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This is me, Andy Chong |
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Prickstown Penis Examiner, 30 August 2002: TNT!MEN Webmaster Awarded GNI Public Service Award Spike, the indescribably wonderful webmaster for Toronto's gay naked group and NakedPlanet.org, was awarded GNI's highest public service honor, the "Natural Man" award. This award has always been given to an exceptional individual, and this year was awarded to a GNI member who was not an insider, which makes it an even more wonderfully astonishing choice. Congratulations to Spike and to GNI for this infuckingcredible event!!!!!!! |
At the annual camp held by Gay Naturists International, TNT!MEN webmaster Spike was named GNI's Natural Man 2002.
The Natural Man Award is GNI's highest honour, bestowed only in years where the GNI board finds a worthy candidate. The engraving on the plaque reads: "In Recognition of His Outstanding Long Term Contribution to the Growth, Achievement and Good Fellowship of the Gay Naturist Movement, Spike is Hereby Proclaimed Natural Man 2002. Presented at the International Gathering of Gay Male Nudists, August 23, 2002, Reeders, Pennsylvania."
While we do not yet have an official letter of recognition detailing the reason's for the board's decision, GNI President Bill Coda in his proclamation speech mentioned Spike's web sites and their ability to draw people to the gay naturist / nudist movement.
When I asked Spike about his reaction to his winning the award, he said that he was delighted and very surprised. What is undeniable is his long-term involvement in gay naturism. He was a founding member for both TNT!MEN and its predecessor Toronto Canada Area Nudists, and facilitated the launch meetings of both groups. For TCAN, he was a board member, membership co-ordinator, newsletter editor, webmaster, and phoneline officer. For TNT!MEN, he was newsletter editor for several years, but is known chiefly as webmaster for the site www.tntmen.org.
Since the founding of TNT!MEN in February 1997, the web site has accumulated almost 1,400 pages of material, with an average of 4,000 page requests per day. It has a range of current and archival material. There is material specific to TNT!MEN, such as the events calendar, copies of past newsletters, by-laws, etc. There are also many articles and news updates, photographs (by Spike and others), and a large collection of articles from other media sources about gay nudists and TNT!MEN. He also provides directions to Hanlan's Point, Toronto's official clothing-optional beach, with weather forecasts even!
The Natural Man 2002 plaque |
Spike also runs www.nakedplanet.org, which lists contact information for gay nudist clubs and other resources around the world. Both web sites are linked to automatic language translators, so they can be viewed in a variety of languages.
Every week, he answers up to 30 e-mails regarding his web sites. This number is down from earlier times, when people were simply surprised that such groups and websites existed. With each inquiry he fine-tuned his website to make it easier to find the most frequently requested information, and to make the sites accessible to everyone, including blind people.
Spike and his partners Peter Gray (former TCAN board member, TNT!MEN Pride Day Co-ordinator) and Daryl Vocat (TNT!MEN Event Co-ordinator) have run many house parties, planned Toronto Pride Day activities, and marched (sometimes naked) in the Pride March. He and Peter have both received Life Memberships from TNT!MEN, and Spike is the first (and currently only) winner of the Mr. TNT!MEN title.
Spike says
that even as a youngster, he always enjoyed being naked with other
boys and men in change rooms, showers, and the occasional nude
beach. And although at first he did think being naked was all
about sex, he discovered at his first GNI gathering in 1992
that it is a lot more than that.
Since then, he has travelled widely to places where he can be clothes-free. Besides GNI, he has attended the camps at CMEN and IMEN. He has been nude on the street at Stonewall 25 in 1994 in New York City, Pride Day in Toronto, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. He has been nude in bars in Amsterdam, Fort Lauderdale, and SF, visits Haulover annually, and spent a wonderful week at the nudist town of Cap d'Agde in the south of France.
Besides being a passionate nudist and computer nerd, Spike enjoys photography and music (he plays piano and other keyboards, and was even a church organist and choir master for a few years). Professionally, he is an engineer doing research and consulting in human factors engineering, specialising in perception, cognition, and interface design -- something, I suppose, like ergonomics for the mind.
