Thanks Paul for your overall endorsement. I agree that there is some duplication or repetition that I left in initially to stress the point I was trying to make. However in view of the lenght of the brochure I feel that we should eliminate it in order to make it shorter.
I would also like to see a logo added and I have seen some people with artistic talent down at the springs. However I know that it is not one of my talents, so if no one volunteers from the forum, hopefully we can find someone at the springs and can add the logo to the brochure at a later date.
DCR, maybe you should start a separate thread to address to Mission Statement (MS from here on) you are proposing. In general I agree with the ideas you represent here, but do not feel that it all has to be in the MS.
For example I agree on cooperating with the USFS and other partnerships, but do not feel this is the most important part of the group that should be in the openning sentence. I knew that this was important to both Paul and yourself so I did try and incorporate this idea into the last sentence of the MS I proposed for the brochure.
Although I agree that lowering visitor impact is a good idea, I am concerned about putting it in the MS, as the easiest way to achieve this is to close the area to the public. And USFS as well as the CA Park System have often taken this approach. If this happens and we oppose we are no longer cooperating with them which is the opening sentence of the MS you propose.
I agree with bringing "education" into the picture and we could add it in to the last sentence of the proposed wording of the MS for the brochure. That is the purpose of the brochure in the first place. You also mention "Involvement". The entire brochure talks about how we want to be 'involved', is it really necessary to say it in the MS?
I agree with everything you say in the third and fourth paragraphs however I don't feel that it is necessary to write it out in such detail in the MS. Both Paul P. and you correctly point out the duplication regarding trash and other items and adding these issues to the MS would just increase this issue in my opinion. Why can't we cover these issues in more detail in another section of the brochure instead of adding them to the MS.
I also agree on keeping the meetings open to everyone and by proposing to hold the meetings at the springs we are ineffect doing so. However, instead of saying this in the MS I would prefer to add a section at the end of the brochure that could say "meetings are held every last Saturday of each months a the grassy area close to the anniversary pool at approximatelly 1:00 p.m. All persons concerned with these hot springs are welcome to attend".
I feel that the mission satement should be one paragraph that shows the overall 'forrest' without naming every 'tree' within, but of course this is just my opinion. What do the rest of you think?
One last though and going back to another idea DCR threw out there about a month back. What does everyone feel about putting all the clothing optional/nudity issues in a separate section so that we can address them in more detail? This would include in addition to the etiquette issues mentioned, things like were it is appropriate, why it is not illegal or the law information that DCR found, what Naturists believe in, etc. Another option would be to leave the basics on the brochure and have an additional brochure with more information about this issue for those intrested. This way it would not appear that this was our main agenda. Anyway just another idea I wanted to share and my apologies for the long post.