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I am Jeff, a Python/Django developer, and father living in Lawrence, KS. Before I became a consultant 10 years ago, I worked at the newspaper startup that created Django. I first attended PyCon US and DjangoCon US back in 2008, and I have been in love with this community ever since.

I am a firm believer in the Campsite Rule: “Always leave the campground cleaner than you found it.” After serving one term as a PSF Director, I feel good about the progress that we have made over the last two years. I joined the board to help people and to help you be heard.

I organized my first two conferences in 2015 and it opened my eyes to how much work was still needed to make our community more inclusive, diverse, and accessible; achieving those goals has been part of my core values ever since. Since then, I have helped organize and manage seven community conferences over the past six years and I have advised and assisted dozens of others.

Everything I have learned I owe to someone who took the time and had the patience to work with me and I strive to pay that forward. Being an active and vocal board member is the least that I can do to represent the community.

I take my role as a Director with the gravity you deserve. In two years, I have never missed a Board of Directors, working group, or committee meeting. A few times this has meant calling in at 3 am or attending a meeting while dropping my two-year-old son off at daycare. I juggle having a family, a full-time job, helping in two other non-profits, and various hobbies and side projects. Finally, I have over 10 years of non-profit, board, and management experience.

I’m proof that you don’t need to work for a huge tech company nor live in a tech hub to effectively contribute to the community.

The last two years and going forward

Here are my 2018 goals along with a status update on each.

Transparency

While subjective to measure, I believe in sharing where we are financially and making sure our messaging clearly reflects our financial status to the community. When asked to give feedback on a PyCon announcement, attendee email, sponsorship email, or a blog post, I look for and stress the need for transparency.

I frequently answer questions and explain decisions via Twitter when community members ask or when I think more insight is needed. Sometimes these are not comfortable conversations, but they are worth having.

While I believe we made strides, I think our default is to err on the side of the foundation at times when it’s unnecessarily at odds with our community values.

Code of Conduct

Much of my time as a director was spent working with the Conduct WG and Board on the new Python Code of Conduct which we passed in the fall of 2019. I am happy that we now have an actionable, comprehensive CoC along with reporting guidelines that other projects in the Python community have started adopting.

Sustainability

Two years ago I wrote, “The PSF needs financial sustainability independent of PyCon US to prevent bad years from having a significant negative impact. We also should focus on sustaining the Python infrastructure and the Packaging Workgroup, which is critical to the Python ecosystem.”

While we have a bunch of small wins (forming a Finance Committee and better investing in our funding to get reasonable interest rates), we still have a long way to go. I see a lot of potential in the work that the Packaging Workgroup has done for creating a sponsorship and fundraising program.

I believe it’s important for the PSF to grow beyond events or an event fundraising mindset and establish programs to help out our core services like the PyPA.

I hope to see the PSF establish a Django-Fellows-like program for some of our Python properties and projects to help take the burden off of all-volunteer led projects. This model has worked well for Django and I’d like to explore it for the Python community too.

Regional Conference Support

I joined the PyCon WG to help us with our communication with attendees and sponsors. I personally have advised dozens of conferences over the last few years and I co-host a monthly call to answer questions about conference organizing.

As a six-year conference organizer, I don’t know what the future of events looks like anymore, but [finish thought] I am committed to helping our community strategize and discover what could come next.

A few things that weren’t on the list

I made the recommendation, which was adopted, that the PSF’s Executive Committee Directors be limited to hold only one executive role. For 2019-2020, this added two seats to the executive committee which may have otherwise not existed.

I want to see the PSF embrace more programs like GitHub Sponsors to help make contributions to the PSF easier by accepting money in places where companies already have the approval to spend money.

Contributions to communities

PSF Finance WG member since 2019
PSF Conduct WG member since 2018
PSF PyCon Committee member since 2019
2019 Malcolm Tredinnick Memorial Prize winner for contributions to the Django and Python communities
Django News newsletter co-founder since 2019
DjangoCon US volunteer 2014: principal organizer since 2015, Chair in 2015, Co-Chair in 2016, and Vice-Chair in 2017
Django Software Foundation Code of Conduct Committee member since 2016; 2017-18 chair
Django Software Foundation MOSS Grants Committee (Channels, 2016-2019)
One of the principal architects/developers of the redesigned python.org in 2013
PyCon US Program Committee Member, 2012-2016

More Affiliations

Revolution Systems (REVSYS) (Employer, 2011-present; Partner) - We are a small, seven-person company that makes a pretty big impact
Django Software Foundation (Member, 2015-present)
Python Software Foundation (Member, 2015-present)
Django Events Foundation North America (DEFNA) (Co-founder, 2015-present)
Contributions to communities:
- Python Software Foundation Finance Committee, PyCon WG, and Conduct WG member since their founding in 2018/2019
- DjangoCon US volunteer since 2014: I have chaired, co-chaired, vice-chaired, and been a principal organizer since 2015
- Django Software Foundation Code of Conduct Committee member since - 2016; chair 2017-2018
- Django Software Foundation MOSS Grants Committee (Channels, - 2016-present)
- One of the principal architects/developers of the redesigned - python.org in 2013
- PyCon US Program Committee Member, 2012-2016