2025-09-10 Council Meeting Minutes

1. Meeting overview and key information

Present

• Joel Addison (President)
• Jennifer Cox (Vice-President)
• Russell Stuart (Treasurer)
• Elena Williams (Council)
• Jonathan Woithe (Council)

Apologies 

• Neill Cox (Secretary)

Not Present

• Lilly Hoi Sze Ho (Council)

Meeting opened at 19:32 AEDT by Joel  and quorum was achieved.
Minutes taken by Jonathan.

2. Log of correspondence

• Re: Sorting out Xero and bank access – arranging financial inductions for subcommittees
• Fwd: Re: [LACTTE] Proposal for PyCon AU 2026 – Inductions and stripe invites
• Hello from Python Australia! Potential new sub-committee – looking positive. Next step is a formal request to form a subcommittee
• Keynotes status – discussion about EO2026 keynotes
• PyCon AU 2026 contracts + deposits for payment please – request from Jack Skinner for payment of invoices and approval of contract for PyConAU 2026
• Extending the EO submissions deadline. – Miles informing the council of the intention to extend the EO2026 CfS
• Fwd: Update for September – new auditor contact details
• PyCon AU 2026 subcommittee financial induction details  – discussion about PyConAU2026 Xero/Westpac/Stripe access 
• Amazon Web Services Billing Statement Available [Account: 103334912252]
• EO CfS – request from Neill for contact details for Donna Benjamin to pass to Miles Goodhew
• Re: Activating pay via credit card for DrupalSouth events – Russell has responded to Julia Topliss’ query
• Westpac Transfer Authorisation – zeroing PyconAU26’s bank account.
• Submissions deadline extension – EO call for sessions extended
• You’ve Made A Sale – 75085873 (AU$4.32) – from Redbubble
• Submissions deadline extension emails sent – notification from Miles that the EO2026 CfS has been extended. Joel has responded
• Manufacturing Statement – 75085873 – from Redbubble
• Fwd: EO2025 videos (even just for speakers)? – Query from Miles about how to respond to a question about 2025 videos. Joel has followed up.
• DrupalCon Nara Treasure Hunt – Next Steps – Request for approval to pay for insurance from Michael Richardson
• DrupalSouth Wellington budget for your review:

[Link removed]

• Estate of the Late Mark Stanley Willis: a further amount has been received.
  An example of Mark Willis’s connection with the Australian Open Source community:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8uyP4dYv5A

• Python Australia: clarification sought about fund disbursement when an independent subcommittee separates out, and the charitable purposes in the constitution. Jonathan responded, and Russell confirmed during the meeting.

3. Items for discussion

• Kiwi Pycon Subcommittee Update (7:35 PM)

• • No update received.
• Drupal Subcommittee Update (7:40 PM)
• • A report was provided:
    
• 
  • The Community Day is going well. 6 sponsors have signed contracts worth $13k, which exceeds income expectations. 35 tickets of the 80 budgeted have been sold. Venue can go to 120. There is lots of energy and enthusiasm.
  • Community Day 2024: final sponsor payment from GovCMS has been sorted.
  • Wellington DS conference budget has been submitted for review and approval:

DrupalSouth operating budget – Wellington 2026 [Link removed]

The subcommittee would like feedback within the next couple of weeks.

• The budget includes several attendance levels. Joel: which one is most likely in the view of the subcommittee. There is concern about the climate, with a lot of companies choosing not to sponsor as a result. Due to this uncertainty, they are working to the lower level (120). They note that overall venue costs are much lower than in the past and there’s more flexibility (for example, no hard minimum number commitment is required). There has been a good response from Wellington people. The subcommittee also has good relationships with tertiary and training organisations and hope to use this to encourage students to attend. Sponsors like it when students attend. Due to venue flexibility and the likelihood of higher student numbers, there could be a more hands-on classroom vibe.
• To counter the uncertainties the committee is aiming to be bold and try a few things.
• DrupalSouth 2027 is likely to be back in Australia. Discussions are ongoing to finalise location.

