<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<p>Hi everyone, <br>
</p>
<p>Hope this note finds you all well, and that those who are
starting a University year are enjoying it, and those of you with
young ones at school have had a smooth start to the year. Can you
believe Easter is almost upon us?!</p>
<p>This email is a quick update to keep you informed of Linux
Australia activities - and as always, questions, comments and
feedback are warmly welcomed. <br>
</p>
<h4>DrupalGov Canberra <br>
</h4>
<p>Is on 27th March, and there have been record ticket sales. Huge
kudos to Si Hobbs, Rosie Gooch, and Chris Skene for all their
efforts. Tix at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://drupalgov.org/events/drupalgov-canberra-2017">http://drupalgov.org/events/drupalgov-canberra-2017</a>. <br>
</p>
<h4>WordCamps</h4>
We have progressed discussions with WordCamp.org - in essence we
will be partnering with them to help facilitate WordPress-based
events - WordCamps, WordPress-based Meetups and the like - in
Australia. We still have some details to work through, but both
WordCamp.org and LA are looking forward to making it easier for
people to run WordPress-based events in Australia. <br>
<h4>Linux Australia Grants Program</h4>
Thank you to all community members who have provided feedback in
response to Grant Applications; Council serves at the behest of the
community - and your feedback is vital in ensuring we do your
bidding. Council have been in discussion with around 6-8 parties who
are in the formulation stage of Grant Applications, and the
community should expect more Grant Applications to start coming
through. At the time of writing, we have declined 1 Grant
Application, and approved 0 Applications, with a remaining $35k pool
left. <br>
<br>
We're delighted to be partnering with Melbourne based design agency,
Cartesian Creative, who are co-sponsoring up to $AUD 4k in Grants
for UX-related opensource Grant Applications. So, if there's an open
source product you want to love, but can't, because its UX sucks,
now's the opportunity to do something about it. A huge thanks to
Duncan Macneil of Cartesian Creative for his support. You might
remember Duncan provided a little song for us during LCA2016 Geelong
lighting talks. <br>
<h4>Linux Australia now has a Facebook page</h4>
While some of this audience may not use Facebook, we're finding it's
increasingly useful in promoting events and advocating key messages.
<br>
You can follow LA on Facebook at -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.facebook.com/LinuxAustralia/">https://www.facebook.com/LinuxAustralia/</a><br>
<h4>Meeting with Internet Australia, Electronic Frontiers Australia
and Linux Australia</h4>
We feel that there are potential areas of overlap and collaboration
for IA, EFA and LA, and the three organisations will be meeting this
Friday to discuss opportunities where we can partner for greater
impact. Stay tuned - as always we'll keep you updated on outcomes. <br>
<h4>Assessing insurance coverage</h4>
One of the services LA provides to events who choose to operate
under LA's auspices is a range of insurance cover. Hugh Blemings has
taken the lead on re-evaluating our insurance needs, and I'd like to
publicly thank him for his efforts here. <br>
<h4>GovHack 2017 - 28 to 30 July 2017<br>
</h4>
Although GovHack this year transitions from an LA event to an
independent organisation, we'd like to give them a bit of a shout
out! GovHack 2017 will be run 28 to 30 July - see govhack.org for
more details or to register your interest in volunteering. <br>
<h4>Maturing financial oversight for Subcommittees</h4>
On a more personal note, I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to
Russell Stuart - whom HUMBUG members will know. In his role as
Treasurer on Council, Russell has recently undertaken a huge amount
of work in maturing some of our financial procedures regarding
Subcommittees, in addition to arranging the transfer of banking
account access after Council elections. This detail administrative
work is often under-valued - and it shouldn't be. Much of our
successes are often due to lots of behind-the-scenes work by very
diligent people. Thank you, Russell. <br>
<br>
With kind regards, <br>
Kathy<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Kathy Reid
President
Linux Australia
0418 130 636
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:president@linux.org.au">president@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>
</body>
</html>