AIBU to be stunned that this service is entirely run by volunteers?

[crosspelican]

I was at a presentation this week given by Oxfordshire Lowland Search & Rescue - it turns out that when people go missing, the police don't always actually go out & look themselves, they call organisations like this, in particular if it's your granny with dementia, or a teen who intends to commit suicide. These people can be out looking within 20 minutes, but of course when they find the person (or their body) it doesn't get the press those twats on Ben Nevis got, because nobody is going to tell the local press delightedly that their suicidal teen has been found safe and well and is thrilled to be going back to school tomorrow.

They said that the difference with their callouts is that the person often doesn't know they are lost (dementia) or doesn't want to be found (suicidal).

They're all volunteers, their equipment (vehicles etc) is all donated. They're not the first port of call for ALL missing people - they had 70 callouts in Oxfordshire last year, but I am really surprised that this is not fully funded by the police, because surely they are a branch of the police?

oxsar.org.uk/what-we-do/

Is there anything that you were surprised to find out is NOT funded by taxpayers?

Air ambulances, bonkers seeing how much we desperately need them, how many lives are saved due to speed of the helicopter and the skills of the team on board

I have some involvement with two of the organisations listed above and both are absolutely clear that they prefer not to receive direct government funding so that they can continue to run themselves in the way they want without interference and pointless hoops to jump through.

Living in a rural area we absolutely depend on voluntary run organisations, they look after us and we try and return the favour through fundraising for them.

Sadly the many visitors we get to the area tend to be one of the biggest draws on the voluntary resources and very often we never even hear from them again. But the locals keep plugging away and fundraising anyway.

Yes I can believe that, BillHader - but then I once stayed in a very rural part of Connecticut where even the ambulance service was run by volunteers

I don't know how they'd cope with major trauma, etc, but guess it's a whole lot better than no ambulance being able to reach you at all ...

@Fink

Yes, there are but Smile is 0.5% and not every item, but the first link on that RNLI page is an affiliate link which covers more (most) items and is at least double the amount with a minimum of 1%.

It does seem a bit mean though that Amazon pay a commission of 5 to 10% to their affiliates, which can be any individual or company, but limit their smile programme (which is only for charities) to a paltry 0.5%.

I used to have a long list of charities Amazon affiliate links (meaning the charity got 5% or more and almost all products were included) but almost all of them have been required to join the smile scheme, meaning a huge drop in the % amount they get.

I would defer to the experts within these organisations regarding the wisdom of charging people. It’s a knee jerk reaction when we see supreme stupidity like surfing in a storm or climbing a mountain in trainers in snow to think people should pay for risking the lives of volunteers to rescue them. But in practice I’m sure it would be difficult to draw the line and be hard to implement. Do you expect lifeboat and mountain rescue crews to sit tight and wait to know if someone can pay?

I absolutely think anyone who has to be rescued because of their choices should have to be educated about the cost of that rescue, the lives risked, and what they should do it avoid being in that situation again.

However I don’t think it’s comparable to charging for other misfortune people bring on themselves. Treating smokers for lung cancer doesn’t risk the lives of the medical staff like rescuing idiots from mountains and the sea in the midst of storms does.

Strugglingtoquit Wed 12-Feb-20 12:18:19

I absolutely think anyone who has to be rescued because of their choices should have to be educated about the cost of that rescue, the lives risked, and what they should do it avoid being in that situation again.

That's not a bad idea. Like when those caught speeding have to attend an awareness course. Although perhaps offer them a choice of a fine or the course so they will actually go, or if they don't the organisation will at least receive some recompense.

Lochaber Mountain Rescue team have a great post on their Facebook page outlining their views on the rescue from Ben Nevis. Made me think anyway.

The problem is that whilst older generations were brought up with an ethos that everyone should pull their weight and do what they can, younger folks are more likely to be just looking out for number one.

ODFOD with such a nasty sweeping generalisation.

Bet you wouldn't turn down a young volunteer if they came to help you when you needed it, eh?

Pretty niche, but cave rescue is volunteer too - those guys who rescued the Thai cave football kids? Volunteers often supplying their own kit to do so.

In Wales the then health minister mooted taking over hospices. The response was if they did donations would dry up. Check out your local hospice it is full of caring volunteers.

