On Tue, Jan 10, 2006 at 09:25:06PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> At the moment, we have the following candidates (sorted by surname):
Nominations are closed now. Since there aren't any other nominations for
secretary, I'll withdraw my nomination for vice-president. That leaves
the nominees as:
President: Jonathan Oxer (unopposed)
It has been an honour and a fantastic experience to serve as part
of the current Committee. They are an amazing group of people with
extremely diverse talents and viewpoints who don't always agree
on things, but who have nevertheless worked well together for the
overall benefit of Linux Australia. Those seemingly contradictory
attributes of diversity and solidarity characterise the whole Open
Source movement and are something we should be proud of. The members
of the broader FOSS community all come from different backgrounds,
we have different objectives and interests and ideologies, yet we
have managed to cooperate to an amazing degree for collective benefit
of society in general.
In my opinion the success of Linux Australia to date has been one of
the most visible examples of that ideal of diversity yet solidarity. I
can't think of a single national Linux organisation elsewhere in the
world which has matched what LA has achieved in bringing together the
various distributed LUGs, local groups, individuals, and companies,
and giving them an identity and a voice.
I don't say those things in the context of my election spiel in
order to say "look what I've done, elect me again." I'm saying it
to point out that no one person could ever lay claim to what has
been done and what will be done. I certainly can't. It's only by
making ourselves strong as a group and by using Linux Australia to
provide specific resources to help individuals and small groups do
what they do best that we'll continue to see as much success in the
future as we've seen in the past.
In fact this is almost an anti-spiel: I don't want to write about
all the great things I can do for the organisation, because in the
overall scheme of things what I can do personally is trivial. What I
*will* do, if re-elected, is continue to guide the organisation to
providing even more support to the people doing the real work: the
developers, the LCA crew, the various sub-committees, the advocates,
and the educators. As Stewart mentioned in his spiel much of our work
over the last twelve months has been to allow more people to operate
under the LA banner by expanding the scope of our sub-committees. As
a result the number of people performing "official" LA business has
risen significantly and the organisation has been able to reach out
into areas which the Committee just doesn't have the resources for
directly. I hope this can continue and we can collectively achieve
even more in future.
There are specific issues that we need to continue addressing, of
course, such as the burden of financial management, the continuity
of sponsor and speaker relationships for LCA, the division of
governance and execution, the general workload on Committee members,
and building relationships with the press, government and other
organisations. However, all these things have already been mentioned
by other candidates and my feelings on most issues should be fairly
well known already. I'm happy to discuss them publicly so I won't go
into detail on each issue here. Suffice to say that my objective is
to provide the community with a healthy, growing organisation that
provides the resources necessary for the relevant people to solve
each of those problems for our collective benefit.
Jon was nominated by:
Tony Breeds ("Jon has done a gret job of leading LA since election. He
needs to be able to continue the work he has started.")
Leon Brooks ("We all know Jon by now. Steady, no nonsense, pushes
where he needs to.")
Wei-Yee Chan
Jeffery Fernandez
Stewart Smith ("Jon has shown himself to be balanced and have a good
grip of the many views of people as well being
well respected by the community. He has a good
understanding of the issues faced by LA. It
would be good to see him continue in this role to
complete things that he's started and help steer
any refactoring of LA that is needed.")
Mark Tearle
Vice-President: Pia Waugh (unopposed)
I have been involved in Linux Australia for 3 years now, as president
and then vice president. I feel Jon is doing a great job and hope
to continue supporting him as president.
I continue to work closely with Australian Government agencies,
other Australian ICT organisations, and the international FOSS
community organisations to ensure our community has a voice and an
impact. I feel that there is work to be done to encourage enthusiastic
individuals in the community to persue their interests using Linux
Australia as a vehicle. I also feel there is still work to be done
improving our message in Australia and getting FLOSS out to the
masses. I believe Linux Australia is a mechanism that can get us there
with the strong support of our community. Therefore I would like to
accept the nomination for vice president to hopefully continue to
serve the community, to further grow the LA sub-committees, to take
the FLOSS message to the masses in Australia, and to improve and grow
the LA relations with other organisations and Government agencies.
Linux Australia has matured tremendously over the past 3 years
in particular, and it is great to have helped it become more
community driven. I truly feel that we are starting to get somewhere,
particularly when our Government is asking us to comment on ICT and
"IP" policy. Rock on Linux Australia and good luck to everyone in
the election.
