MEMBERSHIP CHANGES OVER 21 YEARS

In the 1989 Annual Report I outlined the growth in the membership of the Society over the first ten years. I thought it would be interesting to give an update on the memberships at the start of the new millennium and at a time when the Society has just celebrated its twenty first birthday.

After the first eighteen months, memberships on 31^st August 1980 were 32 adult, 26 family, 3 senior citizen and 0 junior. After ten years, the membership had grown considerably to 30 adult, 34 family, 13 senior citizen, 10 senior citizen family and 0 junior on 31^st August 1989. From a peak in 1994, numbers have fallen back a little and at 31^st August 2000, memberships were 44 adult, 31 family, 21 senior citizen, 12 senior citizen family and 0 junior.

To produce the total number of members for the table below, each family membership had been counted as two persons. Although there have never been more than two individual junior members, several of the family members have children who occasionally attend indoor meetings and field trips with their parents.

Year	Adult	Family	Senior Citizen	Senior Family	Junior	Total Members
1979-80	32	26	3	0	1	88
1980-81	31	21	5	0	1	79
1981-82	33	25	13	0	2	98
1982-83	29	23	14	0	1	90
1983-84	23	32	4	0	1	92
1984-85	27	34	13	3	1	115
1985-86	22	31	10	4	0	102
1986-87	23	35	11	2	0	108
1987-88	27	31	9	10	0	118
1988-89	30	34	13	10	0	131
1989-90	34	36	14	11	0	142
1990-91	40	40	16	12	0	160
1991-92	41	39	21	15	0	170
1992-93	50	36	18	17	0	174
1993-94	51	35	21	17	0	176
1994-95	46	32	23	16	1	166
1995-96	47	36	19	17	0	172
1996-97	46	35	22	14	0	166
1997-98	47	31	19	13	0	154
1998-99	45	31	19	12	0	150
1999-2000	44	31	21	12	0	151

Five members of the present Committee, Phil Kirk, Stan Llewellin, Joyce Riley, Colin Smith and Tony Stott have been members of the Society since its formation, Colin serving continuously on the Committee for the whole period and the other four for between fifteen to twenty years. A total of 20 people who joined when the Society was formed, have continued their memberships for twenty one years.

The table highlights one of the concerns discussed on several occasions at committee meetings, that of an ageing membership. In the first year, the proportion of senior citizens in the membership was 3%. The proportion had increased after ten years to 18%, by fifteen years it was 32% and is currently 30%. Unfortunately, in common with other natural history societies, the Society has difficulty recruiting younger people and several of the original members, including myself, are now senior citizens. Hopefully, in spite of this, the Society will continue to flourish.

I, personally, have been on the Committee for fifteen years, but due to my husband’s medical problems over the past three years, and my own worsening arthritis, I have decided to resign from the post of Membership Secretary, and will not be standing for re-election to the committee at the AGM in September 2001. I would like to thank the Committee for all the help and support they have given me over the past fifteen years and also to thank the members, most of whom have paid their subscriptions promptly, thus making my job easier. I hope my successor enjoys as much support as I have over the years.