1. Meeting overview and key information
Present
- Joel Addison (President)
- Clinton Roy (Secretary)
- Russell Stuart (Treasurer)
- Jonathan Woithe (Council)
- Neil Cox (Council)
- Lilac Kapul (Council)
Apologies
- Wil Brown (Vice-President)
Meeting opened at 19:33 AEDT by Joel and quorum was achieved.
Minutes taken by Clinton
2. Log of correspondence
- Request for funding from Kathy Reid, on behalf of Dawn Collett and Matt Cengia
“In the background, Dawn has kindly reached out to some contacts about setting up a data trust, in an effort to clarify costs and the path forward. We are in a chicken and egg situation now – in order to get legal assistance with this, we’re being asked about the backing and support that we have.
So, we have an ask:
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- We would like Linux Australia to formally support an exploratory stage of this project with the intent of identifying and clarifying costs and scope. This would be through the form of a Letter of Support. We are happy to draft this on LA’s behalf, but would like to see an in principle agreement before doing a piece of work that may not be needed.
- And providing a small amount of seed funding so that we can say “we have $X amount for this initial work”. We don’t have a good idea of what this would be – but we’d like to ask for $AUD 2000 up front, which would equate to around 4-6 hours of work for a solicitor, based on $300-$400 per hour, which is around what lawyers charge. Per your email below, the appropriate mechanism would be the Grants process.
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Does this sound like a reasonable way forward, and would LA be comfortable with us drafting a Letter of Support for consideration?”
Jonathan wants us to be careful calling it a grant, as the grants process has officially ended for the year. The council can still sponsor outside of the grants process however. Russell notes the original start of the conversation was way back in February, so it could be stated that it’s council being slow.
There is some question about exactly what a data trust is, the guest Sae Ra offers some guidance. It’s the rules and framework around how data is managed. The money is to get legal help to get specific advice.
MOTION: Joel raises a motion that Linux Australia formally supports the exploratory stage of the Data Trust project and will work with the members on a letter of support.
For: 6 Against: 0 Abstain: 0
Motion is passed.
There’s a question about where the discussion of this sponsorship should happen, as the grants list is not quite appropriate here. We’ve decided to post a reminder to the main list for all grants and sponsorships, but direct communication to the grants list.
ACTION ITEM: Clinton to take the discussion back to the project and ask for copy for the grants list, and announce the start of discussion on the main list.
3. Items for discussion
- Grant application from Robyn Willison for E-Textiles Course
Grant amount $800.
Community consultation closes Sun 18 Sep 2022. Decision to be made at Council’s next meeting.
Aim of the project: 6 week course to introduce cosplayers and others to Arduino and E-Textiles using the Little Bird EagLED board. EagLED is Littlebird Electronics’ wearables/e-textiles development kit. It is a complete Arduino compatible microcontroller that has LEDs, Light Sensor, Push Button and Buzzer built into a snippable board. It is a lower cost, fully featured alternative to the Lilypad Protosnap.
Course Outline: Installing software, Intro to programming, Examples from https://littlebirdelectronics.com.au/guides/eagled, Entering programs and uploading to the EagLED, Electronics, Building on existing programs / Modifying programs, Sewing a circuit, Making a toy
The course will run several times a year (or more) depending on interest.
The electronic parts will remain with Makerspace and students can buy their own EagLED board or use one of ours.
Cost to student TBC.
This is an in-person course because it is a practical course and will be run in the Electronics area at Makerspace Adelaide.
The primary take away from the course is for the students to be comfortable with uploading and modifying basic Aduino sketches, following a basic circuit diagram and sewing a circuit / adding a circuit to their cosplay.
MOTION: Joel raises a motion to approve the grant of the Robyn Willison E-Textiles Course to $800.
For: 6 Against: 0 Abstain: 0
Motion is carried.
ACTION ITEM: Jonathan to communicate with Robyn Willison about the successful grant.
+1 from Sae Ra and Kathy Reid
- JEA: I have been reviewing our documents over the past few months. From this, there are a few policies that have been identified to assist Linux Australia going forward. Given the events of the last meeting, it is prudent we get these drafted and adopted in a timely manner.
- Linux Australia Council Charter
- This will set the expectations for the Linux Australia Council, its members and operations.
- Council Member Handbook
- This is a guide for Council Members to refer to that sets out standard policies and procedures for everyone to follow.
- Over time this will be expanded to also have a version that can be shared with all of our volunteers across our events.
- Safety Team
- Similar to the Safety Teams that we have setup for each of our conferences, this team will be responsible for overseeing all issues that arise within Council and other community issues that are referred to it.
- Long term this will be the referral point for conference safety teams if they need additional assistance.
- Existing documentation for safety teams will be reviewed and updated to ensure they are clear for all teams and community members.
- Linux Australia Council Charter
These documents will be worked in the working area of the google drive and can be worked on collaboratively there.
4. Items for noting
- None
5. Other business
- Treasurer: two items in lca2022 account. One is for a small item (teatowel). One is a wyse payment of $544 and change. Joel thinks this is an over payment, and Neill will handle it.
