Monday, 20th Jan 2025, 6:00pm (ACDT)

Recording is available at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4clkwhrXImY

Attendance record is available upon request

Meeting started at 6:00pm ACDT.

1. President’s welcome

MR JOEL ADDISON, President

Acknowledgment of the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, particularly the Kaurna people who are the traditional owners of the land that Everything Open 2025 was held on.

2. Approval of the minutes from the previous Annual General Meeting 2024

MOTION by JOEL ADDISON that the minutes of the Annual General Meeting 2024 of Linux Australia be accepted as complete and accurate.

Seconded by Sae Ra Germaine

Motion Passed with 4 abstentions, no nays

3. To receive the REPORTS of activities of the preceding year from OFFICE BEARERS

MR JOEL ADDISON – President

The full reports is attached to the annual report, so only a few highlights here:

• There have been a lot of events over the past year. In fact it has been the busiest Joel has ever been involved with. We had more and more groups come to ask for help in running events. Not every event that was proposed ended up running, but it was great to see so many people come back and run events with us for the benefit of the community.
  • Special call out for PurpleCon which was a new small event with a relatively inexperienced team who put on a great event, and even managed to make a small profit once GST was properly accounted for.
  • The WordPress community had some major upheaval during the year which had a flow on effect on WordCamp Sydney. Linux Australia is unhappy with some of the actions that were taken, for example taking over the social media accounts of the conference which Linux Australia would normally control under the Memorandum of Understanding. We will review that to make sure the we are partnered with an organisation we can trust, which we currently have doubts about.
• Linux Australia also helped the Python New Zealand user group who faced a significant financial problem caused by their treasurer misappropriating funds. That individual has now been dealt with under the law. Joel is glad to see that chapter behind the organisation. Thanks to both the Linux Australia council and the Python New Zealand committee for their work in resolving the situation.
• Finally a special mention for PyCon Au which is now the largest conference run under the Linux Australia banner. A number of members of the Python Australia steering committee stepped back after serving for 10 or more years. Particular thanks to Katie Mch[FIIXME], Russell Keith McGee[CHECK SPELLING], Richard Jones for their hard work over that time
• We need to do some work on our constitution. This was flagged last year, but needs to be done now due to some changes in the way the ATO is enforcing non profit status rules. Russell Stuart will speak about this in more detail later. There is a lot of work that will need to be done to update our constitution to make sure we can continue as a non profit.

Questions:

• One question on grant applications: What type of grant applications were you hoping for which didn’t happen?
  • We had two categories of grant applications this year, one for community building and the other for the more traditional grants for projects
  • The community building grants did not get as much take up as expected. So we need to work on that.and improve our connections to all the groups in our community.
  • For the standard grants we need to have a discussion about how we track success of the grants. We are keen to support people purchasing hardware or working on software, but we need to do a better job of showing the benefit to the community,

MR NEILL COX  – Secretary

Call for people to fill in the attendance sheet.

Again the full report is contained in the Annual Report so just a few highlights here.

• It’s been a challenging but rewarding year. Neill is grateful to have been part of the council. We have achieved quite a lot.
• As Joel mentioned we ran more conferences than usual. They ran under difficult circumstances and the financial outcomes haven’t been all that we might have hoped for but all in all it’s been a good year.
• We have a fair chunk of work ahead of us. Grateful to have been a part of it and looking forward to continuing for the next year.

MR RUSSELL STUART – Treasurer – Includes presentation of the Auditor’s Report

• Full report attached to the Annual Report.
• Shout out to Sae Ra who is leaving after being part of the council for 10 years.
• The bottom line is that we made a loss of $55,000. Those of you who were at the last AGM would remember that a loss was predicted.
• The loss almost exactly matches the funds we provided to ensure Python New Zealand continued to operate.
• The $55,000 figure is from the auditor. Russell calculates the loss to be $72,000 which he believes is more accurate.
• The reason that the figures are different is spelled out in the Annual Report and will not be explained here.
• Conference P&L:
  • The unusual thing this year is that some of our conferences made a loss, mostly due to difficulties with sponsorship.
  • Everything Open 2024 returned a profit of around $18,000 but the rest didn’t do so well.
  • The annual report does not include every conference (only four or five are shown) because three of them happened after the end of our financial year. One of the notable absentees is PyCon another is PurpleCon and finally DrupalCon Singapore
  • DrupalCon Singapore was a new experiment and caused a significant amount of angst, at one stage project a $100,000 loss. That loss did not eventuate due to work by the organisers.
  • The difference between the auditors figures and Russell’sis those conferences. Largely caused by the conferences having recorded their income in the forms of sponsorship but not having yet paid all their expenses. Russell will book the actual profits once expenses have been paid.
• The budget is substantially the same as previous years as our costs do not vary.
• Our loss turns out to be pretty much identical to the funds used to bail out NZPUG.
• The reason for that is that we made a fair amount of interest. THis was due to investing in a term deposit at a high interest rate for two years. We will receive a similar amount this year before interest rates drop on it.
• Our overheads are still higher than the 6% we allow for.
• Conferences tend to want to keep their money, but LA feels that we need the funds to allow us to survive years like this last one.
• Looking forward all of the conferences have now been bitten by the lack of sponsorship and Russell expects them to adjust course accordingly.
• The reality is that the executive of Linux Australia has run the last for Everything Open conferences which is not sustainable. We don’t have anyone putting their hand up to run Everything Open. It is possible that we will lose the $18,000 that Everything Open brings in unless people do put up their hand.
• The final item is that we received a surprise letter from the ATO saying that they are introducing a new thing called a not for profit self assessment. It looks to be aligning the ATO’s definition of a not for profit with the Charities and Not for Profit Commission.
  • One of the questions we need to answer is: what happens to your assets if you wind up?
  • Our constitution says that the executive could just take it home and buy a new house.
  • This is no longer acceptable to the ATO and we now need to have a clause defining what happens to our assets or we will no longer qualify as a not for profit.
  • We have had two attempts to change our constitution both of which were rejected. If we do not resolve this we will be taxed on our profits at the rate of 25%
  • Instead of attempting this again we will now instead attempt to adopt the new NSW model constitution.
  • Russell copied the new model constitution but the changes from the one we originally adopted make producing a diff nearly impossible.
  • Russell has gone through the process of pulling across the things we most care about in our current constitution (free membership, electronic records) and merged them into the new model constitution. This is now up on GitHub as a proposed pull request for our current constitution. We propose to allow everyone to read it and comment on the PR. Sometime before June 20th (the ATO deadline) we will hold a special general meeting to vote on the changes.

