# HONG KONG BRANCH
OF THE
ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE SOCIETY, 2003-2004
## Introduction
In both the last two years I started my Annual Report to the Society by stating that the outcome of the Society's work over the previous year had been, taking the year as a whole, broadly satisfactory. I am very glad to be able to start this, my third Annual Report, by reporting that the work of the Society over this last year has also been, on the whole, broadly satisfactory. While always wishing to avoid complacency, I find few areas where the work of the Society seems to me to give cause for serious concern.
## Membership and Finances
Over the year, our Membership has held up well. The Society has grown by about 4.5% since this time last year, to a total membership of 650. As of today, the Society consists of 474 Annual Members (an increase of just fewer than 3%) and 176 Life Members (an increase of 9%). Of these 650 Members, 511 are resident in Hong Kong, and 139 are resident abroad: both categories of Membership have shown significant increases. We also have 28 Institutional Members (6 Institutional Members and 22 Honorary Institutional Members), an increase of 40% over last year, and a most welcome development arising predominantly from our new policy of offering Honorary Institutional Membership to institutions with which the Society wishes to improve its relations. There are also 25 Student Members, another most welcome increase, in this case of over a third over the year: the Society would wish to see many more Student Members over the next few years. We are, clearly, at the moment more than merely able to replace those who leave us during the year with new Members. Over the year we welcomed 117 new Members. This means that some 18% of the total Membership is new this year. If we can keep this level of replacement going, the future of the Society is good. The overall size of the Society is, I believe, about right at the present.
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