From secretary at linux.org.au Sat Jan 7 15:34:59 2017 From: secretary at linux.org.au (Linux Australia Secretary) Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2017 15:34:59 +1100 Subject: [Announce] Agenda for Linux Australia Annual General Meeting 16th January 2017 Message-ID: Dear all, Please find attached the draft agenda for the Linux Australia AGM to be held on 16th January 2017 at linux.conf.au. Please advise asap if you wish to be marked as an apology or if there are agenda items you wish to be tabled. See you all in Hobart! Kind Regards, Sae Ra -- Sae Ra Germaine Secretary Linux Australia secretary at linux.org.au http://linux.org.au Linux Australia Inc GPO Box 4788 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia ABN 56 987 117 479 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2017 AGM Agenda.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 2065356 bytes Desc: not available URL: From president at linux.org.au Sat Jan 7 19:41:47 2017 From: president at linux.org.au (Hugh Blemings) Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2017 19:41:47 +1100 Subject: [Announce] Please make your voice heard! Message-ID: <8521670e-c620-22bc-31c2-01dcafb2abcf@linux.org.au> Dear Colleagues, As you may be aware, the election for Committee members and Office Bearers for Linux Australia is currently in the voting stage [0]. Ballots can be placed by members up until polls close at midnight on Sunday January 15 - the evening before the AGM and commencement of linux.conf.au in Hobart. If you have not already done so, I urge you to vote - at the time of writing we have less than 100 members having done so - well under 10% of our Membership. While this does not present a Constitutional issue the poll this year is perhaps a little more significant than normal as there are two office Bearer roles that are "contested" (amicably I hasten to add!) Both the roles of Treasurer and President have two candidates to choose from - I encourage you to review the statements made by the nominees to understand their positions/platforms. In particular the two candidates for President are (intentionally and collaboratively) putting forward different visions for the future of Linux Australia - a plebiscite of sorts. We also have an enviable group of candidates to choose from for Ordinary Committee Member - again worthy of your consideration. Please take the time to vote while the polls are open, particularly if a password reset might be needed - avoid the last minute rush :) Thank you for your consideration and your support of your organisation. Kind Regards, Hugh President, Linux Australia [0] https://linux.org.au/membership/index.php?page=view-election&id=23 -- President Linux Australia From president at linux.org.au Wed Jan 11 16:23:36 2017 From: president at linux.org.au (Hugh Blemings) Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2017 16:23:36 +1100 Subject: [Announce] Linux Australia President's Report, 2016 Message-ID: <02ed29d7-8d46-1721-5ffb-8c99e8750218@linux.org.au> Dear Colleagues, Please find the Linux Australia President's Report for 2016 below. Feedback, comments, questions welcome as always. I look forward to seeing many of you at LCA next week :) Kind Regards, Hugh == Linux Australia President?s Report for 2016 == = Executive Summary = This has been my first term as President of Linux Australia after volunteering on the Council in previous years in a variety of roles including Vice President. It has been a privilege to once again serve the local Free Software community, if in a modest way, during this period. I have also had the good fortune to work alongside a first rate Council who have been unstinting in their support through what has been an at times somewhat turbulent twelve months. It is pleasing to note that the 2016 Council was in the majority female, a practical example of LA?s desire to live by our values of inclusiveness and equality and an overdue first for the organisation. It would be remiss not to note the support of the broader community during the year, a number of key initiatives and the majority of our events being undertaken largely by groups and individuals outside the Council, as, I think, it should be. As I reflect on the year past in preparing this document I am reminded that it has not been a year without challenge or controversy. I will not dwell on this here other than to note that as an organisation and as individual volunteers on the Council these events and circumstances provided an opportunity to learn, reflect and, I am confident, continually improve. = Events and Conferences = By any reasonable measure, the bulk of Linux Australia?s activities each year are the various conferences and events run by LA or under its auspices. This year we had a particularly strong field; * LCA By The Bay - Linux.conf.au in Geelong, Victoria * DrupalGov - in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * WordCamp - Sunshine Coast, Queensland * WordCamp - Sydney, New South Wales * Pycon-AU - Melbourne, Victoria * GovHack Australia - Over 40 locations across Australia and New Zealand * DrupalSouth - Gold Coast, Queensland All events were well attended and for the most part returned a modest surplus. As I write we are less than a week away from LCA 2017 which will be held in picturesque Hobart, Tasmania and promises to be a first rate event. I will note there was no OSDC event held in 2016 due to an