How “small” is “small”?

My copy of the Club magazine dropped through the door this morning.

I notice, in the Treasurer’s report within the AGM report (page 88), that membership made a “small drop” last year. In the same sentence it is also said that income had risen by £124k to £13.6M thanks to a £1 increase in membership fees.

The way I do my sums is as follows:

Assume that the membership fee was £44 in the year being reported;

<1> Last year (M-L) members X £44 fee raised £13,600,000, where M is the previous number of members and L is the loss since then;

<2> In the previous year M members X £(44–1) fee raised £(13,600-124)k = £13,476,000;

From <1> you can determine that (M-L) = 309,091;

From <2> you can determine that M = 313,395;

In other words, membership fell from 313,395 to 309,091 over the year;

Taking <1> from <2>, the change, L, was 4,304;

If I am right, that’s a drop of nearly 14%.

In my reckoning that’s not a “small” drop, it’s a significant one.

On the other hand, the uplift in income of £124k was a rise of less than one percent (of £13.6M).

Now that’s what I’d call “small”.