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Raquel Dou

EuroPython Society

List of EPS Board Candidates for 2023/2024

At this year’s EuroPython Society General Assembly (GA), planned for 1 October at 19:00 CEST, we will vote in a new board of the EuroPython Society for the term 2023/2024.

List of Board Candidates

The EPS bylaws require one chair, one vice chair and 2 - 7 board members. The following candidates have stated their willingness to work on the EPS board. We are presenting them here (in alphabetical order by first name).

We will be updating this list in the days before the GA. Please send in any nominations or self-nominations to board@europython.eu.

Please note that our bylaws do not restrict nominations to people on this list. It is even possible to self-nominate or nominate other candidates at the GA itself. However, in the interest of giving members a better chance to review the candidate list, we’d like to encourage all nominations to be made before the GA.

The following fine folks have expressed their desire to run for the next EPS board elections: Alessia Marcolini, Alexander Hendorf, Anders Hammarquist, Angel Ramboi, Artem Kislovskiy, Artur Czepiel, Daniela Cialfi, David Vaz, Dido Grigorov, Diego Russo, LaĂ­s Carvalho, Omotola Eunice Omotayo, Sangarshanan, Sebastiaan Zeeff, Stefania Delprete, Theofanis (Fanis) Petkos, Vaibhav (VB) Srivastav.

Alessia Marcolini

Pythonista / Software developer

Alessia is a Python Development Engineer at LUMICKS, where she is developing and testing AI algorithms for Cell Avidity. However, her passion for Python extends far beyond her professional life.

Since 2017, Alessia has been a dedicated volunteer within the Italian Python Community. She has been an integral part of the core organizers team of PyCon Italia, a role that has provided her with invaluable insights into community-driven event organization. Since 2018, she has been in the organization committee of EuroSciPy, the European Conference for Python in Science, while she also helped with the organisation of PyConDE & PyData Berlin in 2022. Throughout these roles, her main responsibilities included chairing the Financial Aid program, providing year-round assistance to attendees via the general Helpdesk and social accounts, and managing the media partners.

When not coding, she loves dancing, drinking black tea and good gin.

By joining the EuroPython Society Board, she hopes to bring perspectives collected during the years across the different organizations, and act as a reference point for the community, especially for newcomers and underrepresented groups. Secondly, through her extensive experience, she has observed that various Python conferences frequently face common challenges, like attracting a diverse audience or speaker lineup, or establishing protocols for the Financial aid programs.  While she believes in providing local organizers with the autonomy they need to shape their events according to their unique contexts and requirements, she recognizes the value of shared knowledge and best practices across the different Python communities in Europe.

As a board member, she will actively work to facilitate open channels of communication and collaboration among these diverse groups, allowing us to learn from one another and collectively tackle common challenges. Her vision revolves around empowering local organizers through the EPS, granting them access to a network of resources, expertise, and support.

Further reasons to vote for her: she is a cat person, she loves to write unit tests, and she is a big fan of 90s italo dance music.

Alexander Hendorf

Pythonista / Data Guy / Serial Organiser

Alexander joined the EPS spontaneously as auditor at EuroPython 2014 in Berlin when no one else felt like it. In the following five years he was an integral part of the EuroPython team, in particular as program chair,  and for two years as board member incl. co-chair.

Alexander was elected 2nd chairman of the German Python Software Association (PySV) in 2018. In this role, he is responsible for the German conference PyConDE, which he has co-organized since 2016.

To support Open Source Software in academia he was invited to join EuroSciPy in 2018. The Pandas documentation sprint was a good reason to establish the local PyData SĂŒdwest chapter thriving with more than 1600 members today.

In 2018, Alexander was named a PSF Fellow by the Python Software Foundation for his contributions to the community. In 2021 he was named a EuroPython fellow.

Alexander is responsible for data and artificial intelligence at the boutique consultancy Könisgweg. Through his commitment as a speaker, he is a proven expert in the field of data intelligence. He has many years of experience in the practical application, introduction and communication of data and AI-driven strategies and decision-making processes. He is very grateful that everyone at his company, Königsweg, in which he is also a partner, is in support of so many community activities.

Alexander is convinced it's time for EuroPython Society to take its mission to the next level - to act as a roof and institution of the European Python community - beyond the EuroPython conference. The EPS should become better at supporting local communities at a variety of levels in the future: e.g. diversity & outreach, organising community events, mentoring opportunities or infrastructure. With his candidacy, Alexander offers his expertise, experience and implementation power to make this a reality.

Anders Hammarquist

Pythonista / Consultant / Software architect

Anders is running his own Python consultancy business, AB Struse, since 2019 and is currently mostly involved with using Python in industrial automation. He has been using Python since 1995, and fosters its use in at least four companies.

He helped organize EuroPython 2004 and 2005, and has attended and given talks at several EuroPythons since then. He has handled the Swedish financials of the EuroPython Society since 2016 and has served as board member since 2017.

Angel Ramboi

Pythonista / Software Engineer / Gamer / Geek / Wanderer

Hi! My name is Angel Ramboi, I’m a seasoned engineer with more than 15 years experience designing and building software and web applications. I’m currently working mainly with Go, though Python and its community is where my heart is. â˜ș

My first EuroPython was in Florence 2012 where I was blown away by the amazing community gathered around the conference and Python in general. It was like nothing I've ever experienced before and the energy was palpable in the air.

Since then I've attended eight EuroPythons, I've been an on-site volunteer in 2019 and 2023, and I was a remote volunteer and (briefly) part of the board of organisers for the 2020 edition. Looking forward to an amazing conference next year. 🚀

Artem Kislovskiy (nomination for Vice Chair)

Pythonista / Software Engineer / Life Enthusiast

Artem Kislovskiy is a polymath with a passion for physics, mathematics, programming, and more. In the past, he utilised Python to uncover unseen physical phenomena, and he currently employs it professionally to integrate various software components. He is a dedicated learner who enjoys imparting his knowledge to others, ranging from school children to professionals at conferences.

Artem became involved with the EuroPython 2023 organising team after attending and volunteering at last year's Dublin edition. He aspires to join the EuroPython Society Board to enhance and standardise the administrative and technical procedures, making them easily shareable and reusable for others. He believes that, working together with the community, we can collectively tackle common challenges and free up headspace for genuinely significant and creative tasks.

