THE DRAW for the Shoreline Renault 5 car competition was made on October 28 by Dave Lee Travis on the Renault Car Stand at Earl's Court Motor Fair.

The lucky winner was Mr F. J. Hade of Wokingham and by now he should have received his car at a special presentation arranged at Burrows Garage, Exmouth.

Well done, Mr Harle. We hope you will have many happy hours' motoring in your Renault 5.

As a result of this competition 1,300 new Shoreline members were enrolled and their subscriptions alone were worth £9,010 to the RNLI. That is a splendid result and our thanks go to Mrs Aplin of Exmouth ladies' guild for the idea, to Burrows Garage for their cooperation, to Renault UK for supplying the car and also, of course, to all those members who made sure that the whole enterprise was a success. Your efforts have certainly proved to be very well worth while.

Looking back over the past year it is most gratifying to see that although, due to the economic climate of the country, some of our loyal supporters had to cease their membership for one reason or another, Shoreline membership has still continued to grow. The growth has not, perhaps, been as fast as we should have liked but it has been steady and sure. On behalf of the Institution I should like to thank all our established Shoreline members for the enthusiastic support in the past year which has helped to bring our membership up to 82,000 and to extend a warm welcome to all those members who joined in 1981; I hope we may have the pleasure of your membership for many years to come.

* * * I have been asked several times recently how much extra it costs to covenant a subscription to the RNLI. The answer is: nothing. The subscription that a member pays to the RNLI has already been taxed and, if it is convenanted, the RNLI, being a registered charity, can claim back the tax that the subscriber has already paid. It is as simple as that. I hope this explanation will clear up a few doubts that some people may have had in their minds and that it will encourage more members to complete a covenant in the RNLI's favour.

In fact, the response we have received to our appeal to our members to sign a deed of covenant which was printed on the form accompanying ournew membership cards has been very encouraging. If every member signed a covenant it would mean a considerable increase in revenue for the RNLI at no extra cost whatsoever to yourselves. So, please help.

* * # We now have six active Shoreline Clubs and it is hoped that Club No 7 will be started at Scarborough in January.

Shoreline Club No 3, at Southend-on- Sea, is looking for volunteers to sell programmes at its raft race on June 27.

Anyone able to help should write to Mick Holland, 83 Walsingham Road, Southend-on-Sea, or telephone him at Southend 68794. Your help will be much appreciated.

* * * Visitors to our stand at the London Boat Show will probably not have noticed any change in our ability to call up membership records on a visual dis-play unit, a facility we have used for the past four years. This year, however, the records were no longer held at a computer bureau in Croydon but have been transferred to our own Prime 550 computer at Poole. The resulting communication problem was solved for us by courtesy of British Telecom who provided the necessary link by means of their Datel 600 service as a donation to the RNLI.

* * * Support for Shoreline comes from many parts of the world and from people of all ages. Here is a letter we received recently: 7 am writing to you from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. My name is Kirsten McVey and I am seven years old. My sister is called Koren and she is six vears old.

'A few weeks ago we held a sponsored swim for the lifeboats and we got £189.20.

We sent half to the Llandudno lifeboat and we are sending the other half to you at Shoreline.

'My mummy is a member of Shoreline and when we lived in Llandudno helped to raise money for the Llandudno boat. We had a lovely day. Our daddies did a barbeque for us. We would like to do a sponsored swim every year.

Lots of love - KIRSTF.N and KORF.N Our love and thanks to you, Kirsten and Koren.

Everyone in Shoreline office at Poole takes this opportunity of wishing all our members a very happy new year. Let us hope that 1982 will see as much growth as 1981, or even more, with 100,000 members as our target. - PETER HOLNESS, membership secretary, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1QY.To: The Director, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1HZ.

I enclose subscription to join Shoreline as an: Npme Address Over 107, Annual Member Annual Family Membership Annual Member and Governor Life member and Governor Send me details of how I can help with a £5.00 (minimum) D £7.50 (minimum) D £15.00 (minimum) D £150. 00 (minimum) D Legacy. D 400 people would have been lost without the lifeboat service..