ving grown up. At present this balance consists of assets worth about 90,000. This compares with the Society's current annual routine expenditure of about $290,000. Council considers that even the most prudent of financial regimes would not require more than twelve months' average routine expenditure being held as a balance in cash. I shall, therefore, shortly be proposing for your consideration that the Society transfer $350,000 of our accumulated reserves into the Foundation Fund as soon as it is formally established, to provide the initial balance for the Fund. I shall also be recommending that a further sum of $50,000 be transferred at the same time from our current cash savings to the Current Account of the Fund, to allow disbursements to take place within the first year or two of the Fund's operations.
I must stress that it is our intention, except for the $50,000 to be earmarked for expenditure within the first one or two years, to spend only the income from this Fund. We do not intend to eat into the capital of the Foundation Fund, but to spend only the income derived from the interest on it. Any money, other than the $50,000 ear-marked for expenditure, so transferred to the Fund by the Society would thus not be "lost." The sum would remain, untouched, as a capital sum. Should some later date the Society decide to cancel the Fund and to withdraw from the sponsoring of scholarship, the sum to be transferred could then be transferred back into the Society's regular accounts, although I must say I hope that this would never happen!
I hope to be able, within the next month or two, to announce to members that the Fund has been formally established, and to put before members the detailed rules which will be used to control the Fund and disbursements from it. Keep an eye open for further news in the Newsletter! When all the details are finalised, it is likely that an Extraordinary General Meeting will be required to get Members' formal agreement to them; keep this in view!
Improved Relationships with other Branches, and Extended Availability of the Journal in Libraries around the World
The second of the major new work initiatives announced by me last year arose from a desire to improve our filial and fraternal relationships with the Parent Society in London, and with other Branch and Associated Societies in Asia, and to increase the number of places
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