Questions

Question from Steve Ellis: The 25% is that on revenue or profits?

Response: Profits. There are also other implications [This is a summary of the answer Russell provided see [33:43 of the recording for the full Q&A]

Question from the floor: Of the eight or so what category of non profit seems appropriate or possible?

Response:  It turns out we are a scientific institution [again a summary see the recording at 36:01 for the full answer]

Q: You said that if Everything Open didn’t run next year that you would make an $80,000 loss. How could that happen if you don’t run an event.

A[Russell]: No, we wouldn’t make a loss, but we would miss out on the $18,000 profit which is what it made this year. It ranges between that and $40,000 for the last 27 years. [Full answer at 37:18]

Q from Josh Hesketh: What did we provide to Drupal Singapore – was it banks, insurance or other and would we extend that to other conferences in Singapore and further would we consider other countries in the APAC region?

A[Joel]: With that one it was bank accounts and insurance as you mentioned. It’s not certain that we will continue the agreement with the Drupal Association for future conferences. There can also be tax implications. We will assess future conferences as they come up [Full question and answer at 38:48]

Q: Alexar: Is Linux Australia considering having an impact in the APAC region as a strategy or will this just be a case by case approach?

A[Joel]: We’ve always done stuff across Australia  and New Zealand and we have supported some other events in the region. We are not ready to commit to a strategic approach without more investigation. For now we are predominantly focussed on Australia and New Zealand but there are opportunities to work with other organisations in the region.

Follow up Question: Can subcommittees pursue similar opportunities?

Follow up Answer: We always say to our subcommittees feel free to bring any ideas to us and we will discuss them with them and go from there.

[Full question and answer at 43:00]

Q [Cherie Ellis]: Is there some way that things can be turned or twisted so that it’s still Everything Open but that LCA or the Linux Australia name is bonded to it so that it becomes the recognizable icon that our sponsors know?

A[Joel]: The sponsors we spoke to understand the alignment.The challenge is that sponsors like IBM are no longer operating in the same way anymore in Australia for that particular area. We managed to find a number of new sponsors this year. Every conference has found that a number of recurring sponsors have said no this year because they can’t afford it or they don’t have the budget. We’ve also had a number of sponsors who signed up and then pulled out in the last two weeks prior to a conference. We expect these challenges to continue over the next 12 months, but we are better prepared for them now. As to bringing LCA back one idea that has been considered is to turn the Linux Kernel Miniconf into LCA as part of Everything Open. That was the intent but we haven’t had enough people step up to make it happen. We do have Carlos  from the Open SI institute at the University of Canberra who would like to bring Everything Open to Canberra next year.

[46:45]

Q[Steve Ellis]: Thank you for your support of the community. Do we need a group in Linux Australia focused on sponsorship across all of the events?

A[Joel]: Building a pool of organisations is definitely something we need, not just for sponsorship but also to promote the awareness of the events internally in their organisations. We have discussed setting up some sort of central thing. We could set up a working group and go through some of that. Some of the other conferences have also expressed interest.

[53:48]

Not a Question: Russell forgot to mention that there will be no grants program this year as thet are no profits to pay them from.

[57:31]

Q[Paul Wayper]: Question for the Treasurer: How can the community help Everything Open survive from the ticket price perspective?

A [Russell]: I don’t actually set the budget for the conferences. That’s done by the conference treasurers. I try to give them as much freedom as possible beyond “don’t make a loss”. I don’t have an easy answer for your question.

[58:06]

4. Motions:

• MOTION by Russell Stuart that the Auditor’s Report is a true statement of financial accounts.
  • Seconded by Steven Ellis
  • Passed with one abstention

• MOTION by Joel Addison that the President’s report is correct.
  • Seconded by Josh Hesketh
  • Passed with one abstention

• MOTION by Neill Cox that the Secretary’s report is correct.
  • Seconded byJonathon Woithe
  • Passed with one abstention

• MOTION by Russell Stuart that the Treasurer’s report is correct.
  • Seconded by Cherie Ellis
  • Passed with one abstention
• MOTION by Joel Addison that the actions of Council during 2024 are endorsed by the membership.
  • Seconded by Ian
  • Passed with three abstentions

5. Other Business

• Clinton Roy would like to encourage people to engage with the mailing list rather than waiting until the next AGM.
• Josh Hesketh would like to give a special thank you to Sae Ra for all her time on the council. Josh believes that she is by a decent margin both the longest serving council member and the most prolific organiser of conferences.
• Paul Wayper: Does not want to make trouble, but is interested in talking to the Council about running Everything Open in Canberra in 2026, but would like it on the record that he was not trying to cause trouble by enquiring about videos from Everything Open 2024 on the mailing list.
  Joel responds to assure Paul that he didn’t mean anything by his response on the videos, it was just that he had a lot of things to get done. He is still working on them, and they will get done.
  Sae Ra: wants to add to the record that that was no slight against Paul it was more just a passing joke and she apologises for that and it had nothing to do with the videos whatsoever.
• Peter Chubb requested to move a motion that the meetings of this meeting be approved at the first council meeting rather than waiting all the way to next year when everyone’s forgotten it.
  Joel responds: We have to do this as part of the AGM. We can post the minutes before then.
• Josh Hesketh: A logistical question of the SGM. Do we have to have a minimum number of members present to make a constitutional change and is there a minimum number of positive votes?
  Joel responds: There are but he can’t remember the exact details and won’t answer of the top of his head. Council will send through the details.

6. DECLARATION of Election and WELCOME of incoming Council by the Returning Officer

Returning Officer Julien Goodwin gives his report.

He notes that on examination of the stats Russell and Sae Ra are tied for length of time on the LA Council.

This is Julien’s third time as returning officer.

We have a well-dialed in system now.

The only two things of note are:

• Particularly for the OCM positions where this matters, the way second preferences and such work mean  that the election is not held in the sort of Senate count style system that Australians might assume.
• We didn’t have this situation this year, but it is not uncommon for someone to, for example, stand as both secretary and as an ordinary committee member and if they are elected as a secretary they are not then eliminated by the system for those lower systems so we would then have a hand count. That didn’t apply this year, but we did have the case where for the last OCM position both candidates received the same first count votes so it was down to second count. If it was done with a different system it may have had a different result.

