[Osia-members] Vale Brenda Aynsley OAM FACS

[Jack Burton]

Afternoon, all.

With great sadness, I write to inform you that Brenda Aynsley (of OSIA
member Oz Business Partners P/L) passed away on Sunday.

Long-standing OSIA members may remember Brenda as an active participant
in the informal meeting at the end of LCA2004 (Adelaide) that led
directly to the formation of OSIA in May of that year.

Brenda was also my co-author on the South Australian Open Source
Business Survey[1] in 2007---an initiative that had its genesis at
OSBN-SA during the twilight hours of that group, then reached fruition
as an OSIA project.

More recently, South Australian members may recall Brenda as a former
director and founding member of OpenSA.

She had long been an advocate for FOSS, in all of the above roles and
in her various roles at ACS, including notably as convenor of the ACS
SA Branch PC Recycling SIG---one of the first and longest standing
groups in Australia to distribute desktop computers pre-installed with
GNU/Linux in significant numbers.

On a more personal note, whilst Brenda & I crossed swords on many
occasions, I'm the first to admit that over the years she did a lot of
good work for the Australian computing profession in general, and for
the Australian FOSS sector in particular. I'm pleased that a few short
weeks ago we had the opportunity to meet & reconcile.

The board of OSIA were moved when we heard on the grapevine during our
meeting in Ballarat on Saturday that the end was near for Brenda and
deeply saddened to learn, during an infrastructure committee meeting in
Melbourne on Sunday, that she was no longer with us. On both occasions
board members were unanimous that we should express our sympathies for
Brenda's loved ones and recognise her substantial contribution to the
industry.

We have waited this long to send out this notice in order to allow
sufficient time for her family to send out their own notices first.

I would be remiss not to echo the words of ACS SA Branch Manager Mandy
Watson, who yesterday wrote to ACS SA Branch members of Brenda's wishes:

    "As many would be aware, Brenda was not a fan of flowers. In lieu
    of flowers, donations are encouraged to the St Andrews Hospital
    Foundation South Australia[2] or the Animal Welfare League of South
    Australia[3]."

Brenda will no doubt be sorely missed by many.

Having lost Carl Holden, Janet Hawtin-Reid & Brenda Aynsley all in the
space of one short year, it has truly been an annus horibilis for the
Australian FOSS industry & community.

Regards,


--
Jack Burton FACS CP <jack at saosce.com.au>
Company Secretary, Open Source Industry Australia Ltd


[1]
https://web.archive.org/web/20070829231830/http://www.osia.net.au/content/download/667/3150/version/1/file/osia_sa_survey_2007_apr.pdf

[2] https://www.stand.org.au/donate

[3] https://awl.org.au/support-us/giving/donate