DEVELOPING A VOLUNTEER RESCUE SERVICE

开展志愿救助服务

PRESENTATION BY: IAN VENTHAM,

CORPORATE SERVICES DIRECTOR, RNLI

演讲人：IAN VENTHAM

英国皇家救生艇协会（RNLI） 行政部部长

Good morning, I am Ian Ventham. I am Corporate Services Director at the RNLI in the United Kingdom. Over the past quarter of a century, I have worked with volunteers in a variety of different not-for-profit organisations, and have considerable experience of the perils and pitfalls, as well as the huge benefits of working with and utilising volunteers, primarily in the SAR role.

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Firstly, a little bit of information about the RNLI. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, to give it its full name, was founded in 1824. The RNLI is a not-for-profit organisation that provides nearly all the maritime SAR capability around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
In total, we have some 350 boats, both Inshore and All-weather, based at 232 Lifeboat Stations.
Our boats are crewed by around 5000 volunteers.
These are people who have ordinary jobs close to the Lifeboat Station. They may be builders or plumbers, shopkeepers or drivers, Lawyers or dustmen. They are both men and women. They carry pagers, and, when summoned, have to be able to muster at the Lifeboat Station in less than 10 minutes.
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Our organisation provides a 24/7 all-weather maritime rescue service out to 100 miles from our coasts.
It is not an auxiliary service backing up a full-time coastguard. It is the maritime SAR service for the UK & Ireland. As such, we carry out about 8000 missions every year, rescuing about 8000 people. / SLIDE 2
continued
But first, let me show you a commercial we ran recently in British cinemas to raise public awareness of our work, our organisation, and the importance of the role of volunteers. / SLIDE 3

These are the 6 points I wish to cover in my presentation. / SLIDE 4
Firstly the Advantages of Volunteers in SAR.
Local Knowledge
Because volunteers live and work in a particular locality, they gain huge local knowledge of the local sea area.
They understand the tides, shoals, islands, rocks and reefs far better than someone who, although a paid professional, may have been sent to the area, with no knowledge.
Local knowledge is a huge advantage when conducting a search in fog or close in shore, or tracking where the tides may have carried a casualty. / SLIDE 5

Years of Experience

A Volunteer coxswain or helmsman will normally have gained experience as a crew member for many years, perhaps 10 or 15, before taking command. That experience and wisdom makes the volunteer coxswain a much more reliable, mature, steady commander of a SAR unit. Invariably the younger crew have great respect for the experience, skill and safety of their leader. Crew members are often putting their lives in the hands of the coxswain who takes them to sea. / SLIDE 6

On Call Availability

As lifeboat call outs happen randomly and rarely continuously, it is very inefficient and costly to have a full time crew on stand-by awaiting a call. In addition, full time crews require relief, so two or even three shifts are required.

A volunteer crew, on the other hand, is not on permanent stand-by, but is on-call for a “shout” when necessary,

Obviously not all volunteers can be available all the time, so a roster of perhaps 20 or 30 trained people needs to be maintained, in order to guarantee the availability of 6 for any given call-out.

This is a highly efficient way of delivering the service. When not on call-out, the volunteer goes about his normal daily life, earning money and living at home, but when his pager goes off, he is prepared to drop everything to go afloat.

/ SLIDE 7

Other skills

The volunteer crew member brings other non-SAR skills from his everyday work and experience. Some of these skills are useful in a SAR environment. Volunteers may be:
Marine Engineers Paramedics Photographers
Fishermen Divers Doctors Nurses Policemen Mechanics
These are valuable skills that a full-time crew would not necessarily have. / SLIDE 8
Team Spirit and Commitment
The volunteer crew works together, exercises together, and lives together in the same community over many years. Family traditions play a part. In the RNLI it is quite normal for sons and daughters to follow fathers and uncles into the lifeboat crew.
This brings very strong commitment and motivation, and a powerful team spirit.
And these less tangible benefits are delivered at a relatively low cost. / SLIDE 9