Artur Czepiel (nomination for Chair)

Software developer

I started using Python in 2008 and attended my first EuroPython in 2016. In 2017, at the conference in Rimini, I learned that help was needed with the website. I started contributing patches, and eventually refactored most of epcon – the conference website engine we used at the time.

Through that process, I noticed other areas that could be improved in the organisation. That led me to taking more responsibitilies and eventually joining the board in 2018. And then again in 2021, and 2022. In each term, I focused on refining our internal infrastructure and tooling, eventually replacing most of the software being used for both the EuroPython Conference and Society.

Additionally, I helped in the venue selection and negotiation processes for the 2019 and 2023 events. In 2022 and 2023, I contributed by also drafting the conference budgets.

Recently, the EPS has experienced significant growth. Hence, I believe this is the right moment to transition into a new phase, by expanding our horizons and actively seeking additional projects. Beyond solely managing the conference, my aim is to focus on important community aspects, automation, and potentially outsourcing parts of administrative tasks related to conference organisation.


Daniela Cialfi

Pythonista / Data Scientist /

Daniela Cialfi is a poly-maths and poly-economist with a passion for economics, physics, mathematics, programming, and more. In the past and until now, she utilised Python to uncover unseen both economical and physical phenomena, and she currently employs it professionally to integrate various perspectives from economics and physics.She is a dedicated learner who enjoys imparting her knowledge to others, ranging from student, at all educational levels, to professionals at conferences.

Daniela became involved with the EuroPython as a community member several years ago during my PhD period. She aspires to join the EuroPython Society Board to enhance, standardise and push forward the administrative, technical  and organisational procedures more easily, shareable and reusable for others, from newcomb to expert and professionists. She believes that, working together with the community and external experts, we can collectively tackle common challenges and free up headspace for genuinely significant and creative tasks and more.

David Vaz

Pythonista / Entrepreneur / Conference Organizer

Software developer for over 20 years, fell in love with python almost at the beginning of his journey. Django developer since 2007. He loves Python and Django so much he has been bringing developers to the community since then, ended up starting his consultancy firm around these technologies.

During DjangoCon Europe 2019 at Copenhagen he decided to take the next step helping the community, proposing to organize DjangoCon Europe 2020 in Portugal. He got more than he bargained for, ending up co-organising the first virtual-only DjangoCon Europe, repeating in 2021, and finally a hybrid DjangoCon Europe in 2022. His effort, together with the team around him, was rewarded with success, the last edition in 2022 had record breaking attendees with 500+ in person and 200+ online. To keep things going he is also co-organising DjangoCon Europe in 2024 in Spain Vigo, hoping to bring the Spanish community closer.

David is also contributing to the Portuguese Python Community, starting in 2022 the very first PyCon Portugal. His drive is to bring The Portuguese community forward, with a different city every year to increase the reach of the conference. The first edition was in Porto, leveraging on DjangoCon Europe 2022, this year it was in Coimbra, with participants from over 25 countries, and we are already preparing the next edition.

David is enthusiastic, committed and pragmatic. Throughout his personal and professional journey, he has always had a positive impact in every process he puts his mind on, influencing, building and empowering the people around him. He hopes to put his experience to good use in EuroPython Society.

Dido Grigorov

Pythonista / Software Developer

Dilyan Grigorov, shortly Dido, is a software developer passionate for Software Development, Data Structures and Algorithms and Generative AI. He is an advocate for open source and the Python language itself.

Dilyan has nearly 16 years of industry experience programming in Python and has spent 5 of those years researching and testing Generative AI solutions. His passion for them stems from his background as an SEO specialist dealing with search engine algorithms on a daily basis.

Dilyan has been currently a Computer Science student at the International University of Applied Science in Germany. He enjoys engaging with the software community, often giving talks at local meetups as well as larger conferences.

He is a dedicated learner who enjoys sharing his knowledge to others, ranging from newbies (beginners) to professionals at conferences. He has currently founded a small start-up called Algominder, which is building an interactive platform for interview preparation for software engineers.

In April 2022, he gave a talk at BrightonSEO about creating NLP programs with Python for content analysis and strategies for Search Engine Optimization. He also gave a talk in July 2023 about the newest features of Python 3.11 at EuroPython 2023 in Prague. He also has been part of the organisation process of different events for 10 years - from local meetups to different kinds of conferences.

Diego Russo

Pythonista / Principal Software Engineer

Hello, I am Diego Russo and I have been a software engineer since my career started in 2006: for the whole time I have been using Python in a variety of environments (web, automation, ML, scripting, etc..), I love open source and care about software quality.

I have been attending EuroPython since 2011, as this conference represents my annual appointment with the Python world. In 2022 I decided to give something back to the community and  I have been helping with the organisation of EuroPython, specifically in the comms, programme team and with mentorship programme.

Within my company (Arm Ltd) I started and have been running a Python Guild for almost 3 years with almost 1000 people in it: we organise biweekly presentations, workshops, summits, external speakers, etc... I am originally from Italy but I have been living in Cambridge (UK) since 2011.

I have a bachelor and master degree in computer science. Outside of work, I have a beautiful family with 4 kids. I like music and Cuban salsa dancing.

LaĂ­s Carvalho (lah-ees)

Software Engineer / Speaker / Diversity Advocate

LaĂ­s joined the EuroPython team of volunteers in 2020, a month before The Plague. She fell at home and came back to help more in 2022 and 2023. Beforehand, LaĂ­s was a Board member in Python Ireland. She helped organising several Python events such as the first FlaskCon, Pyjamas, PyCon Ireland, PyData Dublin meetups and others.

LaĂ­s works as a Software Developer using Python to build system's monitoring tools. Previously, she worked as a developer advocate for open source software.

LaĂ­s is passionate about supporting the generations of newcomers and making the Python Community in Europe a safe space where people can be themselves without fear or shame. More than a community of developers, we are a conglomerate of different people (and perspectives) united by our passion for Python.

As a board member, she would like to help make the organisation more sustainable. She is also interested in discovering ways the organisation can support more of the existing community around Europe, always keeping in mind values of honesty and kindness.

