Your guide to what's been going on in the world of the RNLI

Words: Anna Burn
Photos: RNLI/(Harrison Bates, Nigel Millard, Neal Somerville)

AGM ROUND-UP

Our 2018 Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held at the Allweather Lifeboat Centre in Poole, Dorset, on Thursday 19 July. A live video stream of the event also took place at Barber- Surgeons’ Hall, London. Chair Stuart Popham and Chief Executive Paul Boissier spoke of how it’s been a challenging year for RNLI volunteers and staff, but also a year of great success. They spoke of how recent media coverage has provided an opportunity to live out the RNLI’s values: trustworthy, courageous, dependable and selfless. And they shared plans for the future, to provide better support for coastal communities in the unique challenges they face. Stuart and Paul celebrated successes with fundraising campaigns and RNLI Shop sales. Our continued international lifesaving and drowning prevention work was also commended. This work now has access to RNLI general funds in addition to direct donations. Although it constitutes less than 2% of our expenditure, our international teams are taking great strides towards making drowning prevention a global priority.

PRIDE IN OUR PEOPLE

RNLI staff and volunteers throughout the UK and Ireland have represented our LGBT+ family at Pride events this summer. Kicking off the season was Dublin Pride at the end of June, where an RNLI vehicle was decorated with the iconic rainbow flag. A fun day was had by all, and many people were reached with lifesaving water safety advice. The RNLI’s LGBT+ community was also represented at Belfast, London, Bournemouth, Liverpool, Brighton, Margate and Cardiff Pride events this summer – and we were shortlisted for the Best Parade Entry at the Belfast Pride Awards. Violence towards the LGBT+ community has increased in recent years. As well as a celebration of diversity, Pride is a protest calling for an end to the violence, and for people to be treated with dignity and respect. The RNLI is proud to celebrate all that our LGBT+ volunteers, supporters and staff do to help save lives at sea.

MAYDAY 2018

Thank you to everyone who took part in Mayday 2018! The funds have been rolling in, and we’ve been doing some counting:

£667,307 raised

7 landmarks turned yellow

396-MILE welly relay

1 London phone box painted yellow

220,000 pin badges ordered

QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS
Congratulations to our five RNLI volunteers and staff recognised in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

Mark Criddle is coxswain at Torbay Lifeboat Station, where he has served for nearly 30 years. He holds a Silver Medal for Gallantry for the exceptionally heroic and highly skilled rescue of eight crew from the cargo ship Ice Prince in 2008. He and his crew were also awarded the Pride of Britain Emergency Services Award for their outstanding efforts that night. Mark has been recognised for his enduring service to maritime safety. Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)

Bill Deans is Aberdeen Lifeboat Station’s lifeboat operations manager (LOM) and has been recognised for 42 years’ service to saving lives at sea – first as a crew member, tasked to more than 634 rescues, then as a deputy launching authority, and most recently in his role as LOM.

Martin Steeden is the former coxswain at Swanage Lifeboat Station and has been recognised for almost 40 years of service. He joined the crew in 1977 and spent the latter 16 years of his service as volunteer coxswain of the station’s all-weather lifeboat. Stan Todd is the first RNLI crew member to complete 1,000 shouts and he has been honoured for his 38 years of saving lives on the coast at Brighton and on the River Thames, where he now serves at Tower Lifeboat Station.

British Empire Medal (BEM)
Francis Ashcroft McKnight, Treasurer of the Lancashire Branch of SSAFA – the UK’s oldest armed forces charity – is recognised for his voluntary work with ex-service personnel, the RNLI and other charities.