PSF Meeting Minutes for Sept. 26, 2017
A regular meeting of the Python Software Foundation ("PSF") Board of Directors was held over Group Conference Call via phone and Internet Relay Chat beginning at 16:00 UTC (GMT/Zulu), on September 26, 2017. Betsy Waliszewski took notes/minutes.
All votes are reported in the form "Y-N-A" (in favor-Y‚opposed-N‚abstentions-A; e.g. "5-1-2" means "5 in favor, 1 opposed, and 2 abstentions").
Contents
- 1 Attendance
- 2 Resolutions Decided for Consent Agenda
- 3 Meetup Expenses Approved
- 4 Board and Staff Reports
- 4.1 Ewa Jodlowska
- 4.2 Betsy Waliszewski
- 4.3 Kurt Kaiser
- 4.4 Mark Mangoba
- 4.5 Phyllis Dobbs
- 4.6 Lorena Mesa
- 4.7 Trey Hunner
- 4.8 Naomi Ceder
- 4.9 Jackie Kazil
- 4.10 Van Lindberg
- 4.11 Kushal Das
- 4.12 Paul Hildebrandt
- 4.13 Eric Holscher
- 4.14 Kenneth Reitz
- 4.15 Marlene Mhangami
- 4.16 Thomas Wouters
- 4.17 Paola Katherine Pacheco
- 5 Work Group Reports
- 6 Votes Approved by Working Groups
- 7 Votes Approved Via Email
- 8 New Business
- 9 Discussion
- 10 Other Business / Discussions
- 11 Meeting Adjournment
1 Attendance
The following members of the Board of Directors (11 of 13) were present at the meeting: Van Lindberg, Lorena Mesa, Naomi Ceder, Paul Hildebrandt, Paola Katherine Pacheco, Thomas Wouters, Marlene Mhangami, Trey Hunner, Kenneth Reitz, Eric Holscher, and Ewa Jodlowska.
Kurt Kaiser (Treasurer), Betsy Waliszewski (Event Planner and Administrator), Phyllis Dobbs (Controller/Assistant Treasurer Accountant), and Mark Mangoba (IT Manager) were also in attendance.
2 Resolutions Decided for Consent Agenda
The 22 August 2017 Board meeting minutes were voted on and approved.
RESOLVED, that the PSF approve the minutes at https://mail.python.org/mailman/private/psf-important/2017-August/000080.html as representing a true and accurate record of the August 22, 2017 meeting.
3 Meetup Expenses Approved
- PyLadies London 6-month meetup.com fees: $89.94
- PyLadies Berlin 6-month meetup.com fees: $89.82
- Hong Kong Python User Group 6-month meetup.com fees: $29.94
- PyLadies SF 6-month meetup.com fees: $89.94
- PyLadies Twin Cities for 2014-2017 - $539.64 ($89.94 x 6)
4 Board and Staff Reports
Note: These are received once a month.
4.1 Ewa Jodlowska
- PyCon
- Started to work with Travel Cleveland to get a list of local childcare providers
- Chatted with CTE to get 2018 registration work going; sent over all necessary assets
- Worked on two 2020/21 contract negotiations and signed Westin & Omni
- Had a call with Conference Chair to go over 2018 budget
- Created Jupyter notebooks for 2016 & 2017 financial aid data. Cross-checked speaker lists with registration lists to see how many speakers were paid and how many received financial aid for both years (speaker distribution).
