PSF Board Elections 2023

Q. When are the 2023 PSF Board Elections?

Timeline:

• Nominations are open, Thursday, June 1st, 2:00 pm UTC
• Board Director Nomination cut-off: Thursday, June 15, 11:59 pm UTC
• Voter application cut-off date: Thursday, June 15, 11:59 pm UTC
• Announce candidates: Friday, June 16th
• Voting start date: Tuesday, June 20, 2:00 pm UTC
• Voting end date: Friday, June 30, 11:59 pm UTC

To read more, read the blog post: Python Software Foundation News: PSF Board Election Dates for 2023 (pyfound.blogspot.com)

Q. How many positions are open?

Four open seats on the board. You can see who is on the board currently here. (Dustin Ingram, Jeff Triplett, Nina Zakharenko and Thomas Wouters are at the end of their current terms.)

Q. I'm signing up to be a member of the PSF for the first time, what should I know?

There are two locations that your Python membership duties lie and it's important to sign up for both python.org and psfmember.org:

• First sign up for PSF Membership. https://www.python.org/psf/membership/ You can find this link by starting at the PSF homepage, navigate to the "PSF" tab at the top of the page, hover over "Membership" in the grey navigation bar and the first drop down is "Sign up as a Member of the PSF!"
  
  If you are looking for membership privileges to vote, you're looking for "Supporting Member", "Managing Member" or "Contributing Member." Read more about the membership levels and which one is right for you >>

• Second if you are a Managing or Contributing Member, and have not signed up for a psfmember.org before, make sure you create an account there and email psf-donations@python.org to connect the two accounts.

TLDR on voting members:
Supporting Members can donate on a sliding scale to be one step above basic membership (non voting) and will fill out this supporting member's landing page where you can donate $99 or a sliding scale. Managing Member or Contributing Member donate at least 5 hours per month contributing to a Python project or organizing a Python group and will fill out this PSF Managing/Contributing Member form.

Q. I think I registered as a member, but I can't remember my membership level? How do I check?

You'll want to check at psfmember.org.

It's easy to forget because we do this once per year around election time, but the Managing/Contributing member form does not take you to psfmember.org so to make sure your two accounts are in sync you can email PSF-donations at python dot org with questions. We are working on new membership systems that will streamline this process and the PSF staff are excellent at identifying ways we can make membership easier. We care very much about this process. Feel free to talk to me about any issues you have.

Q. Can I be at the Sustaining Membership level (donating money instead of time) if I don’t have $99 USD?

This is the first @thepsf election since adding the sliding scale membership for sustaining members! $99 is still available & highly encouraged for one year as a sustaining member. Where $99 USD is too much, the sliding scale goes as low as $25 USD!

Check out supporting member's landing page where you can find the form to either donate $99 USD or a sliding scale going as low as $25 USD.

To learn more about the new sliding scale membership and why we decided to change membership fees, please visit: Python Software Foundation News: Introducing a New Sliding Scale Membership (pyfound.blogspot.com)

Q. What does the Python Software Foundation Board do?

The Board of Directors meets every other month to discuss a proposed agenda, hear from work groups, review pressing items. To keep up with the Board minutes all the way back to 2001, you can check them out here: PSF Meeting Minutes | Python.org. There's only so much we can accomplish in this time and although we have great ideas, the work groups are invaluable in acting on community needs.

Q. Should I be a basic member if I don't donate my time and I don't have the money to donate?

Yes! Python has recently been named one of the top, fastest growing programming language. Yes, we can get statistics about this by searching StackOverflow, GitHub and other code repositories, checking PyPI, and monitoring Python installs -- all of which are publicly available and leave the industry with the same conclusion: Python is great -- but we basic membership numbers is an indicator of the size of the capital "C" Community, who desire to interact with the PSF. How we can best help your Python goals? The least invasive way to be represented in this group is by being a Basic PSF Member.

Q. What do you see for the future of the PSF?

The PSF has experienced a lot of changes over the last few years. There's been tremendous growth in the language and the sophistication of the organization supporting the language. We have increased the staff, have more open positions open at one time than there has been historically, a new executive director and more support for PyPI/PyPA and Infrastructure.

I have every confidence that the work that has been put into Python's supporting foundation has been impactful and sustainable. I'm excited to see the way the board will continue to evolve. Since 2001, each phase of board members was invaluable to the time period that they were serving, so much so that as they say goodbye to this particular chapter in their Python journey, it's hard to imagine our growth without them. I think this is a testament to the authenticity and collaboration of our community that starts with its organizational body. I have heard concerns about next steps with so much institutional knowledge leaving, but I think we've done well passing down that knowledge while remaining open to new ideas.

What's next for me:

As Treasurer, a year long, elected position by my Director peers, I spent my first year in this position with the former Treasurer still here. I learned a lot and it gave me a lot of confidence to stick to my values, investigate what felt opaque and continue the trend of transparency for which Jeff Triplett also advocated. I plan to run for Treasurer only one more year, which I believe will be my most impactful partnering with Phyllis Dobbs and Loren Crary in fundraising and interpreting our financial goals to PSF members. Regardless of if either 2022 or 2023 are my last years as Treasurer, I like the practicality of having the former Treasurer and current Treasurer on the Board at the same time to pass the baton seamlessly. I will also be working on some onboarding documents for the next Treasurer.

I also see an opportunity for membership to be supported more. There are just not enough people voting in elections. The % turnout is pretty good, but the total number of PSF members is about half of the attendees of PyCon 2023:

2019: 373/957 (39% turnout)
2020: 462/1151 (40% turnout)
2021: 601/1539 (39% turnout)
2022: 578/1460 (40% turnout)

I think direct attention to Python User Groups will play a big role in the next phase of Python community engagement. Local efforts run by local Pythonistas, tailored to local needs and supported by the PSF globally. We currently have an excellent, but underutilized, mechanism in place with our grants program. I hope with a Python User Group Work Group, the news that the PSF will support you locally for a variety of sized Python meet ups, will catch on. This will also have downstream effects for global diversity.

What's next for the Board:

As the chart above may indicate, we've had a lot of very important members of the Board of Directors that have helped us grow tremendously. I am honored to be among them, but not awestruck by the opportunity. There is a lot of impact that I can make as a Black American, which has not been represented yet on this board. I am eager for more perspectives different than mine to join the board.

• A more globally diverse Board of Directors
• New relationships with our existing and new legal counsel
• New Chair of the Board
• More members and a streamlined membership and election process
• Fundraising from individual members as a vote of confidence and membership engagement
• Deepened relationships with large, Python tech companies as Visionary sponsors

Q. What are ways to get involved with contributing Python?

I wrote a whole blog post on this! Check out Python Software Foundation: Working Groups / Work Groups

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