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Hi Linux Australia,<br>
<br>
I'd like to share with you an email that I sent to the members of
the Open Source Developers' Club earlier today. If you have any
questions about this, please feel free to contact the OSDClub
Executive at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:exec@osdc.com.au">exec@osdc.com.au</a>, or me directly at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ben@dechrai.com">ben@dechrai.com</a>. If
you wish, you may also join the OSDC Talk mailing list [0] and
contribute directly to the conversation.<br>
<br>
I, and the rest of the OSDClub Executive, welcome any thoughts and
feedback you may have.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Ben Dechrai<br>
<br>
[0] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://securityprotected.net/lists/listinfo/talk.osdc.com.au">https://securityprotected.net/lists/listinfo/talk.osdc.com.au</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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Dear OSDClub Member,<br>
<br>
I write to you today to discuss a matter of significant importance
that will affect the administrative aspects of the club that
supports our annual conference, but emphasise that there is no
proposal for the conference to change.<br>
<br>
The proposal, in short, is that the Linux Australia council and
OSDC Executive should unite in some way in order to reduce
duplication and fragmentation of effort. This would affect the
organisational structures only - the conferences and other efforts
and projects of the two organisations would continue without any
changes, including in particular both the Open Source Developers'
Conference and the linux.conf.au conference.<br>
<br>
<b>Background</b><br>
<br>
As you may be aware, since before the last conference, there has
been discussion about the shared and overlapping duties of the
Linux Australia council and OSDC Executive. The two organisations
have very similar goals and purposes, and it seems inefficient to
continue this. I understand all too well, however, that there are
a great number of concerns that must be addressed in order to
ensure that the community at large can only benefit from any
arrangement.<br>
<br>
I had an opportunity to meet with Joshua Hesketh, president of
Linux Australia, earlier this year, to discuss the options,
concerns and risks involved in any joining of forces, whatever
form that might take, and he indicated that the Linux Australia
Council would support this in principle.<br>
<br>
I would like to iterate the aspects of the conversation, as well
as the conversations that have occurred between the OSDConf
executive committee.<br>
<br>
For the purposes of clarity, OSDClub refers to the incorporated
entity, the club, which provides administrative services to the
community; OSDConf refers to the annual, volunteer-run conference.<br>
<br>
<b>Similarity of Conferences</b><br>
<br>
There has been reasonable concern voiced that having OSDConf and
LCA (Linux Conf Australia) under one banner may cause one or the
other to become dwarfed or even at risk of dissolution, given the
relative similarities of topic each conference focuses on. If such
a situation were to happen, I would be fairly certain that OSDConf
would be the conference to go, given LCA's larger industry
recognition, sponsor support and attendance. This eventuality is
something the OSDClub executive would not risk for a number of
reasons.<br>
<br>
OSDConf has, since the first event, been a grass-roots developers'
conference priced to make minimal profit while maintaining a low
financial barrier to entry for delegates. To this day, I don't
believe the ticket price has increased more than the cost of
living, and is testament to the dedication all our previous
conference organisers have had in providing a high-value industry
conference that almost anyone can attend. LCA, while still being a
fraction of the price of most industry conferences, is aimed at
the more professional end of the market. I, personally, feel that
losing a conference like OSDConf would be severely detrimental to
the open source community in Australia.<br>
<br>
In the past few years, there has also been a noticeable
convergence of purpose when comparing the two conferences. LCA has
been moving slowly towards development related topics, and OSDConf
towards more systems and technology specific, and while neither
should abstain from either end of the spectrum, there is merit in
steering each towards maintaining divergence and allowing each
conference to maintain its own identity. Regardless of the
decision around joining LA, the executive committee will be asking
future conference organisers to focus on our dev roots. I am told
that LCA 2014 have been given a similarly strong encouragement to
push for more systems/technology talks again.<br>
<br>
To further encourage separation of the conferences, and with the
added benefit of not increasing the load on the Linux Australia
Council, if OSDClub were to come under the umbrella of LA, it
would be based on an understanding that a conference selection and
support committee be formed to take ownership of future OSDConf
events. This would, essentially, be the equivalent of our current
executive committee, with no legal obligations or office bearer
responsibilities. The basis on which people join this new