- Reviewed the revised contracts from 2020/21 convention center several times and signed; created space allocation sheet to match what was contracted
- Planned CLE site visit for Oct 5th and planning to attend ClePy meet up on Oct 9 and do a PyCon presentation
- Worked on launching 2018 site and getting all committees started
- Sent Accessibility Chair info email containing floor plans and allocations for 2018
- Reconfigured time sheet categories for IT Manager
- Obtained insurance cert for PyLadies meeting space in SF
- Reviewed Conference Chair notes from community member meetings
- Worked on “incubator” blog and sent to Conference Chair for review
- Sending 4 in PyCon invoices for payments/recording payments in Ledger
- Reviewed Demographic Survey idea for 2018
- Working with the team to launch CFP
- Held a financial aid committee meeting for launch & updated documentation for 2018
- Worked on fixing the 2018 planning timeline
- PSF
- Created a CiviContribute page for donation/membership drive and created documentation for how to use it for; worked on testing it with Treasurer
- Reviewed JetBrains Python Survey and T&Cs
- Had a meeting with OSI General Manager and those that will be attending the ACT-W conference in Chicago
- Continue to plan the October 16th face to face board meeting
- Worked in changing https://www.python.org/psf/donations/2017-q3-drive/ to html from rst so I could add in CiviContribute widget
- Created a conflict of interest form for directors and met with General Counsel to work on it more
- Reviewed CiviGrant import several times
- Met with IndyPy organizers to see what we can do to better explain Fiscal Sponsorship rules - Ewa to work on a document when possible
- Reviewed PSF Prospectus & provided feedback
- Wrote up explanatory email to board about the 2018 PyCon budget and helped answer questions
- Worked with the Packaging WG on MOSS Grant planning
- Worked with the PSF Fellow WG to get all votes in and started to work on a blog announcing Q3 members
- Created a page on pydotorg & listed PSF policies: https://www.python.org/psf/records/board/policies/
- Worked with team to get banners ready for Python survey, added blog for 9/26 release
- Continue to manage the Grants WG and PSF board grants and the research necessary for all
- Continue to review time sheets
- Continue to meet with Event Coordinator and IT Manager regularly on calls
- Continue to chat with Controller and Treasurer about accounting stuff on Slack - had a phone meeting as well
4.2 Betsy Waliszewski
PSF
- Launched donation and membership drive
- Wrote and published a blog about the drive
- Finalized update to the PSF Sponsor Prospectus. Next step - add to website and promote through social media and direct contact with current sponsors
- Worked with the marketing WG to design a new sticker and flyer for community events. Worked with Unixstickers to add 2 new stickers to their website. Great response on Twitter to the new design and people were asking where they could get it.
- Report on sending stickers to community events: 2016 - stickers sent to 21 events at a cost of $3,265. 2017 YTD - stickers sent to 29 events at a cost of $5,306. Stickers were sent to 19 countries including US, UK, India, Russia, Italy, Belgium, South Korea, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, The Netherlands, Spain, Colombia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Ecuador, Argentina, Slovenia, Sweden, and Panama.
- Continued to work on and refine my short-term sponsorship strategic plan.
- Social Media: continuing to tweet 4 times/day. Followers are increasing at a steady 1,000 per week. Working on monetizing our twitter relationships - donation drive is showing results. Will evaluate after the 30-day drive is over.
- Wrote and posted a blog about events in Nigeria.
- Continued routine tasks of invoicing, sending out statements, and keeping records up-to-date.
- Continued to support the grants WG by sending out notifications and minuting resolutions.
- Continued taking notes at board meetings, posting minutes and approved resolutions, notifying grant recipients, as well as recording contributor forms and self-certifications.
PyCon 2018
- Sent out Launch Day email to encourage early sponsor signups.
- Continued sponsor outreach to previous and new sponsors.
- Approved new sponsor applications.
- Updated sponsor categories on PyCon 2018 application to include all a la carte packages.
- Worked on ideas for networking activities for attendees: Speed Networking; Tribe Tables at lunch; “Dine Around”; “AMA” Ask me anything / Office Hours / Speaker Connection Zone / Peer-to-Peer Exchange Zone; Job Message Board.
- Worked on details for Food Truck lunches on tutorial days. Possible sponsorship in the works.
4.3 Kurt Kaiser
Continued the diverse, but routine, activities needed to process incoming and outgoing financial transactions (checks, wires, PayPal, ACH, charges) for the PSF and PyCon, working with payees to get their wire or credit card details as needed. Paid bills. Made deposits. Created Quickbooks Online (QBO) transactions for all of these. Updated the PyCon Tutorial/FA, PyCon Sponsor, and PSF Sponsor status spreadsheets as needed to reflect activity. Reconciled and reviewed the PSF bank/credit accounts and transferred funds between accounts as needed. Reviewed the donations and allocated them to our eleven fiscal sponsorees. Transferred donated funds to the Boston Python PEX card. Reimbursed fiscal sponsoree expense. Reviewed open invoices and designated those needing statements sent. Processed the biweekly payroll and matched those transactions in QBO. General review of financial status. Attended Board meetings.
Approved grant wires and handled communication with the Controller relative to ongoing wire payments. Modified the wire agreement with SunTrust to make the Controller the primary telephone callback.
Participated in setting up the CiviContribute forms for the Donation Drive. Modified the donation acknowledgment system to process acks for the Drive and tested. Monitored the processing of the numerous donations being received and initiated research to understand those donations/memberships which are in an "uncompleted" state and will need correction or deletion.
