Internet Society of Australia
A Chapter of the Internet Society
ABN 36 076 406 801
Minutes of Annual General Meeting, 2004
The Annual General Meeting of the Internet Society of Australia was
held on Tuesday 30 November 2004 at the offices of Maddocks, Level 28
Angel Place, 123 Pitt Street Sydney NSW.
The meeting commenced at 6:00pm.
1. Welcome
Mr Tony Hill was Chair and welcomed members attending and on
teleconference, and listed the items on the agenda.
He noted that the Annual Reports and Accounts are available on the
Society's web pages at:
http://www.isoc-au.org.au/AGM2004/FinancialReport2004.pdf
Apologies: Jeremy Malcolm, Peter Ziebell.
2. Notice of Meeting
Motion: "That the notice of the Annual General Meeting 2004 be taken as
read."
MOVED Tony Hill SECONDED Craig Ng. PASSED.
3. Quorum
A quorum for the meeting was established with 12 people present in
person, 2 by teleconference and 24 proxies, for which proxy forms were
open for inspection.
Motion: "That the 24 proxies be accepted at the AGM."
MOVED Craig Ng, SECONDED Narelle Clark. PASSED.
4.Executive Director's Report
The Executive Director, Dr Kate Lance, presented her report for the
year and was thanked for her excellent work on behalf of ISOC-AU.
It has been another busy year for ISOC-AU. Our directors continue to
donate their time and resources in specialist areas, attending meetings
and providing advice and services to a wide variety of Internet
organisations.
Requests for media comments have been continuous throughout the year,
on topics as diverse as the death of CDs, broadband product launches,
broadband uptake, online dating sites and downloading films. Major
events for the year were the five meetings we held to consult with
Internet users in cities all over Australia.
[A] Working with Our Members
We are slowly building up our member numbers again after the technology
sector slump of the last few years. A pleasing area of growth has
been that of the Organisational Members. We have not only welcomed
a number of new Foundation members during the year, but the major
organisations Optus and Australian Telecommunications CRC have also
joined our existing Enterprise members AARNet, Australian Communication
Exchange, Australian Computer Society, Australian Services Roundtable,
Australian Telecommunications Users Group, Melbourne IT, Smart Internet
Technology CRC and the West Australian Internet Association.
We continue to offer substantial benefits to our Organisational members,
with publicity for their Internet-oriented activities, and invitations
to special directors' teleconferences with guest speakers, who this
year included Peter Triantafilou on South Australian broadband, John
Tierney, Acting CEO of Comindico, and Leith Campbell, CEO ATcrc - see:
http://www.isoc-au.org.au/Organisation/mins/mins0204.html
http://www.isoc-au.org.au/Organisation/mins/mins0404.html
http://www.isoc-au.org.au/Organisation/mins/mins1004.html
We also promoted a number of events (many with concessions for our own
members) for Organisational Members such as ATUG and Telecommunications
Society of Australia, and on behalf of individual members associated
with Web Accessibility Workshops, the history of the Internet, and
the ATP Open Day.
[B] Meetings and Submissions
Directors have provided an ISOC-AU presence at numerous meetings
during the year, including the Consumers' Telecommunications Network,
au Domain Administration, the auDA National Reference Group for
New Community Geographic Names, the Teleconferencing Association,
ACIF-Consumer Advisory Council, Asia Telstra Consumer Consultative
Council, Pacific Advanced Network, ICANN, Telecommunications Society of
Australia, Australian Unix and Open Systems Users Group, ACIF Consumer
Consultation, ACA consultation, Australian Services Roundtable, the
Dept of Victorian Communities and the National ICT Alliance.
A major area of commitment continues to be the involvement of directors
Cheryl Langdon-Orr, George Fong and Craig Ng with auDA, and Ross Kelso
was also recently appointed to the CTN board. See here for more on
the extensive industry involvements of the directors.
