[Linux-aus] Linux Australia council elections

[James Iseppi]

Hi All,

Thank you to those who have nominated me to continue as a member of the Linux Australia Council.

It has been an interesting, productive and rewarding year on the council, and I am happy to continue in a role on the council if I am elected.

The critical challenges the council faces are largely around finding resources to achieve outcomes for the organisation. From that perspective I believe it is important that council focuses on enabling others within the community to do great work and that we minimise reliance on individuals within the council to achieve those outcomes. Kathy's work on Inflection point and the contributions that have followed are great examples of what I think Council needs to foster. This means we need to improve our engagement with the broader Linux Australia community and enable them to achieve the outcomes that the organisation needs. If that means delegating responsibilities to sub-committees, outsourcing work that we can't find volunteers for, or helping people to get ideas off the ground starting from a conversation on the mailing list, then that is what I believe needs to occur.

With the growth of PyCon-AU and other non-linux related conferences organised by Linux Australia, I think a push towards rebranding is necessary, but equally I don't want to risk the goodwill associated with our current brand for a yet unproven new brand. That makes me very interested in the co-branding proposal by AJ, and I hope he is willing to help push that proposal forward from outside the council, given he does not appear to have accepted his nomination. I can see it being the start of revitalising the organisation and potentially changing the brand, but it is critical that this is driven by the community and not by the council, otherwise we will again run into the issues of burnout.

Finally I hope that all of those who do not get elected to council, will continue to drive the conversation where they believe it needs to go, because without that, there will be no change.

Thanks
James Iseppi