I was made very welcome by my local branch and am not a very old "sausage"!

As has been mentioned, there are too many service charities. If the RAFA Clubs can't get the members through the doors, perhaps they should close and send all proceeds to RAFBF who do a really worthwhile job without the need for cheap beer on tap.

And as for the army, every regiment has its own charity and most defunct regimental charities still struggle on. There was even a "Machine Gun Corps" one until fairly recently.

Surely there should be one each for the Army, Navy and RAF to deal with welfare, but TRBL look after that don't they?

I don't understand why RAFA & RAFBF can't merge, surely there would be a considerable cost saving.

Sorry chap, as a 64 year old male, in the eyes of today's RAF you are very much old, and qualify as sausage.

Sadly, as evidenced in this thread, anyone thirty years old is a sausage.

Sausage = Male

Ergo: This pub is a sauasgefest, let's move elsewhere = Let's find a pub with some females.

Sausage has nothing to do with age. :ok:

or

Be consistent old chap.

edit:
OIC, the RAF sees him as OLD and male makes him Sausage.

But then of course there was sausage side which has nothing to do with age or sex.

the RBL clubs suffer the same problems as the RAFA clubs - short version, they are crap.

no 35yo with half-a-dozen Afghan tours under his belt wants to spend a saturday night being talked at by some saddo who thinks that two years painting rocks at Aldershot was the best years of his 70+ life while drinking dishwater and staring at a piss-stained carpet and hoping an asteroid comes in through the ceiling.

its time to cut the link between the charitable work and the dingy clubs.

For the pedants :

Splitting hairs like that is the kind of chatter that infests sausage heavy old man's clubs that puts off younger members! :ok::}

......but I'm 73 and still like playing 'hide the sausage'!

Well if it's the cocktail variety, quite easy to do, so I'm told!

Quite frankly the funniest thing I have read on Pprune since I joined! My hometown RAFA was a cheap drinking den for loads of people who had no connection whatsoever to the RAF, but it still survives (just.) My local RBL is chaired by a guy who allegedly was ex-SF in the 60s-70s, and upon seeing my 4 medals to his 1, (poss 2,) clearly couldn't accept that a younger, ex-RAF guy could have more medals than him. I might as well have dropped a turd in his pint, judging by his reaction. Needless to say, I have not joined.... his problem, not mine!

Well, if I am officially a sausage - though younger than many, I would still like to say that many of you are rubbishing a very good charity. Hope you never have recourse to its support.

A good few years ago I joined the local branch of the Aircrew Association who held their meetings in a private room at a pub. Without exception they were all WW2 RAF and would spend all evening, once a month, in fond mutual reminiscence. The only time they spoke to me during the two meetings I attended was when I was given the 'honour' of drawing the winner of the monthly prize. At least I didn't have to sell the tickets, or whatever led to the draw.

I'm not, and I haven't seen that I can recall, anyone rubbishing the charity work. Most of the posts seem to be about the clubs/bars atmospheres.