[Linux-aus] Secretary's report for 2015

[Ian]

Kathy, thanks for your report. Please let me add my thanks for serving our
organisation so well during your terms.

I have enjoyed reading the minutes (who would've believed that I would ever
say that) and keeping in touch with the affairs and activities of LA and
the wider world of Open Source software.

I know the role of Secretary is often a thankless task but a vital role for
an organisation like ours. I appreciate all you have contributed both to us
and behind the scenes and wish you well as you plan for a super conf in
2016.

It is also a good opportunity to add my thanks to those other members of
Council who are not offering themselves up for Election again.


On 14 December 2014 at 08:54, Linux Australia Secretary <
secretary at linux.org.au> wrote:
>
>  Hi everyone,
>
> In preparation for the AGM, and because I'm leaving early to head to NZ
> for what looks like an amazing conference from Cherie, Steve and the team,
> please find att'd my office-bearer report for the role of Secretary,
> current to the time of writing. Your feedback is warmly welcomed, either
> via return email, at the AGM or privately,
>
> With kind regards,
> Kathy
>
> ---
>
> 2014 Linux Australia Office-bearer report: Secretary
>
> Executive summary
>
> 2014 was another successful year for Linux Australia Council. During the
> year, a mailing list policy was developed in conjunction with community
> feedback and subsequently ratified. Social media exposure of Linux
> Australia continued to grow gradually, with the @linuxaustralia Twitter
> account reaching over 900 genuine followers. In addition the day-to-day
> running of Linux Australia proceeded without issue; the organisation was
> again run smoothly, with quorum achieved at all fortnightly meetings,
> ensuring strong and rapid decision making.
>
> Meetings
>
> During 2014, 23 Council teleconferences were held. Quorum was achieved at
> each of them, and minutes were produced and made public generally within a
> week of the conference occurring. Action items were generally tracked well.
>
> The annual face to face meeting was held in early March in Hobart and was
> a particularly useful session for welcoming new Council members Sae Ra and
> Chris, and for outlining the hot topic for the year, including the need for
> a mailing list policy.
>
> Handover activities
>
> This will be my last year in the short-term as Secretary; I am not seeking
> re-election in 2015 due to linux.conf.au 2016 requirements. Therefore I
> have documented the Secretary role within the Council Wiki space to enable
> seamless handover.
>
> Membership
>
> The current membership system, MemberDB has a number of reporting
> inaccuracies. Membership is thus reported as below with duplicates removed
> which is a more accurate estimate of actual members.
>
>
> On 16 January 2014, Linux Australia had 3089 members
> On 29 November 2014 Linux Australia had 3207 members
>
> This represents a yearly growth of around 4% which is steady. Fortnightly
> Council minutes now include membership numbers.
>
> Because member expiry and renewal is not possible with MemberDB, there are
> likely to be significant 'expired' members in MemberDB. Future Councils
> should strongly consider selecting an alternative to MemberDB, which
> although it has served Linux Australia well is now end of life. Some
> preliminary measures have been taken here in articulating a draft
> requirements document.
>
> Future Councils may wish to prioritise the replacement of MemberDB and a
> concomitant update of member details.
>
> Media and communications
>
> The use of Twitter as a key communications channel has continued to grow,
> from 620 followers at the end of 2013 to over 910 as of the time of
> writing. Scheduling tools are used to schedule important announcements
> ahead of time, and current relevant articles are Tweeted as appropriate.
> Other related accounts, such as @linuxconfau – often amplify broadcasts
> made on the @linuxaustralia account.
>
> Figure 1 - @linuxaustralia Twitter account followers by month April 2013 –
> October 2014
>
> Figure 2 and 3 – Response rates and clickthrough rates of key content from
> @linuxaustralia
> Data provided through ThinkUp program
>
> Efforts begun in 2013 to get a newsletter underway stalled this year due
> to available resourcing; this task remains valid and needed and future
> Councils may wish to wrap it up with the MemberDB replacement.
>
>
> Web presence
>
> Linux Australia's web presence remains a key digital property, averaging
> around 4500 page views per calendar month, with peaks and troughs in line
> with the key activity periods of the organisation such as voting, calls for
> linux.conf.au bid cities etc.
>
>
> Figure 4 – page views to linux.org.au over 2014 from Google Analytics
>
> The most popular content on the site remains the introductory information
> around free and open source software, jobs information and information
> about linux.conf.au. Jobs information is a key section of the linux.org.au
> site and is one that future Councils may wish to focus on for additional
> attention or promotion.
> Figure 5 – key statistics on most popular content on linux.org.au
>
> The site itself is somewhat out of date; future Councils may wish to
> consider an upgrade to a more recent version of Drupal, possibly in line
> with a MemberDB replacement.
>
> Handling of correspondence
>
> Linux Australia handled a large volume of correspondence this year,
> including requests for termination of membership, requests for work
> experience, enquiries from like organisations such as LUV and OSIA,
> enquiries from campaigns and related movements (TPPA, EFA etc) and again a
> small volume of support requests. All correspondence was tracked via
> minutes and responded to.
>
> Council handled 1 formal complaint this year in accordance with the
> constitution.
>
> Kathy Reid
> Secretary
> Linux Australia
> December 2014
>
> secretary at linux.org.au
>
> _______________________________________________
> linux-aus mailing list
> linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/linux-aus
>
>

-- 
-- Ian
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