Omotola Eunice Omotayo

Community Manager/DEI and Tech Empowerment Advocate

I am Omotola Eunice Omotayo, a resident of Nigeria in Africa and a Computer Science graduate student pursuing an M.SC. in Program Management. I have over five years of experience as a community manager; I'm currently the community manager and one of the organizers of the Outreachy program. I have been leading the community team at She Code Africa for almost five years as a volunteer.

I advocate for DEI, Open Source, women's empowerment, and tech. I enjoy empowering underrepresented populations, developing initiatives, and supporting the tech community.

I have actively built and led diverse and inclusive community DEI events over the years, managed developer communities, and organized global physical, virtual, and hybrid events. With a strong track record, I value integrity, communication, and providing support.

I was a speaker at EuroPython 2023, where I spoke about "Career development through open source and community involvement" and facilitated the day two lightning session. It was a wonderful experience as I connected with wonderful people from Euro-Python, including the volunteers who worked hard to plan and make the event successful. This made me enthusiastic and interested in becoming a member, and I pledged to participate actively in the planning and organization using the knowledge I have gained over the years.

With my experience as a member of an underrepresented group, my career, my volunteer work, and my interests, I am excited to contribute my best expertise to the success of the EuroPython community and beyond.

My involvement in this board will promote inclusion and facilitate more involvement from underrepresented groups, as we have limited participation in leadership roles in the open-source community. I will present new initiatives to encourage their participation and methods for overcoming any obstacles individuals and the community may face. The result of my participation will be a change in the narrative and a positive outcome.

Lastly, I will bring in my perspective, gain from others.  I will also help manage the active participation of everyone in the assembly.

Sangarshanan

Developer/ Pythonista/  Meme maker

I am Sangarshanan, a Developer from Bangalore India! Right now my main passions are distributed systems and live coding music. I have volunteered for EuroPython during the 2020, 2022 & 2023 editions primarily in the comms team and on-ground. Also helped run Pydata Bangalore before 2020 and a bunch of other local conferences since then.

As a young developer I found conferences to be a revelation because it opened the way for a whole new community of people I thought I would never meet and being part of conversations that would shape projects used by NASA!! Also being around such kind and curious souls make me feel wholesome. I consider myself very lucky for that so now I would like other young passionate developers from different parts of the world to experience the warmth I did basking in the great glory of the Python people.

As a Society Board member I would really like to be involved in getting more and diverse voices in the conference. I would also really like for EuroPython to have more fun events by catering to after-work musings of Pythonistas by making some common open space events official!

Sebastiaan Zeeff

Software Engineer / Pythonista / Community Enthusiast

Sebastiaan first joined the EuroPython Society during the pandemic as a volunteer for the financial aid team. What he found was a community that made him feel right at home. As he feels that everyone should be able to participate in the EuroPython community, he has been a member and team lead of the Financial Aid team ever since. This year, he also joined the Code of Conduct Committee.

In his daily life, Sebastiaan is a Software Engineer for the Ordina Pythoneers and one of the three founders of Python Discord, a large online community of Python enthusiasts. In 2021, he was named a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation for his contributions to the Python community. Sebastiaan has a passion for teaching, knowledge sharing, giving talks, playing board games, reading books, and creating music.

As a board member, he would love to increase and promote diversity in the European Python community. Sebastiaan believes that a community can only truly be a community if we value the participation of everyone. That’s why he thinks that it’s important to amplify underrepresented voices and promote representation.

He would also like to explore the identity of the EuroPython Society beyond organizing EuroPython: What role can the EPS play in strengthening the Python community in Europe? One important aspect of that is fostering and maintaining relationships with local community organizers. There are already a lot of beautiful community initiatives in Europe; what can the EPS do to support them?

Finally, he thinks that it’s important to think about ways to make organizing EuroPython sustainable. With the increasing scale of the conference, it’s important to think about the scalability of the volunteer organization behind it to prevent burnout and the need for individual heroism. This may require making some difficult choices but he thinks that it is essential for the health of the organization in the long run.

Stefania Delprete

Pythonista / Data Scientist

Stefania has been involved in many free/open source projects and communities since 2010 (such as Linux and Mozilla), volunteered for PyCon Italia since 2017 and has been part of the NumFOCUS ambassador program.

She has a background in physics and worked as a data scientist and as a tech mentor/tutor for data-driven projects for non-profit organizations and in the public and private sectors.

She has experience coordinating local and national groups and cares about how people's attitudes and preferences match the tasks/projects.

Stefania is involved in social impact initiatives and would love to bring that attention to the EPS, ensuring that the resources available will serve the greater good, from promoting diversity and inclusion to addressing how technology can improve social issues.

She's passionate about jazz, animal welfare, consciousness studies, and lucid dreaming.

Theofanis Petkos (Fanis)

Software Engineer / Pythonista

Fanis is a software engineer, a pythonista and an open-source enthusiast who also loves devops and software engineering. He enjoys camping in nature, a long hike and a cold beer.

Fanis became involved with the EuroPython Society in 2020, when he was a speaker for EuroPython Conference. He joined the organizing team in 2021 when he was involved in the Financial Aid team and also served as a mentor. He hasn't stopped since then: since 2022, he has been the main drive behind the EuroPython Speaker Mentorship Programme & The Support Team. He will remember always last year with a smile, as he invited, welcomed and onboarded more than 70 volunteers to the EuroPython team.

He works to ensure that EPS, as a volunteer-led community, is connecting other communities, providing resources & knowledge to other organizers while ensuring diversity & inclusion for all of its members. He is also interested in expanding the EuroPython Society community, that's why he is passionate on welcoming new & existing volunteers in the team with a warm hug & a freezing joke :D

Vaibhav (VB) Srivastav

Basically a Labrador

Vaibhav (VB) is a Machine Learning Engineer at Hugging Face. VB democratises machine learning through Open Source in his day job and more. He has worked with Python and adjacent scientific communities for over a decade. He is an open-source enthusiast and thrives on building and running open-source communities. Python has been an integral part of VB's career and life.

He started by organising Python meetups in Delhi in 2016. He then volunteered for various PyCon across APAC (India, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia). At the pandemic's peak, VB moved from India to Germany to pursue his master's and research in speech and natural language processing at the University of Stuttgart.

