GMD 4 celebrates 30 years of producing its newsletter "The Water Table", which incidentally was the first water-related newsletter in the state of Kansas. I recall as a brand new groundwater manager suggesting to the district directors that we initiate a newsletter on a quarterly basis to keep the membership and state players informed and to solicit the ideas and comments of those we were intending to regulate. Their response was positive so long as the funding for the first year came from non-district funds - as our budget had already been set and did not include such funds. I beat the bushes and came up with the $1,200 it would take to put out 4 editions. And the rest is history.Today the newsletter is 6 editions per year and looks quite a bit different, but the basic content and goals have changed little. The budget for last years newsletter was approximately $7,800 - an expenditure the board has unwaveringly supported. I have written every edition, but have had guest articles from time to time dealing with specific issues. (I have to always chuckle about the "missing edition" - one I completely forgot about and missed completely (although to this day I'm not sure anyone noticed)) As the various editions are reviewed, it strikes me that they represent a fairly detailed history of groundwater activity in Kansas - at least from 1978 to present. Of this I am most proud - although I admit it never crossed my mind at the start.
The last 30 or so editions are maintained on our website http://www.gmd4.org/ should anyone be interested. We send out about 4,800 copies each edition with copies going to many states and even one reader receiving his copy in London. Maybe all this writing is one reason that my blogging is not as prolific as others in the water sector who manage to turn out prodigious amounts of material - you know who you are! As always, if there are suggestions out there for improving our product, I'm always open and listening.
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