resigned each year, mostly on leaving Hong Kong, and had to be replaced with new members if the overall membership was to remain the same size. If the Society fails to replace those members resigning on leaving Hong Kong, then, in very short order, the Society would face serious membership problems.
Because of this high annual turnover of members, Council decided we had to institute a major reform of our membership database. This task proved to be a major task, and took well over a year before it was completed earlier this year. We now know a lot more about the make-up of our membership, and in a more up-to-date fashion. I must here thank especially our previous Hon. Secretary, Dr Peter Barker, who recently left us on relocation to Chicago. It was his hard work which, above all, enabled the successful completion of the new database to be achieved.
At the moment we have a total of 605 members of the Society, comprising 451 Annual Members and 154 Life Members. Of these 605, 492 are resident in Hong Kong, and 113 are resident abroad. 402 are Single Members, 174 are Joint Members (representing 87 couples), 9 are Institutional Members, and 20 are Student Members. 111 new members joined the Society during the year. This was significantly more than the number who resigned on leaving Hong Kong or for other reasons.
The Society has, therefore, over the year, managed to increase its membership by a reasonably substantial figure (the increase, when compared with the figure given in the last President's Report would seem to be much more substantial, but a good deal of the apparent increase is due to a change in the way we calculate Joint Memberships, and is thus to some degree illusory).
Over this last year, the Council has advertised the Society in a number of ways. In particular, we have run a series of advertisements in Dollarsaver. Councillors also regularly give talks to various community groups (e.g. Rotary Clubs), and also on the radio, and this provides excellent advertising exposure for the Society. Councillors giving academic lectures also often give their academic affiliation as "The Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch" and this, too, provides useful exposure. I would like at this point to thank my predecessor, Dr Dan Waters, in particular, for the many talks he has given, and the tremendous help this has been to our advertising campaign. The
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resigned each year, mostly on leaving Hong Kong, and had to be replaced with new members if the overall membership was to remain the same size. If the Society fails to replace those members resigning on leaving Hong Kong, then, in very short order, the Society would face serious membership problems.
Because of this high annual turnover of members, Council decided we had to institute a major reform of our membership database. This task proved to be a major task, and took well over a year before it was completed earlier this year. We now know a lot more about the make-up of our membership, and in a more up-to-date fashion. I must here thank especially our previous Hon. Secretary, Dr Peter Barker, who recently left us on relocation to Chicago. It was his hard work which, above all, enabled the successful completion of the new database to be achieved.
At the moment we have a total of 605 members of the Society, comprising 451 Annual Members and 154 Life Members. Of these 605, 492 are resident in Hong Kong, and 113 are resident abroad. 402 are Single Members, 174 are Joint Members (representing 87 couples), 9 are Institutional Members, and 20 are Student Members. 111 new members joined the Society during the year. This was significantly more than the number who resigned on leaving Hong Kong or for other reasons.
The Society has, therefore, over the year, managed to increase its membership by a reasonably substantial figure (the increase, when compared with the figure given in the last President's Report would seem to be much more substantial, but a good deal of the apparent increase is due to a change in the way we calculate Joint Memberships, and is thus to some degree illusory).
Over this last year, the Council has advertised the Society in a number of ways. In particular, we have run a series of advertisements in Dollarsaver. Councillors also regularly give talks to various community groups (e.g. Rotary Clubs), and also on the radio, and this provides excellent advertising exposure for the Society. Councillors giving academic lectures also often give their academic affiliation as "The Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch" and this, too, provides useful exposure. I would like at this point to thank my predecessor, Dr Dan Waters, in particular, for the many talks he has given, and the tremendous help this has been to our advertising campaign. The
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