After a brief hiatus from volunteering, he joined the EuroPython 2021 volunteering team to help with the Sponsors team. He renewed his commitment to EuroPython by volunteering for the communications and programme team for the year 2022. Last year, he was elected to the board and served in the communications and programme team.

Through each chapter of his volunteering journey, VB has been lucky to have gotten the opportunity to work with some truly exceptional people. He thrives on the incredible people that he volunteers with at EPS. He finds joy in bringing people together and ensuring everyone finds their voice in the community (should they choose to). He has found life-long friends through EPS, for which he'll forever be grateful.

Should VB make it to the EuroPython Society board again, he'll spend his time and energy on making the EPS sustainable and bringing more accountability to the board. He'll strongly advocate for *everyone* on the board to be open and for us to take more responsibility toward supporting volunteers than in past years. He'd also work on EPS's relations with other European Python communities. Lastly, he'd like to use this year to work closely with volunteers and ensure that EPS has a steady stream of volunteers comfortable taking charge for the coming years.

Whether VB gets on this board or not, he'll continue to serve as a volunteer for EuroPython and work on the projects mentioned above as much as he can.

It is time to bring the saghetti back to life! (Watch this nervous 4 minute LT from Dublin)

What does the EPS Board do ?

The EPS board is made up of up to 9 directors (including 1 chair and 1 vice chair); the board runs the day-to-day business of the EuroPython Society, including running the EuroPython conference series, and supports the community through various initiatives such as our grants programme. The board collectively takes up the fiscal and legal responsibility of the Society.

At the moment, running the annual EuroPython conference is a major task for the EPS. As such, the board members are expected to invest significant time and effort towards overseeing the smooth execution of the conference, ranging from venue selection, contract negotiations, and budgeting, to volunteer management. Every board member has the duty to support one or more EuroPython teams to facilitate decision-making and knowledge transfer.

In addition, the Society prioritises building a close relationship with local communities. Board members should not only be passionate about the Python community but have a high-level vision and plan for how the EPS could best serve the community.

EuroPython Society General Assembly 2023

Following our previous call for EuroPython Society Board Candidates, we've received several self-nominations from our members.  We're not only excited to introduce these candidates to you soon but also delighted to formally invite all EPS members to attend attend this year's General Assembly, which will once again be conducted online to ensure broad member participation:

💌
EuroPython Society General Assembly 2023: 19:00 – 21:00 CEST, Sunday, 1 October 2023 (check your local time here).

In recent years, we've observed lower turnout at our General Assembly meetings, and we recognise the importance of improving this. As an EPS member, your active involvement is crucial in shaping the future of our Society. We sincerely hope to see more participation from our members this year! By joining the meeting and exercising your vote in the next Board and important Society matters, you play a pivotal role in our decision-making process. Please note that the online meeting is exclusive to EPS members, but we will also record it and share it on YouTube for transparency.

A separate calendar invite containing the Zoom link will be sent to all members subscribed to this europython-members@python.org mailing list for your convenience. If you're an EPS member and haven't received the calendar invite, please reach out to us at board@europython.eu.

We sincerely appreciate your support for EPS and look forward to seeing many of you there!

🐍
Becoming an EPS member
If you're not an EPS member yet but are considering joining, you can find the details and submit your application here.

Board Nominations

Each year during the GA, we hold elections for the next EPS Board of Directors. If you're an EPS member interested in running for the board or nominating someone else, please submit your nomination notice along with a brief biography. Although the official deadline for nominations is at the time of the GA, we kindly request that you email your nominations to board@europython.eu by Monday, 18 September  2023. To keep things transparent, all board nominations and nomination statements will be compiled here. So all members can already find information about candidates on this document, and we will also publish everything on a separate blog post before the GA.

For more details about the Board's responsibilities and the nomination process, please refer to our earlier Call for Board Candidates post.

General Assembly Agenda

You can access the draft agenda and a timeline overview here for reference. The agenda covers all the items specified in Section 8 of the EPS bylaws. We will continuously update it with links to reports as they become available and use it as a live minute during the General Assembly. Additionally, we will include any motions from the board and members. Once everything is updated, we'll send you another email by Monday 25 September 2023. We encourage our members to review the information in advance and raise any questions during the meeting.

Propositions from the board

  • None at the moment.

Should there be any propositions from the board, they will be announced and made available to all our members by Monday 25 September 2023, as per Section 10 of our bylaws.

Motions from the members

  • None at the moment.

All EPS members have the right to propose motions to be voted on at the GA.

If you want to raise a motion, please send it to board@europython.eu no later than Friday, 22 September 2023, , so that we can add them to the agenda. The bylaws require that members’ motions be announced at least 5 days before the GA and we will need time to clarify details and make the agenda available to our members accordingly.

Hope to see many of you at the EPS 2023 GA! â€ïžđŸ

Raquel Dou
EuroPython Society Chair
on behalf of the EPS board

EPS 2023 General Assembly - Call for Board Candidates

It feels like yesterday that many of us were together in Prague or online for EuroPython 2023. Each year, the current board of the EuroPython Society (EPS) holds a General Assembly (GA). It is a precious opportunity for all our members to get together annually,  and reflect on the learnings of the past and direction for the future the Society holds.

This year’s GA will be held online again to allow as many members as possible to engage with us. We have tentatively reserved the date 1 October for the GA. But official confirmation will be sent out as soon as we receive the go-ahead from our auditor on the finance side.

As an EPS member, you are welcome  and encouraged to join us to discuss Society matters and vote at the meeting, including the next Society Board. A Zoom meeting link will be sent out to you with the formal General Assembly Invitation.

Calling for Board Candidates

Every year at the GA, we call for and vote in a new EPS Board of Directors. This is also our main theme of this post: we are calling for the next Board candidates.
This year, we have at least 4 members from the current board standing down, including myself who will be stepping down as chair and from the board. While transition always poses challenges, it is a chance to take in new experience, fresh perspectives and more diversity. With most, if not all, female board members from the current board stepping down, we are especially worried about the diversity of our next board and welcome all suggestions and nominations from our members to help make our next board diverse.

If you are interested in stepping up, or if you know someone who might be, please get in touch with us! You can reach the current board at board@europython.eu. We also have set up a private discord thread for you to get to know all interested candidates and ask any questions you might have. Get in touch with us if you would like an invite!

What does the EPS Board do?

