An inevitable challenge arising from the geographical disparity of the CGQL membership has been to find the best way of keeping members informed with what is going on in the Club. The challenge is to marry the means to the content in formats that are most accessible and readable to members as well as offering good value for money.

The Club is now embarking on a complete overhaul of its information dissemination process. This will involve a modification of a number of publications, that while having the objective of reducing the amount of paperwork that is mailed to members, will hopefully increase the availability of information and news to those members who want to receive it.

Quintassential
The first stage in this process is this publication, formally known as the Quarterly Update and now renamed Quintassential. We have enlarged it with more news and club information, and in future it will be issued twice a year, once in the Spring and once in the Autumn. Important features of this publication will be an annual rolling calendar of events, the make-up and changes to Boards and committees of the Club, and the roll call of major prize winners. It is intended these six monthly publications will replace the Yearly Booklet with the advertising from the Booklet being transferred to additional pages in each issue of this publication.

Club Website
We are in the process of expanding the use of the Club website to include the immediate distribution of important  documents. Executive Board minutes are available in PDF format as soon as possible after meetings, as are other items such as Annual Accounts, AGM Minutes etc.In future advance copies of AGM and EGM minutes will be made available on the website but only posted to members along with the Annual Report.  We urge members who currently do not actively use the Club website to do so as there is much information already published. Members who need assistance to access the members only area of the site should contact the office.

Discussion Forums
The process of communication is a two way stream, and it is important to the Directors, Officers, and other committee members that the ideas and concerns of ordinary members are correctly addressed. To this end it is intended to hold two discussion forums, chaired by the Executive Board Chairman, one around Gala Week, and the other around the time of the AGM at which relevant topics can be aired and discussed. Summaries of these discussions and any further updates on the topics raised will be published in the Newsletter with abridged transcripts of questions and answers published on the website.

This article first appeared in Quintassential in July 2005