By GEORGE F. SHEE, Secretary of the Institution.

I.

IN the course of many years' experience of the organization of efforts on behalf of the Life-boat Cause I have met again and again Honorary Secretaries and others, who, enthusiastic in their desire to assist the Life-boat Cause, and ready to take a great deal of trouble in doing so, are often at a loss as to ways and means.

I do not believe that any national society has a larger or more devoted body of men and women giving personal and unselfish service to the Cause than the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION.

It is with a view to setting forth the chief means by which their purpose may be achieved that I venture to submit the following notes.

I know that many Honorary Secretaries are familiar with every aspect of the work of appeal, and they will need no help from Headquarters. But there are very many also who are hardly aware of the great variety of methods which is open to them, and I am confident that a survey of the whole field of propaganda and publicity will afford many of them some help in the work which they so generously undertake on behalf of the Institution. I am confirmed in this belief by the very encouraging results which have always followed District Conferences, at which Honorary Secretaries and delegates of branches have been enabled to compare notes with others, to obtain from Headquarters a fairly complete survey of our methods, and to visualize and discuss ways and means which had till then escaped their notice, or which they had thought to be impracticable for one reason or another.

A well-organized branch will aim at securing a small but working Committee, who should share with the Honorary Secretary the labours of effective publicity and propaganda work.

If at the start a definite effort is made to allocate to certain members of the Committee one branch of the work, there is a real chance of its being carried out; and it must be remembered that the mere request to a member of the Committee to make himself, or herself, responsible for one branch of the work is the surest way to secure that person's active interest.

But no Branch will be really effective, or will exercise the influence which should belong to it, unless it has a strong and well-organized Ladies' Life-boat Guild. Indeed, I have no hesitation in saying that the great bulk of publicity and propaganda work is most effectively carried out by the members of the Guild, not only because women have a special gift of personal devotion to a cause in which they believe, and a power to persuade others of the justice of its claims, but because their social activities give them a wider field of activity than generally fall, to the lot of the average man ; and when I use the word " social" activities I use it in its literal sense, not in reference to " society" functions, but with regard to the ordinary contacts of women with one another in all spheres of life.

The main forms of appeal which should be carried out by any branch are :— (1) The appeal for annual subscriptions.

(2) Life-boat Day.

(3) House-to-house collections.

(4) Social functions of various kinds.

It is impossible to exaggerate the value of annual subscriptions. They form the bedrock of the Institution's revenue. Life-boat days, fetes and similar efforts may be ruined, in spite of admirable organization, by bad weather or similar causes. The annual subscription is not merely a stable form of support obtained at practically no cost, but the subscriber is inevitably interested in the cause to which the subscription is devoted, and if the subscription is 10s. Qd. and upwards the interest of the contributor is f ocussed and increased by the receipt of the quarterly Journal, which gives a complete survey of the current activities of the Institution, including especially the records of fine services, awards, descriptions of new Boats, inaugural ceremonies, accounts of relations with Foreign Governments and Life-boat services, etc., etc.

The best proof of the value of the annual subscription lies in the fact that at least 90 per cent, of the legacies are received from those who were annual subscribers, even if the amount had been small.

I need hardly say that by far the most effective means of obtaining subscribers is the personal appeal made by the enthusiastic Honorary Secretary to his friends and acquaintances. Nothing can possibly compare with the personal touch, the persuasive word spoken with the knowledge and enthusiasm of one who has been inspired by the record of the Life-boat Service itself. Knowledge of that Service cannot fail to elicit a generous response, and there is no better way of imparting that knowledge than by such personal persuasion. But, of course, these methods can only be used in comparatively small centres, and where the Honorary Secretary has both the time and the necessary courage to approach his friends and acquaintances without fear of rebuff, or discouragement in the face of a refusal.

Having placed on record the conviction that the personal approach stands out as absolutely the most successful—and I would add that, in default of a personal interview, a personal letter is immensely powerful— I come to the normal method which must necessarily be adopted in the case of a large town, where it is obviously impossible for the Honorary Secretary, Mayor or President to write the hundreds of letters which would be necessary if all those are to be approached who should be asked for their support.

I deal, then, here with the question of the original circular letter.

(1) The question of the best way to secure annual subscriptions is one for careful local consideration. The letter may, in the first instance, best come from the Blayor of the town, the President of the branch, or some important local personage, or from the Honorary Secretary, or from the Chairman and Honorary Secretary. But the following points must be borne in mind :— (a) The appeal must bear at the foot the name of the person for whom it is intended. The recipient must feel that the appeal is directed to him personally, otherwise it is almost sure to be wasted.

(b) The appeal should, if possible, bear some relation to the local conditions, the importance of the town, place on the coast, dependence of its industries on overseas trade, etc.

(c) It is most important to select the right time for the appeal. This should be during the winter months, and in many ways November is the best time, as it comes before the pressure of Christmas appeals, and at this time the Life-boats are generally exceptionally busy. An appeal by letter on behalf of the Life-boats during the height of the summer is bound to lose more than half its weight.

(d) It is essential to the maintenance of a good subscription list that the Kegister of Contributors (supplied from headquarters) should be carefully kept. I am sorry to say that this is sometimes overlooked.

(e) It is absolutely necessary that the subscriber who has responded to the appeal should be reminded of his subscription in the following year. I regret to say th.pt thi ; obviously indispensable moans of securing a success already obtained is often overlooked ; with the result that a good list may melt away like snow under a summer sun. Forms for application of renewal of subscriptions (and even donations) are supplied from headquarters. Tlie reminders should be repeated at least once if the first has not secured the renewal of tlic suInscription.