Results

• President: Joel Addison
• Vice President: Jennifer Cox
• Secretary: Neill Cox
• Treasurer: Russell Stuart
• Ordinary Council Members (alphabetical order):
  • Lilly Hoi Sze Ho
  • Elena Williams
  • Jonathan Woithe

Joel: Thank you for coming along to the AGM. I want to say one more thank you to Sae Ra because you have been a big help to me.

Meeting closed at 19:05 ACDT

AGM Minutes Confirmed by 2025 Linux Australia Council

The post 2025 Linux Australia AGM Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.

Present

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

Apologies 

Not Present

• Lilly Hoi Sze Ho (Council)

Meeting opened at 20:04 AEDT by Joel  and quorum was achieved.

Minutes taken by Neill.

2. Log of correspondence

• Membership subscription page/invoice and a couple of questions – Testing of the new Joomla membership form. Joel and Russell have responded
• LA meeting update. –  report form Miles on the EO2026 conference. Internal EO2026 email
• Adding David Sparks to ANZ in NZ bank accounts – Discussion about adding people to LA’s ANZ New Zealand bank accounts. Includes and on list motion.
• Status of subcommittee reports for LA Annual Report – from Jonathan Woithe – updates on subcommittee reports received
• You’ve Made A Sale – 76337027 (AU$4.33) – from RedBubble
• Re: Receiving funds – question from Arjen about receiving funds for conferences. Russell has responded.
• Error when updating mailing list general info pages – request for assistance from Jack Skinner. Joel has forwarded the request to the admin team.
• admin team reimbursements – 2025 admin team expense claim. Russell has responded and the claim has been paid.
• Annual report – Media and Comms report – Kathy Reid has sent in the Media and Comms report for the Annual Report
• Linux Australia website – does your event or area need any content updates made? If so, please let me know what they are – Kathy Reid has asked the event subcommittees for any needed updates
• A better way to make event linux.org.au website updates – can we make a process change? – Kathy Reid has suggested a process change for website updates. Jonathan has responded.
• PyCon AU announce + committee mailing lists not sending. – Jack enquires about the mailing lists. Joel and Steve have responded. 
• Request for Payment Approval: PyCon AU – Lemonnade – Russell has responded and the payment has been approved
• Celebrating Generosity and Growth in the OSI Community – newsletter from OSI
• Annual Linux Australia subcommittee report – Jonathan has sent a request to the PyConAU Steering Committee for their 2025 report.
• Fwd: [Pyconau-ctte] Annual Linux Australia subcommittee report – Question from Jack Skinner as to whether council would like a PyConAU26 report for the Annual report. Jonathan has responded.
• Fwd: Clearance Employer Notification – EO have received a Working With Children check for someone who is probably a member of Linux Victoria – they are definitely not an EO2026 volunteer. Sae Ra asks for help in clarifying the situation
• General note: We continue to receive a lot of spam offering to provide us with a list of attendees to conferences we run. Currently it’s for EO2026 which hasn’t even run yet. I continue to delete these messages.

3. Items for discussion

• Working with children check

Everything Open was notified that a volunteer has been approved for a working with children check. The council will check whether they deliberately used Linux Australia as they are not volunteering with Everything Open or directly with Linux Australia.

• Access to Policies and Linux Aus mailing lists to handle moderation requests for secretary – Joel will share the password after this meeting.

4. Items for noting

• Election is ready to go. Joel will contact Julien about being the scrutineer/returning officer.
• Membership backlog is pretty much cleared. Several people responded to the pre-election reminder, but many have not. I intend to cancel those who have not responded.
• Russell has moved a motion on the council mailing list to add David Sparks and Christopher Burgess to the anz.co.nz mandate.

MOTION: Linux Australia adds Dave Sparks and Christopher Burgess to its anz.co.nz mandate as payment authorisers.

I seek a seconder and votes on the motion.

I vote in favour of the motion.

Seconded by Jonathan Woithe
Results: Motion passed

5. Other business

• Annual Report
  The content is ready, Jenny will look at starting the final layout this weekend. We will aim to have the report finalised by 7 Jan 2026.

6. In camera

• One item was discussed in camera.

7. Action items

[email protected]– Contact the volunteer re their working with children check.

[email protected]– Send notification of upcoming election.

7.1 Completed Items

7.2 Carried Forward

Meeting closed at 20:44 AEDT

Next meeting is scheduled for 2026-01-14 and is not a subcommittee meeting, but will be the final meeting for the current council.

The post 2025-12-17 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.

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 20:05 AEDT by Joel and quorum was achieved

Minutes taken by Neill.

2. Log of correspondence

• Requesting transfer of funds to Kiwi PyCon ANZ AUD Account – Russell has responded
• Re: [LACTTE] Request for insurance cover for a Perth Linux User Group event – Joel has responded
• Re: [LACTTE] Linux Australia Inactive Member – correspondence re cancelling a membership. Neill has responded.
• Requesting transfer of funds to Kiwi PyCon ANZ AUD Account – Russell has responded
• [email protected] – Arjen not receiving email.  Russell and Joel have responded.
• 2019-2021 PO BOX paperwork – Joel has responded to Julien
• Linux Australia’s 2024/2025 auditLinux Australia’s 2024/2025 audit – Russell has requested that the auditor start work on 2024/25 audit
• Probleme with Ubuntu Manager–kernel version 6.8.0-87-generic, ubuntu 24.04.3LTS – Jonathan has responded
• Important: Scam Messages Requesting Account Verification – notification from RedBubble
• Fwd: Linux Australia’s 2024/2025 audit – email from Russell asking various subcommittee treasurers to tidy up some loose ends in Xero.
• Authorisation for Kiwi PyCon Transaction Exceeding $5000 – 2025-11-26 – Russell has responded
• Fwd: Can you post the JC Guzman announcement to social media? [Internal EOCBR26 email]
• On-campus accommodation for core team [Internal EOCBR26 email]
• Several notifications from RedBubble about EO2026 merch sales.
• Access to PyCon AU 2025 stripe account – request from Jack Skinner for access to stripe to finalise PyConAU 25 books in Xero –  Russell has responded 
• Finalising PyCon AU 2025 accounts – Discussion between Jack Skinner and Russell about finalising the PyConAU 2025 financial position.
• Status of subcommittee reports for LA Annual Report – report from Jonathan on the status of subcommittee reports for the Annual Report. Still waiting on  Kiwi PyCon,  Admin, Flounder and LUV
• Catering selections – part 1 – Morning/afternoon tea [Internal EOCBR26 email]
• Catering selections – part 2 -Penguin dinner [Internal EOCBR26 email]
• LA third party maintenance – Wednesday 3rd Dec – notification from the admin team of planned maintenance that will affect LA’s servers’ internet connection.
• Tuesday 2-Dec’s Everything Open meeting agenda  [Internal EOCBR26 email]
• .au Licensing Rules Review for auDA – notification from Sae Ra that auDA are doing a licensing rules review.
• Amazon Web Services Billing Statement Available [Account: 103334912252] for $7.47
• Membership subscription page/invoice and a couple of questions – questions from Nathan Morrow for Russell about payment gateways for Joomla.org.au membership
• Tonight’s meeting update. [Internal EOCBR26 email]
• Apologies – Julia is unable to attend tonight’s subcommittee meeting
• PyCon AU 2026 update for 3 December 2025 – Update from Jack Skinner on PyConAU2026
• Amusing spam:
  • Invitation to join the Illuminati Order of Poseidon

