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)
Apologies
- Lilly Hoi Sze Ho (Council)
Meeting opened at 20:08 AEDT by Joel and quorum was achieved.
Minutes taken by Neill
2. Log of correspondence
- 2025-01-08 Letter to Linux Australia Inc. 11.12.24 – Russell has responded to Clayton Utz pointing out that the image on the LCA site is copyright by the European Space Agency, not Reuters
- 2025-01-09 [Linux-aus] EO2024 videos – questions about EO2024 videos – Joel has responded
- 2025-01-13 Enquiry from DAVID PASCOE via the Linux Australia Website Contact Form – fairly vague request for help. Jonathan has responded
- 2025-01-13 Notice of Linux Australia 2025 Council Elections and AGM – query from Kathy Reid re AGM Agenda. Neill has (belatedly responded)
- 2025-01-15 2024-2025 Annual report and Draft AGM Agenda- quite a lot of discussion, mostly centered around whether EO/LCA would run again. Some questions from Katie McLaughlin which Neill has answered, except for the one below
- 2025-01-15 Nice job on the Annual Report! Should it be posted to socials? – Kathy Reid asking if the Annual Report should be posted to our social media accounts – Sae Ra responded.
- IRD loan – Kiwi PyCon/LA is getting money back – we will be receiving a refund from payments made to the IRD loan. Russell has responded
- Job ads for linux tech – request to post a job ad. Neill has responded
- It’s 2025, we’re ready for more Open Source! – newsletter from OSI
- 2025-01-16 Lodge Linux Australia Activity Statement October..December 2024
- 2025-01-16 2025 Scrutineer’s / Returning Officers Report
- 2025-01-21 OSI Affiliate Member Representative
- 2025-01-21 DrupalCon Singapore – Report for Michael Richardson
- 2025-01-22 Adelaide Convention Centre – PYCON
- 2025-01-29 Everything Open 2026 bid for Canberra – From Miles Goodhew
- 2025-01-30 Possible malicious subscribers on LA list – Arjen Lentz. Request to remove Rory Croker
- 2025-01-31 Re: [LACTTE] Is it time to shut down the HH LA Subcommittee?
- 2025-02-01 Re: [Linux-aus] FOSS social media (inappropriate response from Rory Croker)
- 2025-02-02 Clarification on PyCon AU 2024’s LA subcommittee type? – Russell and Joel have responded
- 2025-02-05 [LACTTE] DrupalCon Japan – Proposed Budget
- 2025-02-07 Application to form a Kiwi PyCon 2025 subcommittee – Joel has responded
- 2025-02-10 WordCamp Brisbane 2025 subcommittee – Joel has responded
- 2025-02-10 Call for OSI board nomination
- 2025-02-10 Fwd: Re: DEFAMATION CONCERN NOTICE – Re: [Announce] LA needs a new constitution – several emails on this topic. Council has dealt with this [FIXME]
- Many, many other emails, but these are the most important ones
3. Items for discussion
- Question from Katie McLaughlin: “ There appear to be other inconsistencies with the P&L of conferences reported. Is this just an effect of bundling some costs differently to other events? (e.g. EO2024 reports a profit, but reports no event management, food and drink costs, whereas the PyNZ24 reports triple the venue hire of EO2024, zero food and drink or event management, but 14k in “office expenses”.”
Comes down to the areas that the conferences use, sometimes the venue reports catering and venue costs in the one line item.
We will look into the 14k office expenses for Kiwi PyCon
- DrupalCon Singapore 2024 and proposed Japan 2025
We have not yet had time to go through this report in detail.
It looks like they have managed to make an $18k profit, which is an impressive turnaround.
They are looking at putting in a bid to run another conference in Japan, but we need to have a clear understanding of what it would mean for LA, especially in terms of tax implications.
[RS]: If we do not exceed AUD$100,000 (approximately, converted from JPY) ticket sales to Japanese residents we will not have any tax obligations in Japan.
[JW] Question about liability for losses – normally these run through a professional events company – what would our liability for losses be?
[RS] The Drupal Association asks for a percentage of revenue which is not acceptable.
[JA] The DA is keen to move to a percentage of revenue. We need a new agreement to run the next conference anyway. Not keen to commit to a percentage of revenue as that exposes LA to more risks. Apart from tax, the other item to be sorted out is insurance.
[JC] What is the DA giving to the conference?
[JA] They dedicate some resources for marketing and possibly send some people to the conference. Need to dig into the details more.
[RS] We should be able to ask our accountant about the tax implications.
We may need a separate meeting to discuss this with the organising team.
- Everything Open 2026 bid for Canberra
Miles has started the process of building a team to bid to run EO in Canberra in 2026.
Carlos from OpenSI is also keen to host the event in Canberra. Carlos has concerns about the effort involved, but is keen to run the conference. It would be good if Carlos spoke to Miles.
OpenSI (and Carlos) have sponsored the last two Everything Opens.
- Rory Croker
Has been removed from the mailing list after sending a number of strange emails to the list and then contacting people on the list directly in inappropriate ways.
He was warned that if he didn’t stop he would be unsubscribed. He did not stop and has now been unsubscribed.
- Health Hack LA Subcommittee
Have told us they are at least pausing things, until such time as they find new people to run events.
They have asked for $1,000 for “contingencies” which is difficult. They should submit expense claims instead.
We should also offer to provide hosting for them in order to reduce their expenses.
- Defamation Concern Notice
Council has received a defamation concern notice. This has been discussed at a separate meeting. We are waiting for a response.
- Kiwi PyCon
We received a budget and starting team. Council has not yet had time to go through the proposal in detail. Council members will individually review the proposal over the next few days and discuss any issues as a group.
- WordCamp Brisbane
Again. Council has not yet had time to go through the proposal in detail. Council members will individually review the proposal over the next few days and discuss any issues as a group.
We have particular concerns around the WordPress/WordCamp central entities and their recent actions.
4. Items for noting
- Jonathan has had several people suggest that we edit the old LCA website to point visitors to the new Everything Open website.
- The constitution may be in its final form. No new changes have been received lately. We will need to make some changes to how we deal with membership applications.
- Joel will reach out to Lyndsey Jackson who has a contact that has helped other organisations make constitution changes.
5. Other business
- None
6. In camera
- None
7. Action items
- Jonathan to respond to the Health Hack Committee
- All council members to review the Drupal Con Singapore/Japan, KiwiPyCon and WordCamp Brisbane proposals.
- Neill to confirm email invitations to subcommittees for the next meeting.
- Neill to draft a template for subcommittee responses.
- Neill to respond to Katie’s question about conference P&Ls
- Neill to follow up with Russell re the $14K of office expenses at KiwiPyCon
7.1 Completed Items
7.2 Carried Forward
Meeting closed at 21:32
Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-02-26 at 20:00 UT+1100 (AEDT) which will be a subcommittee meeting.