absence of bids to run same. = Grants = Three significant grants were made during 2016. The first in the form of a matching donation of nearly $5k (for a total of nearly $10k) to the Geelong based charity Give Where you Live. This was a joint donation between Linux Australia and linux.conf.au 2016. The second grant was for some $10k to the Software Freedom Conservancy - a worthy recipient indeed and one that to this audience I suspect needs no introduction. Last but no means least, we also made donation of some $5k to GovHack New Zealand, to facilitate international travel for winning teams to the Australian-based Red Carpet event in Adelaide in October. It is my hope that we can provide more grants in coming years as while our coffers are by no means infinite, our financial position is quite strong and there are worthy projects out there. If you would to seek a grant or funding for a FOSS related project that is in line with our LA?s values, please review the information on our website https://linux.org.au/our-projects = Sub-Committees = This year saw the formation of a Treasury and Finance Subcommittee, a group charged with supporting the Treasurer of the day, maintaining the organisation?s Risk Register and providing a way to train ?in house? potential future Treasurers for the organisation. This year we also formed a Membership Subcommittee, charged with investigating candidate membership management platforms, and undertaking membership renewal, a long-overdue task. That was completed in November this year, with 1026 of around 3000 previous members re-confirming their Membership. The Membership committee has provided recommendations around future candidate platforms to replace the ageing MemberDB system currently in use. While not a sub-committee in the formal sense, there are discussions underway to have a small group of individuals pre-identified that the Council of the day can liaise with should an opinion be needed on Code of Conduct or Diversity related matters. In particular this group would be asked to review any outgoing communiqu?s to ensure the intent/response is appropriate does not contain problematic language. I?m pleased to note that following a decision by the members of Linux Users Victoria (LUV) to do so, it is anticipated that LUV will become a sub-committee of Linux Australia during the course of 2017. The remaining non-conference based sub-committees are: * Admin Team * AV Subcommittee * Mirror Team * Web Team * Sydney Linux Users Group * LOGIN (NewcastleLUG) * TASLUG * Media and Communications Subcommittee Reports from the various sub-committees and their activities can be found at http://linux.org.au/sub-committees = Linux.conf.au bids = I?m happy to advise that preparations are well and truly underway for the 2018 event and that barring anything very very unforeseen we have a strong candidate for 2019 as well. More details on these, including location, to follow after LCA 2017 concludes. = Membership and other Statistics = As noted above, a series of emails were sent to our Membership to seek to clarify our actual membership numbers - there is often a disparity between number of subscribers to the various LA mailing lists and our actual membership proper. As a result of this exercise and some slow going but ably undertaken filtering and sorting, we have a membership of some 1026 individuals who during the course of the exercise confirmed their desire to remain a member of Linux Australia. If you like numbers and statistics, our very capable Vice President, Kathy Reid put together an excellent Infographic which is worthy of a look! [0] = Advocacy and Government submissions = In April Linux Australia made a submission to the Australian Government in relation to the Senate Committee on the Trans Pacific Partnership noting our significant concerns about the proposal. Our submission is #128 in the Parliamentary Joint Committee page [1] A direct link to the PDF is at [2]. In June a submission was made to the Australian Government Productivity Commission?s enquiry into Intellectual Property Arrangements - in which we sought to ensure the interests of Free and Open Source Software and Technologies were considered by the Commission. A PDF of the submission is here [3]. We are grateful for the tireless efforts of Josh Stewart on the preparation of these two submissions and to Kim Weatherall for her assistance with research and discussion of same. Linux Australia also signed an open letter that will be sent in February 2017 to the Australian Government?s Productivity Commission enquiry into Fair Use. This was signed in partnership with the Australian Library and Information Association, Electronic Frontiers Australia, Google, Council of Australian University Directors of IT, Creative Commons Australia to name but a few. = Challenges = The 2016 Council term was not without a few challenges for Linux Australia and our volunteer Council. A number of Council members were unable to participate in LA activities to the extent they wished to during the year. In some cases, including my own, this was an ?expected? absence, in others it was entirely unforeseen. This led to several month long or more periods where much of the work of Council fell to a subset of three or four office bearers. While we managed, barely, it did impinge on our ability to accomplish as much as we would have liked to for the 2016 term. There were a couple of