Can anyone answer these questions about VMR/coast

[ratsack]

"I am now in Gladstone and I do have issues with the local VMR. Issues like the joining fee is not on a sliding scale. Eg I went to join up in march and the membership ends in June. They still wanted me to pay full "
Newby, you forgot to mention that once a member of the Gladstone VMR group you will be towed/assisted for nothing and if you consider the membership is a bit stiff then become an active member(2X6hr stints on the radio) for $12/yr. There is also a substantial amount of certified training that comes with membership. Good value whatever way you look at it. I agree that some of the older crew can be a bit of a downer but without them the VMR probably would not function

[NEWBY]

Thanks for that Ratsack. It wasn't the money believe me but more the principal. Gladstone VMR have some inhouse fighting (I was told this by someone there that agreed with me on the money issue) Old school Hitler wanna be's that are dictating to the wanna be members. I think the quote went like this "too bad. They should have joined earlier in the year" Now this is fine if you were actually living in town at the time but I wasn't.
As for the radio thing to get a cheap membership. Well I would love to help but I work 60-100 hours a week and to be honest, on the odd occasion that the weather and my time off coencide, I will be fishing I am affraid. Selfish? Probably. And like I said, money wasn't the issue. If you went to the shop to buy 2 litres of milk and they gave you a 600ml carton for the same price you would be up in arms. Same principal here. Even if they said, "ok, make it 25 or 30 bucks I would have been happy with that.
Thanks for that though ratsack. I truly would stick my hand up to help if I had the time.

[Volvo]

Check out how much ya pay for your Car Insurance??. Have a prang , pay the eccess and have the premium go up the next year also..
Me thinks VMR Gladstone is cheap, do a good job and offcourse try keep a tight ship ..
Forget about inhouse fighting or whatever, you do that in your own job n household most times ..
Main thing is if one needs them that they are out there to get you back to safety, and the do that with flying colours ..
Cheap service to date me thinks as its a long way back to walk...
Cheers

[once_bitten]

i have only owned a boat since november and the first thing i did was pay for an member number ($22.00) all assistance is for free and thankfully i havent needed it yet, but ive heard over the radio people calling out HELP ME COAST GUARD HELP ME and that was on the wrong channel, (96) (nsw is ch 88, 90.) my point is these people are the ones who should be paying for the assistance they receive. every body who owns a boat or captains one should know at least the basics on how to use a marine radio its there to help and by just jumping in the boat and going out in the ocean what are the chances that they checked that all there saftey gear is in order. they are puting there own lives at risk not to mention thier passengers and/or the people that might have to assist them one day. i understand that acidents happen and things do go wrong sometimes but if EVERYBODY showed a little bit of commen sence just imagine how much it wouldnt cost for the coastal patrol to help.
ps god forbid if i did need assistance i would be more than happy to pay knowing how much it would cost if they were not there to help

[subzero]

Thanks DR, yes SADLY Ian has resigned as are quite a few members throughout Qld as a result of the nessecity to continualy beg, harrass and whinge to raise funds to operate and run the boats and bases.

Yes maybe Ian was a little bit harsh but he no doubt detected what I myself THOUGHT was really a little bit of an ungreatful attitude as to the effort most VMR/Coastguard members in Qld have to put in to help those people when they need it, who invariably WILL NOT cough up any loot when the time arises after breaking down.

Ian was very factual in his coments regards operational, training and costing matters.

I have said it before and I will say it again. The responses from people within this site as to their generousity before and after being assisted is not the norm after towing someone. I BELEIVE that the people in here have a responsible approach to their own safety, their vessels, fishing and conservation and the waterways in general... so they do things the right way and help out if they can with dollars and even in some cases their time... but like I said this is not the case with a number of the boaties out there.

Infighting, I dont really see that as being the case in general... sadly, VMR and Coastguard could not TO DATE, sort their act out and set up a State wide recipricol agreement to the benefit of the boating community... nor have we been able to do it very successfully at local level.... can you see why?... it's because any unit that has fought hard to get its funds is very frightened of losing some of it's hard earned $$$, lack of funding makes it hard to take of the blinkers sometimes... to my knowledge, that is the ONLY topical issues raised in this site where their has been any disagreement between the units... dont know if you could really call it infighting although it IS EVEN POSSIBLE I may have used this term... if I did, it was a BAD CHOICE of words by me.... VMR and Coastguard units are very loyal in general to each other, we face the same issues and both find it hard in MOST cases.

Jeremy, I am sorry you feel that Ian "The Commodore" is a self rightcheous prick... I think that too is VERY harsh... This man has put more work, effort and time in than any other person I know in the 7 years he was a member of VMR. Unfortunately you have not had the pleasure of meeting this man, the man who last night we held a farewell for at VMR Victoria Point, the man whom my 18 yr old daughter felt the need to stand up and make a speech for after the official speeches had been made, tears streaming down her face and choking as she spoke as to his kindness generousity and effort put in over that time for our members and the boating fraternity.
This very same person turned down offers of work as a Commercial Pilot again, let his buissiness slide into oblivion (P.E.P.S "Pilots Proffessional Emploment Service"), the same man who shed a tear when he lost his first Pilot to a hillside in Papua New Guinea, the same man who's mother is blind and dying of cancer, the same man who's marriage has suffered to almost the extent of breakup, the same man who has to occassionaly take Morphine for pain relief and has to go to bed or hospital for 2-3 days, the same man who has spent probably tens of thousands of his own money as a vollunteer with fuel alone running back and forward to the base to do midweek call outs for breakdowns, I could really go on forever, the man deserves a medal in reality. Now his family, his mother, his finances and his health can come first, not second to VMR and Boaties. (Yes it was his choice but after having got us to where we are today he couldnt let go untill he felt sure it would not fold up and go backwards when he left).

