[Linux-aus] Nominating for President in 2018

[Ian]

Hello Kathy, I support your nomination, I think it would be great for Linux
Australia to have you in the role again.
I sincerely thank you for your passion and dedication to LA that you have
shown in the President's role and in previous roles.

I must question this opening statement and seek your clarification:
"We've almost completed a rebrand of the organisation, the outputs of which
will then be applied to new web and membership systems next year, if I'm
re-elected."

Umm, please feel free to correct me but the work that has been done so far
will very likely continue with the new Committee, whether you are on it or
not. Yes?

Maybe you were suggesting that you would continue to push this process
forward if re-elected which I fully support. But that isn't how it reads at
present.

Good luck to you and all nominees for this election.


On 5 December 2017 at 12:33, Kathy Reid via linux-aus <
linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I am nominating for President of Linux Australia in 2018.
>
> Over 2017, I've been incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to lead
> a dedicated, professional, committed and high-performing team in Council.
> As a team, we have had rigourous debate on a number of issues internally,
> but have strived to provide a united face as the leadership of Linux
> Australia, supported incredibly by several subcommittees.
>
> We've delivered a number of key outcomes.
>
> We've almost completed a rebrand of the organisation, the outputs of which
> will then be applied to new web and membership systems next year, if I'm
> re-elected. We've breathed new life into our Grants Programme, which saw
> around $AUD 35k distributed to multiple worthwhile projects, including
> Womens Wednesday's at Ballarat Hackerspace, sponsorship of diversity and
> inclusion initiatives, such as VALA Tech Camp, and cross-pollinating open
> source with other disciplines, such as with bioinformatics - through
> STEMformatics. We've provided behind-the-scenes support for a number of
> events - although our involvement has largely been hands off - ensuring
> infrastructure like bank accounts and seed funding are in place. We've
> welcomed Linux Users Victoria as a subcommittee, helping to reduce their
> administrative overheads, and focus on what they do best - bringing
> together the Linux and open source community in Melbourne and surrounds.
> We've liaised and started to build relationships with other relevant
> organisations in Australia and abroad - such as through our WordPress MoU -
> although there is much work still to do here. We've also done the boring
> administrivia that ensures our established processes run smoothly - in
> building a pipeline for future linux.conf.au and ensuring we do forward
> budget planning, that we have insurance coverage, that we're complying with
> Fair Trading NSW law, and that our bills are paid on time. We've also made
> strong efforts to communicate our activities this year - providing space
> and opportunity for feedback, criticism and dialogue. Thank you to those
> who have taken that opportunity - while we may not have always solved an
> issue, feedback helps us ensure we're in alignment with the wishes of the
> Linux Australia community.
>
> We've had our challenges.
>
> Striking the balance between freedom of expression, and creating an
> environment where *all* open source practitioners, developers and users
> feel welcomed remains a challenge. Sometimes we get that balance right, and
> sometimes we need to work harder to shift the pendulum. While we have more
> diversity of genders attending Linux Australia events, this is nowhere near
> parity. And our community is overwhelmingly white - which is not reflective
> of the diversity in Australia - not just diversity of ethnicity - but
> diversity of viewpoints, diversity of thinking, diversity of approaches.
> Together we do better.  We're also challenged by capacity. A 7-person
> volunteer Council puts in tens of hours per week just to "keep things
> running" - one of the reasons that some of the goals for this year have
> been delayed (web refresh and new member database). We need to be realistic
> about what we can achieve with an entirely voluntary leadership team, and a
> revenue model that is based entirely on volunteer efforts. We do not want
> to see burnout in our community or in Council.
>
> Why me?
>
> It would be easy to say "well, no-one else is silly enough to put up their
> hand", but this would insult those whose steps I've followed - Hugh, and
> Josh, and John, and James, and Stewart, and Jon, and Pia, and Anand, and
> Terry. You shouldn't nominate me, or vote for me because there's no one
> else. You should vote for me because you have confidence in my ability to
> lead, and you believe in the direction I want to take us in. If there are
> others with other directions and visions - great - we benefit from a
> diversity of strategies, and the desire and drive to fulfill them.
>
> Where to?
>
> Next year, I would like to continue the momentum we've built in 2017 -
> running the Grants Program again, and continuing to refresh our aging
> systems. I would like us to continue to foster relationships with other
> technology organisations and identifying where we can work jointly on
> issues that affect us, and effect greater change. We need to review whether
> our name - Linux Australia - effectively captures what we do now. And we
> need to continue to incrementally improve our operational processes, and
> make things easier for those running events under our umbrella - through
> templates, well documented procedures and so on. We also need to be aware
> of the pipeline issue we face - we have fewer younger and newer members,
> and we don't have strong methods for attracting new members to our
> community. Those who survive and thrive are those who can best adapt to
> change, and we need to evolve.
>
> Full disclosure of interests:
>
>    - I currently contract with Mycroft.AI, an open-source company
>    specialising in natural language processing and artificial intelligence
>    - I run my own microbusiness - kathyreid.com.au, where I contract in
>    web development and data visualisation
>    - I sit on two committees with G21 - the Geelong Regional Alliance
>    (Education and Training and Economic Development)
>    - I hold a BA in Indonesian and security studies, a BS in Information
>    Systems and an MBA (Computing)
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Kathy Reid
>
> --
> --
> Kathy Reid
>
>        email: kathy at kathyreid.id.au
>       mobile: 0418 130 636
>      twitter: @kathyreid
>
>
>
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-- 
-- Ian
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