[Linux-aus] Linux Australia office bearer report 2015 - Secretary

[Linux Australia Secretary]

Dear All,

Please find below the Linux Australia Secretary office bearer report for 
2015.

If you have any comments, queries or concerns please do not hesitate to 
contact me or ask during the AGM.

Kind Regards

Sae Ra

------ 2015 Linux Australia Office-bearer report: Secretary *


    Executive summary


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.


    Meetings


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.


    Handover activities


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 linux.conf.au <http://linux.conf.au/>2016 with minimal 
interruptions to the Council and its day-to-day running of the 
organisation.


    Membership


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.


On 29 November 2015 Linux Australia had 3207 members

On 27 January 2016 Linux Australia had 3388 members


This represents a yearly growth of around 4% which is steady.


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.


Future Councils may wish to prioritise the replacement of MemberDB and a 
concomitant update of member details.”  - K. Reid


    Media and communications


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.


    Web presence


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 linux.conf.au <http://linux.conf.au/>bid cities etc.


The most popular content on the site remains the introductory 
information around free and open source software, jobs information and 
information about linux.conf.au <http://linux.conf.au/>. Jobs 
information is a key section of the linux.org.au 
<http://linux.org.au/>site and is one that future Councils may wish to 
focus on for additional attention or promotion.


    Handling of correspondence

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.


Council handled 1 formal complaint this year in accordance with the 
constitution.


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.


Thanks


Sae Ra Germaine

Secretary

Linux Australia

January 2016*

-- 

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

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