RNLI receives around £130 million in donations each year, they really are doing ok.

As for mountain rescue a friend did it for 25 years as a volunteer on top of that his dogs used in rescues were his responsibility financially.

Coast watch is also run by volunteers

Many years ago now we were having a day at the seaside albeit in winter, well more like passing thru, and there was a bit of a commotion on the sea front the lifeboat had returned i presume and there was a helicopter landing nearby and the were a lifeboat man with two small children one cradled in each hand that man was the size of a bear and the two children looked tiny in comparsion size my then wife got a pictuire of that never forget it, very dramatic!!

Would they want goverment funding?, maybe, goverment control no way at all!

After all their just carrying on the tradition of Grace Darling:)

Anyone not heard of that brave girl, as a girl she then was then here you go!. Poor girl only lived till she was 26 struck down by TB:(

rnli.org/find-my-nearest/museums/grace-darling-museum

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Darling

Lifeboats too - we visited Northumberland and in one of the stations they had a "wall of shame" detailing the times they'd been called out to rescue people on the crossing to Lindisfarne despite all the warnings to beware of the tide

I believe that one was in fact the local Bobby.

@buttermilkwaffles Oh yes, I forgot about the affiliate scheme. It's not getting much press recently.

Very different to rescue organisations but I am a school governor, and I am surprised by how much responsibility the governing body has, and the workload involved and all are volunteers.

I am shocked and stunned that any intellegent adult in this country has managed to get to adulthood without knowing mountain rescue, R.N.L.I, etc are voluntary organisations and are not funded by the Government.

First of all, I am not British. I was 30 when I moved here. My country is historically less affluent than the UK, and has a very small population, so I am accustomed to things like this being less well funded (or not at all), but I am surprised that in this country they are also unfunded.

I knew that RNLI was voluntary (which is pretty horrifying in itself - but I do take the point mentioned upthread that govt funding brings its own headaches), but I thought that might be some historical aberration.

I did not realise that certain vital services that I had always assumed were part of what the police services provide, are actually voluntary. It is comparable to knowing that the NHS is state-funded, but then finding out that health visitors are voluntary.

I am a school governor, and I am surprised by how much responsibility the governing body has, and the workload involved and all are volunteers.

YES. I have recently become heavily involved in school fundraising and the governors put in VAST amounts of work.

I think that schools lose a lot of revenue and savings by certain posts being underfunded.

DH is a volunteer with a Lowland S&R. They give up a lot of their time for training, maintaining equipment and fundraising as well as searching. DH puts himself on call at least two weekends a month.

RNLI just amazing & admin/overheads low compared to many charities.
Local hospice is funded 1/3rd of the year by NHS. Surely everyone needs end of life care? I think it's a national embarrassment.

Search and rescue will change a lot in some areas with increased use of infra-red drones.

"Lifeboats too - we visited Northumberland and in one of the stations they had a "wall of shame" detailing the times they'd been called out to rescue people on the crossing to Lindisfarne despite all the warnings to beware of the tide"

Me and my Adult DD was talking about this yesterday. We felt that a FB page was, needed, similar to 'parking like a twat'. Were all the pictures of these people could be posted. We could call it 'the twattiest twats of all time'.

Or the papers could print the pictures of people still out for a walk, when they've been told not to, along promenades etc, with an arrow pointing at the person, saying 'dickhead 1, dickhead 2 etc'.

There was a post on here in November begrudging the life boat volunteers, their paid for, Christmas night out. She was quite rightly, flamed.

WONDERFUL Hospices. Only about a third of the funding for people dying in hospices government funded. Palliative care at the end of life is so important for the poor soul dying and for their family.

There is simply no money anywhere to fund this sort of thing. Austerity bites, people...

Oh please. Don’t try to politicise this. These services have always been funded via public donations, no matter what flavour of government is in power.

"agree OP. I was completely shocked that RNLI is not government funded. Especially bearing in mind the kit, dangerous work they do and the hours."
I'm shocked that you are shocked the RNLI isn't government funded. It's always always been a volunteer rescue service. Just like air ambulance and mountain search and rescue. It's usually local volunteers who do this, they dont get paid.

I was stunned to find out how much of child cancer research is funded entirely by charity