Wrapped up PyCon payments. Dealt with an HR/compensation issue.
Finally gave up on the Karimnagar wire after the Indian bank returned the funds. We sent PayPal instead.
4.4 Mark Mangoba
- Continue to work on bugs.python.org containerization project, working with Maciej on possible infrastructure credits, account setups, and timeline.
- Support the Python Community on Infrastructure request as needed.
- Worked on several issues regarding python.org.
- Continue to improve CiviCRM and the grant form process.
- Coordinating the MOSS Grant submission to Mozilla for the Warehouse project.
4.5 Phyllis Dobbs
- Human Resources & Benefits
- Update employee handbook with:
- Revise reimbursement sections and separate credit card reports from out-of-pocket reimbursements. Create non-mileage & tolls out-of-pocket reimbursement form.
- Add mileage & tolls policy, including a Google sheet for employee reimbursement requests.
- Add Vision & dental insurance sections.
- Add bereavement leave and jury duty leave sections. Move maternity/paternity leave sections.
- Create draft Whistleblower policy.
- CiviCRM/Grants Reporting
- In order to reduce returned wire transfers, research a mapping table for foreign banks to US intermediary banks (accept transfers in USD and send to banks that operate in other currencies). Created a mapping table and look up US intermediary information on bank's websites or contact grant recipient's banks directly for US intermediary information. Revised grant instructions included at the bottom of grant notification emails from Betsy and added a field to CiviCRM for the US intermediary.
- Continue working with the team to clean up data transition from the Grants spreadsheet to CiviCRM.
- Donations Reporting
- Review & recommend options for reporting membership revenue on presenting membership revenue that is useful for internal/external report users and aligns with IRS regulations.
- Write procedure to PSF Wiki for refused Community Service Awards
- Accounts Payable
- Recorded and initiated payment for grant and meetup reimbursements via wire and PayPal throughout the month.
- Research Manuel Kaufman's issues with testing his PEX card for the Ambassador program; revised Ambassador merchant categories to allow additional business transactions on that card.
- Taxes
- Draft Form 990 preparation & review policy and post on PSF wiki.
4.6 Lorena Mesa
Participated in Grants Working Group discussions and votes. Attended PSF Board Meeting. Reviewed and edited content for the PSF blog including a guest post on PythonDay Mexico and PSF Membership Drive post. Finished publication for CSA Q2 Lynn Root article. Continued to oversee PSF blog including revisiting review policies, considering blogging staffing needs, etc. Joined PyCon 2018 Programming Committee as co-chair with Jason Myers and Jackie Kazil to start work reviewing CFP language and more for PyCon 2018. Spoke at DjangoCon USA, participated in conversations around broadening PSF resources for community members including PyLadies.
4.7 Trey Hunner
I signal-boosted PSF and Python community tweets, held multiple free video chats on Python topics, and helped introduce and acclimate new SD Python study group attendees. Nothing out of the ordinary this month.
4.8 Naomi Ceder
Active in board email discussions, and on PSF fellows WG. Attended & spoke PyConEs in Cáceres, Spain - mentored and spoke at at Django Girls Cáceres; gave keynote on community at PyConES; held a PSF information session and discussions; also spoke with people from Python Alicante, Python Guatemala, the Maldives on building community; gave interview on Python and diversity (in Portuguese) to mulheres.eti.br (Brazilian site for women in tech), gave keynote (via teleconference) at PyLadies São Paulo 2nd anniversary celebration/conference, continued contacts with micro:bit foundation.
4.9 Jackie Kazil
For September & part of August: Started as PyCon 2018 talk co-chair. Advised two entities that train journalists or employ journalists on PSF grants & encouraged them to apply. Worked to push forward a code of conduct working group. Continued work w/ grants working group. Working to hand off PyLadies DC to new leaders
4.10 Van Lindberg
- Researched IRS rules concerning paid-for development in the context of a fiscal sponsorship. Update the fiscal sponsorship standard form to allow for sponsored development and send to Ewa. Identify rules associated with a prevailing market wage survey as needed by IRS and start preparing one.
- Review and edit conflict of interest policy for the PSF; provide a non-legalese summary of policy for use by directors and officers.
- Review and edit whistleblower policy, including identifying exception for providing PSF-confidential information to government agents as part of an investigation.
