Notice of Python Software Foundation Bylaws Change - Effective July 23, 2025

This post serves as notice that the Board of the Python Software Foundation has resolved to amend the Bylaws, effective July 23, 2025, to remove a condition of the Bylaws that would prevent the Foundation from complying with data privacy laws including those in effect in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the State of California.

Section 3.8 of the Bylaws grants Voting Members the right to request the list of Voting Members’ names and email addresses. As written, this data must be given unconditionally, which would violate the previously mentioned laws. The amendment we are making grants the Foundation the ability to place conditions upon the use of that list in a way that allows us to comply with data privacy laws.

The full change can be found at https://github.com/psf/bylaws/pull/7/files

The Board determined that this change was time-sensitive and chose to amend the Bylaws without prior consultation with Voting Members. We greatly value the input of our membership in the governance of the Foundation. Therefore, we have opted to make only the most minimal change that will enable the Foundation to comply with data privacy laws and protect our members, while preserving the spirit of the text that the membership agreed to when adopting these Bylaws.

A future Bylaws update will be offered to the membership at a future election. As we are less than 3 months from the 2025 Board election, we are targeting the 2026 Board election to allow the membership to discuss further amendments for the membership to vote upon.

Thanks,

The Python Software Foundation Board