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Hi everyone, <br>
<br>
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, <br>
<br>
With kind regards,<br>
Kathy<br>
<br>
---<br>
<br>
<!--DOCTY--><!--DOCTY-->2014 Linux Australia Office-bearer report:
Secretary<br>
<br>
Executive summary<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Meetings<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
Handover activities<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
Membership<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
<br>
On 16 January 2014, Linux Australia had 3089 members<br>
On 29 November 2014 Linux Australia had 3207 members<br>
<br>
This represents a yearly growth of around 4% which is steady.
Fortnightly Council minutes now include membership numbers. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
Future Councils may wish to prioritise the replacement of MemberDB
and a concomitant update of member details. <br>
<br>
Media and communications<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
Figure 1 - @linuxaustralia Twitter account followers by month April
2013 – October 2014<br>
<br>
Figure 2 and 3 – Response rates and clickthrough rates of key
content from @linuxaustralia<br>
Data provided through ThinkUp program<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
<br>
Web presence<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
<br>
Figure 4 – page views to linux.org.au over 2014 from Google
Analytics<br>
<br>
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. <br>
Figure 5 – key statistics on most popular content on linux.org.au<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
Handling of correspondence<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
Council handled 1 formal complaint this year in accordance with the
constitution. <br>
<br>
Kathy Reid<br>
Secretary<br>
Linux Australia<br>
December 2014<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:secretary@linux.org.au">secretary@linux.org.au</a> <br>
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