Ruby Australia General Meeting Minutes
Held: Rails Camp, Woodman Point Recreation Centre, Perth WA, November 15, 2014 at 4PM
Attendance
Committee Members Present
- Matt Allen (President)
- Pat Allan (Vice President)
- Keith Pitt (General Member)
- Rob Jacoby (General Member)
- Mel Sherrin (General Member)
- Luke Arndt (General Member)
Apologies:
- Jason Stirk (Treasurer)
- Luke Chadwick (Secretary)
Other Attendees
- Lachlan Hardy
- Sean Geoghegan
- Mario Visic
- John Meredith
- Wei Zeng
- Casey Leask
- Alec Sloman
- Brendan Foster
- Mel Kaulfuss
- Amanda Neumann
- Paul Millar
- Lachie Cox
- Jimmy Martelletti
- Keith Pitt
- Guillaume Hammadi
- Pete Yandell
- Jared Shay
- Jonathan Williams
- Glenn Tweedie
- Shannon McQuay
- Sebastian von Conrad
- Jason Crane
- Glen Crawford
- Noel Kelly
- Darcy Leycock
- Yuko Sugiyama
- Mark Glossop
- Steve Gilles
- Leonard Garvey
- Brenton Annan
- Rufus Post
- Tim Riley
- Garrett Heinlen
- Rob Howard
- Phil Oye
- Elle Meredith
- Mikel Lindsaar
- James Sadler
- Gabe Hollombe
- Brendan Palmer
- Steve Occhipinti
Item 1: Welcome and apologies
The following Committee Member apologies were received and noted:
- Jason Stirk (Treasurer)
- Luke Chadwick (Secretary)
Pat Allan provided an introduction the meeting and explained the role of the Committee and that by attending a formal event of Ruby Australia all those present were accepted as members.
It was noted that elections would be held later in the meeting for a number of positions. Melanie Sherrin volunteered, and was appointed unopposed, as Returning Officer.
The meetings of the previous minutes from the meeting held on 10 May 2014 (Rails Camp 15) were approved (Moved: Melanie Sherrin, Seconded: Rob Jacoby).
Item 2: Committee Reports
Treasurer’s report
As the Treasurer (Jason Stirk) was not available to attend the meeting his report was read out. Of relevance is that Ruby Australia is in good financial shape and the accountants have completed their required audits with and no outstanding issues have been raised. A copy of the Treasurers report is attached to these Minutes.
President’s report
Matt Allen provided a summary of the committee’s activities over the past six months. He noted that it has been another successful year for Ruby Australia supporting the Ruby community in Australia.
It was moved and agreed that the Treasurers and Presidents Reports be accepted. (Moved: Pat Allan, Seconded: Luke Arndt)
Item 3: Next Ruby Conference – 2015
Pat Allan provided a summary of the status of the preparations for the upcoming Ruby Conference to be held in Melbourne from 4-7 February 2015. He noted that ticket sales were progressing well and that a number of sponsors had been secured. He also thanked Melissa Kaulfuss, Sebastian von Conrad and Matt Allen for their work on the conference to date.
Members discussed where the next conference should be held. No resolution was reached. It was agreed that if members had suggestions they should raise these with Committee Members.
Item 4: Rails Camps
Keith Pitt provided a summary of the approach he took to organising the current Rails camp. Keith was thanked by all members for the efforts in organising this very successful camp.
Members discussed the location of the next Rails camps (due in April/May 2015 and November 2015). It was agreed that members should consider whether they would be interested in organising a camp. It was noted that both Canberra and Tasmania would be good places to visit as there had not been camps there for some time.
Item 5: Elections
Nominations were called for the positions of President, Treasurer and Secretary.
There was discussion on the roles and responsibilities of various positions. The Returning Officer explained that if more than one nominee was put forward that a vote on the hands would conducted.
After nominations and elections the Returning Officer declared that the following people were elected.
- President – Sebastian von Conrad
- Treasurer – Matt Allen
- Secretary - Mikel Lindsaar
Item 6: Amendment to Code of Conduct
An amendment was proposed to the Code of Conduct to better express the willingness of Ruby Australia to encourage gender diverse people to be involved. After discussion it was agreed to amend the Code of Conduct to include the words “gender identity”.
It was noted that the relevant paragraph in the Code of Conduct would now read:
The Ruby Australia organisation is dedicated to providing harassment-free experiences at events and conferences for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, or age. We do not tolerate harassment in any form.
Item 7: General Business
Members discussed a range of topics such as Rails Girls events and support for local ruby Australia events. There were no formal motions raised.
Meeting closed at 5pm.
Treasurer’s Report
Hi there,
Below is my full report for the financial status of Ruby Australia Incorporated as of the 15th of November 2014.
As this camp forms the end of my 2 year term as Treasurer, I would like to thank all the committee - both past and present, for their support and hard work over the last two years. It has been an honour and privilege to be able to serve with you, and to be able to support an organisation that is working so hard to improve our community in a supportive and inclusive way.
The attached files form the financial report as of 15th November 2014 for Ruby Australia Incorporated.
The past 6 months have been busy for the association, with this Railscamp in planning and the initial payments being made for RubyConfAU 2015. Along with this, Ruby Australia has been providing banking services for the Melbourne RORO meet-up, including invoicing sponsors and handling expense claims. We are currently in the process of exploring how we can help support the Perth RORO meet-up.
Over the past year we have continued to streamline our accounting process, both with the help of event organisers and through advice provided to us by Interactive Accounting. As part of that, I would like to thank all the event organisers for both their support in completing our financial obligations, but also their patience and tolerance when things haven’t gone quite to plan.
The last major event was the Brisbane Railscamp which completed with a minor loss of $856. In my opinion, this is preferable to a camp turning a large profit as camp events are a great time to keep ticket costs low to ensure they are able to be attended by as many of our community as possible.
The association is in a very stable place financially, and our event organisers should be congratulated for their great work making sure this is the case.
As of today, we have the following balances in the bank:
-
General and Railscamp: $60,310.71
-
Savings: $43,435.76
-
Conferences: $7,446.62
-
Total: $111,193.09.
It should be noted that a large amount of the funds from General and Railscamp are the result of RubyConf AU 2015 ticket sales, but have yet to be transferred into the conference working account. This is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.
Attached to this email are the following:
- A financial report audited by Interactive Accounting for the year ending 30 June 2014.
- A profit & loss report for the last Railscamp held in Brisbane.
- A profit & loss report for for the 3 months ending September 2014 (our last audit period).
- The full Business Activity report for the quarter ending September 2014.
I can be reached for any questions at treasurer@ruby.org.au, or you can always reach out to me on Twitter or at any future events.
Finally, I would like to nominate Matthew Allen as my replacement as Treasurer.
Best regards,
Jason Stirk
Treasurer Outgoing
Ruby Australia, Inc.