Ruby Australia Annual General Meeting Minutes
3rd November, 2013
Meeting open: 15:37
Agenda
1. Opening statements
Pat Allan intro to Ruby Australia and what we do.
All Rails Camps and RubyConfs come under the banner
The local Ruby meets do not come under the banner.
Pat’s just the narrator, no official power.
The eight Committee members currently are:
- Ben Schwarz (President)
- Josh Price (Vice-President)
- Jason Stirk (Treasurer)
- Ryan Bigg (Secretary)
- Lachie Cox (General member)
- Elle Meredith (General member)
- John Barton (General member)
- Dylan Lacey (General member)
2. President’s report - Ben Schwarz
The reign of Ben Schwarz is coming to an end. We’re going to go through the code of conduct, it’s had input from our community and other communities.
We’ve now firmed up support for RailsGirls through banking and insurance and sorting out sponsorship. Making the whole thing easier. Also looking at giving financial support @ $25 per attendee.
3. VP’s report - Josh Price
Financials are in shape, all things reconciled. Jason will give a detailed report.
4. Treasurer’s report - Jason Stirk
We have all the financials sorted, audited and approved. We’re in a very healthy situation. We currently have $123,724.70 in the bank account. Some expenses outstanding for this rails camp. In the last financial year (1 Jan - 31 Dec 2011) we had a profit of $45,301.31 and for EY2012 $110,838.06 from RubyConf 2013, about $78K profit. Breakdowns are broken down to event, welcome come and have a look. Reports will be on the website. Any members are entitled to view them.
Pat Allan put forward a motion to approve the financial reports, seconded by Jason Crane. Motion carried.
Pat Allan put forward a motion to accept the previous meeting’s minutes, seconded by Jason Crane. Motion carried.
By attending a Rails Camp you are automatically a member of Ruby Australia.
5. Rubyconf
Josh Price talked about RubyConf 2014. On in Feb. Early bird tickets are on sale now. We’ve sold 100 or so tickets. Call for Proposals is now open till after RailsCamp. Still taking Proposals till it’s done. It’ll be held in Luna Park in Sydney. Aiming for 400 people or so. If anyone wants to sponsorship available, please talk to Josh Price or Steve Gilles. Keith asked about keynotes, nothing to announce yet. $545 + GST for early birds. 10 tickets or more get a discount. We have a scholarship available, Thoughtworks are sponsoring 8 tickets. Steve Gilles extended a huge thanks to Keith and Martin and the previous RubyConf team. 100 tickets sold without much effort.
6. Current Rails Camp
Lachie is very pleased with this camp and its progress. We try to aim to break even on the camps, so we had to receive sponsorship and increase the ticket price this time. Hopefully it’s not something we have to do each year. The scholarship has worked really well. 12 sponsorships were arranged but quite a few people dropped out. Need to tweak that for next camp.
7. Next Rails Camp
Dylan Lacey announces the next camp in QLD, somewhere 2 hours out of Brisbane. Date, location and costs will be announced at Ruby Conf. Sometime before the end of May due to restrictions. Somewhere more beachy. Looking for suggestions. We’ll be having an intro session for noobs in each city to see what they might expect.
Let’s think about the camp after next, where should it be? Who’s going to organise it? Canberra? Perth, it’s been a while.
Feedback on this camp, please share with Lachie and Dylan.
8. Code of Conduct
Next item is the Code of Conduct, Pat Allan will read through it. It’s on GitHub. Pat reads it
Pat puts forward a motion that we accept it. Seconded by Luke Chadwick. No dissenting voices. Motion passed.
Matt Allen said we’ll run a anonymous feedback form.
Leonard says that the code of conduct doesn’t explicitly name what is a violation. What happens when it is violated? Is there a dispute process.
Lachie says it’s not a legal document, Leonard says it’d be better if it was more explicit.
Leonard puts forward that we also create a dispute recommendation process.
Ben Schwarz mentioned that we decided very early that there was not going to be a list of illegal things. So people won’t game it. Dispute resolution is a good idea. It will be hosted in the GitHub repo along with other documents.
Motion passed to accept the code of conduct.
Dylan L says dispute resolution thought process is that each event may need a specific instance.
The motion is that Ruby Australia puts together a template for specific events.
Brenton suggests that risk assessment may be done on a per event basis.
Leonard puts forward a motion for a dispute resolution template. Seconded by Andrew Harvey. Motion passed.
A motion that specific event can modify the template by individual event organisers, seconded by Lachlan Hardy. Motion passed.
9. Committee elections
President
Keith Pitty nominated Matt Allen, seconded by Josh Price.
Elected unopposed.
Treasurer
Pat Allan nominated Jason Stirk to continue, Josh Price seconded.
Elected unopposed.
Secretary
Pat Allan nominated Leonard Garvey, Leonard rejected due to not being in the country
Jason nominated Steve Gilles.
Elected unopposed.
Lachlan Hardy suggested that 2 people from Lookahead is maybe not a good idea. Steve stepped down.
Steve nominated Luke Chadwick, Luke accepted.
Elected unopposed.
Summary
- President: Ben Schwarz succeeded by Matt Allen
- Secretary: Ryan Bigg succeeded by Luke Chadwick
- all other members remain as above
10. General Business
Rails Camp hardware
Discussion around the hardware for Rails Camps. Chris had to do it all, on his own laptop. Would it make sense to purchase some inside the association that would make railscamps easier to organise, someone has to start again.
Jason Stirk put forward a motion that some hardware is acquired to be used at events. Seconded by Keith Pitty.
Should we focus on the specific problem just for Rails Camps? Tim McEwan asked about how we move it around the country.
Lachie Cox put forward a motion The Ruby Australia committee will take input in aquire hardware to support Rails Camps before next Rails Camp. Seconded by Leonard Garvey
Motion passed.
Rails Camp Internet
Nigel asked about potential of getting internet to a railscamp.
Brenton says it’s really hard.
Not carried, more discussion required.
Rails Camp communication
Discussion about how to communicate that some people need help and some can help as Rails Camps. Maybe use internal GitHub. twetter? Talk about it with camp organisers. Not really a Ruby Australia issue.
11. Any other business
RailsGirls is now in 4 cities.
Greg McIntyre asked where should these discussions should be held in-between events? Mention of Seattle.RB who do a lot of work under the banner. If we need to pay for something, can RubyAustralia pay for that? Answer is yes.
Darcy L puts forward a motion that pre-railscamp events be endorse before Ruby events. He’ll put a proposal together.
Meeting closed at 16:36