Sarah Fogg, Convenor, Bulletin 8/2025, October

I assumed the role of Communications Convenor in October 2024 and as such I attend Management Committee meetings. The communications group comprises many people, each playing a vital role in managing the Society’s communications with its members, stakeholders and the public.

The Glebe Society Bulletin Mockup 2024

Our main communications tools are the Glebe Society Bulletin produced 10 times per year, our main website, and the President’s Update emails. We also have three other websites: Glebe Island Bridge, Glebe Self-Guided Walks and the 50th Anniversary website. The latter is a treasure trove of information about Glebe, Forest Lodge and the history of the Society itself. We have a YouTube channel and several social media accounts although we have not been active on social media this year.

Glebe Society Bulletin

The Bulletin is distributed both as a digital and print document (in pdf format) and as individual articles on our website. Approximately 50 complimentary copies are sent to local politicians and councillors, local organisations, schools and sister organisations. Around 60 people receive print copies, distributed by hand or mail.

During the year ending June 2025, Virginia Simpson-Young was the Bulletin Editor. She was assisted by Tarny Burton who managed the distribution of the Bulletin by Mailchimp email, and me, who created the website posts of the Bulletin articles. We have a team of proofreaders – Alex Byrne, Lyn Collingwood, Helena Klijn and Emily Booker. Also a team who distribute the print copies – Jude Paul, Phil Young, Mary Pollard, Helena Klijn, Dave McMillan, Mark Gorta, Mark Stapleton and Lyn Milton.

Thanks also to all the regular contributors to the Bulletin. During the year Mary Regan took on the job of managing the In Focus monthly photo competition. Phil Young undertook the distribution of President’s Updates, sent to members between Bulletins.

Around 70% of Bulletin Mailchimp emails are opened each month. This means that around 30% of recipients don’t open the email, although it’s possible that some of these also receive a print copy, so perhaps are reading that instead.

Anecdotal feedback about the Bulletin has been generally very positive, but we decided to examine this in more detail through a member survey (in August 2025). During the year we simplified the format of the Bulletin email as it had been proving too time-consuming and we no longer include links to individual articles on the website in the Bulletin email (articles are instead posted a week or so later). We are continuing to review the process of producing the Bulletin to ensure it is sustainable, and will take the survey results into account in doing that. The question of whether to continue producing a print version is also under consideration and we would value members’ feedback on this (to editor@glebesociety.org.au).

Website

Our website was visited by 30,500 users in the 12 months to June 2025, about the same as in the previous 12 months. About 70% find our website as a result of a general search (e.g. through Google) and 25% go directly to our site. Not surprisingly, the home page is the most popular page. We continue to get a small but steady stream of comments on individual articles on the website. This is on top of enquiries that website users send us on a wide range of topics, through ‘Contact Us’. The traffic to our other sites is much more modest.

Tarny Burton is our website administrator and technical adviser. We decided this year that we needed to budget for some ongoing website administration and maintenance, on top of the work that she does on a voluntary basis. This year we have also started a project to undertake a series of updates to the website as the site has been difficult for navigation and searches. We engaged Tarny to review and update the search function so that it now produces much more meaningful and useful results. Give it a try!

A huge thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Glebe Society’s communications, especially to Virginia who was Bulletin Editor for more than 10 years