2025-07-16 Council Meeting Minutes

1. Meeting overview and key information

Present

Joel Addison (President)
Jennifer Cox (Vice-President)
Neill Cox (Secretary)
Russell Stuart (Treasurer)
Elena Williams (Council)
Jonathan Woithe (Council)
Lilly Hoi Sze Ho (Council)

Apologies

Not Present

Meeting opened at 19:38 AEDT by Joel and quorum was achieved.
Minutes taken by Neill

2. Log of correspondence

2025-07-02 Fwd: Re: Mandate update – Linux Australia – Attn Muay – Russell forwarded an email from ANZ (NZ) about the mandate update
2025-07-02 Re: Mandate update – Linux Australia – Attn Muay – update on mandate update
2025-02-07 donation to Linux Australia – Finalisation of a donation from AAUG Vic as part of their closing
2025-07-03 ASIC: The saga continues… – email from Terry Dawson updating the status of the ASIC invoice (ASIC have removed the bulk of the overdue penalties)
2025-07-02 How’s it going with the EOBCR2026 bid? – Query from EO subcommittee. Joel has responded
2025-07-08 – Invoice from Next Day Video for PyCon Au 2025 – Request for approval of an invoice payment
2025-07-10 Extending the OSI’s Reach, Together – OSI newsletter
2025-07-10 Re: Confirmation of Stripe account and Payout Bank account – discussion between Russell and Kiwi PyCon about Stripe and bank accounts
2025-07-11 Lodge Linux Australia Activity Statement April..June 2025 – Russell has asked LA’s tax agent to submit the June BAS
2025-07-13 Proposed/draft budget for DrupalSouth Community Day 2025 for your review – Julia Topliss has asked the LA council to review the Drupal South Community Day budget
2025-07-14 Re: PyCon AU 2025 subcommittee establishment – Russell has arranged a meeting to complete the financial induction of two members of the PyCon Au subcommittee
2025-07-15 Everything Open CBR 2026 progress – update re EO2026 progress, question about branding
2025-07-16 Meeting Reminder – meeting reminder and template for responses sent to Subcommittees
2025-07-16 Your message to luv-ctte@luv.asn.au awaits moderator approval – I have now asked for secretary@linux.org.au to be subscribed to the luv-ctte mailing list.
2025-07-16 Saw the conflict of interest policy on GitHub, responding privately .. Kathy has provided a comment on the new Conflict of Interest policy. Russell has responded.

3. Items for discussion

Kiwi Pycon Subcommittee Update (7:35 PM)

- - Ticket sales are open, one month of early bird left
  - Simon needs some help resolving stripe account details
  - Sponsorship still in progress
  - Poster is ready for print
  - Preliminary T-Shirt design ready to show to committee
  - Better uptake of professional tickets than expected
  - Sorting out workshops
  - One keynote speaker in the pipeline, another possibility
  - Russell asks that Simon provides specific details on what is required.

Drupal Subcommittee Update (7:40 PM)

- GovCMS is online this year
- Merch shop queries have been answered
- Request council to approve the budget before the next meeting if possible.
- Drupal South Budget July 2025

DrupalCon Asia

- 4 months out in good condition. Likely to reach the minimum sponsor goal, less confident reaching the medium goal.
- 48 tickets sold, early bird closes next week. That’s about twice the number sold at this point last year

Joomla Subcommittee Update (7:45 PM)

- - Nathan has reminded Terry of the need to do his induction – no other update.

Admin Team Update (7:50 PM)

- - FastMail has responded and promised a response soon.
  - Some work on mailing lists, particularly ones that have been inactive for a while.
  - Otherwise just business as usual.
  - SSL certificate renewal has been done.
  - Request for Everything Open 2026 subdomain to be set up.

PyCon AU Subcommittee Update (7:55 PM)

- - Sponsorships better than expected
  - Ticket sales not as good as hoped
  - The plan is to accelerate marketing once the program is announced
  - Request LA’s assistance with social media and marketing. PyCon can provide vouchers for people to distribute.
  - For next year Jack has managed to get venue discounts and sponsorship from the city Jack hopes to hold the conference in. Jack is finalising the budget and will supply it to the council soon.
  - The venue quotes are time limited.
  - May need to discuss the PyCon SteerCo situation in August.
  - Jack would be happy to share advice on sponsorship and venue negotiations

WordPress Subcommittee Update (8:00 PM)
Unable to attend tonight, but have provided a written update:

Budget status:

Budget for WordCamp Brisbane 2025 is now completed and reconciled.

We would like to continue using our budget account for the bi-monthly meetup to provide pizzas (~$150/month). Please let us know if there are any issues with this.

Key achievements since last update:

WordCamp Brisbane 2025 is now officially closed! We’ll be taking a two-month break and plan to return in September to start planning for the 2026 conference (targeting June-July 2026).

The transparency report was submitted to WordCamp Central as requested.

A survey was published today to search for more/new subcommittee members.

Any concerns?

No concerns at this time.

How can LA assist?

Our main question is: Can we continue using our budget account for the bi-monthly meetup to provide pizzas (~$150/month)?

We are also looking into the possibility of a WordCamp New Zealand (possibly in Wellington) in May 2026.

Everything Open Subcommittee Update
- - Budget still looks ok.
  - Now need to start on sponsorship
  - Have given some thought to catering options depending on sponsorship
  - Discussed keynotes at the most recent meeting.
  - Will not be able to open CfP on Friday
  - Need to get Clinton access to manage the website.
  - Need access to bank accounts. Arjen needs to do his financial induction first.
  - Announcement needs to be writtenit going
  - The sponsorship team (Dave Tulloh and Paul Wayper) will contact Sae Ra for advice.
  - Jenny would like to discuss branding and images for the website. The team have some images of UC that may be suitable.
  - Arjen would like to talk to Jack about venues in Brisbane.

Flounder Subcommittee Update

- - No update received

LUV Subcommittee Update

- No update received
EO2026 Branding and Website
EOCBR2026 Draft Conference Budget
Canberra conference information
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HEJI3_QcJR80KST9GwFiyLMxmA6ojID3U8IitTt27go

Jenny feels that this change should have the council involved. We need to be careful about changing the focus of the conference.

Drupal South Community Day Budget
DrupalSouth Community Day 2025 – Operating Budget

Motion: That we establish Drupal South Community Day as an event subcommittee as per the provided budget.

Moved by: Neill

Seconded: Jonathan

Result: Motion passed

Conflict of Interest Policy
https://github.com/linuxaustralia/constitution_and_policies/blob/ab701750cb8a6dcfed73a20295fede24cf789413/conflict-of-interest-policy.md

We will leave the PR open for a few weeks.

4. Items for noting

5. Other business

Discussion with Jack around event experience
Still a difficult environment for sponsorship and attendees.
Events have still been successful but more work is required,
Joel observes that attendees skew more to locals than previously

6. In camera

One item was discussed in camera

7. Action items

Neill to email Julia to inform her of council’s approval

7.1 Completed Itemshttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a_LVDWIKqzLIapgbjEIMC-JVBbgymYc_gNKrxM_ZGRA/edit?usp=sharing

Neill to re-send the template for subcommittee responses.

7.2 Carried Forward

Meeting closed at 21:02

Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-07-30

2025-07-16 Council Meeting Minutes