The Society is now more than forty years old. Over that period, we have made small operating surpluses in most years. As a result, we now have a substantial balance of Accumulated Funds. This balance stands at present at well over $600,000. Council has come to the conclusion that a cash balance of this size is an embarrassment to a Society like ours. After considerable debate in Council, it was felt that a Fund should be set up from which the Society could make grants to assist research into the study of Hong Kong. It was felt by Council that grants towards the costs of production of monographs or collections of essays on Hong Kong would be useful to the academic community in Hong Kong generally, or else to assist translation of important works from English, including collections of articles from the Journal, into Chinese, or vice versa, or perhaps from Japanese into Chinese or English, or in some other way to assist the field of Hong Kong studies.
Council decided that it could allow about half the accumulated balance to be put into the Fund, that is, about $300,000, while still leaving enough of a cash balance to meet all anticipatable demands on it for the Society's needs. Council has also agreed that this capital sum should not be spent, but only the income from the interest on it. Council also came to the conclusion that a grant, to be worthwhile, would normally require to be in the region of $20,000. In other words, the sum the Council felt it could put into the new Fund would allow for only one grant a year, or perhaps two in a good year. This is less than Council would wish. Council therefore felt that it would be desirable to encourage donations into the Fund, hopefully to allow the Fund to reach up to a million dollars, which might allow as many as four or five grants a year to be made.
To do all this, it was necessary to amend the Constitution to allow the disbursement of grants in this way, and this was achieved in the context of the amendments to the Constitution agreed at the last AGM and the EGM later in the year. It was also necessary, in order to put the Fund into a legal position which might encourage large commercial companies to donate to it, to make the Society a Registered Charitable Institution, and this, too, was achieved during the year.
Council is still considering the details of the new Fund and has set up a Working Party to make detailed recommendations. In due course, members will be informed of the details, once they have been agreed.
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