Epping RSL sub-Branch President’s Message April – May 2013

In February, at the Epping RSL sub-Branch Annual General Meeting, the members approved the introduction of the Affiliate Grade of Membership. All state branches of the RSL of Australia have adopted this grade of membership originally instituted in South Australia. This new grade of membership will now provide for family members of serving and ex-service personnel as well as other specified members of the community to become members of their local RSL sub-Branch.

Rural sub-Branches, with declining membership, some on the verge of closure, will welcome this new grade of membership. This new style of membership will allow volunteers from the community, who have historically supported their local sub-Branch in the organization of community based ceremonies, to now be able to take an active role in the administration of their local sub-Branch.

Affiliate members will be entitled to hold most offices in the sub-Branch and to have a vote on matters other than constitutional changes. These changes to the membership criteria will allow those who would not have qualified under the existing membership criteria to now become members of the Returned and Services League of Australia. In so doing the enthusiasm of many volunteers who have worked tirelessly for sub-Branch welfare programs can now be focused on the working of an RSL sub-Branch and help drive the RSL movement into the future.

As more sub-Branches across the state adopt this new grade of member, so will there be a new resource available to the league. A force which will assist the league to continue with its vision, that Spirit of Anzac and the remembrance of those that have paid the supreme sacrifice for the establishment of peace for us today and tomorrow, such that as we move into the 21st Century the League will live on.

John K Curdie OAM  (Sub-Branch President)