Communications Subcommittee Annual Report 2026

By Sarah Fogg, Communications Subcommittee Convenor, from Bulletin 6/2026 (August)

Many people are involved in the business of the Society’s communications with its members, stakeholders and the public.

Our specific communication aims are to:

• communicate the Society’s vision for Glebe to members, residents of Glebe, and the wider community including decision-makers in local and state government;
• engender public support for achieving the Society’s objectives, particularly in the areas of heritage, community and environment; and
• encourage membership of the Society and participation in its activities.

As Communications Convenor I attend Management Committee meetings.

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

Our standout most viewed item is our Panorama of Sydney 1873 video on YouTube produced for our 50th anniversary event in 2019. It has had over 260,000 views, far more than any of our other communications products. (It contains many views of Glebe as well as central Sydney.)

Glebe Society Bulletin

During the year ending June 2026, I was the Bulletin Editor, except for the April and May 2026 editions for which Tim Hesketh acted as Editor. We were assisted by a team of proofreaders, Emily Booker, Alex Byrne, Lyn Collingwood and Helena Klijn; Tarny Burton who managed the distribution of the Bulletin email; and Virginia Simpson-Young who created the website posts of the Bulletin articles.

Thanks to all the contributors to the Bulletin, without whom there would be no Bulletin! Mary Regan manages the In Focus monthly photo competition and Wayne Carveth the monthly mystery photo.

Phil Young undertook the distribution of President’s Updates, emailed to members between Bulletins.

In August 2025 we undertook a survey to ask members what they wanted more of, or less of, in the Bulletin, their ideas for new topics and so on.

Overall satisfaction was high with 60% saying they were very satisfied, and 38% expressing only slightly lower levels of satisfaction. Respondents particularly valued articles about what the Society is doing – our advocacy, events, decisions made, submissions made, the work of the subcommittees – as well as potential impacts on the liveability of Glebe/Forest Lodge relating to the three focus areas of the Society’s work: community, environment and heritage. It was suggested that some articles, especially longer ones, should appear in full only on the website, with a short mention in the Bulletin.

The Management Committee asked for a Communications Strategic Plan to guide decision-making about future options, taking into account our communication objectives, the feedback from members received in the Bulletin survey, and the resource implications (financial and volunteer time) of the various options. Following this it was decided to stop producing a print version of the Bulletin at the end of 2025, and to reduce the overall length and maximum length of articles. It was decided to engage a paid graphic designer to refresh and do the layout of the Bulletin pdf each month. We engaged Hayley Tierney, a recent graduate from Enmore Design School, initially on a 6-month basis.

Website

Our website was visited by 40,400 active users in the 12 months to June 2026, about 30% up on the previous 12 months. About 70% find us as a result of a general search (e.g. through Google) and 25% go directly to our site.

Arising out of the Communications Strategic Plan it was also decided to continue the process of overhauling the main website: glebesociety.org.au. To date, Phase 1 of the overhaul has been completed, Phase 2 is about to commence (July 2026) and a Phase 3 is anticipated to complete the work. The aim of the overhaul is to make the website easier to navigate and find existing information, to upgrade its look and feel, and to remove redundant pages and functions. Also to simplify the website (without losing any valuable information) to make life easier for the TGS volunteers who are responsible for maintaining it.

Tarny Burton is our website administrator and technical adviser and has been engaged to undertake the overhaul. During the year we also had to do several minor backend upgrades to ensure the websites and the membership application/ renewal forms kept working. In March this year we changed from Mailchimp to MailerLite as the platform for mailing out the Bulletin email.

We also decided to enhance our social media presence and activity but have only taken baby steps in this direction so far.