Organizational Changes

Further to our recent cogitations on better meeting the PSF's goals the Board has taken a number of decisions which I'd like to let you know about.

• I am in the process of appointing a part-time administrator to help us with the more mundane tasks. I anticipate this will initially require between 10 and 20 hours per week, and be performed on a contract basis.
• Kurt Kaiser, our Treasurer, will commit to spending a quarter of his time on PSF-related duties. His remuneration will increase to give him a reasonable hourly rate for the job.
• David Goodger has accepted a six-month contract as paid chairman of PyCon. Besides organizing next year's conference he will focus on ensuring that the chairman's role is properly documented, allowing us to respond appropriately to the development needs of the conference.

We are currently in a transitional phase: Kurt has assumed his enlarged role with immediate effect; I anticipate that David and the new administrator will take up their posts early in December. Hopefully this will mean we are able to more adequately take care of business.

The Board will be assessing the impact of these changes over time, and review the overall position after PyCon. In the meantime we will welcome any observations from you about how the changes affect the way the Foundation serves you.

Follow-up: The administrator position is now filled

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First pyArkansas an Unqualified Success

We are grateful to Greg Lindstrom for the following feedback on a recent successful regional event. Congratulations are due to the organizers.

We held our 1-day "pyArkansas" conference on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas with 57 people attending. There was a surprising mix of beginners (which we expected) and experienced (which pleasantly surprised us). The first half of the day was dedicated to classes; Python 101 (Dr. Bernard Chen of UCA), Intermediate Python (Jeff Rush) and Python for System Administrators (Noah Gift). A way cool perk was that everyone attending the sys admin class received a copy of Noah's new book! The afternoon was dedicated to talks and open space. All participants received a swag bag with a copy of Python Magazine, a GIS magazine, python stickers and other stuff.

We had fantastic support from various employers and the Conway Chamber of Commerce. I am pleased to thank the PSF for your offer of $300 reimbursement and very respectfully decline it; we were able to cover our expenses, provide lodging for Jeff and Noah, and even give them a few dollars for their efforts. We have a grant request in to the Conway Advertising and Promotion Commission for $3,000 for next year. If we get that, the Chamber of Commerce will pony up another $1,500, leaving us with about $1,000 more to raise. Bringing in speakers was very well -- extremely well -- received and we want to expand on it next year, with a goal to bring in 4 speakers/teachers. Modeling the conference as a hybrid between a "mini-PyCon" and an "unconference" makes sense as many of our participants were brand new to Python while others wanted open space.

We got some very nice ink from Dr. John Tabor. It's that kind of response that prompted the Chamber of Commerce to have us submit a grant request to the A&P.

I have a more detailed report written up if anyone would like to see it (or if there is somewhere I can post it).

Thanks for your encouragement and support. Special thanks to Noah and Jeff for making the trip to Arkansas.

Please note that, while we are pleased that this event managed to run without our sponsorship, the PSF Board is always prepared to consider funding requests for events that demonstrably benefit the Python community.