What are the disadvantages of volunteers?
Obviously it is difficult to employ volunteers on tasks which require continuous commitment, like paid staff. Volunteers are suited to on-call jobs requiring occasional deployment. So, volunteers will probably not undertake an 8-hour watch-keeping shift. Likewise, volunteers will need professional back-up. They will need the support of full-time, paid staff, including Professional Mariners Engineers Surveyors
Administrators / SLIDE 10
Another disadvantage is that a volunteer will need his employers’ backing and permission to be able to respond to a call-out.
Effort needs to be put in with the employers to make them realise that the community commitment of the volunteer, and the training and experience they gain as volunteers, will bring benefits to the employer as well. / SLIDE 11
Why do people volunteer?
If they do not get paid, and the volunteer task cuts across a volunteer’s working and home life, it is sometimes difficult to understand why people do volunteer for the difficult and sometimes dangerous task of being a SAR crew member.
Volunteers do it for a variety of reasons.
Many volunteer because their work as a crew member brings much needed excitement and variety to their lives, particularly if they are in a rather boring or mundane paid job. / SLIDE 12
Some people feel deeply that it is good to give something back to society.
They enjoy the satisfaction of saving lives, or administering first aid to a casualty.
Many of our volunteers used to work at sea, and were therefore very appreciative of the life saving work of the RNLI if they were in danger, and now they want to return that favour as a lifeboat crew member.
Perhaps the volunteer works as a fisherman, and therefore, when called out on the lifeboat, is going to the aid of a friend or a neighbour. / SLIDE 13
Some people volunteer simply to gain new skills:
·  Seamanship
·  Navigation
·  First aid
·  Leadership
·  Sea survival
Some like the status that being a member of a lifeboat crew gives them in their own community. They enjoy the recognition of being a really valued member of society. / SLIDE 14

So, what sort of jobs can volunteers do well?

In the RNLI, we have volunteers (and paid staff) at every level of the organisation.
Our main directing board, our trustees, are all volunteers, and they are the most senior people in the RNLI.
A volunteer management group runs each lifeboat station.
Other volunteers get involved with raising money, or dealing with the media as press officers.
Some act as trainers and assessors.
But our most valuable and highly respected volunteers are those who take our boats to sea:
Our coxswains, helmsmen of the inshore boats, navigators, mechanics, radio operators and crew. Some are specialists in first aid or boat launching and recovery. / SLIDE 15

Who else uses volunteers?

The RNLI is not alone in using mainly volunteers to crew its boats.

Other European organisations that use volunteers include the lifeboat services in France, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Iceland and many others.

Elsewhere in the world there are volunteer services in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand to name a few.

And of course, even where there is a paid professional rescue service, there may also be volunteer auxiliaries as in the United States, Canada or Italy.

/ SLIDE 16

There is, of course, volunteering here in China. I was impressed by what has happened with voluntary blood donating in China over the last few years. The Health Ministry reported an increase in voluntary blood donating

From 5% in 1998 to nearly 80% in 2005.

/ SLIDE 17

Another good example of volunteer activity was the work of China Rescue’s own volunteers who so readily went to Thailand to help in the aftermath of the Tsunami. / SLIDE 18
So, what are the keys to success in establishing a volunteer SAR organisation?
I believe that there are nine key principles on which success is founded:
1)  Absolute clarity of the rights and responsibilities owed and given between the volunteer and the organisation.
I have some examples here of what we call “the Volunteer Commitment”
2)  Very effective recruitment procedures that define the job to be done, and recruits the right person to do that job.
3)  Any volunteer requires excellent training. A volunteer must aspire to exactly the same or higher standards of training than a fulltime, paid equivalent. This will require investment.
4)  If volunteers fulfil a vital role, then they must be treated with respect and dignity. They must be made to feel that their contribution is as important, perhaps more important, than that of the staff member. Paid staff must demonstrate respect for the volunteer commitment.
5)  If volunteers do not receive pay, they must be given recognition of their work in different ways. These may include medals, certificates for good service or long service.
6)  Volunteers will need technical, operational and financial support from paid staff. Volunteers will not flourish unless well supported in those areas requiring full time professional expertise. / SLIDE 19
7)  A tradition of volunteering helps, but traditions can be built very quickly. Your best volunteer recruiter will be a volunteer who has been well trained and supported who is enthusiastic about encouraging other volunteers to join.
8)  Celebrity endorsement may also help. A well-known and respected person, who commands interest can help to achieve success for you.
9)  Most importantly, the volunteer needs an absolute guarantee that, if he is injured, or killed on service, that he and his dependants will be properly looked after and supported financially by the organisation. / SLIDE 19
continued

Where and how do you start?

The RNLI has its roots in small fishing villages, where men were prepared to go out in a storm to rescue their fellow fishermen and other seafarers who were in danger.
The place to start is in the small coastal communities, where there is an obvious need for a rescue service, and amongst those who might themselves, one day, need that service.
How you start, is to try to find strong voluntary leadership in that community. Local leaders will identify the most likely people to join the crew.
If a prominent business, political or media person is prepared to add their backing, that will help too. / SLIDE 20
Volunteers have a crucial role to play in delivering SAR services worldwide.
The commitment, loyalty, bravery and professionalism of a volunteer may be a far more effective means of delivering some aspects of Search and Rescue, than the paid, fulltime staff member.
I urge you to consider that some, if not all, of your search & rescue activity be provided by volunteers.
Thank you.
Any questions? / SLIDE 21

RNLI Script ~ Developing a Volunteer Rescue Service. China August 2007