Attention BN Members! - important AGM Motion

[Duncan Heenan]

British Naturism – Motion to 2023 Annual General Meeting

The following motion is being proposed to the AGM by a group of 46 concerned members. Your support for the motion is strongly encouraged, and a short explanation follows.
Motion:
“This AGM requires British Naturism Ltd to appoint a Treasurer/Financial Director at a salary of no more than £6,000 per annum whose terms of reference shall be;
1.   Your prime responsibility is to the members of British Naturism and you will answer all reasonable questions from them fully and promptly;
2.   You will ensure that as part of the annual report, events shall each have their own Income and Expenditure column;
3.   You will ensure that each member of the Executive Committee knows whether they are also a Shadow Director, and that they understand the responsibilities this brings.
4.   You will ensure that a list is provided with the annual report listing the totals paid (other than out of pocket expenses not exceeding £1,000 in total) to all members of British Naturism including businesses that they control.
5.   You will prepare the reports under 3. And 4. Above in respect of 2021 and 2022, to be mailed to members with the next available copy of BN magazine.”
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Explanatory note:
BN started as a member’s organisation espousing the Naturist Movement, largely run by amateurs. In recent years, it has taken on a role as an events organiser and employs increasing numbers of people either directly or as contractors. 2 years ago it was decided, without consulting the members, to sell the Northampton office, and to acquire the Sunfolk sun club. These developments are changing the nature and scale of BN’s operations, but the governance of BN has not developed to keep pace with this. Many members are largely unaware of what is happening as reporting only happens after the event, and rarely contains clear financial data. The management of the larger and more complex organisation is critical to its success and survival, and yet BN has for many years had no Finance Director, despite the constitution requiring one. This motion seeks only to obligate the EC/Directors to do what they should be doing anyway. The provision for modest payment of a Finance Director recognises that it is an onerous role requiring specialist skills, and that filling it with a suitable volunteer has proven increasingly difficult.
The proposed terms of reference include some reasonable measures to enable members to judge how their money is being used, and by whom. Too often in recent times, members’ reasonable questions have gone unanswered because of lack of available information or claims of ‘commercial confidentiality’.  BN is still a member-owned organisation, and it is only right that members are told in reasonable detail what their money is being used for. There should be no excuse for this lack of accountability.
Nowadays BN is handling increasingly large sums of money, and it is vital to have the right governance and management structure to both to get best-value for members, and to demonstrate that by maximum transparency. The EC/Directors have shown unwillingness to do this of their own accord, so we ask you, by supporting this motion, to require them to do so for the benefit of BN and Naturism generally.

[rockondoghampshire4]

Paul Rouse (H&E Editor) is aware of this. It will be interesting to see whether he publishes all or part of it. Also whether Bass allows it or wholly disregards it.   

[MrJorrox1956]

How can I support the motion Duncan? 

[Ray Ward]

My question too. I am a BN member. When and where is the AGM?

[Duncan Heenan]

The AGM will be held on Zoom on a Sunday early in October. The exact details will be sent out soon with the Autumn edition of BN magazine, and will also include voting instructions. Voting will be on-line with a paper option.
To support the motion, just vote for it. But if you (or anyone else with access to the BN forum) want to get a debate going on the BN forum to discuss the motion and the issues it raises, please do. Most members will not even know there is a problem, so the more people who are talking about it the better. 

[MrJorrox1956]

I won't be there.  I was 'warned by Mark Bass'  and banned from the forums - no site access at all, even to make blog posts or change my membership details so I e-mailed Tracey Major to cancel my automatic renewal, which is due at the end of this month.

I'll probably rejoin when I read of Bass' downfall.

Good luck with the motion at the AGM.

[Duncan Heenan]

Pity, as every vote counts. There are an ever increasing number of ex-BN members who have been thrown out for holding views which do not accord with Mark Bass', often trivial matters. BN now operates a Cancel Culture whereby the EC view (which is dictated by Mark Bass) must not be questioned. Freedom of speech is a thing of the past. It is little wonder that membership numbers are dropping.

[Phil]

I was BN too and now I am no longer a member of BN, Hate the way they badly treated people.
They tire of messaging everyone to come back, so I just delete them.BN are untrustworthy

[Duncan Heenan]

Pity, as every vote counts. There are an ever increasing number of ex-BN members who have been thrown out for holding views which do not accord with Mark Bass', often trivial matters. BN now operates a Cancel Culture whereby the EC view (which is dictated by Mark Bass) must not be questioned. Freedom of speech is a thing of the past. It is little wonder that membership numbers are dropping.

