The brief, the archive and the research.

One email a week, sent to every member: what prices did, what moved in policy, what other members are doing, and what closes this fortnight. It is written to be read in five minutes on a Monday morning by somebody who has already been up for four hours.

It is the thing members mention second, after the credential ladder, when asked what they would miss. The whole archive sits behind it and is open to members from the first day.

Check the junk folder first — that is the answer nine times in ten, and adding the sender to your address book fixes it permanently. Then check that the address on your account is the one you still use; a change of employer is the second commonest cause.

The issue is in the archive within a few hours of sending either way, so you have not missed it. If two in a row have gone astray, tell memberservices@morecheese.org and they will look at the delivery log rather than guess.

Every issue of the brief since the Federation started publishing it. Every competition score sheet, by category and by year. Everything the Federation has filed in a comment period, with the member comments that went into the packet. And every recorded session and webinar, kept indefinitely rather than expiring after 90 days.

It is searchable, and it is the single most under-used member benefit. Members who find it tend to find it eighteen months in, by accident.

The blog, all of it, with no login. The six competition category standards, because a standard nobody can read is not a standard. The Cheese Library. And the summary of anything the Federation has filed publicly.

The brief archive, the score sheets and the session recordings are for members.

Yes, and it is gathered on the research and publications page: the annual production and consumption assessment, the trade and regulatory reviews, the consumer preference work, and the longer analytical pieces the committees commission when an argument needs settling with data.

Members get everything as it is published. Non-members can buy the individual reports; the summaries and the methodology notes are open to everyone.

There are three legitimate routes: sponsor an event, take space in the publications, or take part in the organization floor at the Annual Conference. Affiliate members get first refusal on event sponsorship, which is one of the reasons that tier exists.

Rates and the media pack come from advertising@morecheese.org. What is not a route is the organization directory: it is for professional contact, and using it as a marketing list breaches the terms every member agrees to.

Quote it freely with attribution — that is what it is for, and members reprinting a brief item in their own newsletter is a compliment rather than a problem. Reproducing a whole report or a score sheet set needs a note to Communications first, mostly so that we can point you at the current version.

The competition category standards may be reproduced in full by anyone, including non-members. A standard that cannot be circulated does not do its job.

No, deliberately. We do not endorse products, approve vendors or guarantee anyone’s work, because the moment we did, the list would be worth gaming.

What we have instead is the organization directory, where the laboratories, distributors and suppliers in membership list what they do and where they are. Filter it by activity and region, then do your own diligence. The directory page explains how it works.

In the members’ archive, filed by year and by category, from the first competition onward. Entrants get their own sheets whether or not they placed, which is the point of judging to a published standard rather than to a taste.

The category standards themselves are public, on the compete page.