THE NATURIST LEGACY FILES

President's Year in Review (2011)

A snowy quiet descended upon Naturist Legacy Park in November after a spring, summer and fall filled with intense activity. Six months of industrious volunteer effort has firmly established the foundation upon which Manitoba's newest and only landed nudist club is being built. At one of our Advisory Council meetings held earlier this year, I presented everyone with a rather intimidating list of tasks (PDF) planned for 2011. Now that the year is at an end, I thought it would be good to visit that list again to see how we did. Tasks in green were completed or are mostly complete. Tasks in blue were started and are ongoing. Tasks in red were not started.

• Improve internal roadways.
• Bury boulders in main roads.
• Clear piles of debris from front of property to make mowing and weed control possible.
• Construct a proper metal swinging gate.
• Paint gateposts and clear small trees from ditch.
• Collect and stack cordwood.
• Continue thinning trees, pruning limbs and clearing brush from meadows.
• Erect basic park signage.
• Spray for poison ivy.
• Trench phone, power and water lines.
• Install sewage holding tanks.
• Drill new water well.
• Build pump house.
• Install pump and pressure tank.
• Widen existing road between pine and poplar camps.
• Create new road around poplar camp.
• Clear and groom seasonal lots.
• Move buildings stored at the forks to permanent locations.
• Remove trees from washroom, pool and clubhouse area.
• Construct washroom building.
• Construct deck around washroom building.
• Construct outdoor showers.
• Install swimming pool.
• Construct pool and sun decks.
• Create additional hiking trails.

Given our limited budget and our equally limited labour supply, the abundance of greens and blues above is obviously very heartening. We could never have achieved so much in such a short time without the financial support and active volunteering of our wonderful group of members.

Several members were especially generous in 2011 with their donations and pay forwards. Your financial assistance was no less important to our overall development than the physical effort contributed by others. We are profoundly grateful for your help. Thank you!

Board members had the pleasure of talking with and/or working with nearly every Naturist Legacy member this year. Each member is important to our community and to us personally. Each of you has kindly offered your friendly greetings, your helpful advice, your uplifting encouragement, your financial support and/or your physical labour, and we thank you!

Speaking of board members, I would be utterly remiss if I didn't also thank Mark and Stephanie for all their hard work in 2011. Between us we exchanged more than 1,650 e-mail messages and more than 550 files over the past twelve months. Many hours were spent attending board meetings, and many more hours were spent strategizing and brainstorming on the phone. This year we dealt with (in person, by phone and by e-mail) electricians, holding tank installers, well drillers, water system installers, water testing lab personnel, equipment rental agents, sand and gravel dealers, foundation installers, building movers and pool installers as well as our insurance agent and our accountant. We also dealt with (in person, by phone and by e-mail) representatives from the RM of Brokenhead, Manitoba Hydro, Manitoba Telephone System, Manitoba Office of Drinking Water, Manitoba Department of Conservation, Manitoba Health and the Manitoba Companies Office. We had numerous meetings with government officials not only in Winnipeg but also in Beausejour and Lac du Bonnet. All of this — all of the phone calls made, all of the correspondence written, all of the files created, all of the meetings attended, all of the miles traveled — was our voluntary contribution towards advancing the development of Naturist Legacy Park to where it's at today.

Though much has been accomplished by our community of nudists, we are aware that much still remains to be done!

The first major construction project on our 2012 task list will be the installation of our new swimming pool (a deposit has already been made which will ensure that we'll be first in line for installation this spring). After the pool will come the construction of decking and fencing necessary to get an operating permit from the government. Also on the task list for 2012:

• Finish the washroom building.
• Build the outdoor showers.
• Erect park signage.
• Build the main sun deck.
• Grind or otherwise remove stumps in the west end of the Hydro corridor to create space for guest parking.
• Continue improving our park's roads.
• Finish the sand volleyball court.
• Create a bocce ball court.
• Continue improving our park's meadows.
• Continue creating more nature trails.

It's obviously going to be another ambitious year of construction and development at Naturist Legacy Park! We have greatly appreciated all of your contributions to the projects that were accomplished in 2011, and we hope that we can count on you to continue helping us with the many projects planned for 2012.

On behalf of the board of directors, I wish all members and friends of Naturist Legacy a healthy and productive 2012! Happy New Year!

— John K., President...

SOURCE: This article (slightly abridged) was published in both the members and non-members editions of the December 31, 2011 Naturist Legacy News Update. Check out the 2011 Photo Galleries to see what was accomplished during this ambitious year of construction and development.

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