1. Meeting overview and key information Joel Addison (President) Sae Ra Germaine (Vice-President) Russell Stuart (Treasurer) Neill Cox (Secretary) Jennifer Cox (Council) Andrew Pam (Council) Jonathan Woithe (Council)       Meeting opened at 20:11 AEDT by Joel and quorum was achieved. Minutes taken by Jonathan.   2. Log of correspondence Change of meeting software – there was some confusion about which video conference software we were using. We got it sorted. [Purplecon] Update on the status of Purplecon 2024 – final report on the status of Purplecon 2024 Linux Australia’s 2023/2024 audit – Russell has asked the auditor for a progress update on Linux Australia’s audit Accessibility report for ticketing platforms – The council has been asked to provide input on a project to improve accessibility of conference ticketing platforms. 11 emails from fastmail about bounces/unsubscribes/changes of address for the Linux Australia mailman list – because of the migration Not sure what happened here, but…………….. – from Keith Bainbridge in reference to the above New online forms and changes to voting conducted by ballot – notification from NSW Fair Trading Request for approval of >$5k invoice – PyCon AU – Russell has responded Important: Upcoming update to our Personal Web Hosting effective 13th January 2025. – notification from Digital Pacific. The changes are not applicable to our situation. News re: IRD loan – Notification that no further payments on the IRD loan will be required. Letter to Linux Australia Inc. 11.12.24 – letter from Clayton Utz re a copyright claim over an image from LCA 2003(!) IMPORTANT: Year-End Payment on Redbubble – notification the Redbubble are making a change to how they process payments. Upcoming Domain Renewal Notice – Please Do Not Reply – notification re renewal of opensource.org.au Disruptions to the rail system – business impacts – survey request from the  NSW Small Business Commission Linux Australia’s 2023/2024 audit – requests for information from the auditor Fwd: [Linux-aus] Science Cafe – Admin team clarifying whether a mailing list is still needed. It is not required and can be closed down. 3. Items for discussion   LA Election https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EfYCMUVhSsxpDoTNOc_tY2r6LDEocnKhMJKGEAAMcmc/edit?usp=sharing Notice of AGM to be sent out tomorrow (19 Dec 2024). Nominations open on Monday, close on 3 Jan 2025. Voting opens on 5 Jan 2025, closes on 13 Jan 2025. AGM The AGM will be on the Monday of EO2025 (20 Jan 2025). Two weeks notice is required. Annual report must be out a week out from the AGM. Deadline for reports to Sae Ra is 3 Jan 2025, but preference is as early as possible. Reports are required from Joe, Neill and Russell. Put stuff in here please https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yJ38Pi30cvJ-OjZ2OffEslvT-Chg-llA?usp=drive_link Makerspace Adelaide Grant Request Total grant request is $5082 for 6 laptops at $847 each. Open source and Linux will be used on the laptops. The size of the grant is a concern: half the grant budget. Could we meet them half-way? There is concern that the laptops might be under-spec’ed for some of the software they plan to use (Blender for example). Could they consider second-hand laptops (ebay, ex-Government auctions, Grays Online, etc). LA has done this in the past. Sometimes with reconditioned systems there’s a short manufacturer’s warranty. Some manufacturers also have direct sales of refurbished laptops. For example, on Ebay (Australian Computer Traders), a similar specified Dell i5 laptop is $285 tonight.  Six of these would be $1800. Motion: that Linux Australia approves the grant request for six laptops at $847 totalling $5082. Moved by Joel. Seconded by Jonathan. The motion was defeated. While the motion was defeated there was general agreement that LA would be willing to consider a revised application around more cost-effective options (such as second-hand laptops). An invitation to revise will be sent to Kylie by Jonathan. An update will be sent to the grants list once the final arrangement has been determined. Suitability of jitsi for meetings In general it seems to be working. It struggled with the number of participants when subcommittee members also joined. Could jitsi be used for council and zoom for subcommittees? This was thought to be a piece-meal approach. What about other options? BBB has been tried by other LA-affiliated groups over the last two years. It has been very tricky to get a stable platform. It seems to suffer from scaling issues. We will probably have to seek out a paid hosting provider due to bandwidth  and other resource issues which could be challenge in our current server accommodations. Since zoom is being paid, there is little reluctance to paying for a hosted solution (be it jitsi or some other open source platform). Action item: Andrew to explore commercial open source video conference solutions. Number of participants: work on 20. This would gcover a hybrid AGM too. Copyright claim The photo is the Ariane 5 launch from Bdale’s LCA talk in 2003. The photo is from ESA. Reuters don’t own can’t claim copyright on an image they don’t own. https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2023/02/ariane_5_v135/24699582-2-eng-GB/Ariane_5_V135_pillars.jpg On the lower right side is a copyright statement: © 2000 ESA – CNES – ARIANESPACE / Photo Service Optique CSG. The photo is clearly not a Reuters image based on the available public evidence. Russell has asked a lawyer for advice. It appears that our position is strong: the image is marked copyright ESA, and therefore Reuters can’t claim copyright. The claim requires a response by 17 Jan 2025. In the instance, LA will await a response from Russell before deciding on the next steps. IRD Loan The news that the debt is no longer being held against Python NZ is welcomed. Joel noted that there was no discussion in the letter about repayment of the installment that has already been paid. Neill has followed up with Danny to ask for clarification from the IRD. His response: not with this message (the only one received so far), and didn’t want to push that yet. We’re waiting for the transfer to happen, it may mean a credit already, or a follow up.   Accessibility report for ticketing platforms The request is about making ticketing platforms accessible to vision-impaired people. Action item: Sae Ra will talk to Rowland about possible sources for grants and other in-kind support LA can offer.   One item was discussed in camera   Meeting closed at 21:29  AEDT (UT+1100) Next meeting is scheduled for 2025-01-08 at 20:00 AEDT (UT+1100) on Jitsi. The post 2024-12-18 Council Meeting Minutes appeared first on Linux Australia.