Hi Mr Jorrox,
Forgive this cold call, but you have posted a number of things to do with the BN forum and other shenanigans at BN, and I believe you might (like me) have been banned by BN in some way. I wondered if you might be interested in joining a WhatsAp group called BN Exiles. This is a small informal group of people who have all been given the Mark Bass treatment. We don't have an exact agenda, except for a forthcoming motion to the BN AGM (from David Ross), but we are in discussion as to how BN could be reformed/improved. If you're interested in taking part contact me by email on duncanheenan@tiscali.co.uk (my NAG email will not work now) or by text to 07702423339.
If you're not interested, just ignore this and accept my apologies for bothering you.
Best wishes,
Duncan Heenan

[Phil]

That is very Good news you can try to get the BN exit WhatsApp to join NAG to start new and move forward. Therefore we can have good strong Members to help build NAG more and have the power to overtake the BN

[Duncan Heenan]

Please forgive this ‘cold call’, but I am posting this for anyone who may still be a BN member, to ask them to support David Ross’s motion to the 1/10/23 BN AGM. The motion is intended to improve the financial governance of BN, and reduce the culture of secrecy which has grown up around the EC under Mark Bass’s leadership. Even if you do not agree with all the details of the motion, I would encourage you to vote for it to start the much needed process of reform. I would not normally approach individuals in this way, but I, and a growing number of others, have been banned from posting on the BN Forum, because we have expressed views which Mark Bass does not agree with; so we have no public voice. If you want the full story of how this has reflected on me, see https://forum.naturistactiongroup.co.uk/index.php?topic=514.0   .
Below I copy David Ross’s response to the BN EC statement of opposition to his motion. I hope you will have time to read it. I am sure David will answer any queries you may have, his contact details are at the end of his statement.
Thanks for your time, and in hope of your support in reforming aspects of BN which need it.
Duncan Heenan
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Statement from David Ross
I have asked Tracey to post this on my behalf as I have been banned from the BN Website by Mark Bass. My wife (who is banned from posting) has read your posts to me and I would like to add the following;
 
The principle of voluntary service
The objection by the EC to payments only makes sense if you split the Directors who have been recorded at Companies House away from the other members of the EC. Members of BN will not make this distinction when they read the list with pictures in BN Magazine.

The EC runs BN under powers delegated under Section 5 (in Part 2) of our Articles of Association and some if not all of them will be Shadow Directors in any case.

It would be a bad thing if we could not pay anyone, because BN is of such a size and complexity that no-one could perform some of the tasks on a voluntary basis.

£6000 a year
This was put into the motion to LIMIT how much is paid for a task, in the knowledge that some figures paid to ‘contractors’ are eye-watering. It makes sense on the basis that professional book-keepers charge £25 an hour so it would allow for up to 20 hours a month.

It is in the spirit of an ‘honorarium’, a good British tradition.

I used the word Salary because Directors are Office Holders and automatically subject to PAYE.

Confidentiality
The motion only calls for totals, not breakdowns, so nothing that would cause embarrassment. In any case, businesses charge ‘mates rates’ all the time. No one could conceivably suffer financial loss from such limited disclosure and therefore could not take Court action.

If confidentiality agreements have been signed, why?

Wording of the motion
Some have said it is badly worded – well great care was taken to get it right and experienced members were consulted.

In particular, the breakdown between events was inserted because this used to happen and needs to happen again. Income and expenditure must have been tagged in the software so producing the reports will not be onerous, expensive or time consuming.

Members of BN are not infants and can be trusted to understand that some events are experimental and may take time to find their feet, whilst others may never break even but are desirable to attract new members. But if an event continually failed to break even when it should, we are entitled to know and to see that remedial action is taken.

We don’t pay Corporation Tax on trading between ourselves but a number of events are open to non-members. Proper account must be taken to ensure that profits from those sources are declared and tax paid. Only £65 (the same figure) appears as a liability for 2021 and 2022 with no cost of taxation in the Profit and Loss. I would expect to see at least a cost of £209 for 2022, being 19% on Bank Interest.

As far back as 2009 I suggested that ‘seedcorn’ money be advance to swim startups. The most successful of these was the London swim – a bit of risk-taking is healthy and I have never heard anyone but the EC suggest that potential ‘shame’ would stifle innovation.

The post is only an elected one
Why pretend that this is the case, when Mark Bass himself was originally co-opted as President?

Please remember that the online system allows you to change your vote. If you have voted No, then I ask you to change this to Yes (easily done online https://www.bn.org.uk/AGM2023 ) and support my honest attempt to improve British Naturism.
 
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Best Regards

David Ross
 
david@nakedswim.co.uk
www.nakedswim.co.uk
 
07967 253111

[Rachel Seymour]

I was a member of BN for a very long time I was a member of the YBN to. I knew from 2010 that they where hidding financial things. As well as other things they have always been rather secretive to the members I found.
I wish them well.