As per our bylaws, the EPS board is made up of up to 9 directors (including 1 chair and 1 vice chair). The duties and responsibilities of the board are substantial: the board collectively takes up the fiscal and legal responsibility of the Society. At the moment, running the annual EuroPython conference is a major task for the EPS. As such, the board members are expected to invest significant time and effort towards overseeing the smooth execution of the conference, ranging from venue selection, contract negotiations, and budgeting, to volunteer management. Every board member has the duty to support one or more EuroPython teams to facilitate decision-making and knowledge transfer. In addition, the Society prioritises building a close relationship with local Python communities in Europe. Board members should be passionate about the Python community, and ideally also have a high-level vision and plan for how the EPS could best serve the community.

Time commitment for the board: as the Society currently comprises entirely volunteers, serving on the board does come with a significant time commitment. This is particularly important to keep in mind, due to the changes EPS will undergo this year. However, everyone has been very understanding of differing schedules. Other than the  1.5 hour board call we expect all board members to attend every two weeks,  we have managed to primarily work async.

The Nomination Process

All EPS members are eligible to stand for election to the board of directors . And everyone who wishes to stand or nominate others need to send in your nomination notice, along with a biography of yours.

Though the formal deadline for sending in your nomination is at the time of the GA, we would appreciate it if you could return it to us by emailing board@europython.eu by Friday 15 September 2023. We will publish all the candidates and their nomination statements on a separate blog post for our members to read in advance.

Then at the General Assembly, each candidate will usually be given a minute to introduce themselves before the members cast their anonymous votes. You can find out refer to our previous GAs if you want to find out more details: https://www.europython-society.org/records/

If you have any questions or concerns, you are also very welcome to reach out to me directly at raquel@europython.eu.

Raquel Dou

EuroPython Society 2023 Q1 Fellows

Hi everyone! A warm welcome to the newly elected EuroPython Society Fellows in the first quarter of 2023.

  • Naomi Ceder
  • Cheuk Ting Ho
  • Francesco Pierfederici
  • Jakub Musko

EuroPython Society Fellows

EuroPython Society Fellows have contributed significantly towards our mission, the EuroPython conference and the Society as an organisation. They are eligible for a lifetime free attendance of the EuroPython conference and will be listed on our EuroPython Society Fellow Grant page in recognition of their work.‌

Naomi has freely given the EPS the benefit of her extensive and wise counsel on matters relating to Python and the community for many years. Furthermore, her widely known work in the international Python community has a positive impact on all of us in the EuroPython community. Her work bringing Trans*Code to EuroPython means we engage with, welcome and are enlarged by the presence of our trans friends at the conference and in our wider community. In celebrating Naomi, we celebrate someone who embodies a thoughtful, inclusive and compassionate ethos, and who is a role model to us all through her selfless contributions to our community. Thank you Naomi.

Cheuk served on the EPS board between 2020-2022, during which time she has made significant contributions to enriching the programme of the conference series. Her keen dedication to diversity and inclusion has made a positive change in our community, through her work on financial aid speaker mentorship programme and her strong advocacy for underrepresented folks in our community. Her staggering amount of travels across continents to nearly all Python community events is awe-inspiring, and we thank her tireless work in bringing our community together.

Francesco served on the EPS board between 2020-2022 and has been a long-term contributor to the EuroPython conference series. He was the primary force in migrating Python 2 to 3 for the now retired codebase of our conference website . Leading the infrastructure team in 2021, the remote conference would have not been so smooth without his massive effort in integrating the matrix platform with our website. Aside from his work in infrastructure, Francesco's warmth and love for the community have always provided energy and strength to everyone in the team.

Jakub contributed to a team culture of clarity, stability and openness, through his code and communication. Leading the web and infrastructure team while serving on the board in 2020, he refactored and simplified a large chunk of the legacy codebase. He always made sure that everyone on the team was on the same page, whether it was about technical details, effective plans to support other teams or new ideas. We hope to see you and your wee one in many EuroPythons to come, Jakub!

The EuroPython Society Board would like to congratulate and thank all the above new Fellows for their tireless work towards our mission! If you want to send in your nomination, check out our Fellowship page and get in touch!

Many thanks,

EuroPython Society

https://www.europython-society.org/

EPS Board 2022-2023

We’re happy to announce our new board for the next term 2022-2023:

  • Alexander Hendorf
  • Anders Hammarquist (Treasurer)
  • Artur Czepiel
  • NicolĂĄs Demarchi (Vice Chair)
  • Patrick Arminio
  • Raquel Dou (Chair)
  • Silvia Uberti
  • Vaibhav Srivastav
  • Vicky Twomey-Lee

You can read more about them in their nomination post. If you missed the General Assembly 2022, you can catch up here.

Together, we’ll continue to serve the community and head off to the preparations for EuroPython 2023!

List of EPS Board Candidates for 2022/2023

List of EPS Board Candidates for 2022/2023

At this year’s EuroPython Society General Assembly (GA), planned for Saturday, 29 October at 17:00 CEST, we will vote in a new board of the EuroPython Society for the term 2022/2023.

List of Board Candidates

The EPS bylaws require one chair, one vice chair and 2 - 7 board members. The following candidates have stated their willingness to work on the EPS board. We are presenting them here (in alphabetical order by first name).

We will be updating this list in the days before the GA. Please send in any nominations or self-nominations to board@europython.eu.

Please note that our bylaws do not restrict nominations to people on this list. It is even possible to self-nominate or nominate other candidates at the GA itself. However, in the interest of giving members a better chance to review the candidate list, we’d like to encourage all nominations to be made before the GA.

The following fine folks have expressed their desire to run for the next EPS board elections: Alexander Hendorf, Anders Hammarquist, Artur Czepiel, Cheuk Ting Ho, NicolĂĄs Demarchi, Patrick Arminio, Raquel Dou, Silvia Uberti, Theofanis Petkos, Vaibhav Srivastav, Vicky Twomey-Lee.

Alexander Hendorf

Pythonista / Consultant / Serial Organiser

Alexander joined the EPS spontaneously as auditor at EuroPython 2014 in Berlin when no one else felt like it. In the following five years he was an integral part of the EuroPython team, in particular as program chair,  and for two years as board member.