- Negotiate a pro-bono arrangement with Dykema, allowing multiple other attorneys to contribute time for use by the PSF.
- Review trademark status and provide updates and feedback.
- Respond to infringement issues associated with PSF-managed web properties.
4.11 Kushal Das
I have spent most of my time for PyCon Pune 2018, all keynote speakers have been announced. We also launched the new website. We will open up the registration after 2nd of October. Right now I am working to get more sponsors for the conference. In between, I attended Python Pune+PyLadies Pune joint meetup in the last weekend.
4.12 Paul Hildebrandt
Responded to Board emails. Review material from Marketing and Sponsor Working group. Reviewed PyCon 2018 Budget
4.13 Eric Holscher
Helped work on PyCascades as conference mentor. Organized Write the Docs Prague, promoting doc culture. We had a number of Python folks speak & attend the conference.
4.14 Kenneth Reitz
Working vigorously on Pipenv, which is now the (soon–to–be) officially recommended packaging tool from the PyPA! Working with packaging working group, on future plans for funding. Helped prepare PyCon website launch.
4.15 Marlene Mhangami
Attended PyCon Nigeria on behalf of the PSF and gave a keynote as well as answered questions about the PSF. Started working in earnest with a team from Ghana to help plan for a PyCon Ghana 2018. Finished off preparations to speak at PyCon ZA which will be happening next month.
4.16 Thomas Wouters
Continued administering #python on Freenode and following along with the Infrastructure/Packaging WGs PyPI developments. Participated in the Fellows WG.
4.17 Paola Katherine Pacheco
This month I dedicated myself to some things:
- Some members of the Brazilian community are interested in some modifications to libraries that are outdated. I helped with Naomi to give them a direction.
- I finished my presentations of PYBR (one like keynote and one speaking of PSF)
- I created some videos for my channel talking about what Django Girls is, what the Python Brazil conference is, so people are interested in the Python community and because of that month we, unfortunately, had some cases of threats with women and trans within the community.
- I am finalizing the organization of Argentina devday (the event that I am organizing) that will be this week.
- I am finalizing the organization of Django Girls Python Brasil
- I'm finishing and helping on the Pyladies talk in Python Brasil
5 Work Group Reports
Note: These are received once a month.
5.1 Marketing
Designed new stickers and PSF flyer for community use. Worked on the donation/membership drive project that is in effect until October 15.
5.2 Sponsorship
Evaluated sponsor applications. Two denied.
5.3 Cuban Pythonistas
Report covers July and August
- Final dates and venue for SciPyLA 2017. Venue: University of Sancti Spiritus. Dates: November 22nd to the 25th.
- Conference web site updated. Doing final reviews before going live. Feedback appreciated: http://scipyla2017.cuban.tech
- A series of meetups prior to SciPyLA 2017. Cienfuegos 17/6 - PyDay, Intro to ipython and Jupyter. Havana 29/7 - Pandas for journalists. Powered by Docker-ized Jupyter instances. Island of Youth 20/8 - Introduction to Scikit-learn. Island of Youth 20/8 - MicroPython workshop. ESP8266, PyBoard, Raspberry Pi, ODROID devices
- We'll start approving submitted talks in the next few days
- The LatamTech Foundation has been incorporated in Ontario, Canada. Not-for-profit corporation in charge of SciPyLA 2017 finances. It'll be used to request grants from the PSF for activities related to conferences organized across Latin America. It'll be used to request grants from the PSF for CubanTech PyDay meetups
- Contact the Cuban Center for Research on Neurosciences, interested in participating in SciPyLA 2017
- Create a chapter of PyLadies in the Island of Youth
- A request has been sent to create a legal entity for the Python Cuba community
- Registration form for SciPyLA 2017 is ready
Main milestones going forward:
- Coordination with Microsoft Learning so as to run chapters of their events in Cuba. This includes a joint effort with Adafruit to offer workshops about CircuitPython and MakeCode. We are going to need Circuit Playground Express devices
- Coordinating a PyData event happening in parallel with SciPyLA 2017
- Coordinating Software Carpentry workshops for SciPyLA 2017
- Start the call for activities (talks, workshops, posters) for PyCon Cuba 2018. We'll need the cu.pycon.org sub-domain setup. We'd have to agree on the dates
- Cuba submitted its candidature to host SciPyLA conference on 2018
- SciPyLA 2017 sponsorships. NumFOCUS grant
- Pandas course in CubanTech meetups
- Machine Learning course in CubanTech meetups
- Deep learning course in CubanTech meetups
- Python for entrepreneurs in CubanTech meetups
5.4 Packaging
The Packaging-WG worked on submitting the MOSS Grant Application due on July 31, 2017. Since the application submission, we received follow-up questions that we’re due Mid-August. The workgroup also received Infrastructure Credits for Google Cloud.
