. A chair shall be elected at each NIFTY meeting for the purpose of that meeting only, their term ending with that meeting. The only table officers are the secretary and the treasurer.
NIFTY is first and foremost an activist political entity. Although organizing and engaging in social and recreational activities is necessarily part of our function, our primary focus must always remain on political organization towards full clothing-optional rights in all public spaces in Canada.
(NIFTY Constitution, Paragraph 2)
Answer=”Incorrect”
Although nudists feel comfortable in the nude, some of them are shy of cameras.
All NIFTY events shall be clothing-optional if possible. No NIFTY event or function shall he nude-only or clothed-only unless it is absolutely unavoidable
NIFTY has held many events over the years: topfree and clothing-optional parades and marches, topfree picnics and book readings, clothing-optional dances and movie nights, and more. We also usually host a clothing-optional picnic following the Vancouver portion of the annual World Naked Bike Ride. While these events are celebratory in nature, they also serve to educate the public about the harmful effects of suppressing the natural body, and to advocate for clothing-optional rights.
Lady Godiva
Lady Godiva was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. In 1043 Leofric founded and endowed a Benedictine monastery at Coventry. People of Coventry were suffering under her husband’s oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva asked her husband to remit the tolls. Leofric said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism. In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind. In the end, Godiva’s husband keeps his word and abolishes the onerous taxes.
Notwithstanding (7) above, to amend the NIFTY constitution, a two-thirds majority vote at a legitimate NIFTY meeting shall he required. Notwithstanding (7) above, to amend these bylaws, a simple majority vote at a legitimate NIFTY meeting shall be required.
Answer=”Incorrect”
Nudists have all kinds of bodies, all sorts of sizes and shapes, all sorts of ages. You can be fat, have a scar, have mastectomy, etc. Nudism is not a beauty contest.
Answer=”Incorrect”
The vast majority of nudists are open, understanding and extremely friendly. They are repulsed at even the thought of pornography or sexual immorality.
NIFTY recognises the fundamental decency, beauty, and non-obscenity of the natural human body. Further, NIFTY affirms the spiritual, psychological and physical health benefits of nudity and body acceptance for the individual and for society. A major part of our mandate is to educate the public about these benefits, and about the harmful effects of our cultures censure of natural nudity. NIFTY is an egalitarian group which always promotes equality of all humans, without regard to sex, race, colour, creed, age, national origin, sexual orientation or any other attribute.
(NIFTY Constitution, Paragraph 4)
All decisions at NIFTY meetings shall be made by consensus if possible. In the event that consensus cannot he achieved after reasonable attempts, a vote shall take place, with majority rule carrying.
Answer=”Incorrect”
Nudists are sexual beings, but they conduct their activities in private.
No individual members may use cameras at NIFTY events. NIFTY may authorise camera(s) to photograph special events; in that case “no photo” wristbands and/or designated photography areas will be established, depending on the event. All participants shall be privately made aware of photography and release options at the entrance to the event.
Answer: Swimwear caused problems with the pool filtration systems.
The swimsuits at the time would shed fibers which would clog the pool filters.
All public NIFTY events shall be open to anybody without discrimination. There shall be no quotas of any kind, and people can be asked to leave or barred based solely on their own behaviour. Such behaviour must have predictable negative consequences.
Answer=”Incorrect”
Scientists believe that humans lost body hair more than 1,500,000 years ago and began wearing clothes only about 170,000 years ago. This means that for more than 1,000,000 years humans lived without any clothes at all!
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