2025-11-05 Council Meeting Minutes

1. Meeting overview and key information

Present

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

Apologies 

Not Present

• Lilly Hoi Sze Ho (Council)

Meeting opened at 20:07 AEDT by Jennifer  and quorum was achieved at 20:13 AEDT
Minutes taken by Neill.

2. Log of correspondence

• Richard Shea expenses – this has been resolved by deleting these items from Xero
• Fwd: Bank account updated for Pycon AU 2026 – Jack Skinner asks if Russell had updated the bank account for PyConAu in Stripe
• [LACTTE] Request for insurance cover for a Perth Linux User Group event – Harry McNally is helping to run another event that needs insurance
• Socials posts – list of social media posts for EO2026
• Fwd: Re: [LACTTE] BAS Time – Update from LUV – Russell is happy with progress
• Amazon Web Services Billing Statement Available [Account: 103334912252]
• Fwd: DDD Melbourne 2026 Community Space Applications – Sae Ra asks if LA would like to participate in DDD Melbourne in Feb 26
• Lodge Linux Australia Activity Statement July..September 2025 – Authorisation from Russell LA’s tax agent to lodge our BAS
• Everything Open 2026 Meeting tomorrow night, Tues, 4-Nov, 8pm – Agenda for the EO Subcommittee meeting
• PyCon AU 2026 Update for 5 November 2025 – see below for details
• Activity statements are available online [SEC=OFFICIAL:Sensitive] – notification from the ATO
• Updated agenda for tonight at 8 – update to EO meeting agenda

3. Items for discussion

• Admin Team Update 

• • • Investigated the complaint from Russell C about forged emails. Have changed a config option and we are now blocking even more email. Hopefully fixed.
    • Currently in a change freeze for EO which will remain in place until after the election.
    • Steve will try and talk to a FastMail rep while he’s at the IETF meeting in Montreal.
    • It is time to start planning to replace the current server hardware. It has about two years left on the original planned lifetime.

• Kiwi Pycon Subcommittee Update 

• • Conference is happening this month
  • Sponsorships are not great which is a major impact on the financial position of the conference.
  • NZ economic situation is generally poor and companies are not looking to recruit.
  • Ticket sales are up
  • The current projected loss of $16k can hopefully be reduced by more ticket sales.
  • The projected loss was $30k a month ago.
  • Targeting Kawaicon for more ticket sales. 
  • Numbers are ahead of Invercargill now.
  • Planning for 2026 is starting but there is little appetite for running another conference at a loss.

• Drupal Subcommittee Update 

• • No update [Neill check with Julia re invitation]

• DrupalCon Asia

• • $63,946 in ticket sales of $66,192 goal (up $29k from Oct)
  • 171 tickets sold, expecting around 190-200 total
  • $147,760 sponsorships of $167,000 goal (up $41k from Oct)
  • Treasure Hunt is underperforming on attendance 
  • Expecting around a 10k net profit after DA and LA share
  • There is still some fat in our expense estimates (~10k)
  • Seeking guidance on willingness to support DrupalCon India in 2027
  • DrupalCon India would be a significantly different event – much smaller budget
  • Financial regulation in India may be a factor.
  • The DrupalCon Asia is about to reshuffle positions

• Joomla Subcommittee Update 

• • Working on website updates. Ongoing. 
  • The membership/subscription system is nearly ready. Will send through examples for council to look at.

• • PyCon AU Subcommittee Update 

• 2025

• • • • No further money expected either in or out.
      • Everything pretty much finished.
      • Final reports to write and then 2025 will be done.
      • Looking at a $1200 loss after the LA tax.

• 2026
  A few “looking forward” points as an async update:

• We intend to publish a conference roadmap “soon” outlining our call for tracks, CFP, volunteers and other key milestones to help set expectations given our unusually long planning cycle. It would be great if this can be amplified by LA.
• We’re on track to have the full new website live by KiwiPyCon. Very excited by this – it’s looking awesome.
• We would like to announce (and announce) longer call for specialist tracks at the same time (in time for Kiwi PyCon). It will be open through to early next year (TBA if it will overlap w/ Everything Open).
• Our team has grown, and will grow further. We welcome John Band (LI) to drive marketing and communications, Rhydwyn McGuire (LI, formerly PyCon AU 2025) as Program Chair, and Izy Hogan (formerly PyCon AU 2025) as Volunteer Lead. We have active conversations with future core team members to drive sponsorships & commercial sales, program co-chair, and community & culture focus areas.

I’ve also started a new informal essay series titled “From the directors desk” where I share a little more transparently how we approach organising PyCon AU 2026 behind the scenes. The first post is live, and I’d welcome feedback – primarily in the shape of future topic suggestions 🙂

Lastly: I’m aware our plan to update ‘actuals’ in the approved/shared budget has been delayed. Nic will be back on deck ‘soon’ . The delay is primarily optimising for getting it right as a team, for the long term, and in a repeatable way aligned to Xero actuals. As an interim reassurance: we reconcile Xero weekly, and I’m tracking closely any budgeted spend this year (narrator: minimal to no new spend expected) matched closely against actuals in Xero. I’ll raise to discuss on Wednesday night.

Proposed Agenda for our 5 minutes on Wednesday:

• I’ll highlight our wins + asks (slide attached).
• Questions WRT minuting Nucleus retroactively.
• Budget actuals.
• Questions from council 🙂

• WordPress Subcommittee Update

• • Looking at possibly running a couple of events next year
    • – possibly something the week before Drupal South in Wellington
    •  Brisbane September next year
  • Looking for more organisers. 
  • Vladimir and Janna would like to have a less central role.
  • [Council]:We would need to clear a New Zealand event with WordCamp central, our current agreement is only for Australia

• Everything Open Subcommittee Update 

• • Two keynotes have been announced and the rest are scheduled to be announced
  • There is a current commitment of $33k. One potential sponsor has asked for an attendee list which is not something that Linux Australia has done in the past.
    [Jack]: Suggests that a conversation be had with potential sponsors to tease out what the sponsors goal for the list is and suggest alternative ways of generating leads.
  • In addition Open SI are providing very significant in kind sponsorship which needs to be recognised. Name them as a “venue sponsor”?
  • EO need access to symposion to be able to audit ticket sales and process refunds.
  • Catering will now include lunch because there is enough sponsorship.
  • Currently looking at a surplus of $9,600
  • T-shirt designs are in progress
  • Choice of T-shirt print vendor is up to the conference.
  • Arjen is interested in providing a psychologist to attendees, LA has previously provided grants for this, but is unlikely to do so this year. LA has not been able to run a grants program due to a lack of funds.
  • Sessions have been chosen – need to prepare to publish the schedule to the website. 
  • How many lanyards does EO2026 need to buy?
  • Videos from 2025 should be ready before the 2026 conference.
  • Carlos has spoken to the Unilodge staff and accommodation can be offered to attendees. Unilodge will manage the bookings. Some hotels have offered discounts for attendees.

• Flounder Subcommittee Update 

• • No meeting since the last report.
  • A lot of activity on matrix
  • Russell Coker plans to hold more events soon.

• LUV Subcommittee Update 

• • Andrew is now an OCM
  • Nothing to report yet, but the president and treasurer seem to be managing things well.

4. Items for noting

• We need to improve onboarding of subcommittees, especially expectations around meeting times and that they shift for daylight savings time.

5. Other business

• We still need to send a request for bids for EO2027

6. In camera

• Two items were discussed in camera

7. Action items

7.1 Completed Items

7.2 Carried Forward

Meeting closed at 21:43

Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-11-19 at 20:00 AEDT (UT+11:00)