3. Items for discussion

• Kiwi Pycon Subcommittee Update (20:05 AEDT)

• • 190 attendees over three days
  • Financials significantly better than expected
  • $2,000 – $4,000 loss after LA taxes
  • Community success. Two days of great talks
  • Took a lot out of the organisers who are going to take a break next year
  • Will be looking for new organisers
  • Joel thanked the organisers on behalf of the council, and acknowledged the good result – it may be a loss, but it is still a good result and the result of a lot of work.
  • KiwiPycon has a new budget spreadsheet for Russell to look at. It may be a better way of tracking profile and loss.
  • While the organisers are thinking of leaving a bit of a gap before the next conference they are already planning to communicate with possible future sponsors.

• Drupal Subcommittee Update (20:10 AEDT)

• DrupalCon Asia

• • Final budget not yet complete
  • 214 people
  • Post event survey overwhelmingly positive
  • Suspiciously few things went wrong
  • 50% of attendees from Japan
  • A local Drupal association has formed.
  • Currently wrapping up the final invoices.
  • Final update in February
  • Michael is resigning from the steering committee.
  • A new chair and two new members will be elected.
  • Next event in India in 2027, but need to get local sponsors to step up and commit. This hasn’t happened yet.
  • The Pune group runs a 250 person event for AUD4,000 so the economics are quite different.
  • No event in 2026.
  • The treasure hunt only had 36 people in 14 teams b ut it was a wonderful community event. Check the flickr stream!
  • Michael had a lot of fun putting the event together but will never do it again (a lot more work than expected)
  • These two events (Singapore and Japan) have had a major positive effect on the Drupal community in Asia.

• Joomla Subcommittee Update (20:15 AEDT)

• • Most of these details are in the email to Jonathan for the annual report
  • Have an event planned for next year in Melbourne.
  • A membership form has been set up. Will be made live this week before the meeting next Tuesday.
  • Still some work to do on the backend.
  • Work on the website is ongoing, probably won’t be launched until next year.
  • Question about qualifying as a NFP in Victoria. LA is qualified by the ATO nationally so there should be no problem in Victoria.

• Admin Team Update  (20:20 AEDT)

• • • Not a lot to report
    • Still poking at Russell Coker’s complaints. Russell would like zero spam. Steve is not sure that this is possible. Now down to 1 – 1.5%. Some tightening can still be done but at some point valid email will be rejected.
    • The annual report is nearly done.
    • Expense claims in progress
    • Budget is almost complete
    • Steve will respond to Russell at some point.
    • Some disruptive maintenance about to start. Steve will be monitoring and will report any problems.
• PyCon AU Subcommittee Update (20:25 AEDT)

• • 2025

• • • • Basically done.
      • Annual report sent in
      • Jack has tidied up the accounts.
      • The last thing to do is the PSF grant accountability report.
      • This is Peter’s last meeting
      • Joel thanked Peter on behalf of the council.

• • 2026

• • • Full team has been filled

• • • Ticket sales are continuing, no major sales effort has been made yet.

• • • KiwiPyCon has recommended that members attend Brisbane.

• • • Will there be an upcoming events page in the annual report? Answer – no. The annual report will focus on the past year.

• • • There will probably not be another subcommittee meeting before the election. The hope is that the new council will be up and running by early February.

• • • PyConAU 2026 would like to have a banner at EO2026.
      

• WordPress Subcommittee Update (20:30 AEDT)

• • No report

• Everything Open Subcommittee Update (20:35 AEDT)

• • The financial situation is similar to last time. Currently looking at a $10,000 profit.
  • Merch is online at RedBubble. T-shirt design is done.
  • One more keynote to announce. 
  • Signed sponsorship contracts are coming in. Most are now signed.
  • Working on getting volunteers and speakers to finish registering on the website so dietary requirements can be communicated to UC.
  • Moving to a weekly meeting cadence. Notionally three more this year, but the 23rd will probably be fairly casual.
  • Speaker and keynote gifts are being finalised.
  • Currently 107 registrations, including speakers, organisers and volunteers.
  • At this point EO is past the break even point.

• Flounder Subcommittee Update (20:35 AEDT)

• • No report

• LUV Subcommittee Update (20:35 AEDT)

• • No report

4. Items for noting

• Membership backlog:
  • Emails have now been sent to all pending/awaiting approval members who have applied since January 2025. There are another 105 applications dated from between November 2021 and December 2024. [Joel suggests checking for obvious community members and declining the rest. Neill will come up with a nice way of telling them to reapply if that are still interested
  • 28 new members have responded and been approved. I’m waiting on a reply from 77 others.
  • CiviCRM reports 1003 current members.
  • Daniel Pocock has applied for membership – council will not approve this application

5. Other business

• NFP papers have been submitted to the ATO
• Annual report submissions from subcommittees are nearly completed, the remaining ones should be submitted by Sunday.
• Subcommittee policies need to be clarified and then enforced – this is a job for the next council but we should begin preparations. We probably need a register of subcommittees and other affiliated organisations.
• AGM will be held during Everything Open – probably on the first evening of the conference which will be a Wednesday night. 
• The election should be called by  When do we need to call the election?

https://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/announce/2024-December/000373.html

Secretary to send reminder for membership on the 10th

Dates:

• 22/12/2025 – 3/1/2026 Nominations open
• 5/1/2026 – 13/1/2026 Voting open
• 14/1/2026 Last meeting of current council
• 21/1/2026 AGM (in person at EO2026)
• 28/1/2026 First meeting of the new council.

