I’m Christopher Neugebauer (he/him/his), a long-time organiser in the Python community, originally from Australia, and now based in the United States. I’m a maintainer of the Pantsbuild open source project, am a past PyCon Australia organiser, and current (dormant) North Bay Python organiser. I served as a past board member in 2018-2021.

My priorities for this term are:

• Reducing the foundation’s reliance on PyCon US’s success to fund our work
• Ensuring that PyCon US remains a place where the entire community can gather safely
• Rebuilding our Grants policy to support an environment where online and hybrid events are more common

I served on the board from 2018 to 2021, and am looking to return as the Foundation needs to make some significant decisions as we emerge from the shadow of COVID. My focus is on making sure that the board functions well, so that we can equip the rest of the community to do good work.

During my first term, I served on the PyCon US Committee, helping to guide the conference through its abrupt cancellation in 2020, the online event in 2021, and advocated for the process that secured PyCon’s location through to 2025, putting the entire PSF on very strong financial footing despite the pandemic.

The Foundation is also due to embark on a site selection process for PyCon US 2026 and 2027 within the next year. As the environment for non-US nationals, LGBTQI+ people, and women is becoming increasingly tenuous in many US states, I will ensure that our host city selection process considers local barriers to inclusivity as strongly as we consider the financial aspects of any host city.

Ensuring that we can make good choices of host city means reducing the PSF’s dependence on PyCon US as a revenue stream. In my first term, I advocated for what became the PSF’s current sponsorship policy. Now that sponsorship is no longer focused around PyCon US, the Foundation has become better at offering sponsorship opportunities. The resounding success of the Developer-In-Residence program has shown that if we can create opportunities, sponsors will come. I want to encourage the foundation to open up more opportunities, without compromising our focus on the community.

Over the last year, I’ve continued my involvement in the PSF’s grants workgroup, making sure that as the world starts returning to in-person events again, we maintain our focus on diversity and inclusivity, especially as the community’s expectations have evolved throughout the pandemic. Currently our policy is not suited to the increased number of hybrid events that are popping up around the world, and we need to make sure that Python events around the world can get the support they’ve come to expect from the foundation.

If I return to the board, I’d be using that opportunity to update our Grants policy to reflect the changed environment for in-person events, especially the increased appetite for hybrid options.

In my first term, I spent hours working behind the scenes to help build consensus around difficult decisions, especially around adopting our new Code of Conduct, and around how we communicated the cancellation of an in-Person PyCon US 2020. While I always hope we don’t have many crises during the upcoming term, I’m ready to face whatever comes up in service of the entire Python community.

If you’ve any questions, please email me: [email protected] or tweet @chrisjrn. I hope to earn your vote.