Ipswich Society membership boomtime

There are 863 paid memberships, of which 18 are corporate members. Of the 845 remaining, 353 are family members so there are currently 1,198 members plus 18 corporate members.

Going through all the back copies of the Newsletters to get an idea of how long people have been members, when they left etc.; there are a lot of gaps, but it was an interesting exercise.

Here are some notable features:-

March 1963: individual membership was 2/6: 12.5 pence in today's (devalued) money,

January 1970: it was 50p

and in January 1976 it was £1.

  • Issue 25, July 1971 there were 438 members - no names;
  • Issue 26, October 1971 there were 477 members and 17 groups;
  • Issue 44, April 1976 there were 561 members and 22 groups. This issue was the first to have a New members list - perhaps unsurprisingly, there is no-one still on the current list.
  • Issue 52, May 1978 there were 468 members but there was a note that only 272 had paid, so this was likely to be their last Newsletter unless they paid up. Some things don't change!

The Society finds itself in a very strong position just at the moment. The most recent count of the new members shows that we gained 109 in the six months up to 1 July 2016. This compares with 85 new in all of 2015 - 54 new in all of 2014 and 107 new in all of 2013 - itself a very good year.

There are currently 1,200 members, a figure which does not include corporate members. We must be doing something right: John Norman's Ipswich Icons weekly press article, national recognition for one of our great projects in the town, not forgetting the scrutinising mode we seem to have entered into with views on the Cornhill, the Wet Dock crossing and the Northern Fringe; or perhaps it is the Society's greater internet presence via Facebook, Flickr and the great new website.

Celia Waters, Membership Secretary