Australian Public Access Network Association Inc.

From the Prez ...

APANA has developed amazingly over the past twelve months. We have:

• dramatically increased in size
• established ourselves as a national organisation, with strong representation
  in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.
• formed a good working relationship with AARNet, our network service provider
• considerably enhanced the sophistication and reliability of our network and its
  links to other networks such as AARNet

Let's keep up the growth and good works in the next twelve!

Finally, something to think about... One important challenge for all of us over the next year is to work together in forming closer ties and fostering better understanding between our different regions, in order to maintain the long-term cohesion of APANA as an organisation. This AGM is particularly significant in terms of working together - with members from Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne all meeting in the same place for the first time. Let's make the most of it!

Andrew Herbert.

Secretary's Report

The Year in Review

• Our 1992 AGM agreed the rules we would use to operate the association.
• APANA became incorporated as the "Australian Public Access Network Association",
  which was an essential step to protect the volunteers handling money and making
  commitments on behalf of the group.
• The number of members has increased five-fold. More of this below.
• We installed another connection to AARNet at the Australian Defence Forces Academy
  in Canberra, which is also accessible in Sydney thanks to an arrangement with the Navy.
• Some of the Melbourne members have set up semi-permanent links between their
  systems, and started a private IP network. These backbone systems dramatically improve
  the service provided to the ever-increasing number of dial-in uucp systems. We currently
  have an application with the AVCC seeking to become a network affiliate, so that the
  systems connected to this IP network can directly access the Internet.
• Arrangements for another connection to AARNet in Adelaide are almost complete.

Administration of APANA

The rules of APANA specify that the organization is to be managed by an elected committee with six members. At 30 June 1993, the management committee were:

• President Andrew Herbert
• Vice-President James Gardiner
• Treasurer Felicity Jones
• Acting Secretary Nick Langmaid
• Acting Member David Keegel
• Acting Member Gavan McCormack

During the year it became clear that the management committee would need assistance in representing the diverse interests of an organization with members distributed from Adelaide to Cairns.

To solve this problem, a second committee was created with one representative from each region and one representative from the management committee. The role of this "National Committee" is to consider the issues facing APANA and to recommend a course of action to the management committee. At 30 June 1993, the national committee were:

• Adelaide Mark Newton
• MC James Gardiner
• Melbourne David Keegel
• Newcastle Matt McLeod
• Sydney Mark Purcell

Membership of APANA

During the first year of APANA's formal existence, several changes have occurred in the membership. The first and most obvious is that the number of members has increased rapidly. This is illustrated in Table 1, which shows the total number of members at the end of each month in the year.

Extrapolating, we should pass our first million members in May 1997 and by 2002 every person in Australia should be an APANA member. This might not be quite true, but we are certainly going to have to address quite a number of issues, both administrative and technical, within the next year if the membership continues to rise at anything like this rate.

The second and more subtle change is a trend towards a more even geographic distribution of the membership. This is illustrated in Table 2, which shows the proportion of members in each region at the end of June 1993. To simplify the Table, Geelong members are included with Melbourne, and Canberra members are included with Sydney.) The clear conclusion is that APANA needs effective methods for representing the interests of all its members, wherever they live.

It should be an interesting year ahead!

Nick Langmaid.

Treasurer's Report

Revenue:

TOTAL REVENUE $ 6728.31

Expenses:

TOTAL EXPENSES $ 3702.78

NET PROFIT/(LOSS) $ 3025.53

Net Profit/(Loss) for taxation purposes ($ 3679.47)

Note that membership fees are not considered to be taxable income and hence APANA operates at a loss for taxation purposes.

Australian Public Access Network Association Inc.

Bank Reconciliation as at 30th June, 1993

Less payments to 30/6/93 3702.78
Plus receipts to 30/6/93 6728.31

Closing Bank account Balance as at 30/6/93 $3989.96 CR

Opening Cashbook Balance 1/7/92 $ 964.43 DR

Less payments to 30/6/93 3702.78
Plus receipts to 30/6/93 6728.31

Closing Cashbook Balance 30/6/93 $3989.96 DR

Felicity Jones.