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PSF Meeting Minutes for Jan. 16, 2012

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The Python Software Foundation
Minutes of a Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors

January 16, 2012


A regular meeting of the Python Software Foundation ("PSF") Board of Directors was held over Internet Relay Chat beginning at 16:00 UTC, 16 January 2012. Steve Holden presided at the meeting. Pat Campbell prepared the minutes.

All votes are reported in the form "Y-N-A" (in favor — opposed — abstentions; e.g. "5-1-2" means "5 in favor, 1 opposed, and 2 abstentions").

1   Attendance

The following members of the Board of Directors (8 of ll) were present at the meeting: Steve Holden, Marc-Andre Lemburg, Martin von Löwis, David Mertz, Doug Napoleone [arrived at 12:05], Jesse Noller, Tim Peters, and Gloria Willadsen. Also in attendance were Kurt Kaiser (Treasurer) and Pat Campbell (Secretary/Administrator).

2   Minutes of Past Meetings

The 19 December 2011 Board meeting minutes were voted on and approved.

RESOLVED, that we approve the mnutes at http://mail.python.org/mailman/ private/psf-board/2011-December/015977.html as repsrenting a true and accurate record of the meeting.

Approved, 7-0-0.

3   Votes Taken Between Meetings

There were no votes taken between meetings.

4   Treasurer Report

The monthly Treasurer's Report was provided to Board members by K. Kaiser prior to the Board meeting and produced from Quickbooks Online.

Here is an exerpt from the treasurer's report on a few of the activities the treasurer has been focused on:

For the year of 2011, the treasurer provided a sumation of the financial activities by saying:

For the year, our revenue was 966K and our expenses were 802K, resulting in net income of $163K. The attached PyCon 2011 P&L shows a profit of 155K. The PSF essentially broke even for the year, with a net income of 8K after our operating expenses and 43K of grant disbursements.

Our Total Equity increased this year from 228K to 391K. The PSF has nearly recovered to our 2008 level of 420K thanks to the strong showing from PyCon 2011 and all its volunteers.

He reported the December 2011 revenue and expense:

In the month of December, YTD income was up by 28K.

Donations for the month were $2231. We also recognized $41,004 in restricted donations, as required by GAAP. This was offset by $6,004 in disbursements associated with the restricted donations. These transactions removed the restricted donations from the balance sheet and onto the P&L.

We received $15,000 from Google Summer of code, plus reimbursement of travel expenses.

We wrote off $2,833 of uncollectable PSF Sponsor dues from Werbeagentur. They have never paid any dues. I recommend dropping them at the 2012 Member meeting.

Expense:

Grants:

WebOb Port $3,000 PyLadies 1,220 Boston Python Workship 3,300 Boston Python Meetup.com 72 PyCon Poland 750 PyCon DE 1,500 Libre Graphics 2011 1,500

Sprints:

OpenHatch 43 PyCon Finland 267 Twisted 115 Plone 300

Outside Services:

Wendroff - two months 2,300

The treasurer goes on to say:

AR is up by 56K due to PyCon 2012 Sponsor and PSF Sponsor
invoicing/collection activity.

Associate Member program:

The text on HAM signup pages is preliminary and needs improvement. I'm looking for help here!

Continuing work on a front page with Associate Member sign-up information. Decide how to present the HAM Membership to the world, probably via a python.org link. Working on access control issues.

This project didn't get as much attention in December as I had hoped, due to the year end accounting activity.

However, we were able to bring the Boston Python donation page online.

At this point the CiviCRM installation at psfmember.org is handling all the data for our PSF Sponsors and Nominated Members, replacing MatrixMaxx, and hosting donation pages for PyTexas and Boston Python. I've suggested to the Chairman that we two make a push to complete the HAM facility shortly and open the Associate Member program for action.

Kurt concluded his report with a list of financial business items he will be focused on, he said:

My focus is on the Associate Member program and AR/AP reduction.

5   Progress Reports

The following board reports were submitted to the board mailing list one week prior to this month's meeting. Please see a summary of each board report listed below and a possible board discussion at the end of the report(s):

5.1   Communication Status

D. Hellmann, Communication Officer, reported on continued activities from last month. He said:

1. Send announcement email about the blog to various mailing lists (c.l.py, c.l.py.announce, etc.).

No progress.

Doug also reported on the new activities for the month. The list of activities included the following:

  1. Grant summary by Mike Driscoll

    http://pyfound.blogspot.com/2012/01/psf-grants-over-37000-to-python.html

  2. Mike Müller Receives PSF Community Service Award

    http://pyfound.blogspot.com/2012/01/mike-muller-receives-psf-community.html

  3. Armin Rigo Receives PSF Community Service Award

    http://pyfound.blogspot.com/2012/01/armin-rigo-receives-psf-community.html

He reported the following information on the planned activities for next month:

Nothing specific.

As far as the ongoing projects for the month are concerned, he reported:

  1. Boston Python Workshop Grant post by Jessica McKellar

    http://pyfound.blogspot.com/2011/11/boston-python-workshop-psf-grant.html

  2. Brian Curtin is working on a post about the video equipment purchased by the PSF and how it has been used to record conference talks and other events.

