THE ANNUAL ACCOUNTS submitted to the Institution's governors at the Royal Festival Hall in London on May 15 showed that Shoreline had contributed £934,400 to the RNLI's funds in 1983, an increase of more than £165,000. At December 31, membership stood at 97,773, an increase of 5,264, and it is very pleasing to note that 72 per cent of these new members subscribed under Deed of Covenant; that meant that, on all covenants, at no extra cost to the subscribers, £154,000 was received by the Institution from the Inland Revenue last year.

Membership, as you know, has now passed the 100,000 mark, but there are obviously many more people in the country than that who enjoy spending their leisure time on or by the sea, or who cross the sea on their way to overseas holidays, or who have friends or relations involved in commercial shipping, or who just have the welfare of seafarers at heart. Many of them, I am sure, would be only too happy to subscribe to the lifeboat service were it brought more directly to their notice.

The RNLI's own advertising campaign is very successful in showing the general public how they can help the lifeboatmen, and last year about 3,500 new Shoreline recruits were enrolled in this way. Our volunteer Shoreline teams do valiant work at the various boat shows around the country and some of our members work hard and long at individual recruiting campaigns.

Dudley branch, for instance, recruits with great vigour; its chairman, Karl Falk, has himself enrolled more than 1,500 new members, 174 of them at last spring's Birmingham Boat Show.

So what more can be done? It really comes down to the efforts of each one of us, and it is a startling fact that, if on top of the work described above, each member were to enrol just one new member in 1984, and if each of the Institution's financial branches and guilds were to set themselves a target of just one more Shoreline member in the year, we could have reached the quarter million mark by next Christmas! Even if we did not reach that splendid goal, at least we might have doubled or trebled 1983's enrolment figure. It is very easy to put off good intentions. So what about setting yourself a personal challenge in a limited time? Could you 'sign on' one friend interested in the sea before, say, the next new moon? There is an enrolment form at the foot of this page, and our Shoreline office at Poole will be delighted to send you extra forms if you would like them. The baton is with you! * * * As you know, Shoreline clubs have been formed at a number of places in the past few years. Altogether 15 have been registered with the RNLI—and a very active time some of them have, too. Shoreline Club No 10, at Hastings, has a programme for 1984 which, as well as social evenings, includes wine tasting, an old time music hall, a barbecue, a film show, a darts match—and a day trip to France (the honorary secretary is Mrs P. Rooney, 1 Marine Parade, Hastings). However, it is sometimes difficult to keep a club going on a purely social basis (four of our clubs have, in fact, been disbanded) and many of those who take part would like to be giving more active help to the Institution and have more personal contact with it than is possible under the present system.

After considerable discussion at headquarters, therefore, it has been decided that in future, where groups of Shoreline members in different parts of the country wish to get together to form a group of lifeboat supporters they should be put in touch with the Institution's regional organisers. The RO for their area will then be happy to help them to organise and establish a Shoreline branch in the same way as we organise our very successful fundraising branches and guilds. Existing Shorelines clubs will continue but should their committees wish to reestablish themselves as a branch, Anthony Oliver, the appeals secretary, will be more than happy to discuss their ideas and suggestions with them.

* * * Do you remember the collections of Green Shield stamps made over the years for the RNLI by Mrs Nora Neil? Nora has already raised £6,800 for the lifeboats by her unrelenting hard work and application. As well as Green Shield stamps, she also collects Co-Op and pink stamps, all of which she can turn into funds for the RNLI; also, for every complete book of Premier Gold stamps, which are now being re-issued, Nora receives £1. If you have any of these four types of stamps you can spare, please send them to Mrs Neil at 95 Fitzroy Avenue, Harborne, Birmingham B17 8RG. She will make very good use of them. Thank you.

* * * Thank you, Shoreline members, for all your support in the past: we know that we can count on you for the future.—IAN WALLINGTON, assistant appeals secretary, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1HZ..