(/) In applying for sucL renewalr. a little personal touch, even c fci: words written on the application form itself, makes all the difference between success and failure. The words "Dear Sir" or "Dear Madam," written at the beginning of the letter, will produce twice the results obtained by the typed form " Dear Sir or Madam." People like to feel that they are approached as persons, not merely as purses ! (g) I would like particularly to remind Honorary Secretaries that Headquarters will be pleased to print for them the existing list of subscribers (or mimeograph it if it is very small), so that it may be sent out with the fresh letter of appeal in the following year, and also with the reminder letter. There is nothing more likely to secure the growth of the subscription list than for the recipient of the appeal to see the list of the names of persons known to himself. In this way the list acts like a snowball, and gradually grows to proportions really representative of the population and position of the town.

Note.—Headquarters are always ready to draft appeals, and will, needless to say, produce and print or manifold them, together with all enclosures, etc., with the least possible delay. What we want is the keen interest, the thoughtful help, and the personal signature of Honorary Secretaries. The machinery and the material we are ready to supply from headquarters.

(2) Life-boat Days.—I propose to deal here only with what may be called fundamental preparatory work for a successful Life-boat Day. And for this reason. If the preparations for a Lifeboat Day have been carefully thought out and carried out its success is practically a certainty, unless, of course, it be drowned in rain or a dat too early or too late in the year is chosen. What, then, are the essential conditions of adequate preparation ? This is almost equivalent to asking how can the requisite number of generous women be secured who will face the tiresome, tiring and sometimes disagreeable task of disposing of our badges and emblems ? The following strike me as being among the most important conditions :— (a) A well-organized Ladies' Life-boat Guild ; and that means that from the first moment that any lady joins the Guild she will have undertaken to carry out some definite personal service for the Life-boat Cause during the year ; and no form of service is more directly personal than that of selling on Life-boat Day (or carrying out a House-to-House Collection).

(b) The President of the Guild should call together the members a fortnight or three weeks before the day in order to make a personal appeal to them, and, if possible, to allocate depots, groups of sellers, etc. In seaside towns or summer resorts all the hotels should be visited beforehand with a request that they would circulate a dinner table collecting card or the badges themselves on the day. The Honorary Secretary of the Branch should be careful to apply through the Organizing Secretary for all the necessary stores in the way of badges, Life-boat trays, posters, police permits, etc. Requisition forms for the supply (and return) of this material are supplied.

(c) As everything depends upon creating as wide an interest as possible in the Life-boat Service a public meeting should be held not too far ahead of Life-boat Day.

The meeting may, of course, be the Annual Meeting. In any case, every effort should be made to secure a large attendance, and a good speaker should be asked to describe the Institution's work, especially its recent work, its fine services, its building programme, the lives saved, etc., etc.

It will be of great help in securing an audience if a musical programme, some theatricals or some other entertainment can be provided.

At this meeting the chief speaker and/or the President of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild should make a special appeal to the ladies present to join the Guild and to help on Life-boat Day.

(d) A careful letter should be written to the clergy of all denominations, asking them to refer in the course of the sermon on the Sunday preceding Life-boat Day to the great Christian, heroic and humane service which the Life-boat Crews carry out. In many cases the clergy will be willing to grant a " retiring collection." But it is even more important to ensure that a few appreciative words shall be uttered, paying a tribute to the courage and self-sacrifice of the fishermen on our coasts who are ready to lay down their lives to bring help to others. An allusion to the gospel of St. Mark, in which Christ stills the fears of the disciples and calms the sea, will be very appropriate in this connexion. If this letter to the clergy could be made a personal one, all the better.

But in no case should it be omitted.

There are very few of the clergy who would fail to respond to so simple a request, and those who attend church are the very people who will be alive to the cause of the Life-boat Service.

(e) Every effort should have been made during the year to get into touch with corporate bodies, such as the Women's Institutes, the Mothers' Union, Boy Scouts (especially Sea Scouts), Girl Guides, Toe H, the Rotary Club, the Brotherhood, etc. Almost any of these will be glad to give an opportunity for an address on the Life-boat Cause, and, let me add, almost any Honorary Secretary or worker can give such an address, for which very clear notes have been prepared at Headquarters, either for independent use or to accompany a set of slides which is constantly kept up to date and renewed.

(/) Shortly before the day a letter should be written to the local Press, briefly describing the work of the Institution, referring to the position of the Branch and the desire that the town should hold a creditable place in the list of over 1,000 cities and towns which support the Life-boat Cause, and drawing attention to Life-boat Day.

(g) In some towns the Police and the Fire Brigade are themselves most generous helpers, and it can do nothing but good for the Honorary Secretary to put himself into close touch with these two great organized and disciplined bodies.

(h) Where free space can be. obtained the liberal use of posters supplied by the Institution will be valuable.

But it is practically waste of money to pay for any hoarding space or to ask for large posters. The Institution's posters, either the Lifeboatman's head or the chart poster, can be used in groups to make up any size required, and this is often a more effective method than the use of a large poster, which is very costly and difficult to handle.

(i) Cinemas.—As indicated in Leaflet No. 8, Life-boat Films, the Institution has prepared special " Five Minute " films (300 feet long) for loan to cinemas, to be shown in connexion with Life-boat days and other Life-boat functions. The cinema world is very kind to the Institution, and in nearly every case local cinemas will show these very short films during the week in which Life-boat Day occurs, and also lantern slides with the announcement " Life-boat Day on Saturday next" (or the day of the week required). Honorary Secretaries of towns where there are several picture houses will find it most useful and helpful to get the cooperation of the managers in this matter. Very often the managers will also allow a collection during a particular performance, and sometimes throughout the week, especially if they show one of our longer Life-boat films (see Leaflet 8).

(To be continued.).