  3. Recruiting other people to help write for the blog.

  4. We have initiated a transition plan so Brian Curtin can take over as Communications Director around the time of the next Board elections after PyCon 2012.

For tabled activities, D. Hellmann said:

  1. PyCon video equipment loan/rental program post

    There was some discussion of offering the PyCon video equipment to PUGs for their meetings, but the mechanism to do it isn't in place, yet.

5.2   Marketing Material

M.A.Lemburg, Marketing Material Project Manager, provided a summary of his work. He said:

The project is lead by Marc-André Lemburg who is in contact with the people behind the Plone brochure created by the German Zope User Group (DZUG): Jan Ulrich Hasecke and Armin Stroß-Radschinski.

We started working on the concept a few weeks after World Plone Day in April 2010 and had several meetings and conference calls to take the idea forward.

For more details, please see the brochure support site at:

http://brochure.getpython.info/learn-more

Marc-André also reported on the progress of his project when he said:

As expected, there hasn't been much progress over the holidays.

Armin, our designer and producer, is still working on getting the credit card payment machinery in place. This is currently holding up the call for sponsors.

Jan Ulrich, our texter, has worked on compressing the selected stories somewhat to make them fit the available pages. We will likely have to shorten the stories some more or postpone a few stories to the next edition.

Meanwhile, we're still getting new success stories - which is good, since we are actively collecting them in our tracker with the aim of putting them online after the first edition has been released and plan on using them for the second edition.

If you know possible sponsors or are interested in sponsoring the brochure yourself, please check the available sponsorship plans we have available:

http://brochure.getpython.info/sponsorship

Here's the media data for the brochure:

http://brochure.getpython.info/mediadata

Esp. the reference entry sponsorships should be interesting for smaller Python companies:

http://brochure.getpython.info/mediadata/reference-entry-guidelines

We will announce the call for sponsors on the usual lists, feeds and our website, once we have the credit card system setup.

M.A Lemberg reported on the current issues the project is faced with. He said:

Even though the deadline for submission of stories for the first edition has already passed, we are still accepting stories. These will then be considered for a possible second edition and also be published on the web site.

If you know of interesting projects or companies using Python to great things, please contact us and consider signing up as contact scout:

http://brochure.getpython.info/signup/contact-scout-signup

and, if you're interested in the project, please consider signing up to our newsletter:

http://brochure.getpython.info/

Thanks !

As far as the future plans for this project are concerned, he reported:

If the project goes well, we'll follow up with a second edition of the brochure, Python flyers using material extracted from the brochure, translated versions of the brochure and also consider creating marketing material more targeted at specific user groups or application fields.

In the long run, we'd also like to take the idea of producing marketing material beyond printed material and develop booth setups, giveaways, CDs, etc. to support conference organizers and local user groups wishing to promote Python at their events.

5.3   Moving PyPI to Amazon CloudFront

The project leader, M.A. Lemburg, Moving PyPI to Amazon CloudFront, reported on progress for the month:

"The project is currently on hold, since the team members don't have time to put into this."

In terms of having any issues surrounding his project, M. A. Lemburg reported no issues except one: he said, he just does not have enough time to devote to his Moving PyPI to Amazon CloudFront project.

    1. Lemburg also reported on the future plans for this project:

"Check to see whether a trigger based approach to S3 syncing wouldn't be easier to implement right from the start."

5.4   PyCon Chair

J. Noller, PyCon Chair, provided us with information on when and where the next two PyCon US conferences will be held, in addition to the web location of the official PyCon 2012. Please see below:

PyCon 2012: March 7th — 15th, Santa Clara, CA PyCon 2013: March 11th — 21st, Santa Clara, CA Official Site: http://us.pycon.org/2012

He also provided "notes" for this month. He said:

We are officially capping registration at 1500 attendees. The team feels that this is beneficial to the conference as a whole, and allows us to maintain the feel PyCon has grown into. We also feel this will encourage other regional conferences to grow in turn.

We announced the inaugural PyCon 5k fun run! http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/01/inaugural-pycon-5k-fun-run.html

As well as the return of Startup Row: http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/01/pycon-startup-row-2012.html
  • Note all proceeds from this go to charity.

For this month, Jesse reported on "Issues and blockages." He said:

1. AV/Recording contracts are in process and being managed by Ewa. Still awaiting on final numbers/quotes.

  1. Program guide progress is moving more slowly than anticipated.

As far as the continued activities from last month, he reported:

1. Sponsor signups have continued. We now have 100 sponsors and OSS partners, and more in the pipeline. We have had to announce that we will be closing down sponsorship applications after Jan. 20th: http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/01/pycon-2012-close-of-sponsorship.html

  1. Financial updates will be sent to the private board list.
  2. Registration for the conference and tutorials continues at a healthy pace.

4. Idan Gazit has been tapped to do the artwork for the Program Guide and T-Shirts. This is still under way.

  1. Negotiations with Elegant Stitches are ongoing.
  2. The official talk schedule has been announced: https://us.pycon.org/2012/schedule/
  3. Financial aid deadline has closed; acceptance letters have been sent.