• DrupalCon Asia

• • September report provided:
    
  • Sponsorship: looking good at this stage.
  • Treasurehunt is going ahead, to be announced next week.
  • No sponsor has stepped forward for videoing. Instead, a crowdfunding effort is being undertaken for video recording by the Drupal Recording Initiative. USD1500 is needed for this, which seems very reasonable.
  • There is  a general sluggishness with sponsors, which is typical of the times given the market downturn. There is one from Australia, none from New Zealand and none from India.
  • In general, things are looking good.
  • The conference is in 2 months.

• Joomla Subcommittee Update (7:45 PM)

• • Terry has completed induction. Russell needs some details from Terry to set up bank account and Stripe access. The bank and Stripe accounts are in place. Russell to follow up.
  • There has been a working bee on the  website to work on membership functionality and a business directory. There are people working on the site design.
  • It is intended to go live with memberships next week.
  • An in-person event is planned for 2026 (a fully branded Joomla Day).

• Admin Team Update (7:50 PM)

• • The Fastmail billing situation is nearly sorted. Confirmation will come in the next billing cycle.
  • Need to work out appropriate ways to acknowledge Fastmail’s sponsorship of LA email..
  • There will not be any face-to-face admin team meeting in 2025 due to schedules. In 2026, preliminary plans are being drawn up to have one in the first half of the year.

• PyCon AU Subcommittee Update (7:55 PM)
  • PyCon AU is this weekend.
  • At present they are projecting a loss of $6k (after payment of LA levy).
  • There might be one last minute sponsor for around $2k
  • Ticket sales have continued much as they were, albeit with a slight upward trend. This gets attendance to around 430 Friday, 380 on Saturday and Sunday. It’s in the ballpark of the lower end estimates in the budget.
  • Jack is travelling, so there is no 2026 update tonight.

• WordPress Subcommittee Update (8:00 PM)

• • WordCamp update: nothing to report this month.
  • Currently investigating 2026 in-person event prospects: NZ (in May) and Australia (Brisbane sometime between June and September).

• Everything Open Subcommittee Update (8:05 PM)

• • Keynotes are sorted.
  • Have 4 sponsorship commitments.
  • The catering contract is being worked on. Hoping to finalise it this week. The plan is to start with simple and add things in as sponsorship money comes in.
  • There have been some publicity difficulties particularly around the Call For Sessions.  This should be in hand now.
  • Submissions are a little light. There is hope for more following another round of communication..
  • Next key date: Call For Sessions close on 21 Sep 2025.
  • Organising team meeting frequency is likely to increase as the conference approaches.
  • For noting: Miles will be offline 24 September -2 October.
  • The date for opening ticket sales was discussed.  It was suggested to open as soon as possible rather than mid-October to give a longer run-in. The new aim is for 15 or 16 September. Miles will pursue this.
    Once ticket prices and inclusions are confirmed, sales can be opened quickly because the website is in place.

Russell to allocate a Stripe account and Bank Account for EO2026.

• Flounder Subcommittee Update (8:05 PM)

• • No update received.

• LUV Subcommittee Update (8:05 PM)

• • No update received.
  • There has been no response received to Russell’s email requesting a copy of the minutes showing committee approval for the EO2025 ticket purchase.
  • It has been noted that LUV have not held committee elections for several years, required communication with Linux Australia has not been happening despite numerous requests and prompts, and a number of actions have been taken unilaterally.
  • In response, a motion was raised by Joel:

That Linux Australia suspend LUV’s access to its bank account.
Seconded: Russell
Passed unanimously

4. Items for noting

• Russell needs personal information to set up access for EO2026 bank accounts. Russell will follow up.

5. Other business

• None

6. In camera

• One item was discussed in camera

7. Action items

7.1 Completed Items

7.2 Carried Forward

Meeting closed at 20:52

Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-09-24 at 19:30 AEST (UT+10:00)