[Linux-aus] Council Meeting 2011-02-17

[John Ferlito]

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 01:05:02AM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 08:11, Peter Lieverdink <me at cafuego.net> wrote:
> > Values statement (drafted, but unfinished?)
> > John will share Elspeths document with Kelly and Mary as well.
> 
> Has this been posted to this list?

No it is a work in progress and will be posted to the list for
discussion before anything goes up on a website etc. 

> 
> > Diversity policy and harassment policy
> > Visit this at face to face and sort it once and for all.
> 
> Gradual improvements sound much more achievable than "once and for all"...

Yes agreed. All our policy documents are always going to be works in
progress.

> > Budget progress (follows on from the Ada Initiative discussion, but now broader)
> > Accountants are preparing the accounts for an audit. When done we can call an SGM and get it approved.
> 
> Uh, it'd be nice to actually see the figures before an SGM. There
> should presumably be draft figures available if there's going to be an
> audit. (Why is there going to be an official audit, rather than the
> usual open source one of just making the draft public by sending it to
> this list?)

Figures will be sent to the list before the SGM. We are still waiting
for the accountant to prepare the documents for the audit.

As Mary mentioned earlier, under the new changes to NSW associations
law, we now need an official audit since we have revenues of more than
$250k.

> > Donation to Ada Initiative: amount and timing
> > Michael proposes LA donate $5k to the Ada Initiative
> > Seconded by John
> > The motion was carried with one abstention.
> 
> In the past, we've encouraged requests of cash for up to $1k to be
> sent to this list for public comment before agreeing to them; it seems
> a bit odd to be paying out more than that with less review, especially
> when one it looks like it's going directly to one of the council
> members...

This particular instance wasn't a grant. When word started popping up
about TIA. I spoke to other council members about Linux Australia
helping get it kick started. These discussion took place well before
Mary was a member of the council.

> (It seems more useful to me to name anyone abstaining, since at least
> historically they've done that to explicitly avoid conflicts of
> interest or the appearance thereof. Anonymous abstentions don't really
> achieve that..)

That's a good point. The abstention was not meant to be anonymous. In
this particular case it was Mary. I'll ask Pete to make note of the
actual person for any obstentions in future minutes.

> Also, given John's response when I asked about this a couple of weeks
> ago was "Details will come in due course. We need to put a budget
> together for this year before we can make a final decision. Watch this
> space!", I guess that means you've got a budget for this year ready
> that you can mail to the list?

This decision mainly hinged on the expected profit for LCA this year.
We have heard back from the team that things aren't nearly as dire as
initially thought and that we did not have significant cost overruns
due to flooding. The budget for the year will be on of the things we
intend to focus on at the Face to Face meeting.

> > HackerSpace Melbourne
> > HackerSpaces have decided to incorporate and will not become a subcommittee.
> > The council has agreed to hold a cash donation in escrow for HackerSpaces.
> 
> Is that a donation from LA's general funds; a specific donation that's
> already been made to LA for some reason, or possible future donations,
> or something else?

This minute probably needed a little more detail. Hackerspace are
receiving a donation from a third party, but don't have bank accounts
etc yet to put it in and there are time constraints around the
donation. They asked if we could hold on to the donation for them
until they have that all sorted out.

Cheers,
John

-- 
John
Blog                             http://www.inodes.org
LCA2011                          http://www.lca2011.org.au