Finaly, NO RESCUE GROUP can enforce payment for rescues... we will give you an acct if you have given us a legit address, we will send you a reminder if it remains unpaid, we wont chase you if you are so bloody misserable to cough up what it has cost us to come and get you and tow you back, we will just go out and shake the tins and beg some more because you feel hard done by that you may be asked to meet some of our costs.

[boatboy50]

1. Could somebody please tell me the difference between the VMR and the coast guard?

2. Why all the internal bickering?

3. Why on gods earth do they charge to tow somebody back to shore if broken down?

4. If broken down do you get a choice of who you contact for assistance? How does this work?

Guys,

I think someone needs a hug!

To answer the questions asked.

1. VMR is a QLD based unit, where Coast Guard is an Aussie based unit. You wont find a Volunteer Marine Rescue unit in Sydney, you will find a coastal patrol or similar. The head unit if you like is looked after with different interests. Money donated to Coast Guard may infact go to a unit in Melbourne, and not where you donated it in Cairns.

2. The internal bickering relates to the failure to meet an agreement between the two, which is due to the allocation of funds and not standing on someone elses toes. It seems an agreement here will not see everybody happy. The bickering has been blown way out of proportion here in my opinion, unfortunately in public.

3. I think this one has been answered. VMR and Coast Guard dont charge, just ask for re-imbursement for costs. Why anyone would feel they are not owing this cost after assistance is beyond me. USER PAYS.

4. Who you contact is up to you. In most areas you will not have the choice, because only one unit services that area. Rarely do the two groups territories cross.

Hope this clarifies the situation, and please dont be offended by the initial response, my apologies on their behalf if you were. There has been a lot of stirrers in here with commercial interests, most of which are obvious. I have even recieved an attacking PM message from these people, so can understand why the guys are so defensive.

Regards
Darren

[dugong]

wow what an interesting topic and replys, so here's our 2 cents worth.
The V stands for VOLUNTEER, that means the ppl that do this kind of tasks do it for FREE, they donate there time and skills to help the public and usually have to dip into their own pockets to do these tasks.
It never ceases to amaze us how ppl can complain about the things done by volunteers but never bother to do any voluntary work themselfs.
its a user pay world and offering some money to help cover the operational costs to organisations like VMR is very cheap insurance.
If these volunteer organisations fail to operate due to a lack of people or operational funding then who will come out to help you?
just think how much more expensive it would be to get assistance by a privately run for profit marine rescue.
cheers

[rodbender]

Gooday Darren,
Thankyou for answering my questions if the people that have torn strips of me would have read my post properly and this is especially aimed at the commodore would have read that i'm only new to Qld and I truly wanted to know how things worked in Qld. As I said in my post I gladly donated money to the NSW volenteer costal patrol and i will undoubtedly do the same in this state and if my health was 100% i probably would join one of the organisations as i find with my health the way it is i feel i would be more of a hinderence than a help. Volenteers take on the 24/7 hours when they volenteer otherwise they wouldnt be doing the job in the first place, I highly respect them for that fact. I strongly beleive that if you are the cause of having to be rescued eg. running out of fuel, you should have to pay for the rescue. In NSW if the police come out to tow you in and you have run out of fuel they then charge you with neglect.
Rodbender

[Hoges]

Gooday Darren,
Thankyou for answering my questions if the people that have torn strips of me would have read my post properly and this is especially aimed at the commodore would have read that i'm only new to Qld and I truly wanted to know how things worked in Qld. As I said in my post I gladly donated money to the NSW volenteer costal patrol and i will undoubtedly do the same in this state and if my health was 100%
Rodbender

Maybe people would not have torn strips off you had you left out this particular quote Why on gods earth do they charge to tow somebody back to shore if broken down? or at least rephrased it. Very easy to see how that comment would get peoples hackles up!

If your health is okay to just help around the club house by manning radios or making coffee that would I am sure be appriciated

[rick_k]

if you just wanted to try vmr, say each of the ones AT MOOLOOLABAH, SANDGATE and Raby Bay, to see if you fitted in, what would be required? would u have to buy uniform etc and if so, at what stage? pls excuse typing, baby in one arm, keyboard in the other. have tried her pfd1. at 3 months the girth is ok, but she is too short.

[Jeremy]

Great reply Darren. Well done!

I am obviously not aware of any PMs going around which aren't directed to me, nor have I picked up on any obvious commerical interests in any posts directly related to VMR/CG.

No, I have never met 'TheCommodore' so I don't know him personally, but if he is going to write with such an obvious chip on his shoulder, then I'll call it as I see it - totally unwarranted.

Jeremy

[theoldlegend]

I don't have a boat, but when I see these blokes standing outside the capalaba central shopping centre with their tins in their hand, I always give more than I would for other organisations. I think they do a very good job. I do volunteer work for 2 organisations that takes up 4 days a week and if I had more time on my hands i would give them a ring to see if they had any work for an inexperienced ROF (retired old fart)

[JB]

Fair dinkum, the poor bloke only asked a few good questions (he is from over the border after all) , and that commodore fella has gone off his nut. There was nothing confusing about the post, just answer a few questions and be done with it. My response: take a panadol commodore and relax before u reply.

Jas

[Kiktz]

At times it is all a labour of Love.................

[vp3]

Yes I personaly know the commodore (Ian) the ex commodore of VMR Victoria Point QLD. He is a person who has put his life and his familys on hold for the last 7 years to teach and preach and practice "SOLAS" (safety of life at sea) of which he is an excellant teacher.
In answering rodbenders original questions - they are not very inteligent and the commodore treated them with the comtempt they probably deserved.
Cheers Ian