John Bates, Don Scott & Warren Tilson at the recent Lake Taupo AGM.

At the Coastguard Eastern Region on Saturday the 11th of September, Don scott was awarded the Volunteer of the Year award. Congratulations Don and good luck at the National Awards in Nelson at the National Conference.

Another point of interest from the Lake Taupo AGM was the increase in the annual subscription from $60 to $75. This was recommended by the committee for a number of reasons:

• The likelyhood of this being a regional or national subscription
• A savings account has been started for vessel replacement and the committee would like to add to this every year.
• To better reflect the excellent service provided to members, Break down call outs have attracted more members in recent years as Police have only been able to pay for tows where lives were at risk and towing assisted with rescues.
• The GST rate rise had been absorbed until now.

Lake Taupo now has three volunteers assisting on regional  boards. John Bates continues on the OPSCOM Board and Peter Shepherd is joined by Barry Trott on the Eastern Region Board. Well done guys.