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OurllewLeaders The Foreign
CorresPondents Club
has announced the results of the election of President and the Boa¡d of Governors
of the Club who will
serve as
officers until the next Annual General Meeting next MaY. PhiliP Bowring of the Far Eastern Economic Review is the Club's new President and Sandra Burton of Time Magazine is now our First Vice President. The Second Vice President is David Bell of the Swire GrouP. An illustrious group of governors, to
of the Asian Wall St¡eet Journal headi¡g say the least, with Cheah Cheng Hye
the list of
CorresPondent Member
Governors; Peter Mackler of Agence France Presse, Chris Pritchell of Reu-
ters, Paul Síllitoe with the FEER'
Michael Malik, ditto; Ian Findlay Brown
Newsweek and Graham Hillier from Reuters. Our new Journalist Member Governor is Alan Hargreaves, a voice known to all as he tells us where out money's going from RTHK. The Associate Member Governors
with
are three: PeneloPe BYrne from
the
Hong Kong Tourist Association, David Miller from USIS and Russell Cawthorne with Golden Commercial Company, Ltd.
We're
in your hands, ladies
and
gentlemen, and the best of Hong Kong luck to you during your time of service to us.
We made a Profit last (end-March)
relatively modest given turnover of HK$12.5 million. As we exist to serve members not maximise Profits we should be happy to stay on our present
path for the coming Year. But that might not be so easy. In the past year we have been helped bY stable food
prices, lower wage inflation and higher
entrance
fee income. And we
have
helped ourselves by reducing administrative costs by doing our own billing and
accounting, holdtrg down wage and fixed outgoings and taking a tough line with slow payers. Meanwhile catering turnover has continued to increase from HK$7.5 to 8.4 million.
policies are pursued, it should
With this issue the FCC is resuming the publication of "The Correspondeirt" which has been greatly missed lrl the past 10 months. Although less elabörate, than its predecsser, the present .newsletter will serve its purpose of resforing a link among the members. .; ' " cf your success newslelter the This is which depends largely on your support and contribution. If you have any news about other members past and present, please pass it on to "The Correspondent". May
Treasurer'sReport year. That is cause for satisfaction but not complacency. Our operating surplus was HK$663 ,562, which sounds fine till we recollect that the previous year we made a loss of HK$841,558. It is also
Dear Members,
be
possible to keeP out of the red.
Meanwhile the growth of the Development Fund and the depreciation of our HK$6 million investment in our
I also take this opportunity to congratulate and welcome our incoming President and members of the Board of Governors, many of whom also contributed selflessly to the service of the Club as past Governors. Let us wish them continued successes in making the FCC second to none in Hong Kong. Edward Tseng
premises should provide a cash cushion against future unce¡tainties of tenure.
The Development Fund now stands at HK$ I .8 million with income of $848,000 in the past year and outgoings
of HK$106,000 - the main items being final fees on Lower Albert Road, and the soundproofing of the main bar. Depreciation of fixed assets has continued be a major burden, absorbing HK$1.14 million this past year. But the other side of that is the build up of our cash resources. A1l told, net cutrent assets - excluding the Development
Fund - rose HK$2.3 million to HK$4.1 million during the year. This is fine except it leads to ba¡side demands that "as we've got all that money why don't we spend it". The answer is: We are on
The coming year may be more difficult. Productivity increases and savings on things like electricily are an even keel - but no more. And the getting harder to achieve, and replace- cash build-up reflects our real situation, ment of fittings which were new when not a miserþ provision for some theorewe moved to Lower Albert Road are tical rainy day. becoming more costly. But if existing
President
From the Editor
The Correspondent has at last been resurrected and members will be receiving the publication each month from now on. We would like to thank Arthur Hacker fo¡ his handsome design for the newsletter's masthead and Bert Gallardo for laying it out so professiona1ly.
The object of the Correspondent is simply to inform members what is happening at the FCC. We welcome members' news about their activities, photos, etc. Congratulations to our new President, Philip Bowring and the Board of Governors and big thank you to the outgoing President Eddie Tseng and his Board of Governo¡s. Let's try to make life as easy as possible for them.
-
Cynthia Hydes