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I’m a long-time Python core developer, founding PSF member and PSF Board member (2001-2004 and 2017-2019). In the years I was not a Board member I was still very involved in the PSF and the Python community. In my previous two years as Board member, I served as Vice-Chair and a member of the Financial Committee. I’m currently on the Python Steering Council (see PEP 13), which oversees the development of Python as a language and CPython the implementation. Apart from my technical contributions to CPython, I’m active on the #python IRC channel on Freenode, where I am, along with Ned Batchelder, the official point of contact for Freenode for official Python channels (#python and #python-*).

During the daytime I’m a Software Engineer at Google, where I’m part of the team that maintains CPython and the internal Python infrastructure. Part of that work includes open-source contributions, and I have support from Google for both my Python Steering Council work and previous (and if elected, next) Board of Directors service.

I continue to be incredibly proud of the growth the Python community has seen, in no small part thanks to the efforts of the PSF staff and the PyCon chairs and organisation. I want to foster this growth, expand the PSF in new areas for fundraising and funding of events and activities. I believe the PSF should offer technical and legal support for Python itself, as well as the community. This includes supporting development (through direct project funding as well as sponsoring sprints), infrastructure, and efforts like translating documentation in more languages. I strongly believe in diversity, inclusivity, transparency, and fostering growth as well as technical excellence, and I would be happy if the PSF spent more of its money on any or all of those. I have kept up to date with the current goings-on in the PSF and PyCon, and the financial burden the current world state has placed on the PSF, so this all has to be done with care. It is very important to keep the PSF in a state, financially and organisationally, where it can continue to support the critical technical infrastructure and social scaffolding — including PyCon and the many sponsorships of all kinds the PSF hands out — that the Python community relies on.

As part of PyCon US 2020 Online, the Steering Council held a little Q&A session, available at us.pycon.org/2020/online or directly on YouTube. Each of the Steering Council members answered the question they felt themselves most equipped to handle, and as it happens my answer relates directly to the PSF. I am Dutch and based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and can be found on IRC and Twitter as Yhg1s.