SUB-BRANCH SUPPORT ALLIANCE

'“Enabling Sub-Branches,
to support each other,
in pursuit of our Charitable Purpose.”

MEMBERS AREA

Who We Are

The SBSA is an informal network that exists as a supporting effort among RSL Sub-Branches and Members. It is independent from RSL NSW and not beholden to it, but SBSA is wholly aligned with RSL’s Charitable Purpose.

In NSW, there are indeed two distinct ‘RSLs’:

  • The "Real RSL" is all of us at the coalface - the autonomous network of more than 300 self-directed and self-resourced Sub-Branches across suburbs and towns everywhere, and RSL NSW’s 30,000 individual Members. 

  • The "Real RSL" is not the 'ivory-tower dwellers’ who are out of touch with real veterans, grassroots Members, and Sub-Branches. 

The real RSL is a ’Team of Teams’, where: 

  • Each Sub-Branch is deeply connected within our close communities;

  • Each is implicitly trusted by the veterans and families that we serve; and

  • Each is intimately familiar with the unique needs and special considerations of the disparate veteran communities from which we hail. 

The real RSL is what what RSL is supposed to be and what we actually are: a decentralised federation of self-directed, self-resourced Sub-Branches, each optimally positioned to support its' own close veteran community, and each committed to our common Charitable Purpose and governance structure. 

This is what makes RSL relevant and effective. 

This is what the SBSA exists to support.

Why we exist

Since its genesis in 2024, the SBSA has grown to be a strong alliance and an effective conduit towards its' purpose of mobilising support to wherever most needed among veterans and families. 

RSL’s relevance rests on the ongoing existence and success of Sub-Branches that are:

  • Prominent within, and knowledgeable of, their close veteran community;

  • Able to respond expediently, relevantly, and effectively to veteran needs (which requires Sub-Branch independence and autonomy); and

  • Enabled by capabilities and resources that are independently owned or controlled by each Sub-Branch.

SBSA's founders realised that without deliberate and coordinated efforts to maintain and develop these conditions, the contemporary attrition of Sub-Branches would continue, and Australia's veteran community would suffer ongoing deterioration of the fabric of the important grassroots network that RSL represents.

Each Sub-Branch was established by the passion and benevolence of their founding contributors and then maintained throughout the decades by subsequent cohorts of dedicated and benevolent volunteers. It is now the duty of our generation to maintain these invaluable resources that have been entrusted to us, and yet on our watch more and more Sub-Branches are falling away. The SBSA was founded as an effort towards addressing this problem.

Australia's veterans’ experiences are vast and varied. No one size fits all. Centralised support has failed Australia's veterans. In the face of Australia’s welfare crisis, our response must be decentralised and it must be tailored to specific veteran communities and individuals. It is in this way that independent, self-directed, and self-resourced Sub-Branches are highly relevant and effective. The SBSA exists to support Sub-Branches maintaining these strengths.

Two veteran community groups need priority attention: individuals in crisis, and the families of veterans - especially families of those killed in service.

  • There is a window in time, stretching from about 5 years through to about 15 years after a veteran's personal exposure to combat or violent trauma, where the vast preponderance of welfare needs become manifest and addressable, and likewise where implications arise for the families of those individuals. We must be prepared to address these individual needs as a matter of first priority.

  • Among our national veteran community it is veterans' families, collectively, who are least well supported by welfare resources in Australia. Veterans families, and in particular families who have lost a member in service, carry a particularly heavy burden - often far in excess of that carried by service members themselves. Our families deserve better support. Moreover, family is almost always a major factor for individual veterans in crisis - either because family welfare concerns have been a deleterious factor, or because family support has upheld a veteran from falling to worse circumstances. By helping families we also act powerfully to help veterans.

Fundamentally, in alignment with the two priorities above but also extending more broadly, the SBSA exists to support Sub-Branches to achieve the objectives of RSL’s Charitable Purpose. 

Objectives under the Charitable Purpose include: 

  • Veteran and family welfare (which includes camaraderie and advocacy);

  • Remembrance and commemoration;

  • Promoting the defence of Australia;

  • Protecting the good standing of members of the ADF; and 

  • Promoting friendship with allied forces. 

  • SBSA is guided by some key principles:

    1. Sub-Branches are what make RSL relevant, and their autonomy and independence must be protected.

    2. We carry a profound duty of stewardship - to our forbearers, to our fellow veterans, and to our nation.

    3. Effective welfare relies on deep trust based on personal connections.

    4. Veterans are not a homogenous group - no 'one size fits all'.

    5. RSL as a collective must be led by grassroots consensus, not directed by top-down control.

    6. RSL’s Charitable Purpose defines our left and right of arc.

  • Grassroots led

    • SBSA is a grassroots alliance that exists to support RSL sub-branches, but is entirely separate from RSL NSW. 

    • Collectively, including at district, state and federal levels, RSL does not need to be commanded. Collectively, RSL needs to be represented and supported. RSL is not, and never should be, a top-down organisation at any level. Rather, RSL is a grassroots alliance, organisationally optimised at Sub-Branch level, with each Sub-Branch being an autonomous and independent node, expert in the needs and concerns of its own close veteran community, and sustained by its own organic resources.

    • The role of Presidents and all levels, Districts, ANZAC House, and the RSL NSW Board of Directors is not to direct and control; rather, they exist to support, enable, and represent the interests of Members and Sub-Branches.