Pia was nominated by:
Donna Benjamin ("Pia Waugh has done good things for LA as President
and Vice President. Her contribution to the community
and efforts at increasing the profile and efficacy
of the organisation have enhanced should be noted. I
therefore 2nd her nomination for re-election as
Vice President so that she may continue to be an
effective advocate for Linux in Australia.")
Leon Brooks ("Pia is an invaluable asset, unique in many ways
(just ask Jeff). LA should do all we can with her while
we can. I'm guessing that VP is the highest position
she can be conned into accepting. (-:")
Andrew Donnellan
Silvia Pfeiffer ("Pia is an excellent advocate of the Linux community
and has put much effort into this organisation to
turn it into what is is.")
James Purser ("Over the last three years, Pia has shown her worth
as both President and Vice President. I think the
committee still needs her so here's my nomination.")
Stewart Smith ("Pia has many valuable insights into community
projects and sees potential for interaction with
government. She brings diversity of opinion and new
topics to the table.")
Secretary: Anthony Towns (unopposed)
As secretary, particularly with Mark leaving the committee, I'd be
aiming to focus on keeping LA's records and procedures in shape, and
ensuring the committee and sub-ctte's keep communicating effectively.
Anthony was nominated by:
Leon Brooks ("Anthony's good in most ctte seats, but I think he's
especially good at cutting through the administrative
red tape.")
Andrew Pollock ("I'd like to second Mikal's nomination of AJ. He's
always very level headed, and a wonderful contributor
to the Free and Open Source software community."
Stewart Smith ("He's done a great job in 2005 and would continue to
do so in 2006.")
Michael Still ("Anthony has done a fantastic job in the previous
year. His emails are consise, clear, and timely.")
Treasurer: Alan Harper and Terry Dawson
Alan Harper:
I have nominated myself for Treasurer, as so far I can see noone else
has stepped forward. I have the experience, albeit briefly with LUV
in the second half on 2004 before moving to Queensland. However if a
better candidate than myself steps forward I would happily see them
in this role.
Alan was nominated by:
Alan Harper
Chris Walker ("Alan is keen to assist LA and I feel his enthusiasm
deserves support.")
Terry Dawson:
I'm keen to provide energy and time to ensure the continued success
of Linux Australia. The treasurer role is a position of great
responsibility that I'd take seriously and exercise diligently.
I've had previous experience in treasurer roles and learnt the hard
way the challenges associated with supporting the financial processes
behind events like linux.conf.au when doing same for the inaugural
Austrlian Linux conference: CALU-99.
I consider myself mature and trust-worthy and believe that I'm
deserving of the same consideration by my peers.
Less importantly, but with logistic utility, I'm located in Sydney
within easy reach of the P.O. Box for collection of payments and
invoices.
thank you.
Terry was nominated by:
Anand Kumria ("Terry was the first treasurer of Linux Australia
and were it not for his tenacity in wrestling the
bureauracry of various Tax Offices, Banks and Fair
Trading organisations -- as well as keeping things
organised; Linux Australia would not have had the
sound financial footing it has today. Were it not
for that my later job as treasurer (I succeeded him)
would have been immensely harder.")
Leon Brooks ("Did well in his previous run, I'd like to see him at
least try for the position.")
We have a few more nominees for the three ordinary committee member
positions, so excluding the unopposed candidates above
Ordinary Committee Member nominees: Janet Hawtin Reid, James Purser,
Greg Lehey, Andrew Cowie, Leon Brooks, and Stewart Smith
Janet Hawtin Reid
Hi Folks.
Currently volunteering with Bettong in SA. Hoping to contribute news
from SA and to do more linux desktop ed stuff. Looking forward to
linuxconf and SFD2006.
Cheers and thanks
Janet was nominated by:
Donna Benjamin ("I'd like to second Janet's nomination to the
committee - In deed and action she has proven
herself to be committed and competent and would
add great value to the organisation.")
Pia Waugh ("Janet has been very active in the Linux Australia
community this last year. She designed the icons for the
LA site, she wrote and published loads of great material
for Software Freedom Day, she is an organised, active, and
enthusiastic woman, and I think she would make a fantastic
contribution to the LA committee. Rock on Janet!")
