Sandy Duncan, our honorary treasurer, reported on the financial position for the first half of 2023. He started by thanking all the society regions for the good communications and great endeavours to build up the events following the 2020 Covid challenges. He then confirmed that the society was in good shape financially. However, he noted that membership figures continued to decline and stood at 6,200 at the end of the second quarter.
68 events had been held so far in the year – 28 in the first quarter and 40 in the second. On average, each event had 26 attendees. The average subsidy per head was £11.63, marginally lower than the budget of £12.
Concern over the cost of living and to encourage more people to attend events, council agreed to increase the Christmas event subsidy from £15 to £18 per head, and to increase the subsidy for all other events from 1 January 2024 from £12 to £15 per head. The summer party subsidy will remain at £40 per head for 2024.