6. In camera

• Two items were discussed in camera

7. Action items

7.1 Completed Items

7.2 Carried Forward

Meeting closed at 21:53 AEDT (UT+11:00)

Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-12-17 at 20:00 AEDT (UT+11:00)

The post 2025-12-03 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.

Present

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

Apologies 

Not Present

• 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

• Council meeting minutes for 2024-Oct..2025-Sep – we need to provide copies of the minutes to the auditor
• Re: Bills to Pay – DrupalCon Japan 2025 – Russell has responded
• Clarifying and confirming contact details – Jack Skinner has shared contact details with the council
• Spreadsheet shared with you: ‘DrupalSouth operating budget – Wellington 2026’ – Julia Topliss has shared the Drupal Down Under budget with the council
• Linux Australia Inactive Member – we have received a request to deactivate a membership. Neill has responded (and cancelled the membership)
• LA meeting notes – email to the EO subcommittee reporting on discussions at the LA subcommittee meeting.
• Loose ends – discussion between Russell and Jack covering Wise, Stripe, Paypal, password managers and international tax on ticket sales.
• [LACTTE] Request for insurance cover for a Perth Linux User Group event – request for insurance cover. Council passed a motion on email and provided insurance for the event.
• Fwd: DDD Melbourne 2026 Community Space Applications – Joel has told Sae Ra that LA would like to participate.
• Stuff we need from Linux Australia – email from EO. Joel and Sae Ra have responded
• Must-See Recordings Now Available – newsletter from OSI
• Get your T-shirt size in! – EO internal email
• We need your T-shirt size for the EO conference. – EO internal email
• Transport and accommodation options draft.  – EO internal email
• Lodge Linux Australia Activity Statement July..September 2025 – Russell has requested LA’s accountant lodge the latest BAS. The accountant has confirmed lodgment
• Re: DrupalSouth Community Day 2025 – wrapping up accounts stuff – discussion between Julia and Russell about paying the remaining invoices for the Drupal South Community Day
• Fwd: Flounder post from [email protected] requires approval – enquiry from Russell Coker about progress in blocking spam from lists.linux.org.au – We need to respond saying that changes have been made and we are monitoring the situation
• Fwd: Public Liability Insurance – request from KiwiPyCon for the current insurance certificate. Joel has supplied it.
• LA Council Vote: Accept PLUG Installfest as event – on list motion to accept event. Motion was passed.
• Keynote #1 and early bird “hurry up” notice for Monday – internal EO email
• Authorisation for Kiwi PyCon Transaction Exceeding $5000 2025-11-15 –  payment was authorised.
• 2019-2021 PO BOX paperwork – Julien Goodwin asks if he can dispose of paperwork from 2019-2021
• Tuesday night’s meeting  – internal EO email
• On-campus accommodation for core team – internal EO email
• Subsidised parking – internal EO email
• Please register on the EO2026 conference website
• Link to join meeting – request from Sophie for Linux Victoria for a link to tonight’s meeting. Joel has responded.
• DrupalCon Nara Update – Report from Michael Richardson

3. Items for discussion

• PO Box items with Julien
  Everything that was there has been scanned, so we should have copies of everything. We should not need physical copies, so it should be fine for Julien to dispose of them.
  We will ask for Julien to shred them. Joel will contact Julien.
• Stripe

After a discussion between Jack and Russell about Stripe’s tax notifications, it seems reasonable to argue that we shouldn’t have to pay VAT/GST in other countries for services being consumed in Australia.

Russell: Our Accountant didn’t give us firm advice one way or the other when I  asked him.

Russell: If someone was paying us to watch the live stream while they are in another country it might be different. Therefore we can’t sell digital tickets to overseas attendees.

Russell feels that some of this may be an attempt by Stripe to sell us a service.

Elena suggests that we should just say that digital tickets are sold under Australian conditions.

We will develop a written policy on this and publish and make subcommittees aware of it. Elena will write the first version.

4. Items for noting

• On list motion
  MOTION: That Linux Australia will provide assistance, in the form of insurance cover, to PLUG for their Installfest November 2025.
  Moved by Joel, Seconded by Jonathan
  Motion passed.
• DrupalCon Japan
  DrupalCon Nara was a big success. 211 ticket sales in the end, and financials look to be about where we expected which is good. Feedback has been extremely positive. 

Michael has informed the Steering Committee that he is going to leave the Committee, and they are evaluating their options for the next DrupalCon, probably in India, probably in 2027. 

5. Other business

• Annual Report

Elena has started work on the annual report. There is a document in the shared drive. Elena will produce a plan for chasing down the required information this week.

• Membership applications – Still  behind on processing these – have drafted an email to send to applicants to ask about their connection to the community.

---

I am writing to you about your recent application to join Linux Australia.​_

We would like to confirm that you would still like to join and if so ask if you could outline how you currently participate in our community.

We aim to represent and assist the groups and individuals who make up the Free Software, Open Source and Open Technology communities in Australia.

We support a number of conferences in Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa and the Asia Pacific region, including Everything Open, Drupal Down Under, Pycon Au and Kiwi Pycon

Can you tell us how you heard of us, and briefly describe your participation in the communities we represent? There are no specific requirements for membership, but to reduce the number of spam applications, we are confirming applications are genuine before we approve them.

---

6. In camera

• No items were discussed in camera 

7. Action items

• Neill – publish minutes by 22/11
• Neill – respond to Russell Coker
• Elena – write a policy for sale of tickets to international attendees

7.1 Completed Items

7.2 Carried Forward

Meeting closed at 20:48 AEDT

Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-12-03 and is a subcommittee meeting

The post 2025-11-19 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.

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)

The post 2025-11-05 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.