Alexander was elected 2nd chairman of the German Python Software Association (PySV) in 2018. In this role, he is responsible for the German conference PyConDE, which he has co-organized since 2016.

To support Open Source Software in academia he was invited to join EuroSciPy in 2018. The Pandas documentation sprint was a good reason to establish two local PyData chapters, PyData SĂŒdwest and PyData Frankfurt the same year. Both thrive with more than 1300 members today.

In 2018, Alexander was named a PSF Fellow by the Python Software Foundation for his contributions to the community. In 2021 he was named a EuroPython fellow.

Alexander is responsible for data and artificial intelligence at the boutique consultancy KÖNIGSWEG. Through his commitment as a speaker, he is a proven expert in the field of data intelligence. He has many years of experience in the practical application, introduction and communication of data and AI-driven strategies and decision-making processes. He is very grateful that everyone at his company, Königsweg, in which he is also a partner, is in support of so many community activities.

Alexander is convinced it's time for EuroPython Society to take its mission to the next level - to act as a roof and institution of the European Python community - beyond the EuroPython conference. The EPS should become better at supporting local communities at a variety of levels in the future: e.g. diversity & outreach, organising community events, mentoring opportunities or infrastructure. With his candidacy, Alexander offers his expertise, experience and implementation power to make this a reality.

Anders Hammarquist

Pythonista / Consultant / Software architect

Anders is running his own Python consultancy business, AB Struse, since 2019 and is currently mostly involved with using Python in industrial automation. He has been using Python since 1995, and fosters its use in at least four companies.

He helped organize EuroPython 2004 and 2005, and has attended and given talks at several EuroPythons since then. He has handled the Swedish financials of the EuroPython Society since 2016 and has served as board member since 2017.

Artur Czepiel

Software developer

Artur started using Python around 2008, originally to implement backends for websites and later expanding to other areas.

He joined the EuroPython team after the conference in 2017, working initially on the website and support. He joined the board for the 2018/2019, and more recently, the 2021/2022 terms.

For the next term he would like to continue the infrastructure work started last year, and focus on improving how the Society works outside of the conference and its relationships with other organisations in Europe.

Cheuk Ting Ho

Pythonista / Developer Advocate / Data Scientist

==Background==

After spending 5 years researching theoretical physics in Hong Kong, Cheuk has transferred her analytical and logical skills in natural science and built a career in data science. Cheuk has been a Data Scientist before builder her career in Developer Relations.

Cheuk constantly contributes to the community by giving learning workshops and organizing sprints for open source projects, at the same time contributing to open source projects. On top of speaking at conferences, Cheuk has joined the organizing team of EuroPython as a member of the programming workgroup since 2019 and was hosting the lightning talk from the same year since.

In 2021, Cheuk joined the EuroPython Society Board and became the Python Software Foundation fellow. Cheuk has been leading the Financial Aid team to provide accessible tickets and travel grant for people around the world to join EuroPython. Cheuk has also started a speaker mentorship program in 2021 and organize workshops for new speakers. In this year’s EuroPython, Cheuk brings mentored sprint to the conference and hopefully encourage diverse contributions to open source projects.

==Manifesto==

Believing in the benefit the society has with diversity and inclusion, Cheuk would like to continue bringing new faces to the society and keep connecting people in it. In the upcoming year, Cheuk would like to keep the financial aid program running, bringing new leadership for EuroPython and forging more connections with other Python communities - including local Python conferences and Pyladies communities around Europe and communities beyond Europe.

After visiting a few PyCons in Africa in the past, Cheuk would also like to strength the bond between Europe and Africa, by proposing new program to support Python conference organisers in Africa to attend EuroPython.

Cheuk would also like to start the speaker mentorship in early 2023 to start grooming the next generation of speakers for the community. This should be a continuous effort and not limited to the EuroPython conference. Mentees are encouraged to submit to various community events before EuroPython as well. Priority to join the program will be given to people in the underrepresented groups.

NicolĂĄs Demarchi

Pythonista / Software Engineer

Nicolås is a self-taught software engineer working professionally for more than 15 years. After participating in some Linux User Groups and the Mozilla community, Nicolås joined the Python community around 2012, fell in love with it and never left. He is a founder and has been a board member of the Python Argentina NGO since 2016. In the PyAr community, he participated in several events and conferences as organizer and/or speaker, ranging from Python Days in various cities, PyCamp to the Python Argentina national conference, being a core organizer in the 2018 one in Buenos Aires (an open and free conference with ~1500 attendees). Since 2014 Nicolås has been maintaining the Python Argentina infrastructure that supports the mailing list, webpages, etc.  He was (still helping a bit) the host of the Buenos Aires Python Meetup. In June 2019, Nicolås moved to Amsterdam and he is currently living and working there.  A few months after the move, he joined the organization of the Python Amsterdam meetup and he is working with a small team to build the local community: py.amsterdam. He also joined the https://pycamp.es/ team trying to replicate the Pycamp Argentina experience in Europe. In 2020 he volunteered in the Media Workgroup of Europython 2020 online as a core organizer.
He joined the EPS board in 2021 and helped to organize Europython2021-online and Europython-2022 in Dublin. In Dublin his focus was particularly on the Operations team and the hybrid format of the conference.

He has also been named PSF Fellow in 2021.

I would like to continue in the EPS board because I think Europython is the event connecting all European communities and therefore the right place to invest my time on. After the 2022 conference I think I know the EPS much more and I would like to invest my time in the conference organization but also in improving our organization, lowering the burn-out risk and keeping volunteers engaged for a longer time.

Patrick Arminio

Developer Advocate / Python Italia Chair

Patrick started his journey with the Python community at PyCon Italia 2 in 2008. After many years of helping run PyCon Italia (and other conferences) as a volunteer he became the Chair of Python Italia in 2017.

He has also been nominated as a PSF Fellow for his contribution to conferences and also open source software.

He currently works as a Developer Advocate at Apollo GraphQL.

Raquel Dou

Linguist / Python enthusiast

Raquel first met Python in 2013, during her MSc in Evolution of Language and Cognition, where she used Python to model the evolution of a simple communication system over time. She operates a small business providing language and technical services, in which Python is one of her primary tools. In her previous life, her undergraduate dissertation in Spanish was about ACTA in Mexico and had an earlier MSc in anthropology specialising in human origins.

