The RNLI, do you donate?

[elioti]

Guess there may have been recent topics on this, but keep seeing posts on facebook from the RNLI about vacancies for fundraisers. Wonder what people opinions are on donating to the RNLI. Think the part of the RNLI does a great job, but i wont dontate as feel they waste so much money. I went to Exmouth boat jumble a couple years back, and the new huge building to house the lifeboat has the inside of its roof lined with what looks like teak. Read the CEO earns a fortune, ( over £100,00 per annum) and not so long ago had his office decorated at a cost in excess of £26,000. Our local lifeguards are swaning around in new plush 4x4`s? Would be interested in opinions on this. Sure there are many more examples of them wasting donations? Interested in opinions on this

 

[Sybarite]

Yes. Despite what some may think!

 

[Gwylan]

Face the same dilemma. The lads here are great and above reproach and worth every penny.

Then we have some odd bits and pieces going on.

It is a big, expensive business and needs quality management and leadership.

Not to mention the kit. If you are going to sea because everyone else should have been at home then you need the best kit.
But does that include running the engines on a Mersey for a couple of hours whilst tied to the pontoon.

It begs the question why we have the ROLE and the Coastguard doing quite similar overlapping stuff? Also how would it be if the St John's Ambulance ran our national ambulance service?

In conclusion, I am a member but my energy is directed to local support.

 

[stevebrassett]

I'm an Offshore member, so donate every month by DD.

 

[dylanwinter]

I do donate several times a year

and agree that the blokes in the boats need great gear and good support

but there does seem to be a degree of flabbiness in the upper echelons

 

[PhillM]

Im a member and I think they do a great job.

Sometimes it takes a few "interesting" decisions to make change happen.

I try to never forget that nobody gets it right all of the time. People are flawed. But I'd rather have flawed people running it and perhaps some flawed people on the ground, than insisting on such high-as-to-be-non-achievable standards that nobody can do the job.

 

[JumbleDuck]

but there does seem to be a degree of flabbiness in the upper echelons

I am told that they recruit a lot from retired military types, which is possibly a better source of jolly good cheps than it is of frugality and commercial acumen.

 

[Capt Popeye]

Difficult this one, sometimes, do I donate, well not directly, do I support local lifeboat events, like tea n bun rooms, raffles, table top sales, etc, yes I do, as I can get a rapport with the local efforts and lifeboat men.

I saw in the S West news a short while ago, that Cornwall Council were having to make economies in order to balance their books. Anyways, it came out that they, Cornwall Council, paid the RNLI about £1,000,000.00 PA to provide lifeguards on the beaches for the summer period. Puzzled that I am, as if the lifeguards are unpaid volunteers, I assume the site that the beach guard huts stand on belongs to the councils, so no charge there, so we are left with training the guards, supplying costumes, life saving equipment etc, which I would find difficult to justify costing the £1m PA.

I would have liked to see the Council paying the smaller local volunteer guards a good sum to provide this necessary service, and probably be a better service with less of the cost being creamed off.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I saw in the S West news a short while ago, that Cornwall Council were having to make economies in order to balance their books. Anyways, it came out that they, Cornwall Council, paid the RNLI about £1,000,000.00 PA to provide lifeguards on the beaches for the summer period. Puzzled that I am, as if the lifeguards are unpaid volunteers, I assume the site that the beach guard huts stand on belongs to the councils, so no charge there, so we are left with training the guards, supplying costumes, life saving equipment etc, which I would find difficult to justify costing the £1m PA.

I would have liked to see the Council paying the smaller local volunteer guards a good sum to provide this necessary service, and probably be a better service with less of the cost being creamed off.

The beach lifeguarding side of the RNLI is a business, run on very forceful grounds. Lots of lobbying of councils and threats of legal liability if they don't cough up for RNLI services. In some places in Cornwall they supplanted beach lifeguarding clubs which had been providing the service for decades.

