Re: Linux Australia Community Update & LCA2021 Information

Wise decisions all around. Well done, Council.

On 6/5/20 12:41 pm, President, Linux Australia via linux-aus wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>
>
> Wow, suffice to say this isn’t something that I thought I would need 
> to send. But then again, is anything we are currently doing “Business 
> As Usual”?
>
>
> This is about the time that we start our full planning mode for 
> linux.conf.au, assemble our Session Selection Committee, announce our 
> Grants program and our subcommittees start making their announcements. 
> But this year is a little different. You may have already seen that 
> the PyCon AU subcommittee has announced PyConline AU for 2020 and 
> everything is underway to deliver this to our community.
>
>
> Which brings me to an update for you about Linux Australia’s recent 
> activity and what is happening to LCA2021.
>
>
> Advocacy:
>
> Linux Australia is continuing to advocate for our community. We 
> recently signed an open letter [0] calling the Government of Australia 
> to be open and transparent in regards to the “COVIDSafe” app. We 
> joined nearly 100 Academics and Industry Experts calling for this. 
> Signing was important for Linux Australia because we have an 
> obligation to our community to advocate for open and transparent 
> standards. It is one of our Values [1] and not signing this would be 
> doing our community a dis-service. I have received lots of fantastic 
> feedback and support which tells me that we are headed in the right 
> direction.
>
>
> Our Mailing Lists:
>
> A reminder to all that we have mailing lists available [2]. I would 
> like to stress (very strongly) that we have a mailing list conduct 
> policy which is found in our GitHub account [3]. We want this to be a 
> safe and inclusive environment just like our conferences. If you don’t 
> want to want to abide by this policy please feel free to unsubscribe.
>
>
> Grants Program:
>
> We would like to change tact for this year’s grants program and 
> specifically focus on supporting initiatives, projects and groups to 
> get through this time with technology and access. Funding could be 
> provided to support projects such as improved documentation and user 
> experience around web-conferencing software to make it more accessible 
> for those who may not understand technology as we do. Or it may go to 
> help develop a web-conferencing solution to suit our conferences and 
> events. An official email opening the 2020 Grants Program will be sent 
> out in the coming days. Please stay tuned for more info.
>
>
> We now come to what everyone is really reading this email for….
>
>
> LCA2021:
>
> Linux Australia, the LCA Ghosts and the LCA2021 team have come 
> together in the last month and discussed the next steps for us and 
> what we should do with our beloved conference. We have decided that it 
> is for the best to postpone LCA2021 to LCA2022. We have secured the 
> 2022 dates with the Australian National University events booking 
> team. We felt that this was our best option after considering a number 
> of factors:
>
> 1.
>
>     There may not be a vaccine available by January 2021.
>
> 2.
>
>     Opening Call for Sessions during a lockdown is hard to do as
>     speakers can’t guarantee that they can travel today, tomorrow or
>     January.
>
> 3.
>
>     Being realistic about the safety of our International Delegates:
>     if there is still no vaccine for COVID-19 we can’t reasonably
>     expect our delegates to go into 2 weeks quarantine on either side
>     of our conference.
>
> 4.
>
>     The safety of our Volunteers is paramount.
>
>
> But LCA is my yearly pilgrimage! What does this mean?
>
> We will be running LCA Online!
>
> I will be putting a call out for some volunteers to help me put 
> together an online conference. This conference will be light touch, 
> with minimal overheads. If you have any talk ideas keep them brewing. 
> Was there a talk you gave at LCA 10 years ago and now that you’re 10 
> years on is your opinion still the same? Is that project still even a 
> thing? So keep an eye out on our various channels for a call for 
> volunteers and a call for talks. Looking forward to seeing what can be 
> put together for you.
>
>
> We hope that you are all keeping safe and well during this time of 
> craziness. Please keep and eye out for more updates coming in the near 
> future. Remember that these times are troubling and unknown for all of 
> us so I urge you to please be kind to each other.
>
> If you have any questions or concerns please do contact myself or 
> Council.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Sae Ra
>
>
>
> [0] https://covidapp.opentransparent.org/
>
> [1] https://linux.org.au/about-us/values/
>
> [2] https://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo
>
> [3] 
> https://github.com/linuxaustralia/constitution_and_policies/blob/master/mail-list-policy.md 
>
> -- 
> Sae Ra Germaine
> President
> Linux Australia
>
> [email protected]
> http://linux.org.au
>
> Linux Australia Inc
> GPO Box 4788
> Sydney NSW 2001
> Australia
>
> ABN 56 987 117 479
>
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