follow In addition to establishing National Nude Weekend, Baxandall and Callen concurred that a facility to store the main stuff of the clothes-optional movement was wanted. Baxandall offered to use his Oshkosh facilities to house these files and to have Oshkosh be the actual location for a brand new Free Beaches Documentation Center. Initially, the FBDC concentrated on collecting information pertaining to nude swimming areas (i.e., free beaches), but soon expanded to concern itself with all elements of clothing-free use of public lands. It intended to maintain records like posters, flyers, manifestos, news items, photos, legal documents and publicity paraphernalia for use by students and writers with serious interest. The FBDC immediately expanded its initial goals to include publishing and distributing a newspaper. In June 1976 the first issue of Free Beaches was distributed. Copies were available for the cost of a contribution to the FBDC. Following issues, produced once a year through 1980 and getting name changes, were titled Free Beaches Sunand ultimately Sun. The tabloid supplied updates on where readers could recreate nude, and it kept them abreast of challenges to their naturist liberties. Sun included short articles describing the enjoyment of social nudity, offered informal surveys about societal attitudes about the body, and alerted readers to special occasions that naturists would probably be interested in.
In October 1979, the FBDC organized a workshop for the annual convention of the National Recreation and Parks Association held in Awesome Orleans. This was the very first time a naturist or naturist group had participated in this national event. The workshop was attended by about 150 alert mid and top level park supervisors. Baxandall and Jan Smith started with a 23-minute, professionally produced slide and sound show titled "Nude Recreation In America." After the slide show Baxandall successfully debated Lawrence Hadley (now retired from Cape Cod) and two other part director panelists on the values of naked use of Truro strand. After 1985, the American Sunbathing Association (now the American Association for Nude Recreation) would sanction an interest in bare recreation on public lands and has participated in similar conventions throughout the 1990s.
1980-1981: A "Naturist Society" is Formed, Naturist Assemblies Are Organized, and the First Version of the World Guide To Nude Beaches & Recreation Is Sold