occasions where traffic on Linux Australia?s main mailing list degraded to the point where at best it was no longer civil or on topic. This prompted me to write a short message to the list subscribers asking them to reflect on perspective when posting [4] As I re-read it now I struggle to better articulate or summarise what was felt then as now, if you?re curious I commend the brief piece to you. = Closing Comments = While it was at times a turbulent year for Linux Australia much good was accomplished. Events were run, fun was had, code and docs were written, hardware designed, projects started, friendships forged. As someone who has had the good fortune to be involved in FOSS for many years professionally as well as personally, I continue to be struck by how well our region (NZ very much included) ?punches above it?s weight? when it comes to the FOSS commons. With that in mind I note with thanks the efforts of all who participate in FOSS in our neck of the woods whether they be involved in LA or not and however it is they contribute - writing documentation, hacking kernel code, helping someone install Linux for the first time, wrangling Python deep in the depths of OpenStack or ensuring there is tea and coffee at the next LUG meeting. All contributions are valuable, welcomed and enrich the commons. I thank all my fellow Council members, but particularly call out the efforts of the Vice President, Kathy Reid and Secretary, Sae Ra Germaine without whom the lights would not have stayed on. Our Treasurer, Tony Breeds kept the finances ticking over and showed good grace during some unexpectedly busy periods. Our Ordinary Council Members, Cherie Ellis, Katie McLaughlin and Craige McWhirter were (sorry...) anything but Ordinary. Whilst at times they were plagued by periods of absence, what contributions they were able to make were none the less valuable. During the course of the year I had occasion to reach out to various trusted members of the broader community on various topics seeking their counsel. I am grateful for their time, wisdom and friendship. I also place on record my specific thanks to our immediate past President, Josh Hesketh and the 2015 Council who worked tirelessly to keep Linux Australia running so well. Anything we have accomplished we have accomplished because of those who went before us and worked so capably. It is unusual to conclude a report of this kind with the statement that I hope this will be my final term as President of Linux Australia. I do so though because in the person of our current Vice President, Kathy Reid, we have someone who has a vision to take Linux Australia in a positive direction, something I hope the membership will endorse with their vote for her through the current Council elections. On balance it has been a good year, often fun, sometimes frustrating. But to the extent that there was Linux and other Free Software involved and some very good people, it has been a rewarding one. I remain proud to be part of Linux Australia and the broader FOSS community and to have served both during my term as President. Kind Regards, Hugh Blemings President, Linux Australia January 2017 [0] http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2016-December/022921.html and http://www.github.com/linuxaustralia/infographic [1] http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Treaties/9_February_2016/Submissions [2] http://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=38187468-9761-4e05-84f1-281ba68e65a8&subId=410396 [3] http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/201280/subdr488-intellectual-property.pdf [4] http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2016-June/022744.html From secretary at linux.org.au Sat Jan 14 17:12:11 2017 From: secretary at linux.org.au (Linux Australia Secretary) Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2017 17:12:11 +1100 Subject: [Announce] Linux Australia office bearer report 2016 - Secretary Message-ID: <43a5fefa-d6fb-b30b-50ff-4228fde4b4ac@linux.org.au> Dear All, Please find below the Linux Australia Secretary office bearer report for 2016. If you have any comments, queries or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me or ask during the AGM. See you all in Hobart! Sae Ra -- Sae Ra Germaine Secretary Linux Australia secretary at linux.org.au http://linux.org.au Linux Australia Inc GPO Box 4788 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia ABN 56 987 117 479 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2016 Linux Aus Secretary Report.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 180016 bytes Desc: not available URL: From president at linux.org.au Mon Jan 30 12:58:43 2017 From: president at linux.org.au (Linux Australia President) Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 12:58:43 +1100 Subject: [Announce] Linux Australia update - summer 2017 - events, new Council, and more Message-ID: <0236dbb5-6af3-314b-dc94-ae8b852d3a3a@linux.org.au> Hi everyone, Hoping that everyone who was able to join us for linux.conf.au 2017 in Hobart had safe and pleasant journeys home, and again a huge thank you to Chris and the #lca2017 team, Speakers, volunteers and delegates for another exciting, mind-stretching LCA. For those who weren't able to join us, you might have missed out on the news that the Rusty Wrench [0] this year was jointly awarded to 'The Michaels' - Michael Davies and Michael Still - for their