Re: Communication and conferences.

Hi Marcus,

I can only comment on my time in Council so things may have changed, however there is usually a Council "face to face" - pandemic permitting - in March or April following the AGM, where new Council members are briefed on their responsibilities and strategic direction is discussed. From memory there is a Council Induction doc floating around, but don't hold me to that .

We investigated in about 2017 - I think - of having Council Members go through the AICD course, but it's about $11k per person and we - it would have been me responsible at the time - decided it wasn't financially feasible - largely because we could invest that amount in someone who might only be on Council for a year and then move on. Should we be investing profits in one or two people rather than the community? There are arguments on both sides.

In my view, and this is my view only, the AICD course would be a wise investment for someone who has given several years' service to the organisation and indicates they would give several more. But it's a large expenditure - perhaps one for the Grants budget.

Additionally, the Council Members each have Position Descriptions outlining their roles on GitHub, linked previously.

Council Members are voluntary - and so their capacities and capabilities vary - and so often it's a balancing act for Council of who does what. There is always more LA would like to do than we have capacity to do. In terms of growing capability (life tends to constrain capacity), we find LA Council is a rich training ground, where Council members tackle complex, contentious and challenging problems.

The next question that is often asked at this juncture is "why don't you get paid support?". It's been discussed several times - getting someone high calibre on what we could afford to pay would be challenging, plus managing staff or contractors comes with a large overhead - which Council is actually trying to reduce. For example, a 0.2 FTE Exec Officer role would probably set LA back about $20-$25k a year - that's two thirds of the Grants budget. Would that role show a positive return on investment higher than $25k or would it just "help Council"? Not sure, and it's not for me to speculate as to Council's current position. That might be a great investment. But the discussion has been had several times.

There's a fantastic slide Sae Ra and Julien showed at their LA talk earlier in the year that outlined all the things LA has to govern and manage - does anyone have it to hand?

Regards,

Kathy

On 18 Oct 2022 20:27, Marcus Herstik <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Kathy,
As an ex-council member can is ask what kind of governance training council members go through?
In previous organisations I have been involved with most have some training they put people through.

Regards,
Marcus Herstik

M: 0405-569-466
A: P.O. Box 2443, Burleigh Waters, QLD, 4220

On 18 Oct 2022, at 6:40 pm, Kathy Reid <[email protected]> wrote:



None of what I wrote indicates that they are absolved of responsibilities, Marcus, however I was clarifying exactly what responsibilities they *do* have.

Kathy

On 18 Oct 2022 18:00, Marcus Herstik via linux-aus <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Kathy,
Thank you for your response.

The fact that the council is a volunteer group does not make them immune to scrutiny or absolve them of responsibilities under the Constitution or the Act

I will get back to you (and all the members on this list) after I have received more information.

#######Remember - Questionnaire at https://bit.ly/3eBse4tMembers can also email me directly instead.#####

Regards,
Marcus Herstik

M: 0405-569-466
A: P.O. Box 2443, Burleigh Waters, QLD, 4220

On 17 Oct 2022, at 11:50 pm, Kathy Reid <[email protected]> wrote:

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