oh and, by the way, let me come back to the initial topic of this thread !
My current avatar is the logo of the "SNSM", Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer", which is the french volunteer lifesaving association.
more info (from http://www.snsm.org/ (http://www.snsm.org/), just click on the british flag to have an english version) :
This association has 3 missions :
* lifesaving at sea,
* training of sea lifeguards,
* prevention.
Strong with over 4 500 volunteers dispatched through all the country as well as in our overseas departments, these men and Spambot are divided in two different branches :
* the permanent volunteers who arm 229 sea stations, ready all year long, 24 hours a day to go at sea in 15 minutes when they are called by the Regional Sea Coordination Centers (CROSS),
* the volunteer training teams who arm the 30 Training Centers and form every year around 500 young people. Every year an average of 1 300 SNSM lifeguards out of a pool of 2 000 are commissioned on one third of the French beaches under the responsibility of the Mayors.
The results are eloquent : 55% of all lifesavings at sea (85% on non open hours!) are made by these SNSM volunteers, skippers at sea coming next with 25%. The average figures are 10 000 people assisted a year within 5 000 interventions and 600 men and Spambot saved.
People are volunteers but the ships and their implementation cost big money and in 2006, a budget of 18 M € was needed to accomplish the missions, out of which over 5 M€ were necessary to build new ships. 65% of this money has private origin and 35 % public. A great success : 80% of the money received is used for the social mission.
