[Lcabid] Minutes, LCA Bid Meeting 2009-06-13

[Russell Stuart]

People, here at the minutes from the meeting yesterday.  They are from
memory, so there are almost certainly errors and omissions.  If you spot
any please notify me via the list.



Time & Place:
  2009-06-13 14:15
  Social Sciences Building, UQ, Room S603.

Present: 
  Clinton Roy, Daniel Devine, Mark Ellem, Matthew Franklin,
  Russell Stuart, Shaun Nykvist, Stephen Thomas.

Apologies:
  James Iseppi.
  James appointed Matthew as his proxy in votes.

1.  Matthew volunteered to take the minutes.

2.  Nomination of positions.  Each person was asked what positions they
    would like to fill.  After some discussion these positions were
    filled unopposed:

      Media & Promotion          - Shaun Nykvist.
      Sponsorship                - Shaun Nykvist.
      Treasurer                  - Mark Ellem.
      Network engineer           - The "IT Team".
      Papers, speakers, keynotes - Stephen Thomas.
      Mini conferences           - Clinton Roy.
      Open Day                   - Clinton Roy.
      Events & Dinners           - Russell Stuart.
      Video                      - Matthew Franklin.
      Venue organisation         - Shaun Nykvist.
      Web Site                   - The "IT Team".
      Schwag                     - Matthew Franklin.

    The "IT Team" consists of:
      Lead: James Iseppi.
      Members: Stephen Thomas, Daniel Devine.

    Russell Stuart and Shaun Nykvist nominated themselves for president.
    It was put to a vote.  The vote was 4/3, in favour of Russell.
    Shaun abstained from the vote.

3.  Russell then took over the chair of the meeting.  Discussion
    then proceeded around the table, each person talking about their
    tasks, and what they would have done for the next meeting.

    Stephen Thomas
    --------------

      Papers, speakers, keynotes:
        Stephen to look at what is involved in organising the LCA 
        paper committee, and report back to the committee with a 
        list of jobs that had to be done to make this happen for 
        LCA 2011.  Russell suggested contacting Linux Australia 
        and wiki.linux.org.au/Ctte/LCA_HOWTO as starting points.


     Shaun Nykvist
     -------------

       Media & Promotion:
         Shaun to make contact with Brisbane Marketing and report 
         back with where they can help us this year.  Russell said 
         in previous years Brisbane Marketing helped with venue
         selection, finding accommodation, paying for Linux 
         Australia's inspection, and writing up bid.  Russell to 
         put Shaun in contact with Brisbane Marketing.

         Letters of Support.  Russell said he was unsure if the
         letters of support he obtained last year had any effect
         on the outcome of the bid.  He said they did have one
         unintended consequence - they promoted Humbug and LCA to
         wider community in Brisbane, and he thought this was a
         good thing.  Shaun said he it sounded like a good idea
         and he would follow through with it again this year.
         Russell is to hand over the contacts he made last year
         to Shaun.

       Venue: 
         Russell to put Shaun in contact QUT, and advice QUT that
         Shaun is their contact from now on.

     Clinton Roy
     -----------

       Open Day:
         Clinton said he wanted to make Open Day hardware based,
         and mentioned Arduino.  Russell said he would like some
         attracting schools to Open Day; Shaun said he could help
         with this as he had strong contacts in Education circles
         in Queensland.  Clinton asked about the possibility of
         speeding money on attracting schools - like buy a pile of
         Arduino's, hand them out to schools and have a competition
         based on the best project submitted to Open Day.  Clinton
         to contact Arduino to see if they would be interested in
         help out in some way.

    Matthew Franklin
    ----------------

      Video:
        Matthew has already done a lot of the work required for this.
        He has investigated two options: purchasing the A/V video
        equipment, and renting it.  Matthew will bring final estimates
        for both options along to the next meeting.  Shaun mentioned
        that QUT already have a good A/V system.  Matthew said he
        would like to inspect what is available.  Russell said one
        thing he would really like to see is two video streams for the
        talk - one for the speaker / audience, and one on the slides
        only.

    Mark Ellem
    ----------

      Treasurer:
        Mark will produce a first pass template for the budget.  This
        is a spreadsheet with headings and calculations, but no figures.


    Russell Stuart
    --------------

      Venues:
        Russell said he would collect updates for all quotes obtained
        last year and present them at the next meeting for review.  He
        asked that if other members had suggestions for other venues
        they email them to the list, and he would get quotes from them
        as well.  Shaun said one thing that has worked well for him in
        the past was an event at a games parlour, where the games were
        free.  Stephen said he had contacts at some parlours.

4.  Russell asked the results of all action items generated here be 
    put on the wiki, and notification posted to the LcaBid list.  It
    will make the meetings go faster if everyone reads them before
    attending the next meeting.

5.  It was decided the next meeting would be again held prior to the
    Humbug meeting.  That is in 2 weeks time, at 2PM Sat June 2009,
    Hawkin Engineering, Buulding 50, Room T103.

Meeting Closed:
  15:15.

6.  In random discussions after meeting:
    a.  Matthew raised the idea of setting up a server farm for A/V
        transcoding.
    b.  Russell suggested preparing a VM image for doing the
        transcoding, that could be handed out to people prepared
        to provide CPU cycles.
    c.  AJ said most Schwag gets donated by the promoters.
    d.  Matthew asked when the move of the LCA Wiki would be
        completed.  Russell cringed and said "soon".


Outstanding Action Points from this and previous Meetings
---------------------------------------------------------

Clinton Roy
  1.  Contact Ardunio re support of Open Day.
      Due: 2009-06-27.

Mark Ellem
  1.  Draw up template for budget spreadsheet.
      Due: 2009-06-27.

Matthew Franklin
  1.  Prepare written summarises of quotes for the two ways
      of doing the A/V: Renting and Purchasing.
      Due: 2009-06-27.
  2.  Work with Shaun to review what A/V facilities are available
      at QUT, and what the cost of hiring them would be.
      Due: 2009-06-27.

Russell Stuart
  1.  Provide letter of introduction to Shaun for Brisbane Marketing.
      Due: 2009-06-27.
  2.  Hand over "letters of support" info to Shaun.
      Due: 2009-06-27.
  3.  Provide letter of introduction to Shaun for QUT contacts.
      Due: 2009-06-27.
  4.  Collect updates for all events quotes.
      Due: 2009-06-27.

Shaun Nykvist
  1.  Make contact with Brisbane Marketing and confirm what support they
      can provide this year.
      Due: 2009-06-27.
  2.  Come up with suggestions for "ways forward" in getting High
      Schools involved - who should we approach, what can we offer.
      Due: 2009-06-27.

Stephen Thomas
  1.  Find out what is involved in organising the papers committee.
      Due: 2009-06-27.