Revision 12 as of 2017-05-03 02:48:33

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Candidates for the 2017 PSF Board of Directors

The following people have been nominated as Directors of the Python Software Foundation for the term beginning in June 2017. Their self-written summaries follow. The specific dates of relevance to the election are:

  • Open call for Board Director Nominations: May 1, 2017
  • Board Director Nomination & Voter Eligibility cut-off: May 25, 2017 AoE - nominations & voting eligibility closes at 2017-05-25 23:59:59 UTC-12
  • Voting start date: June 1, 2017 AoE - ballots will be sent out
  • Voting end date: June 10, 2017 AoE - election closes at 2017-06-10 23:59:59 UTC-12

The above closing times are given in the "Anywhere on Earth" (AOE) timezone.

There are currently 11 seats on the Board of Directors (last changed in the 2012 PSF Members vote).

Links

Registering as a PSF Board candidate

To register as a candidate for the Board elections, add your nomination to this page using the format listed at the end of the page. We'd like as many groups within the PSF membership as possible to have the option of electing candidates that can directly represent their interests in Board discussions, so if there's someone you'd particularly like to have represent you, you may want to consider getting in touch with them and (politely!) asking if they'd be interested in nominating themselves.

Read through the Letter from PSF Director of Operations - Expectations of Board Directors & Duties and Responsibilities of Directors. Please note that the PSF bylaws require that Board candidates disclose significant organizational affiliations (for example, their employer).

Note

Please follow the instructions on the FrontPage to gain wiki edit access.

Registering to vote on PSF ballots

While PSF Membership is open to anyone that chooses to join, Basic Members are not entitled to vote on PSF ballots, including Board elections. In accordance with the bylaws, the following PSF Members are entitled to vote on PSF ballots:

To register as a Managing or Contributing member, refer to this post on the PSF blog.

To register as a Supporting Member, please use the PSF Associate Membership site.

PSF Fellows must themselves be approved through a PSF ballot, and thus only existing Fellows will be entitled to vote on the upcoming ballot. This ballot will include bylaw updates for the newly established process for nominating Fellows.

Outgoing Directors

The following members of the 2016/17 Board are stepping down and will not be registering as candidates for the 2017/18 Board:

Please use the following format:

Candidate Name
==============

*2016 Board Member.* or *New Board Member.*

Description.

Affiliation: ...

----

Lorena Mesa

2016 Board Member

Description

It is with great pleasure that I outline my personal contributions to the Python community. Additionally I will provide an overview of the merits that I believe I could bring to the PSF as 2017 member of the Board of Directors.

History as a Python Organizer

I began my tenure as a Python organizer when I founded the PyLadies Chicago chapter over two years ago, I’ve since continued to act as the lead organizer. At PyLadies Chicago we aim to have at least one event a month. With May 2017 as our 29th month in existence, we’ve had 50 events putting us right at about 1.5 events a month (or three events every two months :-) ).

PyLadies Chicago has been a rich and rewarding experience as the continued recruitment for women in technical communities, such as Python, is one of my top priorities. As a Latina and a woman I believe it is instrumental we continue to advance this cause but more importantly to continue to advance it on a global scale.

2016/2017 PSF Community Contributions

  • Attended 16 of 17 meetings (3 by proxy)
  • Represented PSF and Spoke at Python Jamaica (November 2016)
  • Co-delivered PSF Update at EuroPython 2016 with Naomi Ceder
  • PSF Communications Co-Chair, Overseeing Blog
  • Assisted in the hiring of 2 new PSF Bloggers
  • Authored 2 PSF Blog Articles
  • Interviewed about the PSF in several capacities, for example: ZimboPy April 2017 Interview, Podcast Interviews (e.g. Python.__init__)
  • Spearheaded the start of the PyCon Organizers Manual
  • PyLadies PyCon Booth Volunteer (2016, 2017)
  • Young Coders PyCon Teaching Assistant (2017)
  • Python Day Mexico City Speaker June 2017 including a lightning talk on PSF in Spanish
  • O'Reilly's published adaptation of 'Hitchhiker's Guide to Python', Technical Editor

Of significance for me has been the active outreach I attempt to have, providing consul, answers, or general support as I can explaining what the PSF is. For example when I represented the PSF at Python Jamaica many of the conversations with attendees I had led to asks for what the PyCon Organizers Manual can help address. I am also working with PyLadies Mexico City chapter members to help with their Python Day in June 2017 where I aim to meet the community in their own language of choice, Spanish. Other regional communities I have been working with include Zimbabwe through ZimboPy’s Python mentoring program targeting young women and Cuba with their upcoming Latin America Scientific Python Conference in September 2017.

