126 
TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. 
I. — General. 
The relations subsisting between the branches and the Central 
Society have received careful consideration. As the main work 
of the Society has to be carried out with funds supplied by the 
Central body, the contributions from the branches become an 
important asset in enabling the Society to extend its sphere of 
usefulness. This,, and the desire to bring the members of the 
branches into more close association with the Central Society, 
has led to various reforms in the constitution of the Society. 
The branch retains its autonomy provided the number of members 
is not less than ten. On falling below this strength the branch 
members would merge automatically into the Central Society. 
The financial contribution payable by any branch within twenty 
miles of the Central Offices has been fixed at one fifth of its 
receipts, added to the cost of the Magazines supplied to its 
members. 
The branches retain their representatives upon the Council, 
but to associate this representation more closely with a geo- 
graphical area it has been decided to restrict for the future the 
membership of branches to persons living within the area 
delimited by the warrant, which alone establishes a branch. 
As it is obvious that such a restriction may in particular 
cases be a hardship, exceptions will be allowed when circum- 
stances demand such a concession. 
It is a matter for congratulation that the members of 
branches have loyally supported the Society in its attempts 
to improve its constitution. Even in the case of one branch, 
the executive of which adopted the mistaken view that it 
could dissolve the branch without the concurrent withdrawal 
of the warrant by the Society, no disruption took place 
beyond the resignation of some members. The branch as a 
whole has remained loyal, and the Society, although losing the 
aid of some valuable workers, yet has the satisfaction of knowing 
that their energies are still to be devoted to the work in whicli 
the Selborne Society has been the pioneer. This work, in the case 
in question, is henceforward to assume a purely local character. 
A further and, your Council thinks, very important reform, has 
been the recasting of the system by which the members of the 
Council are in future to be elected. Tlie personnel will consist of 
the President, six of the Vice-Presidents, nominated by the 
Council, the Chairman of Council, the Treasurer, the Secretary, 
the Editor of the Magazine, the Librarian, all of whom will be 
elected by the Council, and twelve members of Council elected 
by the Society. 
These Councillors may be recommended by the Council, and 
in that case their names will be published in the issue of Nature 
Notes published next before the Annual General Meeting. 
