Subscription income, including arrears for earlier years and advance payments for future years, totalled £1041.66, compared with £985.50 at this time last year. Membership currently stands at 143 fully paid-up members; in addition there are 27 members who have not yet paid their subscription for 1997 and 47 persons who are two years in arrears. A further effort will be made with the November 1997 Newsletter to ensure that these arrears (value approx. £660) are paid.
£199.52 was received in interest, including £51.00 on the bridging loan repaid by ICHoLS in August 1996. As much of the Society's money as possible is kept in interest-bearing accounts, though given the Society's small capital base we cannot avail ourselves of the higher tiers of interest rates offered for larger deposits. Recent increases in interest rates will, of course, benefit the Society marginally.
Administrative costs were higher than in 1995-96 (when they were abnormally low) but, at £261.48, considerably lower than in 1994-95 (when they were abnormally high). The 1996 AGM was held in London. No charge was levied and no expenditure was incurred.
The May and November 1996 issues of the Newsletter cost £683.56 to produce and distribute. This was higher than in the previous year but both issues were more substantial. The invoice for the May 1997 issue has not yet been received; the anticipated cost is in the region of £350. The Society is grateful to Dr Jonathan Hope who arranged for the Newsletter to be produced at a competitive price at Middlesex University over the past two years.
We ended the financial year with a surplus of £415 on
the year's working. We currently have net assets of £4509. These
are adequate for the time being, provided we succeed in bringing in
the outstanding arrears of subscriptions for the current year and the
royalties payable on publications increase. Accordingly, I recommend
that we make no change to the current subscription rates this year at
least.
Regarding the various reserve funds, the Henry Sweet Memorial Appeal Fund incurred only routine expenditure for the planting of flowers twice a year. The current balance will be sufficient at least until the year 2000.
The balance in the Colloquium Reserve Fund (£1515) remains unchanged. This fund serves as a provision against unforeseen costs of future events.
The Publications Fund, which is earmarked exclusively to
support our series The Henry Sweet Society Studies in the History
of Linguistics (the Newsletter appearing as an item of
general expenditure under the general account), is currently modestly
in credit (£276.55), thanks to the two magnificent donations we
have received over the past two years. Whereas Volumes 1
(Dionysius Thrax) and 3 (Robins Festschrift) were generously
funded by our publishers, Nodus Publikationen, from their own
resources, vol. 2 (Lindley Murray) had to be funded entirely
by the Society, not least because all attempts to raise funding from
external sources were of no avail. However, the donation received
this year, together with the existing balance in the fund and
royalties received in 1996, enabled us to cover the production costs
of this volume. The production costs of vol. 4 (Ivar Aasen),
published at the end of July 1997, will have to be covered from the
current balance, royalties received in 1997, and a bridging loan from
the Society's reserves. Thanks to the favourable exchange £/DM
rate, we anticipate that the Society will need to advance the
relatively modest sum of ca. £1625 from the general fund to
cover the production costs of this volume; inevitably this will leave
the Publications Fund in deficit next year. Under German Public
Lending Right legislation a sum of ca. DM 750 (ca. £240) is
expected to become payable to the Society this year in respect of
vol. 2, with a similar sum becoming payable in respect of vol. 4 in
1998. For the time being, given the current level of the Society's
reserves,we cannot contemplate more than one further volume unless we
receive a further substantial injection of funds from whatever
source.
John L. Flood
Honorary Treasurer
30 August 1997