AN 150-year-old organisation, which quietly collects money every year for Farnham charities, could be under threat after seeing membership dwindle through lack of publicity. The Aldershot and District Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffalo (RAOB) rarely publicise the work it does every year for charity as part of its rules, however thismodest and unassuming approach to charity work has resulted in a serious depletion in membership over the past 10 years. Cyril Nutt, a member of the Heward Forest and Group 'A' Lodges in Farnham said: "We don't publicise the work we do, we just get on with collecting the money and then move on to the next charity. For example, last July we gave £1,000 to the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice and £1,000 to Ridgeway Community School, but we left the publicising to them, because we're not into bragging about it. "The trouble is that, because we don't tell people about what we do, not many people know about us and so our membership is falling. Every year there are fewer and fewer people to collect for the charities we support. We're like the Lions or the Rotary Club, but everyone knows about what they do, because they regularly publicise it. We don't because of our rules. "This year, up until March 2008, our charity is 'Aldershot Riding for the Disabled' and we will be presenting them with a cheque in July this year. The work we do is very important for the community and it is also a great way of meeting like-minded people and socialising. I've been doing it for 12 years now. "We meet once a week and we have members world-wide. We have a main collection week, which is always the first week in July, but raise money all year round and all of it goes to the Provincial Grand Primo's charity for the year. "We would like see former brothers get in touch with us and we would welcome applications from prospective new ones. it would be a shame to see such an important and long-running organisation in the Farnham community disband through lack of numbers. One of our more famous Farnham members was John Henry Knight, who was the first man to build a petrol car in 1895." Tony Ashton, PG Secretary for the district, said: "Over the 28 years that I have had the privilege of being PG Secretary there has been a steady but marked decline in membership of the RAOB in the Aldershot & District Province. "Some of the decline can be attributed to the run down in the Armed Forces in the Aldershot area, but facts show that present members of the order are getting older, travelling between lodges less and that we are not recruiting younger members to take our place. "The young members of our society would appear to have far more interesting ways of occupying their leisure hours and because the families they come from are generally better off than they were when the order began there would appear to be little interest in organisations that do charity work." Over the years 1979 to 2006 the Provincial Grand Lodge has made grants to needy brothers of £8,000 and has raised money for outside projects, by appeal to the sum of £23703, a record that this Province can again be justly proud. There are two lodges in Farnham: Heward Forest Lodge meets at the Royal British Legion in Burnt Hill Road, Lower Bourne, and Group 'A/ meets at 23 Sumner Road. Anyone interested in joining or finding out more information about the RAOB should contact PG secretary AJ Ashton on 01252 640275 or visit http://www.raobgle.org.uk">www.raobgle.org.uk.