Present

• Jennifer Cox (Vice-President)
• Russell Stuart (Treasurer)
• Neill Cox (Secretary)
• Jonathan Woithe (Council)
• Lilly Hoi Sze Ho (Council)

Apologies 

• Joel Addison (President)
• Elena Williams (Council)

Not Present

Meeting opened at 19:35 AEDT by Jennifer  and quorum was achieved at 19:56.
Minutes taken by Neill.

2. Log of correspondence

• Subcommittee update for PyCon AU 2026 – 22 September 2026 – Russell has responded to questions about possible future charity status. In summary we are exploring the possibility but there are no concrete plans
• Drupal Community 2025 bank and stripe accounts – Russell has responded clarifying which accounts Drupal subcommittee has access to
• Re: FW: Finalising catering contract – Discussion about EO2026 catering. Council CCd for information
• Deep Dive: Data Governance – mass email from OSI
• PyCon AU 2026: Request for payment + checking permissions to approve payments – Discussion about PyCon AU 2026 payments and ID requirements for Jack Skinner
• Re: sponsorship prospectus for 2026 edition – EO offering sponsorship opportunity to Canonical
• DrupalSouth Wellington budget – query as to progress on council considering the Drupal South Budget – Jonathan has responded
• Westpac 100 points ID confirmed for Jack Skinner – Completion of authorisation requirements at Westpac for Jack Skinner
• Science-y keynote options – Discussion about keynotes for EO2026
• Annual Report season – offer of help with the annual report from Sae Ra – Jonathan has responded
• Voting on DrupalSouth Wellington budget – on list motion to approve the Drupal South budget
• Amazon Web Services Billing Statement Available [Account: 103334912252]
• Fwd: Lodge your NFP self-review return [SEC = OFFICIAL] – NFP self review is due by 31 Oct 2025
• [EO2026] Rooms – discussion about the size and number of rooms available for EO2026
• Re: Post induction setup – question from Miles about previous transaction in the accounts allocated to EO2026 – Russell has responded
• Request for calendar invite for LAC for PyCon AU 2026 – request to add invitees to the PyConAU Subcommittee meeting invitation. Neill has actioned and responded
• Google sponsorship purchase order – Request for access to LA’s Ariba login. Russell has responded.
• Tonight’s meeting – agenda for EO2026 meeting of 7 Oct 
• subcommittee meeting 8th October – request from Steve for an earlier time. Jonathan and Neill have responded
• PyCon AU 2026 Update for 8 October 2025 – update from the PyCon AU 2026 subcommittee. Included in full below.
• Time of Council meeting tomorrow (Wed 8 Oct) – query from Jonathan about DST meeting start
• Recap of tonight’s meeting – summary of the EO2026 meeting of 7 Oct 
• Invitation to LA committee meeting – Request from Alexar for an invite to the subcommittee meeting. Neill has actioned.

3. Items for discussion

• Admin Team Update 

• • • Not a lot happening, prepping for end of year
    • FastMail invoice has arrived but is confusing. Steve will chase.
    • Everything else is ticking along. 
    • Looking to restart the ubuntu mirror after talking to Steven Hanley. SOme work to do before Canonical will recognise the mirror as a primary
    • Report form ANU network team – there are some weird issues to do with access to the Debian security archive which is not managed by LA but does use IP addresses that belong to us
    • Joel and Steve will reach out to Fastmail to clarify EO’s request for monetary sponsorship.
    • Steve will be in Montreal for the next meeting but should be able to join.

• Kiwi Pycon Subcommittee Update 

• • Ticket sales are a little less than half of the planned numbers. The good news is that more contributor and workshop tickets than expected have been sold.
  • Currently struggling with sponsorship. Talking to previous sponsors, but few have signed on so far. Currently looking like $30k below the worst case budget. Looking at what can be done to turn that around.
  • The schedule has just been announced which will help with ticket sales.
  • The organising committee is looking for ways to save money from the budget.
  • Catering is not yet locked in.

• Drupal Subcommittee Update 

• • Need a decision about the budget ASAP
    
• 
  • Income has exceeded projected costs
  • Russell has agreed that the Drupal SubCommittee can use profit from the Drupal Community Day as a donation to Drupal South as long as it is properly recorded in the budgets.
  • Next year the plan is to focus on students.
  • Julia, Simon and Jack will have a conversation about marketing.
• DrupalCon Asia

Hello Councillors, 

I’m sorry to say I can’t make it to the meeting tonight. 

I have however updated our usual slides with the latest information. We’re falling a bit behind on sponsorship and ticket sales. We still have some strong sponsors in the pipeline, but they’re getting harder to pin down. 

The treasure hunt has gone live and you can see more here. We’ve turned this into a paid event with a small fee, and also opened it up to non-Con attendees, provided one person on the team has a Conference ticket. 

We’re working hard to try and secure some final sponsors. We know from last year that most of our registrations will come at the very end: For Singapore, we went from 130 to 250 ticket holders in the last 6 weeks so hopefully we will see a repeat here. 

Apologies again I can’t make it tonight! 

Mike

• Joomla Subcommittee Update 

Hi all,

I’ve had bit going on outside work these last few weeks and don’t have much of an update for this evening, so sending my apologies.

As far as updates go, Terry the other account signatory has completed his induction etc, so the bank account and Stripe are set up, but we’re yet to spend any money

Work is continuing on the Joomla AU website revamp and we should have the memberships live next week.

I’ll be at next month’s meeting in person to provide an update.

Cheers

Nathan

• PyCon AU Subcommittee Update 

Still waiting on payment from a few last minute sponsors.

Good attendance with excellent diversity.

Currently looking at roughly $5k loss.

Attached is an update ahead of tomorrow night’s LAC meeting.

A copy is provided here, and all updates & docs for Linux Australia remain here (good for a bookmark ). [Links removed in published minutes]

While the update is looking backwards, I wanted to share a few “looking forward” points:

We’re aiming to finish assembling the core team by month end (October)

We’re intending to have a published “Call for track organisers” in time for Kiwi PyCon at the end of November

We’re intending to have an updated ‘full’ 2026 website in time for that call for tracks.

Additionally (admin, primarily for Russell’s benefit):

We’re aware of an unreconciled PayPal transaction in Xero; Pete has forwarded from Russell’s email. We’ll get that reconciled in due course

We’re mindful that the currently shared budget spreadsheet does not have actuals yet. Thats our top priority to be on top of now.