Jesse also listed the new activities for the month. Please see below:

  1. Get solid quotes on t-shirt costs. [need to follow up]

  2. We have doubled the budgeted amount for the Financial Aid program in order to assist as many people as we can. Acceptance letters have been sent.

  3. Sponsor manual / booth assignment is under way; sponsors are very eager to get registrations in order and setup!

  4. Startup row launched.

    http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/01/pycon-startup-row-2012.html

  5. PyCon 5k launched.

    http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/01/inaugural-pycon-5k-fun-run.html

  6. We have teamed up with Guidebook (http://guidebook.com/) for a rich mobile program guide.

The last two PyCon US items reported on by Jesse were the activities "planned for next month" where he listed seven (7) items and included a list of the "current Heads/Staff for PyCon 2012."

[see above]

  1. Begin organizing the on-site and other volunteer staff.
  2. Wrap up plenary talk selection and scheduling.
  3. Get all sponsor material collected for program guide.
  4. Get program guide (paper and mobile) well under way.
  5. Schedule singpath tournament.
  6. Resolve navigation issues on the site.
  7. Coordinate with Disqus on integration with the site for conversations tied to the conference, and each talk.

5.5   Current Heads/Staff for PyCon 2012

Chair: Jesse Noller

Co-Chair: Yannick Gingras

Accountant/Sponsors: Van Lindberg

Event Coordinator: Ewa Jodlowska/CTE

Public Relations Lead: Brian Curtin

Tech Lead: Doug Napoleone

Tech Co-Lead: Noah Kantrowtiz

Volunteer Lead: TBD

Program Committee Chair: Jacob Kaplan-Moss

Program Committee Co-Chair: Tim Lesher

Tutorials Chair: Stuart Williams

Tutorials Co-Chair: TBD

Posters Chair: Vern Ceder

Posters Co-Chair: Zac Miller

Financial Aide Chair: Peter Kropf

Financial Aide Co-Chair: Gloria W.

However, under "tabled activities," he provided the following:

None

Board Meeting Discussion:

J. Noller: "Minor update; current projected PyCon 2012 sponsorship is $442,500."

  1. Holden: "Congratulations."
    1. Jacobs: "Congratulations! Your hard work paid off.

5.6   Sprint Committee

J. Noller, Sprint Committee Chair, provided a summary of activities for this month, he reported:

No new sprints have been planned or funded in this period.

We have been in talks to prepare for our presence at PyCon, where we have a joint poster with the Outreach and Education committee. We're also tossing around ideas for reaching out to PyCon attendees, perhaps going with a swag bag insert like in 2011, and business cards to hand out at the poster session.

As for getting the community to plan and receive funding for more sprints, we've talked about putting together a survey and passing around a newsletter to all of the user groups to find out what we can do to better serve the community.

As far as the continued activities from last month, he reported:

None

On his report of the new activities for the month, J. Noller reported:

None

6   PyCon Australia 2012 Conference Funding

RESOLVED, that the PSF provide grant funding of AUD$1500 to the PyCon Australia 2012 Conference as a silver level sponsor.

Approved, 8-0-0.

7   2012 Members Meeting & Election

Planning is underway for the 2012 Members meeting that will take place at PyCon 2012 in Santa Clara, California and also the 2012 members election which will take place online two weeks following the members meeting.

An announcement of this year's members meeting and election along with the notice and call for the meeting agenda items and/or any new resolutions to be voted on, etc. was emailed out to the PSF nominated and sponsor members.

Also, board members discussed and voted on the new number of board members to serve on the PSF board of directors in the upcoming term, 2012 thru 2013. There was a vote on rather to recommend either 9 or 11 board of directors to the membership to be voted on in the upcoming members 2012 election. Members will be voting on rather to approve of 11 board members for the new term.

RESOLVED, that the Secretary be instructed to move at the next Members' meeting that the size of the board be reduced to 9.

Rejected, 2-6-0.

9   New Laptop for PSF Administrator's Use

RESOLVED, that the Treasurer be authorized to fund a laptop purchase for the PSF Administrator's use at a cost not to exceed $1,000.

Approved, 8-0-0.

10   Moving the PSF/Python.org Server Infrastructure

RESOLVED, that the PSF authorize the expenditure of the Atlassian donation of $10,000 with an additional $1500 from the foundation's budget for the purchasing and shipping of servers to replace the existing Python.org/PSF infrastructure. These servers are to be hosted at Oregon State University Open Source Labs.

Approved, 8-0-0.

11   PSF Donation to OSU/OSL

RESOLVED, that the PSF make a donation to the Oregon State University Foundation for the Oregon State University Open Source Labs in the amount of $3000.

Approved, 7-1-0

12   Other Business

12.1   T-Shirts Funded to 5th Graders

M.A. Lemburg agreed to coordinate the funding of t-shirts in the amount of $250 to David Coopersmith's 5th grade class at North Ridge Elementary in Moreno Valley, California.

13   Adjournment

  1. Holden adjourned the meeting at 16:55 UTC.