Kylie Willison ("Janet has been instrumental in setting up a new
open source & tech focused 'umbrella group' in
South Australia - Bettong.org. Janet's advocacy,
diplomacy and organisational skills would make her
a great committee member.")
James Purser
Thanks to both Jon and Mark for nominating me. I have been active in
the community for the last six or seven months and in that time I
have started up the LA Updates and taken on the roll of Press Team
leader with the view to better promoting LA and the FOSS community
in general. Being on the committee will help in this role.
James was nominated by:
Leon Brooks ("Putting plenty of energy into the community, would
like to see what he does as an OCM.")
Alan Harper
Jonathan Oxer ("James has shown a great deal of initiative and
enthusiasm with the work he has put into the LA
podcasts and more recently in kick[-start]ing the Press
Team.")
Silvia Pfeiffer ("James is a great Linux advocate and his podcast rocks.")
Mark Tearle
Greg Lehey
I've been actively involved in the Open Source community for well over
ten years, during which time I've covered a lot of the area. As a
software engineer at MySQL AB, I am also in a position to follow the
Open Source path in my "day job". Though I'm probably better known
for my BSD and UNIX actiivity, I've been using Linux for a long
time--I first installed Slackware in about 1993. I strongly believe
in a united community rather than one that is fragmented, and I'd like
to help cement that goal.
Greg was nominated by:
Stephen Rothwell
Martin Schwenke ("Greg is one of the most experienced Open Source
professionals in the country. His BSD experience
will add diversity to LA.")
Andrew Cowie
Very kind of you to nominate me. Having served on LA's board for
three years now, I'd certainly be willing to give up my place to
bring in some fresh blood - but on the other hand Jon has asked me
to stand again, a request to which I will accede.
We've not yet reached the point of sustainability. As often happens
with small incorporated community associations in Australia, we ask
(expect?) too much from individual volunteers, often times burning
them out.
For what it's worth, we've been hammering away at this problem for a
while now, and so the reason I'll stand to re-election is I'd like to
see this through and support Jon as he leads us towards an effective
resolution which will take Linux Australia to the next level.
Regardless of how this election resolves itself, Linux Australia
and its flagship conference linux.conf.au have achieved world class
results, and I would be remiss if I didn't thank the organizers of
conferences past with whom I've had the honour of working, and the
other managing committee members I've had the honour of serving
with. Cheers.
Andrew was nominated by:
Leon Brooks ("Echoing Jon. Andrew's knowledge of corporate rah-de-rah
has saved LA a lot of pain.")
Jonathan Oxer ("Andrew's experience with a variety of organisations
is extremely valuable to LA as the Ctte moves towards
more of an oversight role.")
Stewart Smith ("Andrew has been a valuable member of the committee
for the past three years and brings knowledge and
experience with corporates and non-profits to the
table. He has good vision on how LA could and perhaps
should be operating to ensure success. Even though he
has voiced is willingness to stand down and let new
blood enter the arena - his knowledge and opinions
would be valuable to LA. If not elected, he should
be listened to anyway.")
Mark Tearle
Leon Brooks
<soapbox>
I've been on the LA Committee before -- the first Committee after the
Great Reorganisation -- and I'm valuable primarily for my electronic
loudness, my enthusiasm, and being a Sandgroper (which helps the
Committee-member-in-each-state concept). I also code, although
depressingly seldom these days. I'm a bit reluctant to stand up
alongside so many truly excellent people, but I've been nominated,
and more choice is good. Also, I'm one of the dwindling band who
don't work for Google, MySQL AB or Canonical. (-:
If I have a specific platform, it would be to see Linux more noticed
in a positive way. I calculate that there is already a sufficient
number of shining wits working on the negative side, and some
balance is required. I'd like to expand our membership enormously --
although I think we already have enough people to warrant stretching
the Committee membership numbers -- to include more non-geeks and
to include geeks from different areas of expertise (art geeks,
word geeks, even geeks with guitars).
LA has begun to do some noticeable good in Australia, and I'd like
to see us grow enough members to be taken more seriously by the
Powers That Be when a common issue (like DRM land-grabs, the failing
AUS/US FTA and so on) arises which is really beyond the powers of the
individual to effectively address. LA as a source of expert opinion
for high places has been very useful, and since years of trying to
con Rusty into getting himself elected have come up short, I'd like to
increase LA's effectiveness in the causes he champions for us. "More
people" as an aim by itself is pretty hollow, but Linux and its Open
Source community is growing by leaps and bounds. Every opportunity
to harness and employ this bounty is a golden one, not to be missed.
