REPORT OF COUNCIL. XV 



Bloemfontein Club ; Mrs. Murdoch Anderson ; the O.R.C. 

 Arts and Crafts Association ; Miss E. Steedman and staff of 

 the Eunice High School ; and the Hon. Auditors, Mr. M. B. 

 Gardner (Johannesburg) and Mr. J. M. P. Muirhead (Cape 

 Town). 

 The meeting then closed. 



REPORT OF THE COUNXIL FOR THE YEAR ENDED joth 



JUNE. igoQ. 



1. Your Council submit the following report upon the work of 

 the Association for the past year. 



2. The Statement of Account and Balance-sheet, together with 

 the Annual Report of the Hon. General Treasurer, are submitted 

 for your approval. In accordance with the Council's recommenda- 

 tion api)roved by the last Annual General Meeting of members, the 

 general and administrative expenses of the Association have been 

 greatly reduced, viz., by about 33 per cent., being £243 for 1908-09 

 against £353 during the precechng year. It will be noticed that 

 the cost of printing Volumes IV. and V. (Natal and Grahamstown 

 Meetings) came into this year's (1908-09) account, the total being 

 ^^403 7s. 9d. The last Annual Meeting approved the suggestion 

 made to withdraw on loan from the invested funds the sum of 

 £300 for publication expenses, the balance cost of /103 being paid 

 out of the ordinary funds. 



3. The membership again shows a considerable and regrettable 

 decrease. The figures for 1907-08 were as follows : Life Members, 

 28 ; Annual Members, 739. For the year 1908-09 the figures are : 

 Life Members, 29 ; Annual Members, 608 (including members one 

 year in arrear) — a decrease of 130, of which number 113 were struck 

 off the register by reason of non-payment of subscriptions for two 

 years. Your Council believes that the worst has now been reached, 

 and that an improvement may be expected in the near future. 

 The question of making the Association more attractive to its 

 members and of further reducing administration expenses has had 

 the earnest consideration of your Council during the past year, and 

 the following proposals are now laid before you : — 



(i) That in order to increase the efficiency of the administra- 

 tion and to reduce the administrative expenses, the administra- 

 tion of the Association be centred in a single office. 



(2) That the monthly Journal which the Council j/roposes 

 to substitute for the Annual Reports hitherto issued, should 

 be one of forty-eight pages ; that it should contain the papers 

 read at the Annual Meeting and, as far as possible, the discus- 

 sions thereon, together with notices of meetings and proceed- 

 ings of kindred Societies and other suitable matter ; that the 

 Journal should be the official medium of communication with 

 the members of the Association, and that the monthly parts 

 be adapted to rebinding in style uniform vv^ith the Annual 

 Reports previously issued. 



(3) That in the event of Cape Tov/n immediately under- 

 takingjjthe editing and publication of the Journal, in accordance 



