[
    {
        "id": 215242,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 19,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "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.\n\nBecause 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.\n\nAt 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.\n\nThe 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).\n\nOver 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\n\nxvi",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216262,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2003",
        "page_number": 21,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "We have asked all our new Members where they heard about the Society, and it would seem that they came to us through many different ways. Several joined after checking out our Website. Others came to a Lecture after reading about us in an article in a local newspaper or magazine. Quite a number were inspired by the recent very successful exhibition of our photographs at the Hong Kong University Library. Yet others heard about us by word-of-mouth from existing Members, or from our regular advertisement in Dollarsaver, or dropped in on one of Lectures having seen our poster at the City Hall or in one of the Universities. Since all these ways of attracting new Members are working well, we will continue using these methods of attracting potential new Members during this year.\n\nOur Honorary Treasurer and Vice-President will shortly be reporting on the state of our finances, and I do not want to steal his thunder here, and wish only to say that, as of today, the Society's finances are in a generally satisfactory state, and disclose no cause for undue alarm. We did, however, make a loss over the year.\n\nLast year I warned that, since our routine expenses were not covering our routine expenditure, an increase in the Subscription Fee was inevitable. It is, to repeat what I said last year, the Subscription Fee income on which we depend to provide for the routine expenditure of the Society. This year the Subscription Fee income level was well below the routine expenditure figure. Council has not agreed to any increase in the Subscription Fee to take effect from 1 April 2005. I feel, however, that I must warn you that there will, almost certainly, be a recommendation to increase the Subscription Fee at next year's Annual General Meeting, to take effect from 1st April 2006, since, clearly, we cannot allow this constant drain on our reserves because of weak levels of routine income.\n\nAnother point I would like to make is that at the last Annual General Meeting a Resolution was passed which stated that those Annual Members not paying by Autopay would be charged an additional $50 a year handling charge to take account of the much higher costs these Members cause to the Society in the handling of their annual subscriptions. I must now say that only 130 Annual Members are paying by Autopay as of today (27%). With great regret, therefore, I must inform you that, over the next few weeks those Annual Members who\n\nxxi",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390",
        "rank": 0
    }
]