Committee Meeting - 16th September 2015

Ruby Australia Meetings
1

Ruby Australia Committee Meeting Minutes

16th of September, 2015 - 7:00pm AEST

Held via GotoMeeting

Committee Members Present

  • Sebastian VonConrad - President
  • Melissa Kaulfuss - Vice President
  • Matt Allen - Treasurer
  • Mikel Lindsaar - Secretary
  • Rob Jacoby
  • John Barton

Appologies

  • Leonard Garvey
  • Amanda Neumann

Agenda

  1. Welcome / Apologies / Agenda Amendments

    • Welcome to all people.
    • Apologies

  2. Previous minutes

    • Motion to accept last minutes as correct, proposed by Secretary,
      seconded by John Barton, no opposition, passed.

  3. Matters arising from previous meeting:

    • Minutes to be written up and published - DONE
    • Sebastian to get Mikel the constitution to get it online - DEFERRED
    • Matt & Melissa to setup Meetup.com account under Ruby Australia - DEFERRED
    • Sebastian to get started on sponsorship taking over from Matt - DONE

  4. President’s report

    • In sponsorship, working with Trish, to get idea on the sponsorship packages like
      in terms of type and levels. Next job is to get prospectus together and circulate
      that to the committee and organising committee. Have made some progress and should
      start pushing to companies early next week. Mikel - need help with making it
      pretty? Seb - need assets, Rob - will get access to you.
    • Mel and Seb had a chat with the Interactive Accounting (Ruby Australia accountants)
      Wanted to know more about RubyConf on cash flow and things, also she wanted to
      have little more idea on plans and future including budgets etc. Not ready to engage
      them further, but will be in touch.
    • Received some negative feedback about Rails girls event in Sydney, was discussed
      with Len and Mel. Len + Organisers are working on a solution, some people were
      feeling excluded. Working on a solution. - Continue to work on this and keep the
      conversation open for both parties.

  5. Treasurer’s report

    • More discussions with accountant. Audit is being done. Asked the accountant to
      help with some of the book keeping - chase up some outstanding invoices.
    • $53k in the bank after paying for a chunk of deposits for RubyConf.
    • Reason we have survived previous RubyConfs was due to the cash buffer the
      association has, so we need to get money in as soon as possible.
    • Should be capture emails for treasurer, ACTION - setup treasurer@ruby.org.au
      Treasurer to set this up
    • Mikel - can interactive handle the invoicing and payments? Treasurer to ask
      how this would work.

  6. Review Main Activities

    1. Ruby Conference - Rob Jacoby

      • Ticket sales is fairly low at the moment with 10 sold. Should we have a snap
        sale? Not sure if we should do that or now. Matt - do early bird pricing for
        a snap sale for 4 weeks. Continue discussion outside of the meeting.
      • Have a budget setup, and Rob to talk to Lisa from Accountant on breakeven level
        will talk on friday during meeting.
      • John Barton - need to get the talks out there on who is doing what - Rob: yes
        but we haven’t got the CFP finished, we have 66 talks currently. Maybe we could
        send some more emails out to push it forward.

    2. Event Knowledge Project Update - Leonard Garvey

      • Rob: Quickly asked him, unable to get to it next month.

    3. New People into the Community Project Update - Melissa Kaulfuss

      • Nothing major done, meetup.com to happen this week
      • Talking to Lauren about RailsGirls adelaide. Same with Perth webgirls,
        also just met with Rails Girls melbourne.
      • ZenDesk has asked if they can sponsor RailsGirls melbourne, will talk to
        them about RubyConf as well.
      • Want to create a model for RailsGirls events, perhaps $20-$25 per head
        Matt: we need a policy on this. Mel: Have spoke to Lisa. Possibly can
        do more - cap per event.
      • Mikel - We have booked Installfest Adelaide in December.
      • Mel + Mikel to work out a policy to come back on vote on.

    4. Ruby to the Business Project Update - John Barton

      • Not a massive amount of action to report, meeting with Liam on Monday.
      • Matt has forwarded on email from a dev manager trying to find devs.
      • Will work with Startup Victoria to do a survey on non technical founders,
        their concerns, how they got tech off the ground, how they feel about
        ruby in general. Deliver a written proposal for next month.

  7. General Business

    • Rob - get more reminders in place. Mikel to do a nudge.

    • Rob - Mel, new website? Will discuss outside of that and come back

    • Mel - RailsCamp ballot is a problem with scope, but could this be
      changed? John: really hard to be prescriptive. Seb: Problem can be
      that not enough members for an AGM. Committee should be able to go.

    • Proposal by Matt that part of committee membership be a guaranteed
      right to buy a ticket to any Rails Camp as a benefit of giving
      time to the Ruby Australia community - passed unanimously

  8. Next Meeting

    • Wednesday the 21st of October. 7pm.

  9. Targets for following month

    • Sebastian to get Mikel the constitution to get it online
    • Matt & Melissa to setup Meetup.com account under Ruby Australia
    • Rob to get assets to Sebastian for Ruby Conf sponsorship document
    • Sebastian to continue with Mel + Len on issue that came up at Rails
      Girls Sydney and work towards an appropriate resolution
    • Rob to work with team outside of meeting to do a snap sale to push
      ticket sales on Ruby Conf.
    • Mel + Mikel to work out funding policy for RailsGirls / InstallFest
      and DevelopmentHub style training / introduction events and distribute
      for next committee meeting vote.
    • John to get written proposal and wheels in motion for Startup Victoria
      survey.

  10. End of Meeting