The penguin moves! (-:
</soapbox>
Leon was nominated by:
Donna Benjamin ("Leon Brooks' contributions to discussion are
reasonable, thoughtful and constructive. He offers
frequent insight, with humour. These would be
valuable traits for a committee member, I'm happy
to 2nd his nomination.")
Andrew Donnellan
Jonathan Oxer ("Leon is a respected and consistently active member
of the community as well as being a past LA Committee
member.")
James Purser ("Leon has always struck me as someone who knows what
they are doing so I thought I would give him
nomination.")
Stewart Smith
Over the past year we have made great progress in streamlining the
operations of LA. Our committee is now meeting more effectively,
getting decisions made and acted upon while taking up less time. This
is partly due to only holding formal meetings when needed while
having a weekly teleconference for a chat. Both things I supported
and have rallied for previously.
We have made sure that we support those outside of the committee
wanting to contribute to LA. In the past we learnt that having
the committee being both the governing and executive arm of
the organisation didn't work. Especially this year we saw great
progress in having people feel comfortable doing things under the
LA banner when they're not on committee while feeling they were
getting recognition and support. This is a good thing and although
it seems like the obvious thing to do, is more tricky to get right
than you'd think.
We need to address the problem of burnout - we should not have any LA
volunteers suffering burnout due to expecting too much from them. We
are getting better at this - but still have some way to go. I would
like to continue to try and solve this problem.
We still have upcoming challenges that require thought and solid
leadership and governance. Our most concerning one is how we manage
our finances. It has become abundantly clear that there is too much
work for one treasurer (or even two, including the LCA treasurer). We
need hired professional help. To do that we *must* be able to afford
it and work effectively with them. We must also take steps to ensure
we always have a good treasurer. By the end of 2006, my aim is to
greatly reduce the strain on the treasurer and put the committee in
a position where there is better awareness of our current financial
situation at any time and make the future easier to plan for.
Last, and certainly not least is linux.conf.au. We need to ensure
that the current quality of LCA is sustainable. To do that we need
to improve relationship with sponsors. We probably need to have a
single person in charge of LA-Sponsor relations. We need to fix
relationships with smaller sponsors (SMEs - local, national and
international) and not neglect the local business community. This has
been a trouble area and it's something that needs to be fixed. I have
spent time talking to people about this to understand the problem,
and this is something I aim to solve in 2006.
We need to better manage budget and finances by improving LA-LCA
communication and integrating LCA with our aim of having an accountant
help us with the accounts. This will help us better plan for the
future and make LCA run more cost effectively.
We should work to improve LCA-speaker relations, possibly by (again)
having a separate speaker liason role. This will possibly come in
for 2007 already, but it is something that does seem to make a lot
of sense to me.
Most importantly we need ensure that we do not eventually burn out
every potential team in every city. We need to better understand this
potential problem before we go around "fixing" it - and understanding
it is something I plan to do.
My aim for 2006 is to make LA a better managed organisation achieving
more and putting less stress on those involved. I ask you to help
me with this goal by electing me to the 2006 LA committee.
(For those who don't know: I have served on the LA committee for
three years - both as VP and an OCM. I live in Melbourne and work
for MySQL AB hacking on MySQL Cluster)
Stewart was nominated by:
Leon Brooks ("Has been consistently useful to/with/for LA from
Day One, even down to details like the cheese knife. Not
afraid to voice a conflicting opion, and very good
at peacefully resolving any disputes which arise as
a result.")
Jonathan Oxer ("Stewart has been a stalwart member of the Ctte and
has strong ideas on how the organisation should
continue to grow.")
Nominations are ordered by surname, candidates are ordered according to
length of spiel :) Apologies in advance if any transcription mistakes
that may have made it in.
Note that votes open in a week, and run for a week that is from the 18th
'til the 24th inclusive. See the election page (login required), at:
http://www.linux.org.au/membership/?page=view-election&id=7
Cheers,
aj
--
Anthony Towns <secretary@linux.org.au>
Secretary, Linux Australia
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