2017/2018 Goals as a Board Member

My goals for 2017/2018 as a board member can be largely defined through the lens of organizational building, continued and better informed outreach, and promoting diversity:

  • Promote diversity: Something that hasn’t come to fruition this past year has been the first PyLadies Conference. I want to help spearhead this conference and see to it that it becomes a reality. Additionally I want to include new voices on the blogging team, notably targeting Pythonistas from outside the United States. Additionally I want to work with the PyLadies blog ensuring new content is added to it frequently and investigate the opportunities of highlighting PyLadies content in the PSF blog.
  • Develop organizing documentation for Python organizers: This will primarily mean the continued work on the PyCon Organizers Manual. My goal is to have flushed out content with names represented in each regional chapter of organizers that are willing to work on the document and speak with others about their work. It may be beneficial to consider translation opportunities for this document as well so targeting individuals who can support that initiative will be important as well.
  • Oversee and contribute to onboarding/transition strategies for the PSF Board: Former PSF Director Carol Willing began centralizing this documentation with additional support from other PSF members. As the 2016/2017 board had a large number of novices to the board, I recognize a need for continued work on these documents. Onboarding is important and I want to act as a lead in helping onboard new members and create more documentation and resources as needed.
  • Support the Code of Conduct Working Group: The PSF has started to investigate the idea of a Code of Conduct working group. At this time there hasn’t been a well defined policy put into place. I am passionate about investigating what a Code of Conduct Working Group may mean for the PSF, both in defining what the role of the PSF should be in such issues, as well as building a working group that includes the relevant voices to make this working group successful.

Summary

In summary, I would like to thank you for your time and consideration for my 2017 PSF Board of Director nomination. Serving as a board member for 2016/2017 has been an honor and I hope to continue to serve on in this capacity for the next coming term. There is much work to be done, considerably in the areas of continued geographic outreach and building better transition policies for the PSF in the future. However it is my hope to prioritize these areas as a 2017 PSF Director.

Affiliations:

  • PyLadies Chicago, Founder and Organizer
  • Write/Speak/Code, Conference Organizer
  • Chi Tech Diversity, Founding Member (chitechdiversity.com)
  • Systers, Google Summer of Code Mentor
  • Sprout Social, Software Engineer in Data Science

In solidarity,

Lorena Mesa

Naomi Ceder

2016, 2015 Board Member

After two years as a member of the board, I'd honored to be able to continue to serve on the board. Having been a member the Python community for over 15 years, it's a commitment I take very seriously, and my absolute priority is the success of the PSF mission and the well being of the global Python community.

My Contributions to the PSF board in 2016:

  • Co-created PSF Grants Working Group, which now plays the main role in awarding event grants.(2015) Worked to expand representation and participation esp from Africa and South America.
  • Started work on a PSF translations Working Group, aimed at getting PSF and community documents translated. Pilot project is translation to Portuguese.
  • Original member of the PSF Fellows workgroup, which will be restarting the process of selecting PSF Fellows.
  • Assisted with creating PyCon Organizers Handbook project.
  • Supported the creation of Python initiatives in Nigeria by helping get access to a mailing list, and advice on organization and grant requests; and Cameroon by coordinating with projects applying for PSF support.
  • Gave keynotes at Europython, Python Brasil, upcoming talks at PythonDay MX and PyCon CZ; coordinated and co-presented PSF members' meetings at Europython (with Lorena Mesa) and Python Brasil.
  • Moderator of several PSF mailing lists - edu-sig, pythonedu-wg, pynigeria.
  • Attended all PSF board meetings (1 by proxy), and as vice chair, I chaired several meetings when the chair was unavailable.

My goals for 2017/2018 as a board member are similar to those of 2016-2017 (they're not done yet). In addition to supporting the PSF mission in any way that I can, I want to:

  • Foster Diversity across a wide range of axes - race, nationality, ethnicity, disability, neurodiversity, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, economic background, etc. One area I would like to improve is the accessibility of PSF and Python community materials with their translation into more languages.
  • Increase Voting Membership - As the global Python community continues to grow, we need to involve communities from around the world in the workings of the PSF. I am also working to bring back the process of selecting PSF Fellows.
  • Develop New Leaders - I believe that for an organization to be inclusive thought and effort must be put into opening all aspects to new people. I'm very interested in getting more people involved in working groups and committees as way for them gain leadership experience.
  • Support Education - Support for education is more than funding workshops - I'd like to encourage initiatives to improve pedagogy, tools, and resources for the various groups teaching Python, and support our working group aimed at curricula and teaching resources.
  • Evolve PSF management - As the community grows, the role of the PSF board needs to adapt. I will continue to support changes to give the PSF staff more ability to handle managerial and operational issues and for the board have more of an oversight role. We also need to continue to learn and apply non-profit organizational best practices.

Background:

  • Keynotes and talks on Python, Diversity, and Community at Python Brasil, PythonDay MX, PyCon CZ, PyCon UK, PyCon PL, PyCon Ireland, ACE!Conf (Krakow, Poland), Write/Speak/Code 2016, EuroPython, PyCon US, PyLadies, and others.
  • Organizer - PyCon: Sprints, Intro to Sprinting workshop, education summits at PyCon, poster session; PyCon UK: Education Track Presenter, organising committe, poster session, Code of Conduct response team, Trans*Code at PyCon UK coordinator.
  • Author of The Quick Python Book, 2nd ed. (3rd ed in preparation).

Affiliations:

  • Blick Art Holdings, Inc - Development Manager
  • Trans*Code - Co-Founder
  • Chi Tech Diversity (chitechdiversity.com) - Founding Member
  • Bloomberg, LLC - Distinguished Lecturer & Distinguished Visiting Engineer

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