[Osia-members] OSIA March update

[Jack Burton]

Afternoon all, and welcome to the first OSIA update for 2013.

Very little at all happened on the OSIA front during most of January,
but the pace picked up again from the last couple of days of Jan onwards
and continues steadily.

A number of matters worthy of mention this month:

Change of Secretary
-------------------

Bob Birchall tendered his resignation from the OSIA Board at the end of
January, effective mid March.

We are very sorry to see Bob go, and he will be sorely missed.

Bob has served on the Board since December 2010, both as Secretary and
in the Membership portfolio (and for the first year of that, he also
served as Treasurer at the same time!).

During his tenure he has been responsible for enormous improvements in
the areas of governance, compliance & process. As Treasurer in 2011,
from what was effectively a standing start, his good financial
stewardship helped us deliver an operating surplus (a trend which, I'm
pleased to say, his successor as Treasurer, Bob Waldie, has continued).

Bob Birchall has also been a highly effective member of the Board in
general, contributing in some way or other to the vast majority of
initiatives OSIA has undertaken since the end of 2010.

As Chairman in 2012 & 2013, I've found Bob's support & advice absolutely
invaluable, and I'm sure Stuart would echo those sentiments for the
preceding year.

Please join me in thanking Bob for his outstanding service to OSIA.

Bob (and his company, Calyx) will remain an active member of OSIA, and
we look forward to seeing him at OSIA events in the future.

At its March meeting, the Board elected OSIA directors Paul Gampe &
David Bullock to take on the Secretary & membership roles respectively
(in addition to their existing portfolios).

BoF at LCA in Canberra
----------------------

OSIA members and other interested parties got together for an OSIA BoF
at LCA this year, which started with an open forum discussion and ended
with drinks & merriment at the Wig & Pen.

A number of good ideas were raised, which have since been considered by
the Board for implementation in the immediate to short term -- some of
which you'll see reflected in the draft plan (see below).

Draft strategic plan
--------------------

After much discussion at a variety of member fora & board meetings, the
Board has released a draft summary strategic plan for consultation --
see:
http://www.osia.com.au/drupal7/sites/default/files/osia_draft_strategic_plan.pdf

To take the plan from draft to committed status, it is important to
ensure that the strategies it contains represent the direction that
OSIA's members, collectively, want us to pursue.

The Board think we've made a good start, but we now seek further input
from members (and any other interested parties in the Australian FOSS
sector).

So please take a few minutes to review the plan, and post your patches,
bug reports, comments or feedback in general to this list (or email me
off-list if you'd rather not be identified publicly).

Board structure for 2013
------------------------

For 2013, the Board has decided to alter the way portfolios are assigned
to OSIA directors -- previously, all had been assigned along functional
lines; we're now aligning portfolios on more strategic lines where
possible.

Where feasible, we've retained the existing approach of assigning each
portfolio a director with principal responsibility, and a director
assisting. The new structure is as follows:

Strategic portfolios:
* Domestic markets -- Paul Gampe (David Bullock assisting)
* Public policy -- Carl Holden (Don Christie assisting)
* Export markets -- Don Christie (Daniel Jitnah assisting)
* Education -- Daniel Jitnah (Carl Holden assisting)

Supporting portfolios:
* Treasurer -- Bob Waldie
* Secretary -- Paul Gampe
* Chairman -- yours truly
* Infrastructure -- David Bullock (Paul Gampe assisting)
* Membership -- David Bullock

Board meetings
--------------

The Board has met twice since the December update (in Canberra in late
January, then by teleconference on Monday) and will next be meeting on 5
April.

As always, if members have issues they feel need to be brought to the
Board's attention, please raise them on this list, or email me directly.

Regards,


-- 
Jack Burton MACS CP
<jack at saosce.com.au>
--
Director, Saosce Pty Ltd
Chairman, Open Source Industry Australia Ltd
Immediate Past Chairman (SA), Australian Computer Society Inc.
--