Spam has continued to be a major problem this year, and spyware has
joined it as an area of major concern for Internet users. We provided
front-page links to the Australian Communications Authority spam
information site and to the RDN Virtual Training Suite to help users
develop their understanding of the Internet.
[C] Telecommunications Consumer Consultation Meetings
In 2003 we secured additional funding through the Telecommunications
Consumer Representation Grant Program of the Department of
Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, to carry out a
program of discussions with users of Internet services across Australia.
Our objectives were:
(a) to foster consumer input into the development of the Internet and
self-regulation of the Internet industry in Australia, to fulfill the
vision that `the Internet is for everyone!' and,
(b) to ensure that maximum benefits flow to individuals and businesses
as participants in society and the global information economy, and to
draw input from all relevant stakeholders and organisations.
Since the AGM last December we have held the following meetings:
Ballarat, Vic - 25 February 2004
Hobart, Tas - 17 March 2004
Canberra, ACT - 22 April 2004
Newcastle, NSW - 23 June 2004
Brisbane, QLD - 28 October 2004
The meetings were helpfully facilitated by local members and directors
and the full reports are at
http://www.isoc-au.org.au/TCCM/
[D] Sponsors and Supporters
ISOC-AU could not operate without much-appreciated sponsorship from our
Platinum sponsors Telstra and Cisco, and in-kind support from Maddocks,
Connect Internet Solutions, Hovtek Pty Ltd, and Kildanet Productions.
Our thanks to them all.
[E] Administration
Once again the directors would like to place on record their heart-felt
gratitude for the hard work of Honorary Treasurer Cheryl Langdon-Orr for
her work with the membership, and together with Honorary Secretary Craig
Ng, their maintenance of our legal and statutory obligations to ASIC and
the ATO.
This year our previously open directors' mailing-list was forced to
become subscription-only, like the members' list, to avoid a deluge of
spam. However any member email addressed to the directors at iaboard
(at) isoc-au.org.au will still be forwarded to the list.
We continue to strongly encourage members to use their list to discuss
ideas and issues with each other. We keep our web page as up-to-date as
possible, with the approved minutes of directors' meetings, our annual
accounts, reports of our activities and much other relevant information
available on the site.
6. Resolution: Executive Director's Report
Motion: "that the Executive Director's Report be taken as read."
MOVED Cheryl Langdon-Orr, SECONDED Gunella Astbrink. PASSED.
7. Resolution: Adoption of Accounts
Motion: "that the profit and loss accounts, the balance sheet, the
report of the directors and the auditor's and director's reports of the
Society be received and adopted."
MOVED Cheryl Langdon-Orr, SECONDED Gunella Astbrink. PASSED.
8. Resignation and Election of Directors
Peter Ziebell retired.
There were 5 vacancies and 6 nominations: Greg Adamson, Kevin Karp,
Ross Kelso, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Jeremy Malcolm and Andrew McRae.
Pursuant to Article 48.2 of the constitution of the Society, the number
of candidates for election as directors is greater than the number of
vacancies on the Board, a ballot was held for election of the candidates.
Ross Kelso, Jeremy Malcolm, Kevin Karp, Cheryl Langdon-Orr and Andrew
McRae received the majority of votes.
Motion: "That Ross Kelso, Jeremy Malcolm, Kevin Karp, Cheryl
Langdon-Orr and Andrew McRae be appointed as directors."
MOVED George Fong, SECONDED Kate Lance. PASSED.
9. Other Business
Motion: "That the minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting 2003
be approved."
MOVED Craig Ng, SECONDED Cheryl Langdon-Orr. PASSED.
10. Special Business: Motion to Amend Constitution
Motion: "To amend Article 25.2 of the Constitution to lower the quorum
to 15 members or 1/3 of the total number of members, whichever is the
lesser."
A discussion of the proposed motion followed.
MOVED Cheryl Langdon-Orr, SECONDED Craig Ng. PASSED BY SPECIAL
RESOLUTION.
The meeting closed at 7 pm.
Signed as a correct and complete record of the above meeting.
Tony Hill President, ISOC-AU