Governors Shoreline Storm Force Welcome! If you have just joined us as a member of the RNLI through one of our recent advertisements or promotions and are reading THE LIFEBOAT journal for the first time - WELCOME ABOARD! This members page is designed to keep you in touch with membership issues.

We hope you will enjoy learning about how the Institution promotes membership and the efforts that are tnade to be as efficient as possible, while catering for your needs, as well as all the other issues which make the RNLI membership scheme tick.

Vital attraction - an update In the previous issue, we told you of a special promotional pack aimed at recruiting new members.

Two packs were designed.

One featured the Tenby lifeboat crew, entitled 'These men have one of the most demanding jobs in Britain'. The other showed Peter Thomson, coxswain of Whitby lifeboat under the title 'Britain's brave lifeboatmen need your support now'.

In December these packs were mailed to the customer lists of various organisations, as well as to non-member customers and donors of the RNLI.

This is the first time the RNLI has tried this type of promotion. As well as the obvious apprehensions and expectations of achieving our targets, we were very concerned that the promotion was imple- mented to the highest standards, befitting the reputation of the RNLI.

The results are exciting and intriguing, and although nothing is ever perfect, the promotion has been very worthwhile.

The results...

Our ambitious targets were to generate over 3,000 replies and to raise nearly £60,000. At the time of writing, we have received over 6,000 replies and raised a total of £112,000 (and still counting!).

We are delighted with these results. However, there is an interesting twist to this story! From our experience with regular membership recruitment advertisements and inserts which appear in national newspapers and magazines, it was anticipated that the great majority of replies would be new member subscriptions.

After all, membership ji recruitment was the main aim of the exercise. The surprise is that over two thirds of the response came as donations.

Obviously, these donations are greatly appreciated and will fund much worthwhile RNLI work in the future. But from a planning point of view, it is the subscriptions which provide a regular, predictable flow of funds, thereby giving the Institution the confidence that future needs will continue to be met.

We are left wondering whether this is the first sign that the recession is affecting the RNLI. Perhaps new supporters do not feel able to enter into a 'committed' way of giving due to a lack of confidence in their own future finances.

While wishing to give their support now, they may feel able only to make a one-off donation.

We will continue to monitor this change in support in coming months.

The lessons...

Despite our efforts, it appears a very small number of existing members received one of the promotional packs. Please accept our sincere apologies if you were one of the few inadvertently troubled.

Rest assured we will do our utmost to eliminate the problem next time round.

However, of the thousands of packs distributed, the error rate was proportionally very low and has therefore had an insignificant impact on the promotion's overall success.

The future- Due to the success of this first trial, we hope to repeat a similar exercise in April or May.

This method of recruiting new support to the RNLI holds tremendous potential and with your help we will ensure it is carried out in a professional, careful and sensitive manner.

Direct debits and covenants Please accept our thanks if you have recently completed the new direct debit and covenant forms.

More than 12,000 members responded to the recent mailing sent to those with 'old style' direct debits and covenants. We are now immersed in paperwork and busily updating our records! It is hoped that the new direct debit and covenant forms will reduce significantly our future paperwork, helping us to provide you with a better service. In addition, our administration costs will also be reduced.

In the meantime, please bear with us if there is a delay in responding to your enquiries while we clear this mountain of paperwork.

Thank you..