History of NaFoF

NaFoF has been formed to be an organisation for active and fun professionals who are looking to socialise with like-minded people, where NaFoF is a part of their social life. Joining NaFoF is a great way to make new friends with people to whom you can relate.

NaFoF was "invented" in 2004 during a heated debate and conversation between some members of another social organisation. In this heated debate; all the members around this particular table agreed that things had to change within this other organisation, but despite our efforts we were unable to make the changes that the organisation so badly needed.

This other organisation, that'll be referred to as 'X' (as in Brand X in those cheesy commercials during the early 90's), had been a successful organisation, a very successful organisation. X had fallen from grace from a peak of around ten-thousand members - it had six-hundred nationwide. Something had gone wrong and twenty-plus years of decline was the result.

Although we have our own theories as to why X declined, it is irrelevant for the history of NaFoF. To change X seemed impossible but many of us perservered nevertheless. Members came to our club within X, stayed for a while, some got involved in the quest of changing the larger organisation, got disillusioned and left. X declined further to 450 members in 2007.

Our clubs in the south of Hampshire had been doing very well, we'd grown from around 10 members to around 40 and then formed a second club starting with 3 members and grown that second club to around 15 in just a matter of months. The clubs had been growing, members joined and were active, the clubs were vibrant.

We'd shown to 'X' that it could be done! However, we were not a typical club and when our members ventured into the wider world of X they were disappointed. X had become a typical social club with skewed demographics, that weren't typical of the wider community, politics ran rife and it wasn't fun anymore.

So, while the National Chairman of X said that we were the template for a successful club, the other clubs didn't change. We truly hope that X will grow and become a strong organisation again, until then, welcome to NaFoF - we are a multi activity and socialising club with active and fun professional people you can relate to.