In the minutes from the initial "preliminary meeting" of the Serbian Chemical Society held on November 27th, 1897 one finds that "all Serbian chemists living in Belgrade" met in the building of the State Chemical Laboratory, which would mean that there were only 11 chemists in Belgrade at the time.  On the draft of the invitation to the meeting, beside the names of the 12 invited persons, there are also the following names: Helih, Dokic, Antula, Dobrosav Urosevic, Antic, Ranko Petrovic, Borislav Todorovic, Milan Jovanovic, photographer, Mih. Blagojevic and Panajotovic.  Why these persons were not invited to attend the initial meeting, is not known.  Were those persons not in Belgrade on that day, or were some of them not chemists in the true sense of the word, as was the case, for example, with Antula, a mining geologist, or Milan Jovanovic, a photographer, or Mih. Blagojevic, a metallurgist, so for that reason they were not invited, it is very difficult to say. As for the number of chemists when the Society was being founded, one might say, taking into consideration the high schools of Serbia before the Kumanovo Battle, the Military Plants in Kragujevac and the Gun Powder Plant in Obillcevo, that there could not have been more than 30 chemists. In the report about the activities of the Serbian Chemical Society from 1904 to 1913, there is a note saying that the number of members of the Society to 1914 was 23-28.  The full fist of members of the Society was announced in 1931, and it contained 149 names.

The sudden drop in the number of members in 1939 was due to changes in the rules of the Society, made in 1938, according to which only chemists and technologists that were Yugoslav citizens with a recognized university diploma could become regular Society members.
After revitalizing the activities of the Society after the Second World War, the first data concerning membership dates from 1947 and quotes that the Society had 139 members.

It can be seen that the number of members increased till 1958, then, compared to previous years, it decreased in 1958, 1959, 1963, 1967, 1968 and in 1980. The decrease in the number of members regularly occurred in the years when attempts were made to resume contact with members and to implement more regular payment of membership dues. The founding of new Affiliates and the development of the Chemical Society of Vojvodina made verification of the membership lists more difficult.

At the time when the Serbian Chemical Society was being founded, the Serbian Medical Society, the Serbian Pharmaceutics Society and the Serbian Geological Society already existed in Serbia. From their histories one can see that they were founded in order to promote science and their profession and to protect their own interests. It went without saying that members of the Serbian Medical Society and Pharmaceutical Society were certified doctors and pharmacists, as is the case all over the world.

The Serbian Chemical Society had a different development in that respect. At the second meeting of the Society, held on December 4th, 1897 the tasks of the Society were passed in seven articles. Among them there is no record on how to become a member of the Society, whereas the task of the Society which reads: "Organization of the status of Serbian chemists," article 7, indicates that the Society wanted to deal with professional questions of chemists in Serbia.  In practice the Society began working, without any governing body, or President, and without any rules, having regular meetings once or twice a month.  As can be seen from the minutes of the first 60 meetings, they dealt mostly with scientific and technical chemical problems, solving practical questions on teaching chemistry, while discussing professional questions only in some separate cases

It was only at the 57th meeting of the Society held on February 28th, 1906 that one finds in the basic regulations under article 3 "Members of the Society can become all those dealing with any branch of chemistry, or with any science to which chemistry is an auxiliary science," and under article 3 "who wishes to become a member of this Society, applies to the Administrative Committee, or through sonic of the members, communicates his wish to join the Society. The Society decides on acceptance at its regular meetings." From these quotations it can be seen that the admission to membership, if chemistry was concerned, was put very broadly, and that the previous education of the future members was no condition for joining the Society.  And indeed, members of the Society from those old times were not only chemists but also geologists and mineralogists, as, for example, chemists were members of the Serbian Geological Society.

A great chance concerning the membership was introduced by the new rules of the Society in 1927. This rules implies that members of the Society can become "only those who have completed university study or have graduated from a college where chemistry was the main subject." Obviously the new post-war generation, in a new country, desired in some way, a more elite society, and to be a member of the Society would have meant to be privileged. This wish was even more emphasized by the changes in the Society rules, carried out in 1938, according to which every chemist and technologist, that was a Yugoslav citizen, with a recognized university diploma could become a member of the Society. It is quite possible that these limitations have something to do with the influence of other environments of the new country, such as for example, the influence of the Yugoslav Chemical Society from Zagreb.  Such policy regarding the members lasted from 1927 till the beginning of the Second World War.  In the new rules passed in 1945, in the spirit of the tradition of the Serbian Chemical Society, article 7 of the Rules reads: "A regular member of the Society can become any person on the ground of the facts presented in the application form for membership. The person must be nominated by two regular members and the nomination will he accepted by the Administrative Committee at its meetings."Therefore, the narrow professional scope was abolished, and people who were fond of chemistry and interested in it, were allowed to become members of the Society.  By later new rules or statutes, this was even more emphasized and nowadays articles 28 and 29 read: "A Member of the Serbian Chemical Society can be any person who is interested in professional and research work in the fields of chemistry, chemical technology and other related fields" that is, "a person who wants to become a member of the Society applies for admission to the Administrative Committee. The Committee decides about the admission of every member individually."
Being a member of the Society does not provide any privilege or protection, but only obligations and requests for voluntary work and self-sacrifice. Such a member-society relationship, which is exclusively the result of the love for chemistry in the broadest sense and for the Society in particular, has not only become one of the greatest traditional sanctities, but it is undoubtedly the main reason for successfully realizing all the important assignments of the Society.

It is then easy to understand why the Society has never excluded anybody from its membership because of an unpaid membership fee or because it was not possible for a member to carry out all his/her tasks. The particulars about the number of members of the Society, especially in recent years, cannot be trustworthy because a great number of chemists, chemical technologists and metallurgists mainly of the younger and middle generation, have left Serbia, and the living standard has dropped especially among teachers and professors.  Undoubtedly, the number of active members of the Society has been considerably reduced, which can be seen from the subscriptions to the Journal and the Chemical Review and also from registration fees for participating in scientific and professional meetings. Moving energetically along the rough path of returning to the world, the Serbian Chemical Society is fully aware of having to improve contacts with its members by applying, foremost the benefits of the new information era and, especially, developing the wish of young pupils, students and scientific and professional workers to join the Society and accept its traditional way of working which is without any doubt the best guarantee of exceptionally successful activities.

Counting all the active and inactive members, as well as those who have left the country, one can say that at this moment, when the Society celebrating 100 years of its existence, the number of members could be about 3000. Taking into consideration the records about paying subscriptions to publications, however, the Society keeps permanent contact with only about 700 members.

The need for the Society to extend its thanks and appreciation to all those who by their voluntary and hard work enabled the Society to perform its activities, was felt already after a dozen years of work. Unfortunately, the facts from that time were destroyed in the fire of war and the only written document that could be found is that Prof. Sima Lozanic had been named Honorary President before 1922. Aware of how significant it is to give credit to students and young researchers, but also to experienced professors, successful experts and the best scholars working in the field of chemistry, chemical technology, metallurgy and chemical engineering, for the successful development of chemistry, the Society, no matter whether they were in close contact with it or not, gave them medals.