She first attended EuroPython when it took place at her doorstep (Edinburgh) in 2018, and was an onsite volunteer. Since then she remained closely engaged in the EPS, as well as the organisation and execution of the conferences. She has been serving on the EPS board since 2019, working closely with the brilliant teams which delivered the two EuroPython Online editions. In 2021-2022, she had the privilege of serving as chair of the EPS. She led the organisation, supporting the rest of the board and the newly reformed teams in society affairs and organising the EuroPython conference in Dublin & Online.

Throughout the past 4 years she has experienced warmth, openness, creativity and desire to do good in every aspect of her engagement with the Python community which she proudly serves. She firmly believes that it is precisely these qualities that create strong bonds between the diverse humans that make up the community. She would like to continue to foster and strengthen this culture, and help make EPS a space for developing and trying out new ideas. Going forward, she would like to listen and engage in dialogue with other European Python communities to explore ways to gather experience and contributions, and build a collective knowledge base of community organisation. For the EuroPython conference, she would like to support more effort in curating the programme to showcase a broader spectrum of what we do with Python, the state of art of Python development, using Python to make art, Python in education and research, to name a few.

Silvia Uberti

SRE / IT Consultant

She is a Site Reliability Engineer with a degree in Network Security, really passionate about technology, travelling and her piano.

She’s an advocate for women in STEM disciplines and supports inclusiveness of underrepresented people in tech communities.

She fell in love with Python and its warm community during PyCon Italia in 2014 and became a member of EuroPython Sponsor Workgroup in 2017.

She enjoys working in it a lot and wants to help more!

Theofanis Petkos

Software Engineer / Python enthusiast

Theofanis' first encounter with Python was in 2011 during his Computer Science studies. In 2017, after a few years working at  non tech jobs, he resigned and followed his dream to become a software engineer. Right now he lives in Spain and he is a part of a DevOps team working mainly with Python. Recently, he became a member of Python Canarias.

He first attended EuroPython in 2020, as a speaker. He was a volunteer for the next two years as a part of the Financial Aid (2021), Mentorship programme (2021, 2022) and the Ops team (2022).

He loves animal facts, and he has a better sense of humour under pressure!

Vaibhav Srivastav

ML Tinkerer & Consultant

Vaibhav (VB) is a Machine Learning Researcher and Consultant. He has been working with Python and adjacent scientific communities for over a decade. He is an open source enthusiast and thrives on building and running open source communities. Python has been an integral part of VB’s career and life. He started by organising Python meetups in Delhi in 2016. He then went on to volunteer for various PyCon across APAC (India, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia). At the peak of the pandemic, VB moved from India to Germany to pursue his masters and research speech and natural language processing at the University of Stuttgart. After a brief hiatus, he joined the EuroPython 2021 volunteering team to help with the Sponsors team. He renewed his commitment to EuroPython by volunteering for the communications and programme team for the year 2022.

Through each chapter of his volunteering journey, VB has been lucky to have gotten the opportunity to work with some truly exceptional people. He also is grateful to the EuroPython Society for giving him the autonomy to run comms related experiments throughout last year.

Should VB make it to the EuroPython Society 2023 board, he’ll spend his time and energy on rethinking the way the programme has worked in the past and tweak to fit the present needs of our community. He’d also like to focus on introducing more avenues of interaction for marginalised communities (especially neuro-diverse) to support each other and prosper under the EPS’s umbrella.

You can read more about his commitment and plans on https://vaibhav.wiki/running-for-europython-board.

Keep calm and keep eating spaghetti! (pipx run saghetti)

Vicky Twomey-Lee

Diversity in Tech Advocate / PyLadies Dublin

Vicky Twomey-Lee has been involved with the Python community since 2005 where she took over running monthly Python Ireland events until she handed over the reigns in 2016. She was chair of the first four PyCon Irelands from 2010 to 2013, where in 2013 she launched PyLadies Dublin which she currently still organise monthly meetups. She advocates diversity in tech through her other initiatives as co-founder of Coding Grace, a co-director Women Who Code Dublin, a member of Women in Technology and Science Ireland as well as collaborating with many community groups including Women in AI Ireland, international PyLadies chapters like PyLadies Paris, PyLadies Munich, and PyLadies London.

She was made a PSF Fellow in 2012, and was awarded the PSF Community Service Awards and EPS Fellow in 2021.

She previously was on the EPS board in 2012 to learn how to improve PyCon Ireland’s process in conference admin and logistics, and is delighted to be invited to be on the EPS board again. She will contribute her knowledge to the board from experiences she collected over the years of running events and being involved with specifically the Irish Tech Community. She’s also still learning about logistics and administration when it comes to community events, and being part of the EuroPython team in 2022 was quite an exhilarating experience. And she wants to encourage communities to be just as excited to get involved with EuroPython and help make it accessible for all.

Chair Nominations

Raquel Dou is running for the chair position again this year.

What does the EPS Board do ?

The EPS board is made up of up to 9 directors (including 1 chair and 1 vice chair); the board runs the day-to-day business of the EuroPython Society, including running the EuroPython conference series, and supports the community through various initiatives such as our grants programme. The board collectively takes up the fiscal and legal responsibility of the Society.

At the moment, running the annual EuroPython conference is a major task for the EPS. As such, the board members are expected to invest significant time and effort towards overseeing the smooth execution of the conference, ranging from venue selection, contract negotiations, and budgeting, to volunteer management. Every board member has the duty to support one or more EuroPython teams to facilitate decision-making and knowledge transfer.

In addition, the Society prioritises building a close relationship with local communities. Board members should not only be passionate about the Python community but have a high-level vision and plan for how the EPS could best serve the community.

EuroPython Society General Assembly 2022

It feels like yesterday that many of us were together in Dublin or online for EuroPython 2022. Each year, the current board of the EuroPython Society (EPS) holds a General Assembly (GA). It is a precious opportunity for all our members to get together annually, and reflect on the learnings of the past and direction for the future the Society holds.

All members of the EPS are invited to the 2022 GA at 17:00 - 19:00 CEST on Saturday 29 October 2022.  This year’s GA will be held online again to allow as many members as possible to engage with us.

As an EPS member, you are welcome to join us to discuss Society matters and vote at the meeting. While we cannot allow non-EPS members to join the online meeting, a recording of the meeting will be made public on YouTube.

