Steve Holden steps down as Chairman

Throughout his time with the Python Software Foundation, starting as the informal chair of the first several PyCons, the Python community has enjoyed the friendly face of Steve Holden at the helm and around the community, exemplifying the open source ethos. Through his 8 years as a Director, two of which he spent as Vice Chairman, and the last four spent as Chairman of the Board, Steve's hard work and countless hours of effort have helped shape this community and foundation into the great state we have in 2012.

While Steve isn't leaving the community or even the foundation, where he'll remain as a Director, he's moving on from the Chairman position earlier than planned to take some well needed personal time. As he outlines in his last post, Swan Song, there's likely to be some surgery in his future, and we wish him all the best.

On behalf of the foundation and the community, we want to thank Steve for everything he's done for us personally and for everything he's done for the Python community.

Indianapolis Python Workshop - April 13-14

If you're in the Indianapolis, Indiana area on April 13-14, join the locals from IndyPy as well as the Boston Python Workshop and OpenHatch in a weekend workshop. The groups have joined forces to create a beginner-friendly environment with a focus on involving women of the community and introducing computer programming with Python. There's no prerequisite knowledge required to attend, as the weekend is planned for true beginners not just to Python but to programming in general. For the full details, see https://openhatch.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Python_Workshop.

One of the weekend's stated goals is to "increase Python community diversity through programming outreach events." The event is female-focused and is staffed primarily with women, and encourages attendees to bring a friend. For men who are interested in the event, bring along a female friend to get involved with you!

The group's organizers, Catherine Devlin and Mel Chua, with the help of Boston's Jessica McKellar, want to get you writing and enjoying programming. Another goal of the event is to introduce and involve the attendees in their local community, fostering growth of events such as Indiana LinuxFest (where the workshop takes place) as well as local meetups and project nights.

If you're interested in coming out and joining the fun, sign up on the IndyPy Meetup and sign up for Indiana LinuxFest as well!

If you're interested in sponsoring the workship, please email event organizer Catherine Devlin at catherine.devlin@gmail.com.