• We’re in the middle of updating a/the budget spreadsheet with a clearer feed of actuals. Our budget will then show actuals (feed of costs already incurred, sourced from Xero) + projections (payment milestones, contracted commitments etc). Changes will be made additively of course, but we’re working on it in a copy for now (just in case). I’ve exported the budget (as approved by LA) to PDF for historical purposes too.

We noticed a miscalculation in Fixed Costs that did not include the Financial Assitance grants in the total costs. ‘Fixed Costs’ tab has been updated to amend this (specifically the sums in I24, J24, I58, J58) . Total impact is ~$5k which does not affect our P&L position in either budget scenario and is something for us to navigate in April next year pending sponsorships.

Speak tomorrow!

Cheers,

Jack

• Jack and Russell will discuss the tax situation with Stripe payments
• Jack has expressed some concerns about PayPal’s reputation for freezing funds.

• WordPress Subcommittee Update

• • No update received
• Everything Open Subcommittee Update 
• • SSC has accepted 30 talks and 9 tutorials with 14 backups,plus 5 keynotes
  • Sponsorship is progressing, but it’s slow going.
  • Catering contract has been signed
  • Call for volunteers closes on Friday. Look to have sufficient volunteers
  • First keynote announcement planned for Monday 13/10
  • Early bird ticket sales close on 17/10
  • Alexar may have some sponsorship leads
• Flounder Subcommittee Update 
• • No update received
• LUV Subcommittee Update 
• • Recent activities:
    • Software Freedom Day
    • Linux Regional Summit
    • Visited the Ballarat Tech School
  • Planned Events:
    • Linux Town Hall meeting with a focus on the end of Windows 10 support
    • Started a series of weekly events focussing on Linux and AI
    • Encouraging user groups in the APAC region to attend LUV events
  • Alexar has questions about insurance – has asked for a copy of the insurance papers so that he knows what cover is available for LUV events.
  • Team members:
    • Alexar is the public face of LUV. 
    • Sophie is treasurer and secretary 
    • Terry is regional contact 
    • Simon helping with workshops, particularly cyber security
  • Looking at setting up the infrastructure to support future activities
  • Currently going through a rebranding exercise to become Linux Victoria

4. Items for noting

• Jenny has spoken to Sae Ra about the Annual Report. At this stage Jenny and Elena have it in hand, but they will discuss it with Sae Ra and ask for help if needed.

5. Other business

• Meeting Times
  • Joel has proposed moving the meeting back by 30 minutes 8:00 PM AEDT
• Voting on DrupalSouth Wellington budget

The on list motion passed. The budget is approved.

The motion was:

ON LIST MOTION: Linux Australia accepts the DrupalSouth Wellington 2025 organising committee as a subcommittee of Linux Australia, and authorises the expenditure on the budget submitted with their proposal.

Proposer: Russell Stuart

Seconded: Jonathan

Motion Passed by a majority of the council.

6. In camera

• One item was discussed in camera 

7. Action items

Jonathan will let Julia know about Council’s approval of the Drupal South budget.

7.1 Completed Items

7.2 Carried Forward

Meeting closed at 21:12

Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-10-22 at 20:00 AEDT (UT+11:00)

The post 2025-10-08 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.

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)

The post 2025-09-10 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.

Present

• Neill Cox (Secretary)
• Russell Stuart (Treasurer)
• Elena Williams (Council)
• Jonathan Woithe (Council)

Apologies 

• Joel Addison (President)
• Jennifer Cox (Vice-President)

Not Present

• Lilly Hoi Sze Ho (Council)

Meeting opened at 19:40 AEDT by Russell  and quorum was achieved.
Minutes taken by Neill.

2. Log of correspondence

• Proposal for PyCon AU 2026 – was approved over email, and Joel has informed Jack
• Everything Open Canberra 2026 status – Joel has responded
• Bank letter required for sponsors – We now have two bank letters
• Motion to adopt the proposed conflict of interest policy – Was superseded.
• Amazon Web Services Billing Statement Available [Account: 103334912252] 
• PyConAU2026/Python community Australia
• Linux Australia <> Snowflake procurement via PyCon AU
• Linux Australia appointment Indooroopilly 12 Noon 16/Aug/2025 – Neill will check with Jenny to confirm the necessary letter has been received. Follow up with Australia Post if necessary.
• Fwd: MHW Announcement (we are getting new auditors)
• Motion to adopt the proposed conflict of interest policy
• Meeting Reminder (actually a request to transfer money to the WordCamp Steering Committee) – Jonathan has responded
• We’re Updating Our Account Fees – Redbubble are updating their account fees
• Bringing a guest to Drupal Subcommittee – Jonathan has responded
• Fwd: Welcome to United Advisory – email from new auditors
• Everything Open Canberra 2026 status – various questions from EO2026 committee. Joel has responded
• Vote: Accept PyCon AU 2026 Subcommittee – motion to approve PyCon Au 2026 passed
• Request for insurance cover for a Perth Linux User Group event – Joel has responded
• Apologies I won’t make tonight’s meeting. (From Julia Topliss) – Joel has responded
• DrupalCon Nara Treasure Hunt – Next Steps
• Minutes from tonight’s informal meeting
• Feature freeze: a pause with purpose – From OSI
• Apologies/correction Re: Everything Open announcement.
• Invitation to Open Source Congress – From OSI
• Fwd: Re: [LACTTE] Proposal for PyCon AU 2026
• Processes for onbording (sic) or signing/deposits for suppliers to PyCon AU 2026
• WordPress Steering Committee – Joel has responded
• Canva (query as to whether LA has access to Canva) – Joel has responded
• Domain due to expire: linux.au Expires in 30 days. #tid26266367
• [One email dealt with in camera] 
• Fwd: Regional summit Morwell 25th August
• Linux Australia Inactive Member
• Fwd: Your term deposit has been renewed
• Re: Sorting out Xero and bank access
• Linux Meeting and Joomla Update – eventually turned into a discussion about financial inductions
• Keynotes status (EO2026) –  Discussion about possible keynotes for EO2026
• Hello from Python Australia! Potential new sub-committee

3. Items for discussion

• MOTION: Linux Australia adopts the conflict of policy on github, SHA 195953b3c123370cf4fcf7273c2d804669b3afb0.  The policy is viewable at: https://github.com/linuxaustralia/constitution_and_policies/blob/195953b3c123370cf4fcf7273c2d804669b3afb0/conflict-of-interest-policy.md

PROPOSER: Russell Stuart

Seconded: Jonathan
Result: Passed 

• Python Australia! Potential new sub-committee

The proposal looks good to those of us present at this meeting, but we will defer final discussion to a meeting where more council members are available.

