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<p>Hi everyone, <br>
<br>
<br>
Firstly, I’d like to echo Hugh’s words, and strongly underline our
joint, united, and well considered approach into this election. We
both care deeply about the ideas and fundamentals of free and
opensource hardware, software, data and communities - as evidenced
by our commitment to LA over the past many years. <br>
</p>
<p>The choice we present you with is deliberately designed to elicit
a mandate on how you would like us to steer Linux Australia in the
coming years. <br>
<br>
I see three paths for Linux Australia’s future, the foundations
and drivers of which were covered in ‘Inflection Point - a white
paper on LA’s future to 2020’ in late 2015 - an attempt to gather
broad thoughts on a long term strategy for the organisation.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://goo.gl/08fGqr">https://goo.gl/08fGqr</a>. This document did not have the outcome I
was hoping for - some sort of consensus agreement on a future for
Linux Australia, however it did start to spur discussion and
reflection on where we want our organisation to go. <br>
<br>
To be clear, I am advocating for Scenario 2 below - Linux
Australia makes key investments in a number of areas, offloading
activities from an overloaded Council and volunteer base, allowing
Council to focus efforts on stronger governance, advocacy and
strengthening our membership base. We cannot undertake these
efforts while we carry the load of ‘business as usual’ activities
for Linux Australia. If we think of LA’s activities in terms of
MoSCoW - must do, should do, could do, won’t do - we are currently
struggling in terms of capacity to do the things that must be
legally done as an incorporated association. This leaves no
capacity for the things we should be doing, or would even like to
be doing. <br>
<br>
Should I not be elected to the President role - and I strongly
encourage others to nominate for this role if they have a strong
vision and desire to do so - then I would seek to serve as OCM to
provide organisational continuity to Council 2017, and allow
others with a strong vision to lead.<br>
<br>
In terms of professional background, I bring to the table a strong
technical background in web development, applications development,
root cause analysis, videoconferencing and digital. I’ve held
management and team leadership roles for nearly 15 years, have
served 3 terms on Council in office-bearer roles (Secretary and
VP), and was 2IC of linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - LCA By the Bay -
under David Bell’s excellent leadership. I also serve as Treasurer
of Creative Geelong, Inc. I’m known for strong organisational
skills and solid, well-structured governance documents. <br>
<br>
I ask not that you vote for me specifically - but give
consideration and reflection to the direction you would like Linux
Australia to take, and vote accordingly. <br>
<br>
<br>
With kind regards, <br>
Kathy<br>
<br>
</p>
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<h2 dir="ltr"
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id="docs-internal-guid-c084c67c-8ea2-9f6a-97b9-1aea8d3aee4e"><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;">
<hr></span></h2>
<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;">Scenario
1 - continue on current course</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Under
this scenario, LA continues pretty much on its current course. </span></p>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The
7-member Council continues to be a volunteer force, and while
passionate and dedicated, is overloaded by the demands of
running an incorporated association that has a significant
annual turnover and large stable of open source events. </span></p>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Without
investment in a membership platform to communicate with members,
member engagement continues to be suboptimal, centred on social
media and mailing lists. Efforts to activate a membership
pipeline focussed on younger and newer community members are not
undertaken, and so the membership continues to 'age out', both
due to other commitments (children, career, care of elderly
relatives), lack of interest and so on.</span></p>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">In
order to reduce Council and volunteer burnout, activities of the
organisation are pared back to ‘minimum viable LA’, and
decisions on whether to auspice events are made in this light -
that is, are there sufficient volunteer hours to provide
effective event oversight, or will auspicing this event mean
that we don’t have bandwidth to do something else?</span></p>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Eventually
this could lead to the key events of Linux Australia
incorporating under their own brands / associations, removing
the need for the oversight / administration role played by LA.
Some of the events may not have the strength to form their own
independent group and so may cease to run, or may be auspiced by
local organisations. LUGs could continue to dwindle as the need
for them - aside from being a technical community - is
diminished by the internet, and the wide availability of
information. The role of advocating for free and open
technologies will likely fall to other groups, such as
Electronic Frontiers Australia, Open Knowledge Foundation and
the Open Australia Foundation.</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;">Scenario
2 - middle road course with investment in key areas</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">This
is the scenario I’m advocating for. </span></p>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Under
this scenario, LA makes some key strategic investments in areas
such as;</span></p>
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</div>
<ul style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Membership
platform</span><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">
- investment is made in CiviCRM or similar, making
membership onboarding, communication and renewal much
easier.</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Hired
help</span><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">,
such as through contractors - investment is made in
offloading administrative and financial tasks to contractors
to ease the 'doing' workload of Council and Subcommittees,
reducing overload</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Digital
presence</span><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">
- investment is made in refreshing the website and social
media of Linux Australia, better serving as a promotion and
pipeline mechanism</span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">These
actions help to reduce the load on Council and Subcommittees,
and help to build a pipeline of newer members for the
organisation. The events auspiced by Linux Australia remain so,
now that additional capacity and competencies are available to
ensure their effective running. The passion and will of Members
is better able to be harnessed through the Membership platform,
so the risk of burnout and overload is reduced (but not
eliminated). </span></p>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Because
assistance is available for the day to day running of the
organisation, Council and Members are better positioned to take
on additional activities such as whitepapers and submissions to
government, furthering the objectives and values of the
organisation.</span></p>
<h3 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:16pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">As
you can see, these three options exist on a continuum from
purely grass-roots to heavily commercialised. However, if we go
too far down the commercialisation spectrum, then we might
become something I don’t think we want to be - Scenario 3:</span></h3>
<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;">Scenario
3 - more commercially focussed organisation</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Under
this scenario, Linux Australia evolves into a fully commercial
operation, with paid staff to undertake key functions of the
organisation, and paid leaders. Staff would work on Linux
Australia events and projects on a part time or full time basis,
and undertake work which furthers the objectives and values of
the organisation - like many of the items on our ‘it would be
nice to do X’ list. </span></p>
<div dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><br>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Linux
Australia events under this scenario would no longer be purely
grassroots-organised. This is a double edged sword. The events
would generally have a more commercial flavour, and ticket
prices would increase to cover the labour costs of staff. This
would necessitate legal changes to transition from an
incorporated association to a company structure. <br>
</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;"><br>
</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">To
reiterate the point I make above, this isn’t something I think
we want to be.</span></p>
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</div>
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style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;"></span></p>
<hr>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
--
Kathy Reid
Independent digital consultant
email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:kathy@kathyreid.id.au">kathy@kathyreid.id.au</a>
mobile: 0418 130 636
twitter: @kathyreid
blog: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blog.kathyreid.id.au">http://blog.kathyreid.id.au</a>
linkedin: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://au.linkedin.com/in/kathyreid">https://au.linkedin.com/in/kathyreid</a>
</pre>
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