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Dear All,<br>
<br>
Please find below the Linux Australia Secretary office bearer report
for 2015.<br>
<br>
If you have any comments, queries or concerns please do not hesitate
to contact me or ask during the AGM.<br>
<br>
Kind Regards<br>
<br>
Sae Ra<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size:24px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#bf9000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">------
2015 Linux Australia Office-bearer report: Secretary</span>
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<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"><span style="font-size:21.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Executive summary</span></h2>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">2015 was another successful year for Linux Australia Council. Social media exposure of Linux Australia continued to grow gradually, with the @linuxaustralia Twitter account reaching over 1200 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.</span></p>
<br>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"><span style="font-size:21.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Meetings</span></h2>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">During 2015, 26 Council teleconferences and 2 face-to-face meetings 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. </span></p>
<br>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"><span style="font-size:21.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Handover activities</span></h2>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">This was my first year as Secretary and I am seeking re-election in 2016. Thank you to the previous Secretary, Kathy Reid, for her in depth documentation which, as a result, I was able to assist with the organisation of </span><a
href="http://linux.conf.au/" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#1155cc;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">linux.conf.au</span></a><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> 2016 with minimal interruptions to the Council and its day-to-day running of the organisation. </span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"><span style="font-size:21.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Membership</span></h2>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">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. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">On 29 November 2015 Linux Australia had 3207 members</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">On 27 January 2016 Linux Australia had 3388 members</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">This represents a yearly growth of around 4% which is steady. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">As mentioned in the previous Secretary’s report “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. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Future Councils may wish to prioritise the replacement of MemberDB and a concomitant update of member details.” - K. Reid</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"><span style="font-size:21.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Media and communications</span></h2>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The use of Twitter as a key communications channel has continued to grow, from 620 followers at the end of 2013 to over 1200 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. </span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"><span style="font-size:21.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Web presence</span></h2>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">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 </span><a
href="http://linux.conf.au/" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#1155cc;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">linux.conf.au</span></a><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> bid cities etc. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The most popular content on the site remains the introductory information around free and open source software, jobs information and information about </span><a
href="http://linux.conf.au/" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#1155cc;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">linux.conf.au</span></a><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">. Jobs information is a key section of the </span><a
href="http://linux.org.au/" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#1155cc;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">linux.org.au</span></a><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> site and is one that future Councils may wish to focus on for additional attention or promotion. </span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"><span style="font-size:21.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Handling of correspondence</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">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 EFA and auDa, enquiries from campaigns and related movements (TPPA, EFA etc) and again a small volume of support requests (including one hand-written request). All correspondence was tracked via minutes and responded to. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Council handled 1 formal complaint this year in accordance with the constitution. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#222222;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Council also handled 2 data/system breaches however in accordance to our values of openness we have released as much information as possible in an open, clear and honest format and we hope that we have set a high standard for other organisations that have experienced similar breaches. We have been commended by our community of our openness and we endeavour to keep this as our minimum standard. Thank you to the community for your understanding during this time. </span></p>
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style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#222222;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Thanks</span></p>
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style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Sae Ra Germaine</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Droid Sans';color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">January 2016</span></b>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Sae Ra Germaine
Secretary
Linux Australia
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:secretary@linux.org.au">secretary@linux.org.au</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://linux.org.au">http://linux.org.au</a>
Linux Australia Inc
GPO Box 4788
Sydney NSW 2001
Australia
ABN 56 987 117 479</pre>
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