We will need a more formal proposal to vote on.

4. Items for noting

• .

5. Other business

6. In camera

• Two items were discussed in camera.

7. Action items

7.1 Completed Items

7.2 Carried Forward

Meeting closed at 20:17 AEST

Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-09-10 and is a subcommittee meeting

The post 2025-08-27 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.

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 19:35 AEDT by Joel  and quorum was achieved.
Minutes taken by Neill.

2. Log of correspondence

• Meeting Reminder [Response to WordCamp query from Russell re use of bank account]
• Revised budget for DS Community Day 2025 – Neill notified the Drupal South Subcommittee that the DS Community Day budget was approved
• Important – AWS Invoice e-mail address changes – nil effect on LA
• Proposal for PyCon AU 2026 – Jonathan has responded
• Linux Australia <> Snowflake procurement via PyCon AU – Jack Skinner has registered LA to Snowflake’s procurement portal in ZipHQ – no action required
• Re: Confirmation of Stripe account and Payout Bank account – discussion between Russell and Danny (Kiwi PyCon) re Strip payments
• Bank letter required for sponsors – Jack Skinner asks for a bank letter to prove LA’s ownership of accounts
• Everything Open CBR 2026 progress – Update from the EO 2026 organising committee. 
• Changes to Debit Mastercard® T&Cs – notification from Westpac about cash withdrawal limits. Daily limit will increase to $2,000 by default – no action required
• [LACTTE] spam to lists – Russell Coker asks that the SPF record for the mailing list server be changed to prevent spam – refer to admin team
• Everything Open Canberra 2026 status – update from Miles
• [Quite a lot of bounce notifications]
• Bequest Notification – scanned letter re the bequest from Mark Willis
• Re: Estate Late Mark Stanley Wills – Russell responded to the executor with bank account details.
• Another report of an error with the website contact form – reports that the contact form on the website fails because of a reCAPTCHA error
• Lodge Linux Australia Activity Statement April..June 2025 – advice on BAS lodgement and invoice from our accountant
• Help us promote PyCon AU? Request from Jack Skinner to help promote PyCon AU

3. Items for discussion

• PyCon AU 2026
  • Approval is needed soon to be able to lock in venues and quotes. 
  • Will changing the focus to attract more professionals intimidate some potential attendees?
    Historically 60/40 split, employers are saying that the weekend is an issue. But enthusiasts like the weekend. More stability in the professional margin and allows pitching volume discounts to employers. Risk can be mitigated by comms and emphasising inclusivity. It is an experiment and a gamble.
    The weekend component allows for community and local groups with assistance from the Brisbane City Council.
    Come for the professional conference that your employer has paid for and stay for the community event you love.
  • The current marketing platform does not play well to employers. It’s a little too amateur. The goal is to keep some of the current whimsy/fun but to make it more competitive with other conferences in the same space.
  • The marketing spend is very high for a PyCon AU.
    • It is optional
    • There is a ripple effect on ROI – 2027 would not need to spend the same amount, much of the event would be reusable in the future
    • Goals is 5+ years of longevity
    • There is not currently a competitive quote. The supplier was chosen based on previous work. The current cost in the proposal is an estimate and can be refined before the contract is signed
    • The video costs have been broken out to make them more visible. They are also preliminary.
    • Bump out costs have been hidden for previous events 
    • [responding to a question about budget for keynote speakers as a form of marketing] Would love to be able to fly out an international speaker to give a keynote, but the goal is to spend money in Australia and draw it from the rest of the world. If the budget allows it this would be considered. Possibly with enough lead time the budget might be possible.
    • [When does council need to give a decision] No deadline yet, but probably days rather than weeks. The venue is engaged, but if another bid is received they may take that one.
    • [Can changes be made to the budget] The marketing budget is optional, but not discretional. It needs to be committed to up front. There are other parts that can be adjusted. Jack strongly feels that the marketing spend is what could push PyCon AU to 600 attendees.
  • Marketing costs are high, but seem to be comparable to amounts spent on LCA/EO. If this does last for five years then it is probably reasonable. This cost compares favourably with what Drupal South spends on their event coordinator.

• Access to EO2026 website for Clinton Roy 
  • Joel will meet with Clinton to resolve this.
• Linux subtitling for EO 2026
  • We’re not changing the name, but Linux can certainly be used as a subtitle. It has appeared on previous EO websites.
• Bank letters for sponsorship agreements
  • Joel and Russell will visit a branch to resolve this.
  • In particular Joel and Russell will get the current council listed as signatories.
• Digital signing capability for sponsorship agreements etc
  • We looked in the past for an Open Source solution without finding one.
  • We will need to investigate costs.
  • Possibly Connecting Up can help with discounts for this.
• Mail Merge for conferences
  • LA has sent mail merge through FastMail
  • Possibly the PSF could help with PyCon AU
  • Again, we need to look at costs and options. There is a tension between the LA tax and LA’s costs. AWS may be a low cost option.
• Conflict of Interest Policy
  • https://github.com/linuxaustralia/constitution_and_policies/pull/48/files 
  • Council members to read the policy in preparation for a motion on list.
• Term Deposit
  • Is coming up for renewal. It matures on 13 August. How much do we want to keep in the next Term Deposit? Currently there is $407,000. How much operating capital do we need?
  • There is $200,000 in various conference accounts plus $260,000 in the reserve account.
  • Russell would like to increase the amount in the term deposit, both as a way to ensure the safety of the funds and also as a good way of earning interest.
  • Russell and Joel will discuss specific amounts.

4. Items for noting

• .

5. Other business

6. In camera

• Two items were discussed in camera

7. Action items

• Neill: Investigate options and costs for mail campaigns
• Russell: Contact LUV

7.1 Completed Items

7.2 Carried Forward

Meeting closed at 21:47 AEST

Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-08-13 and is a subcommittee meeting

The post 2025-07-30 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.

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 [email protected] awaits moderator approval – I have now asked for [email protected] 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

The post 2025-07-16 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.