[Announce] Almost-May update from Linux Australia Council

[Linux Australia President]

Hi everyone,

As part of our ongoing commitment to strong communication, please find
below an update on our current activities.


    Pycon AU #CfP now open

Love Python? Please consider submitting a talk to the Pycon AU #CfP

http://2018.pycon-au.org/speak/


    Internet Freedom Hack

We were delighted to sponsor Internet Freedom Hack over the weekend of
20-21 April. See all the action via the hashtag #DefendTruthHack:

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=%23DefendingTruthHack&src=typd


    2018 Linux Australia Grants Program now open

https://linux.org.au/projects/grants

Join the grants@ mailing list if you wish to review / have feedback on
Grant Applications - https://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/grants


    Council Face to Face

Council met for our Face to Face meeting in Melbourne over the weekend
13th-15th April. The Minutes will be available in due course, however,
the highlights include;

  * We conducted an organisational SWOT analysis to know what to focus
    on - no surprises - it raised issues of volunteer capacity,
    sustainability, areas we need to address with policy, and platform
    renewal
  * We reviewed the organisational budget, and made the decision to run
    at a loss in 2017-2018 - primarily due to investment in new
    membership and website application platforms. We considered whether
    to curtail spending on the Grants Program to reduce the loss, but
    given our cash reserves felt that it was the right thing to do for
    the community to run at a deficit for just this year. We expect to
    have less expenditure in 2018-2019 and will draft a 2018-2019 budget
    towards August.  At this stage we project a loss in 2017-2018 of
    around $AUD 88k. This seems quite large; it is based on expected
    returns in current conference budgets and our expected expenditure
    on replacing the current website and MemberDB.
  * We reviewed our stakeholder relationships; as one of several
    possible partnerships we intend to become an organisational member
    of the Open Source Initiative in the next few weeks
  * We reviewed event progress on several in-flight events, and
    considered the relationship between events and Linux Australia, and
    decided to better document the services we provide to auspiced
    events to aid in understanding the benefits that Linux Australia
    provides
  * And decided that we need to do a 'stocktake' of our current
    non-event Subcommittees to ensure that we have the right structures
    to support the effective running of the organisation

My sincere thanks to Cameron, Sae Ra, Russell, Hugh, James and Cherie
for giving up a weekend to work on Linux Australia strategic planning.


That's it for now, as always your feedback, comments and suggestions are
warmly welcomed.

Kind regards,

Kathy

-- 
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 

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