Good day! We certainly are having a very mild winter so far; I sincerely hope you are keeping well through this season.

I am so please to report we have not lost any members since April last!!!! Keep up the good work!

Our current Membership stands as at 28th July 2009, 2 Life members, 125 Life Subscribers and 97 service members, total 224. We have managed to recruit three new members since the last report, Arthur Thomas, Les England & Ken Wright, welcome aboard and we hope your stay with us is a long and happy one! We still need to do more recruiting, so please become more active and bring along a mate to join!

The 2009 Queensland RSL State Congress was held in Maroochydore, 19th to the 21st June 2009. The motions passed will be printed in the Qld RSL News next issue, mostly administration; the congress voted to maintain the State Executive as is, a motion to increase executive by an extra Vice President failed to get up. The State Council still consists of the ten Queensland RSL District Presidents and three State Executive members.

The congress re elected Queensland RSL State President Doug Formby, State Deputy President Terry Meehan was re elected, and new vice President elected was Rodger Bow.

The Sub-Branches Monthly meetings have been very well attended, as usual, well done Members! May general Meeting 57 members and two auxiliary ladies, May socail39 members. June general meeting, we had 58 Members, two visitors, and with the Auxiliary ladies of four, we had 64 in total join in the BBQ social after the meeting, great! Thanks to the cooks, Ken McNaught, Ron Mansfield and Ray Coppin, another great effort!

The Sub-Branch June fourth Wednesday social was well attended, we had 46 considering this is winter, not too bad at all, and I'm sure those who were there, enjoy themselves immensely.

The July general meeting was also well attended, we had 54 Members, and four Women's Auxiliary ladies join in the social after the meeting. Great to see such attendances, considering health, age, medical and transport restrictions and it was a cold day!

The July social attendance with 48 and one lady auxiliary member in attendance, it was a warm and sunny day, I think everyone enjoyed themselves as the gathering was very jovial, well done!

I keep thanking the volunteers but they need all the thanks they can get, so again a huge thanks to the volunteers who provide their time, to set up the hall, serve food, refreshments and help clean up and pack away the furniture. A big thank-you to Jock Black, committeeman, who has stepped to take over where George Utterson left off, again thank you!

I sincerely hope you all continue to keep well over the next few months, and hopefully the weather will be kind to all of us.

It has been a very busy few months, with many of our members in and out of hospital, I have tried to visit everyone but if I have missed anyone please accept my apology! All the very best to those who have been on sick parade, I hope you all improve and are 100% again. It isn't nice being sick but make the most of it and recover quickly!

Happy birthday to the August, September & October babies, I hope you all have many more birthdays to come, and stay as young as you feel.

Please keep Saturday the 15th August 2009 free, as it is the 64th anniversary of the end of WW2, at this service we also remember the Vietnam Veterans who gave their all, Burleigh RSL will be conducting a commemoration service, at the Burleigh Heads Cenotaph in the Memorial park, Connor Street Burleigh Heads, please wear your medals if you have them. Parade time: 10.30am for 10.50am. Hopefully some of the schools in our area will also have representatives attend.
Please remember a few days later, 18th August is Vietnam Veterans Day.

Gold Coast City Council will be providing a sound system for the 15th, some chairs for the park; the service shouldn't take much more than half hour. Hope to see a good roll up from our WW2 members, as the 15th August was a very significant date in your lives, considering the hardships you all had to endure for almost 6 years and many even after that date.

Please remember 2009 Gold Coast Legacy "Badge week" starting Sunday 30th August and finishing Saturday 5th September 2009. Legacy Badge Day is Friday the 4th September 2009. If you have some spare time to volunteer, please contact Ben Schuster 5535 4400 as he usually organizes the Burleigh Heads selling area and always is on the look out for volunteers. It is a truly great cause and Legacy needs the funds to look after our War widows and their children. Legacy does a great job without government funding!

Sunday the 8th November 2009 is another date to remember. There will a commemoration service at the Yugambeh War Memorial next to the RSL hall to pay respect to all the indigenous men and women who served in defence of Australia over the years. The service will be 8.45am for 9am. The Kombumerri Aboriginal Corporation will conduct the service, with assistance from the Burleigh RSL Sub-Branch. There will light refreshments provided by the elders, after the service. Please try and attend, Medals to be worn.

An early reminder for the 91st Anniversary of (Armistice) Remembrance Day, Wednesday 11th November 2009, Commemoration service will be conducted at the Burleigh Memorial Park, please mark your calendar for that date!!

Normal second Wednesday monthly general Meeting after the commemoration service will be held at the RSL Hall at 1.30pm. Don't worry about coming along all decked out with your medal/s and good clobber, may just take a few photos for the scrapbook!

Take care and remember to update your DVA pension with Neil Harcourt the Sub-Branch Honorary Senior Advocate/pension officer. If you're not getting your maximum entitlement please make contact with Neil between 10am and 4pm Monday to Friday at his home on 5576 3091. Please be considerate and don't ring on weekends or unearthly hours!!

IMPORTANT! Don't forget should you move address or change your phone number let the Secretary know!

Yours in service,

Christopher Keating
President