committee would be a future discussion.<br>
<br>
Finally, we would encourage the timing of OSDConf to move to a
time less conflicting with LCA; creating more temporal space
between conferences will reduce the conflict some people find in
choosing which conference to attend. Serendipitously, the NZ-based
OSDConf this year is running at the end of October.<br>
<br>
<b>OSDClub's Money</b><br>
<br>
OSDClub had a bank balance of approximately AU$25,000 before the
start of the organisation of OSDC2013, and an anticipated concern
is that the money, which is intended for OSDClub related
activities, would be added to the LA pool.<br>
<br>
OSDClub offers financial support through a grants and funding
programme which, to date, has supported the Melbourne PHP Users
Group, Melbourne Perl Mongers, Blue Hackers, BarCampMelbourne and
a few others. The astute amongst you will notice that many of
these are run by, or have been run by people closely associated
with OSDClub. The simple reason for this is mind-share; most
people don't think about OSDClub when seeking financial support of
community events.<br>
<br>
Linux Australia also has a similar programme, and while they also
contend with the issue that there are lots of people who don't
know there are funds available, the issue is markedly emphasised
for OSDClub.<br>
<br>
It's my suggestion, therefore, that our funds would actually
benefit the community more effectively if they were added to the
pool used by Linux Australia, whose programme is more prominent
and known about.<br>
<br>
<b>Special Interest Groups (SIGs)</b><br>
<br>
In addition to providing a funding programme, OSDClub also offers
itself as an umbrella organisation to a number of groups. The
Melbourne Perl Mongers and Melbourne PHP Users Group both
disbanded their incorporated organisation status as came under
OSDClub's banner for much the same reasons as OSDClub now proposes
to reform under LA.<br>
<br>
If this proposal goes ahead, the OSDClub Executive will work with
LA and the respective conveners of these SIGs to ensure suitable
support and protection is still provided to them.<br>
<br>
<b>The Process of Reforming under Linux Australia</b><br>
<br>
For the purposes of administrative and financial simplicity, we
are proposing that OSDClub simply disbands its legal status as an
entity. In such a scenario, Consumer Affairs Victoria requires
that any remaining funds after disbanding be gifted to another
organisation with similar values and goals. It would be a trivial
matter for us to transfer the funds to Linux Australia.<br>
<br>
The downside with this is that there is no contractual obligation
on either side for any agreement. It would be remiss of me to
ignore this fact, notwithstanding that I personally hold that
there is more than enough goodwill in the community for this not
to be an issue.<br>
<br>
Joshua Hesketh's indication of Linux Australia Council's support
in principle included their concern of additional overheads in
terms of time required and responsibilities assumed if OSDClub
reformed under their banner. The major addition in work for them
would be any involvement in managing the conference selection or
supporting the conference organisers, and I would suggest that, in
addition to the aforementioned provisions for OSDClub's SIGs,
forming a separate OSDConf selection and support committee be a
condition on us disbanding and allocating our remaining funds to
LA.<br>
<br>
There are finer details to be ironed out, such as infrastructure.<br>
<br>
<b>Next Steps</b><br>
<br>
For now, I would like to open a discussion between the members.
For the purposes of OSDClub Membership, any person on the announce
mailing list is deemed to be a member, so in order to facilitate
discussions, I have created a member mailing list and subscribed
you to it. That is the list to which this email has been sent, and
you are able to post to (simply by replying to this email). Non
members may not post, and all join requests are moderated, so we
do not anticipate any spam getting in.<br>
<br>
So now it's over to you. We are here to ensure OSDClub and OSDConf
continue to serve your needs and the needs of your communities,
and are looking for any feedback, concerns, suggestions or other
constructive information.<br>
<br>
<b>Ooh - New Mailing List!</b><br>
<br>
Please note that we don't have any usage guidelines for the
members mailing list, and while we have put in place mechanisms to
stop spam, we can't stop you posting to the list about other
topics. I guess this is something we can monitor over time and
refine. If you become overwhelmed with the emails to this list,
please email <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:exec@osdc.com.au">exec@osdc.com.au</a>
to see if there's anything we can do in terms of policy to refine
the list's usage.<br>
<br>
You may also edit your subscription options to receive digest
emails or unsubscribe below.<br>
<br>
For the purposes of OSDClub Membership, any person on the announce
mailing list is <b>still</b> deemed to be a member. Removing
yourself from the members list will not affect your ability to
vote in any SGMs or AGMs.<br>
<br>
<br>
Thanks, in advance, for your input in to this process.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Ben Dechrai<br>
President, Open Source Developers' Club Inc<br>
<br>
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