Since then the MOSS Grants was awarded. The Packaging Work Group is working out the details and proposals for work that needs to be done.
5.5 PSF Fellow
During September the work group reviewed the Q3 Fellow Nominations and voted on them via Helios. Working on a blog post about the new Fellows and about the new process that was voted on by the work group.
5.6 Scientific Python
The work group is being re-started. The group has added two new members and is currently working on voting on their second version of the charter: https://wiki.python.org/psf/ScientificWG/Charter_v2
5.8 Meetup fees approved
- PyLadies London 6-month meetup.com fees: $89.94
- PyLadies Berlin 6-month meetup.com fees: $89.82
- Hong Kong Python User Group 6-month meetup.com fees: $29.94
- PyLadies SF 6-month meetup.com fees: $89.94
- PyLadies Twin Cities for 2014-2017 - $539.64 ($89.94 x 6)
6 Votes Approved by Working Groups
Below are resolutions approved by the various PSF Working Groups since the May 10, 2017 board meeting:
6.1 Grants
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $735 USD to the MuPy conference happening in Manipal, India October 21-22, 2017
Approved 7-0-0, August 24, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $757 USD to the Django Girls event happening in Borno, Nigeria September 20, 2017
Approved 8-0-0, August 25, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $750 USD to the Django Girls event happening in Effurun, Nigeria October 28, 2017
Approved 8-0-0, August 29, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $2,330 USD to the Django Girls event happening in Daegu, Republic of Korea September 22, 2017
Approved 9-0-0, August 29, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group sponsor the Python Argentina conference happening in Cordoba, Argentina November 17, 2017, in the amount of $3,000 USD
Approved 11-0-0, September 5, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $300 USD to the PythonExpress workshops happening in India during September 2017
Approved 7-0-0, September 6, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $750 USD to the Django Girls event happening in Nsukka, Nigeria December 2, 2017
Approved 8-0-0, September 6, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group sponsor the Plone 2017 Conference happening in Barcelona, Spain in the amount of $2,000 USD
Approved 10-0-0, September 8, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $500 USD to the Django Girls event happening in Benin City, Nigeria November 10, 2017
Approved 8-0-0, September 11, 2017
RESOLVED that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $737 USD to the Django Girls event happening in Florianópolis, Brazil November 11, 2017
Approved 8-0-0, September 13, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $750 USD to the Django Girls event happening in Tarkwa, Ghana November 18, 2017
Approved 8-0-0, September 14, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation grant $500 USD to the first Far Tech World programming workshop happening in Dhaka, Bangladesh November 1, 2017.
Approved 13-0-0, September 14, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group sponsor the GeoPython Conference happening in Basel, Switzerland May 7, 2017, in the amount of $2,500 USD
Approved 7-0-0, September 14, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $750 USD to the Django Girls event happening in Ikorodu, Nigeria October 21, 2017
Approved 9-0-0, September 20, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $500 USD to the Data Scraping using Python workshop @ GDG VIT Vellore, India happening October 27, 2017
Denied 1-7-1, September 25, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group sponsor PyCon Ireland happening October 21, 2017 in the amount of 970 Euro
Approved 9-0-1, September 25, 2017
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation Grants Work Group grant $500 USD to the Django Girls event happening in Rome, Italy October 21, 2017
Approved 10-0-0, September 25, 2017
6.2 Sponsors
No new sponsor applications were approved in September.
7 Votes Approved Via Email
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation grant 1,000 CAD to the WiCS Workshops for Students in non-STEM fields happening in Waterloo, Canada in November of 2017 and June of 2018
Approved 13-0-0, September 11, 2017
8 New Business
8.1 PyCon 2018 Budget
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation approve the 2018 PyCon budget presented by E. Jodlowska, B. Waliszewski, and E.W. Durbin.
Approved 11-0-0
9 Discussion
- October 16th meeting and strategic planning documents
- Conflict of interest forms
- PyPI trademark
- Python survey
11 Meeting Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 16:59 UTC (GMT/Zulu).