    Duty of stewardship

    • All Sub-Branches have a duty to properly apply, sustain, and build upon the economic resources bequeathed to their trust by previous stewards. Sub-Branches typically carry forward significant economic assets established by the generosity and hard work of founding members, and then maintained over the decades by cohort after cohort of volunteers. We must not let such assets be lost on our watch. 

    Welfare requires trust

    • Effective welfare support requires deep trust. And trust is best achieved by direct personal relationships. Sub-Branches are where trust is built. 

    Veterans are not homogenous

    • No ‘one size fits all’. Australian veterans are vastly varied in their military experience and types of service, their current circumstances, and their needs and concerns. Many veterans have benefited while serving from free medical and dental care, subsidised housing, and daily physical training, and have had minimal exposure to factors that commonly cause trauma beyond the exposure of most civilians. Other veterans have experienced repeated personal exposure to the effects of close combat and other extreme stressors far beyond what many civilians, or most veterans, will ever experience. Still other veterans are aflicted by significant welfare concerns, not because of their ADF service, but more so beacuse they form part of a wider societal demographic that typically suffers from those conditions. The solutions that serve one group might not always be optimal for another.

    Sub-Branches make RSL relevant

    • Everything within RSL must be aligned to supporting Sub-Branches. Sub-Branches are at the coalface of delivering on our Charitable Purpose. Sub Branches are what makes RSL relevant and effective. Without Sub-Branches, RSL is ‘just another’ of the 10,000 veteran organisations operating in Australia. 

    • To be relevant and effective, Sub-Branches require autonomy and independence, which in turn requires that Sub-Branches be self-resourced. A Sub-Branch’s primary resource is its volunteers and Members.

    • All other RSL bodies - particularly centralised RSL entities and offices - must be wholly committed to supporting Sub-Branches. Such centralised bodies should have no role other than to support and enable the effectiveness RSL’s Sub-Branches and Members.

    • Our common mission: to do what we can, where we are and with what we have, to support the needs of veterans and families within our veteran communities, and to uphold the Australian veteran ethos of service and compassion. 

    The Charitable Purpose defines our left and right of arc

    • Sub-Branches and Members (within their RSL roles) must remain committed exclusively to pursuit of the Charitable Purpose.

  • Sub-Branches are best enabled to pursue the Charitable Purpose when they are:

    • Uniquely identifiable and individually prominent and within their own close veteran community.

    • Representative of the interests of their close veteran community (which typically is represented by the Members of a Sub-Branch);

    • Autonomous in their decision making (while maintaining alignment to the Charitable Purpose);

    • Independently resourced (especially regarding capital assets and staff - be such staff volunteers or otherwise); and

    • Confident in the security of their assets, systems, and networks (which typically have been built up, maintained, and protected by the efforts of cohorts of Sub-Branch volunteers over many years);

    • Sub-Branches and Members are most effective and relevant when they maintain direct grassroots networks of communication and support.

Structure & Coordination

The SBSA is organised by a Convening Council whose primary role is to call people together around our shared purpose. It does not command. It does not administer. It convenes.

Members of the Convening Council are selected from volunteers from contributing Sub-Branches. The Convening Council’s principal functions are to:

    • Receiving support requests from Sub-Branches (or others within the veterans welfare community);

    • Assessing and determining the eligibility and priority of support of requests received;

    • Liaising with Sub-Branches (and others) to source the support required (including, where necessary, obtaining financial pledges to support Sub-Branches in need);

    • Obtaining RSL NSW approvals, where necessary, for payments to be made to fulfil pledges;

    • Tracking delivery of support; and

    • Educating Sub-Branches and others on the purpose and functioning of the SBSA.

Joshua Farquhar
Secretary, SBSA

Josh Farquhar is an Australian veteran and an RSL member.

Josh joined the Australian Army at age 17 as a Royal Australian Artillery Gunner, commencing 30 years of continuous ADF service. He was commissioned after graduating from the Australian Defence Force Academy and Royal Military College - Duntroon, and served in a variety of postings and appointments before finally transfering to the Army Reserve as an experienced Major. While in the Australian Regular Army, Josh saw wartime service in the Afghanistan War and the War in Iraq, was recognised for service in domestic counter terrorism, and also served in various countries in East Asia, South-East Asia, and Central Asia.

Separate to his ADF postings, Josh has also been continuously active since 2007 as a volunteer in various dedicated veteran welfare support roles.

In recent years, Josh has served on the Executive Committee of North Bondi RSL, where he led a rejuvenation of that Sub-Branch to see it become the largest and youngest Sub-Branch within NSW. Josh attributes this result to a repositioning of North Bondi RSL's culture to be one of service over all else: "We are not a member benefits club", Josh says. "There is nothing in our Charitable Purpose that bestows any special entitlement on members. Rather, our members are dedicated to ongoing service. The only legitimate reason to be a member of North Bondi RSL is for the opportunity to support others - and especially to support veterans in crisis, and the families of those killed in service."

Josh was involved in establishing the SBSA in 2024, with a vision to support and enable Sub-Branches everywhere to be relevant and effective within their own close veteran communities by utilising grassroots networks to mobilise mutual support directly between Sub-Branches.

Josh is a member of the SBSA's Convening Council, and he is presently the SBSA's inaugural Secretary.

Contact us

If you would like to get in touch with the SBSA, either to request support or to stay informed about support requests, please use the contact form or email address below.

contact@sub-branches.au