For your convenience, a separate calendar invite with the Zoom link will be sent via email to all EPS members subscribed to the members mailing list. If you are an EPS member and have not received an email, please email us at board@europython.eu.

Your support of EPS is greatly appreciated and we hope to see many of you!

Board Nominations

Every year at the GA, we will vote in a new EPS Board of Directors. EPS members who wish to stand for election to the board of directors or nominate others must send in your nomination notice, along with a biography of yours.

Though the formal deadline for sending in your nomination is at the time of the GA, we would appreciate it if you could return it to us by emailing board@europython.eu by Saturday 22 October 2022. We will publish all the candidates and their nomination statements on a separate blog post for our members to read in advance.

The EPS board is made up of up to 9 directors (including 1 chair and 1 vice chair). The duties and responsibilities of the board are substantial: the board runs the day-to-day business of the EuroPython Society, including significant workload in running the EuroPython conference series, and supports the community through various initiatives such as our grants programme. The board collectively takes up the fiscal and legal responsibility of the Society.

General Assembly Agenda

The agenda will go through all the items business set out in Section 8 of the EPS bylaws. We will send out - via our members mailing list - the agenda, and all motions put forward by the board and members by Saturday 22 October 2022. This will give our members time to go through the information in advance, hopefully leaving more space for questions.

All reports for the GA will also be published in advance, to give the members enough time to read and prepare questions to raise at the GA.

Propositions from the board

  • None at the moment.

Should there be any propositions from the board, they will be announced and made available to all our members at least 5 days before the GA, as per Section 10 of our bylaws.

Motions from the members

  • None at the moment.

All EPS members have the right to propose motions to be voted on at the GA.

If you want to raise a motion, please send it to board@europython.eu no later than Friday, 21 October 2022, so that we can add them to the agenda. The bylaws require that members’ motions be announced at least 5 days before the GA and we will need time to clarify details and make the agenda available to our members accordingly.

Hope to see many of you at the EPS 2022 GA! â€ïžđŸ

Raquel
EuroPython Society Chair
on behalf of the EPS Board

2021 Q4 Fellows

We have decided to elect our Society Fellows quarterly! And now a warm welcome to the newly elected Q4 2021 EuroPython Fellows.

  • Giovanni Bajo
  • John Pinner (posthumously)
  • Rob Collins (posthumously)
  • Valeria Pettorino
  • Harald Armin Massa
  • Marc-AndrĂ© Lemburg
  • Artur Czepiel
  • Patrick Guido Arminio

EuroPython Fellows

EuroPython Fellows have contributed significantly towards our mission, the EuroPython conference and the Society as an organization. They are eligible for a lifetime free attendance of the EuroPython conference and will be listed on our EuroPython Society Fellow Grant page in recognition of their work.

Giovanni was a board member of the EuroPython Society between 2012-2014. He was one of the main organisers and a driving force of the EuroPython editions in Florence between 2011-2013.

John taught Python to so many people in the world. As Nicholas Tollervey put it, “This kind and gentle man understood the value of computing education and, through his work as founder and chairperson of the PyConUK conference, promoted it with great zeal.” John brought EuroPython to Birmingham in 2009 and 2010 and served as chair to the Society in those years, in which he brought together a great team and managed to raise the standards of the conference. He sadly lost his fight with cancer in 2015, but his love for the (Euro)Python community still burns bright.

Rob ran many sponsored massage sessions at past EuroPython conferences. He not only performed but taught and ran a group of volunteers to do these massages, which regularly raised more than a thousand dollars, donated to the Python Software Foundation (PSF) to do even more good. He sadly passed away in 2016, but we all remember fondly his humour, kindness and love for Python, and they will inspire generations to come. The Board has unanimously agreed to make him an honorary member and Fellow to honour his legacy.

Valeria was a Society board member in 2018. Between 2017-2019, she made significant contributions to the organisation of the conference as a member of the Program, Marketing & Design and the CoC Workgroups, as well on-site.

Harald Armin hosted countless lightning talks sessions at EuroPython in the 2010s, becoming another icon of EuroPython. Similar to Rob, Harald contributed much to the fun of EuroPython.

Marc-André is a giant figure in the history of EuroPython. He had served as an EPS board member for 9 years since 2012 and chaired the Board between 2016 to 2021. During this period, he has dedicated tens of thousands of hours to the betterment of the Society and the conference editions - establishing Workgroups to retain institutional knowledge, broadening the mission of the Society to serve the community, modernising and maintaining the software infrastructure, and creating a formal RFP process in venue selecting - to name a few of the many things he helped achieved for the EPS. Marc stepped down from the Board this year, but his passion for EuroPython continues to fuel the team.

Artur was a board member in 2018-2019 and contributed a great deal to the conference website codebase with many patches, refactoring and significant updates. Through chairing the Web Workgroup, he not only modernised the software used for the website, but provided crucial support to core infrastructure used by most Workgroups. He was nominated a Fellow before rejoining the Board and serving as the current vice chair, and we are very happy to have him back!

Patrick started working in the Web Workgroup in 2015 and chaired the WG in 2017 and 2018. He contributed a lot towards the design and the looks of the EuroPython website which still is in use. He is also the chair of Python Italia. His love for Python, technology and dedication to the community sets a great example. Patrick was nominated a Fellow before joining the current Board and what a great addition to the team!

The EuroPython Society Board would like to congratulate and thank all the above new Fellows for their tireless work towards our mission! If you want to send in your nomination, check out our Fellowship page and get in touch!

Many thanks,

EuroPython Society

https://www.europython-society.org/

EPS Board 2021-2022

We’re happy to announce our new board for the next term 2021-2022:

  • Anders Hammarquist (Treasurer)
  • Artur Czepiel (Vice Chair)
  • Cheuk Ting Ho
  • Francesco Pierfederici
  • Martin Christen
  • NicolĂĄs Demarchi
  • Patrick Arminio
  • Raquel Dou (Chair)
  • Silvia Uberti

You can read more about them in their nomination post. If you missed the General Assembly 2021, you can catch up here.

Together, we’ll continue to serve the community and head off to the preparations for EuroPython 2022 in Dublin, 11-17 July, with our fingers firmly crossed!