Claire came on board in the middle of last year and has quickly rooted out the requirements to make the Society move forward. She has assisted in the movement of the stock of Journals to The Chinese University of Hong Kong for storage and more importantly has had our membership satisfactorily computerised. And it is on Membership that I wish to conclude this report. Some very interesting statistics of the membership have emerged as a result of some sharp analytical research by our Treasurer. At this point of time the Society has 80 Life Members and 396 Annual Members, of which no less than 50 joined in the last four months. These statistics show that there has been a decline in paid-up memberships over the last two or three years. Given the increased transitory nature of those who join the Society this is not perhaps a surprise. The transitory nature of Society members is borne out by the fact that of the current annual paid-up members, only 75 were members five years ago. Further investigation revealed that most members left because they departed from Hong Kong rather than leaving the Society per se and a few needed to be eliminated from the membership because their whereabouts were no longer known or their subscriptions had been unpaid for two or three years. But a Society such as this is only as good as its members and it is heartening to see that there are many new members of all nationalities replacing those who have left.
We welcome them and hope that they will enjoy and be stimulated by the lectures and activities, and if any of them and old members have ideas on the programme and inputs for the Journal please do not hesitate to let them be known.
March 1996
XV