Below is a further response from the Chairman.
Besides the cost of membership activities having gone up as mentioned in my previous reply, the number of elderly members doubled in four years’ time while our full-rate members remained more or less the same. A restructuring of the membership discount is needed for the sustainability of our membership development. At both the Executive Committee meeting and the AGM of 2022, it was decided that to move Elderly members to the same tier as the Adult Student members, which still have a discount of 50% off from a full rate member.
The 1.8 million expenditure (as mentioned in the 2022 AGM) included not only the benefit paid when staff left the Society but also the staff cost caused by staff turnover. Total salaries and benefits for resigned staff is around 1.5 million (as mentioned in the 2023 AGM), with around HK$180k related to payment for their unused annual leave and bonus. Due to their resignation, the Society also paid additional salaries of around 0.3 million during transition period. No staff was entitled to the Long Service Payment or Severance Payment under the Employment Ordinance, so the offsetting scheme is not applicable.
2021-2022 is an abnormal year for HKBWS, with the departure of 12 staff (including senior management staff) which accounts for 50% of the office manpower. This high staff turnover has contributed to the deficit in 2021-22 but was not the sole cause of the deficit. We consider that this was an unusual case and similar unfortunate incident should not happen again in the future.
In the past year we have tried our best to maintain a healthy finance and you are welcome to take a look at the financial summary of 2022-23, which is already sent to all members along with the AGM notice and agenda before the AGM.
Apache Lau
HKBWS Chairman
