[Linux-aus] Linux Australia News for May 2011

[Mary Gardiner]

(This is the newsletter formerly known as Council Update and formerly formerly
known as President's Reports.)

Hi,

Welcome to the Linux Australia News for May 2011. If you have any general news
or update on a project you are working on that would be of general interest to
the greater Linux Australia community then please send a quick email to
council at linux.org.au and we will endeavour to include it in future updates.

News this month:
 * Volunteering for Linux Australia
 * LCA2013
 * PyCon AU 2011
 * WordCamp Gold Coast
 * Drupal Downunder 2012
 * WordCamp Melbourne
 * Policy Work
 * Special General Meetings
 * Donations and Grants
 * Community News

# Volunteering for Linux Australia

We would like to form a media subcommittee of Linux Australia, to develop a
relationship with the media so that Linux Australia is more visible and vocal
on issues that are important to us, including issuing releases and responding
to press enquiries  If you would like to be on the media subcommittee, please
email council at linux.org.au

# LCA2013

Bidding for LCA2013 has closed. We received a bid from Canberra which will be
assessed later in the year; details of their bid are available at
http://lca2013.clug.org.au/ Thank you Canberra!

# PyCon AU 2011

Tim Ansell writes:

After a week extension the PyCon AU 2012 call for papers closed last week. Many
excellent papers where received are now being reviewed, we will definitely have
a stellar line up!

The first two PyCon AU keynote speakers have been announced. Raymond Hettinger
a core Python developer and the driving force behind many new language features
(such as  set objects, the collections and itertools modules, and generator
expressions!) and Mary Gardiner a PhD candidate at Macquarie University whose
main interest is computational linguistics. Another keynote speaker is yet to
come, so stay tuned!

A great lineup of sponsors have also been announced including Gold sponsors
Google, Microsoft and ComOps! More information about all our sponsors can be
found at http://pycon-au.org/2011/sponsors/ Sponsors help make PyCon AU
affordable for everyone, so we welcome their support.

# WordCamp Gold Coast

Council approved a proposal for a sub-committee to organise the WordCamp Gold
Coast conference http://2011.goldcoast.wordcamp.org/ on the first weekend of
November this year and will support WordCamp Gold Coast with financial
infrastructure and insurance.

The sub-committee membership is Brent Shepherd, Dion Hulse, Bronson Quick and
Lachlan MacPherson.

# Drupal Downunder 2012

Peter Lieverdink writes:

Drupal Downunder 2012 has confirmed its venue and is proud to be able to
announce its first sponsors. PreviousNext (Platinum) and Google (Silver). Work
on the website at http://drupaldownunder.org/ is coming along nicely and the
team are working toward opening the call for papers next month.

# WordCamp Melbourne

WordCamp Melbourne posted a wrap-up report for their successful event at
http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2011-May/018851.html Linux
Australia treasurer Josh Hesketh also posted a complete profit and loss
statement at http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2011-May/018852.html

# Policy Work

Mike Carden led discussion of a Values statement for Linux Australia. This
values statement was accepted by Council on 12th May and can be found at
http://www.linux.org.au/values . The statement is not a binding policy on
members, it is intended rather as a guide to Linux Australia’s decision-making.

Capturing something as individual and important as values in a shared way was
ambitious, but we are pleased that as a community we have enough in common to
articulate some shared principles. Thanks to everyone for their contributions
and ideas.

Especial thanks to Elspeth Thorne for doing the first work on the values
statement in 2010 and to Mike for the 2011 drafts and leading the discussion.

The sub-committees policy http://wiki.linux.org.au/Ctte/SubcommitteePolicy and
the expenses policy http://wiki.linux.org.au/Ctte/ExpensesPolicy were approved
by the Council on 31st March and are now in effect.

Remaining policies to be discussed with the community over coming months are:

    Donations, Grants, Financials
    Diversity
    Anti-harassment
    Lists / planet

# Special General Meetings

Two Special General Meetings of Linux Australia are planned for the next few
months.

The first SGM will be held in June and the 2010 Treasurer’s report and the
auditor’s report on the 2010 accounts will be presented for approval at this
meeting. This SGM will be held online.

Following discussion of constitutional changes on the mailing list, Council
intends to announce an in-person SGM to present and vote on these changes. This
SGM will be held in July 2011, members will be notified when the date, venue
and agenda are finalised. We are arranging remote viewing and online voting
during the meeting will be possible: members who cannot vote at that time will
be able to vote by proxy.

# Donations and Grants

 1. BarCamp Gold Coast’s request for $200 was accepted but Steve Dalton later
    elected not to accept this grant, having found alternative sources of funding.
 2. Linux Australia will host secondary DNS for Linux Users Victoria and
    extends this offer to other user groups if needed.
 3. A sponsorship request for PHPConAu is still under discussion by Council.

# Community news

The Open Source Developers Conference will be held at Australian National
University, Canberra, in the week starting 14 November 2011.
http://2011.osdc.com.au/

At the end of March the Sydney Linux Users Group passed a motion to wind up
their incorporated association and request to become a sub-committee under
Linux Australia Council. This process hasn’t started yet however, and SLUG
remains a separate entity for now.
http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/activities/2011/03/msg00012.html
http://wiki.slug.org.au/2011egmminutes 

# Next edition

To submit news, including community news or volunteer positions within Linux
Australia, to the next Linux Australia News please email council at linux.org.au

# Previous editions

See http://www.linux.org.au/news for previous editions.

Linux Australia Council