outstanding contribution to our community through their leadership of the LCA Papers Committee. Speaking of which, the Papers Committee would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on the topics that you'd like to see next year - tag them on Twitter with #lcapapers [1] or email papers-chair at linux.org.au. Next year, linux.conf.au 2018 heads to Sydney's centrally-located UTS Ultimo campus with the theme of 'It's a bit of history repeating', and we're super excited to see what Bruce Crawley, James Polley and the team will deliver after memorable events there in 2001 and 2007. They're on the lookout for some team members, so check out their site at [2]. We're currently evaluating LCA2019 bids, and I'd especially like to thank Hugh Blemings and Josh Stewart for their efforts, and the as-yet-unnamed LCA2019 bid teams in this regard. Other event news In other Linux Australia events news, we're delighted to report that DrupalGov is happening again this year in Canberra on March 27th, and big thanks to Si Hobbs, Rosie Gooch and the team for their excellent work to date [3]. It's likely that Joomla Day will run in Sydney in June, under the leadership of Tim Plummer. Expect to hear more on this in due course [4]. PyconAU this year remains in Melbourne, running August 3-8 under the leadership of Richard Jones, and we're again excited for another hallmark event. The Call for Special Events is now open [5]. DrupalSouth is heading to Wellington late this year, and we'll bring you more updates as they unfold. We're currently in discussions with members of the WordCamp and WordPress community around how we can continue to work together, and again we'll keep you informed. We haven't yet received bids for Open Source Developers' Conference this year, and would warmly welcome bids for this event. If you have ideas for other events which fit within Linux Australia's values [6] then you can get more info at [7]. Welcome to our new Council for 2017 Firstly, we'd like to take the opportunity to thank the outgoing Council of 2016 for their efforts. Serving on Council, while ultimately rewarding, is a significant volunteer responsibility - and we appreciate the efforts of all our 2016 Council: * Tony Breeds - Treasurer * Katie McLaughlin - Ordinary Committee Member * Craige McWhirter - Ordinary Committee Member * Cherie Ellis - Ordinary Committee Member We're delighted that Sae Ra, Hugh and Kathy are returning for 2017. Please join us in welcoming our new Council for 2017, as per the recent election [8]. * President - Kathy Reid (Vice Pres 2016, Secretary 2013-2014, newly elected to this role) * Vice President - Cameron Tudball (newly elected) * Secretary - Sae Ra Germaine (returning to this role from 2016 and 2015) * Treasurer - Russell Stuart (newly elected) * OCM - Hugh Blemings (President 2016, newly elected to this role) * OCM - David Bell (newly elected) * OCM - Josh Stewart (Vice President 2015, OCM 2013-2014, newly elected to this role) On a personal note, I'm delighted to be working with such a diverse, experienced and multi-talented team as we embark on our ambitious agenda to strengthen Linux Australia's foundation platforms, and position ourselves to evolve over the coming years. To this end, our first Council meeting of the year will be face to face, held in Melbourne 4th-5th February. We have a strong agenda, and aim to get through many issues, including next steps for our Membership platform, budgetary adjustments given our strong profit in 2015-2016, reviewing event budgets, as well as some transitional administrivia. We look forward to keeping you informed of the outcomes. You can contact Council at any time via council at linux.org.au, or individual office bearers at president at linux.org.au, vice-president at linux.org.au, secretary at linux.org.au or treasurer at linux.org.au. Stakeholders and supporters Over the course of 2016, and at linux.conf.au, we were approached by a number of organisations interested in partnering with Linux Australia on a range of initiatives, campaigns and projects. These groups included WordPress/WordCamp, Open Source Initiative, Software Freedom Conservancy, NZ Open Source Society, Electronic Frontiers Australia and Internet Australia. The stakeholder framework that helps to articulate and prioritise our engagements with key stakeholders is something that we'll be discussing at Face to Face, however we expect to be collaborating on multiple initiatives going forward. Your feedback, suggestions and comments are as always warmly welcomed, Kind regards, Kathy, Cameron, Sae Ra, Russell, David, Hugh and Josh [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Australia#The_Rusty_Wrench_award [1] https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23lcapapers&src=typd [2] https://lca2018.org/#/home [3] http://drupalgov.org/events/drupalgov-canberra-2017 [4] http://joomladay.org.au/ (website will be updated once LA Council approves event team and budget) [5] http://2017.pycon-au.org/ [6] https://linux.org.au/values [7] https://linux.org.au/linux-australia-event-support [8] https://www.linux.org.au/membership/index.php?page=view-election&id=23 -- Kathy Reid President Linux Australia 0418 130 636 president at linux.org.au http://linux.org.au Linux Australia Inc GPO Box 4788 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia ABN 56 987 117 479 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: