Ed,
Hostilities appear to have escalated between the Maclean Sub-Branch of the RSL the Maclean Services Club since the announcement by the Sub Branch that the property is to be sold. A recent Facebook post blames community hostility on “misinformation peddled by the Club’s president and CEO”.
It’s very sad to see fighting in any “family”, particularly when it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding mixed with perhaps some unintended discourtesy.
The property was purchase and augmented through the fund raising and hard work of the parents and grandparents of many of the current Services Club members and residents of Maclean. It was established by the veterans of Maclean and their families, for their comrades, and their families and friends in Maclean. Understandably, and with some moral justification, they regard it as “their Club”. Most had no idea that it is now the RSL Sub Branch who OWN the premises and the Services Club are only tenants. Many assumed they were “RSL Members”. Indeed many would no doubt qualify for Service or Affiliate membership.
Most were not aware that back in the 1990’s the changes to the liquor and gaming legislations in most States forced many RSL Clubs to separate the “Club” from the “Sub-Branch”. It is therefore understandable that they were somewhat perplexed and “hostile” when they read in the local press the announcement that the Sub Branch inclusive of Chatsworth and Iluka Chapters, had decided to liquidate the property (“Their Club”) and that they had no legal input. Very few accept the explanation provided by the Sub-Branch as being even plausible.
Certainly the Sub-Branch has the legal right to liquidate the asset, but one would have thought that the Services Club members and the Maclean community who acquired the property originally and have supported the Sub-Branch for almost 70 years, would be accorded a little more courtesy and respect, and were deserving of a more substantiated explanation than a perceived need for finance to support an “anticipated” influx to the Lower Clarence of needy veterans?
Ian Saunders, Maclean