It's not a side of the RNLI which impresses me very much.

 

[saltylegs]

I do
And am a past crew member.

 

[Humblebee]

Worth remembering too that the RNLI is not the only lifeboat institution. Where I live we used to have an excellent, local charity doing the same job and training other organisations as well. it used to bug me that RNLI used to run shoreside collections here but didn't provide the service. I still support the RNLI but if there is a local alternative, that would be my choice.

 

[Capt Popeye]

Worth remembering too that the RNLI is not the only lifeboat institution. Where I live we used to have an excellent, local charity doing the same job and training other organisations as well. it used to bug me that RNLI used to run shoreside collections here but didn't provide the service. I still support the RNLI but if there is a local alternative, that would be my choice.

+ 1 good to hear it, Sir

 

[ripvan1]

Yes, and when I do donate I'm always thinking of the guys at the dirty end and hoping they've always got the best and up to date of everything and no shortage of it.
The other charity I donate regularly to is Salvation Army - they do a marvellous job too.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Worth remembering too that the RNLI is not the only lifeboat institution. Where I live we used to have an excellent, local charity doing the same job and training other organisations as well. it used to bug me that RNLI used to run shoreside collections here but didn't provide the service. I still support the RNLI but if there is a local alternative, that would be my choice.

It does annoy me that the RNLI describes itself as "The charity which saves lives at sea" (my emphasis) and not "A charity which saves lives at sea". One of my three nearest lifeboats is an independent and I think they deserve just as much support as the two RNLI stations. Possibly a bit more, as they don't have the huge RNLI infrastructure behind them.

I'd like to make clear, by the way, that I yield to no-one in my admiration for the generosity and bravery of RNLI crews.

 

[NormanS]

Forecast for tonight:- Hurricane F12. Yes, I donate.

 

[Pye_End]

Puzzled that I am, as if the lifeguards are unpaid volunteers,

Lifeguards are paid.

 

[Leighb]

I donate, both by Offshore sub, and ad hoc on other occasions, local fund raisers etc. I don't know enough to comment on cost of management, but wholeheartedly support the brave guys who go out in all weathers and risk their lives. All yachtsmen may at some time in their lives come to be thankful that they are there if needed.

 

[Capt Popeye]

Lifeguards are paid.

Ah thank you for that info, was not aware that they were paid, just thought that, like the Lifeboat men, all volunteers.

So, if paid, that will amount to a good bit of the £1m

 

[NUTMEG]

Offshore member by DD. Have been since buying my first boat. I look on it in the same way as RAC membership. Sort of insurance policy. Never used either. Maybe I am a muppet?

Like to think that if one day I need their help, at least I have paid for it over the years.

How many RNLI knockers and non-contributors would wave them away and refuse help as boat sunk, or grounded on a falling tide in foul weather I wonder?

 

[longjohnsilver]

Guess there may have been recent topics on this, but keep seeing posts on facebook from the RNLI about vacancies for fundraisers. Wonder what people opinions are on donating to the RNLI. Think the part of the RNLI does a great job, but i wont dontate as feel they waste so much money. I went to Exmouth boat jumble a couple years back, and the new huge building to house the lifeboat has the inside of its roof lined with what looks like teak. Read the CEO earns a fortune, ( over £100,00 per annum) and not so long ago had his office decorated at a cost in excess of £26,000. Our local lifeguards are swaning around in new plush 4x4`s? Would be interested in opinions on this. Sure there are many more examples of them wasting donations? Interested in opinions on this

I know many of the Exmouth crew and land team. The new lifeboat house is an impressive building, much better than the old porta cabin that used to house the crew of the offshore lifeboat. And the new building is needed as the present lifeboat lives on a very impressive trailer, not on a mooring where it used to be. I'm pretty certain the roof is not teak lined.

Exmouthians are rightly proud of both their new lifeboat and their crews. I certainly don't see it as money wasted and I'm happy to support them financially.