We are pleased to welcome all new EuroPython Society (EPS) members and would like to officially invite you to attend this year’s EPS General Assembly (GA), which we will run as in-person meeting at the upcoming EuroPython Conference 2015 in Bilbao, Spain.

Place of the General Assembly meeting:

We will meet on Wednesday, July 22 2015, at 15:15 CEST in room Barria1 of the EuroPython 2015 conference venue Euskalduna Conference Center (ECC) in Bilbao, Spain.

There will be a talk to presenting the EuroPython Workgroup concept in preparation for EuroPython 2016 at 14:30 CEST in the same room, right before the General Assembly. You may want to attend that talk as well.

General Assembly Agenda

The agenda contents for the assembly is defined by the EPS bylaws. We are planning to use the following structure:

• Opening of the meeting
• Selection of meeting chair, secretary and 2 checkers of the minutes
• Motion establishing the timeliness of the call to the meeting
• Presentation of the annual report and annual accounts by the board
• Presentation of the report of the auditor
• Discharge from liability for the board
• Presentation of a budget by the outgoing board.
• Acceptance of budget and decision on membership fees for the upcoming year
• Determination of the size of the board for the period until the next annual meeting of the General Assembly
• Election of members of the board
• Election of chair of the board
• Election of one auditor and one replacement. The auditor does not have to be certified in any way and is normally selected among the members of the society.
• The optional election of a nomination committee for the next annual meeting of the General Assembly
• Propositions from the board
• Motions from the members
• General discussion
• Closing of the meeting

Election of the members of the board

The EPS bylaws limit the number of board members to one chair and 2 - 6 directors.

All members of the EPS are free to nominate or self nominate board members. Please write to board@europython-society.org no later than Saturday, July 18 2015, if you want to run for board. We will then include you in the list we’ll have in the final nomination announcement before the GA.

The following directors from the current board are running again for board for the next term (in alphabetical order):

• Marc-André Lemburg
• Anthon van der Neut
• Fabio Pliger

We will post more detailed information about the above candidates and any new nominations in a separate blog post.

Propositions from the board

The board would like to amend the EPS bylaws with the following changes:

• Replace all uses of “chairman” with “chair” to make the bylaws more modern.
• Remove the General Assembly agenda requirement in section 8 to “Determination of the size of the board for the period until the next annual meeting of the General Assembly”, since such a change can be implemented using a bylaws change, if necessary, and there currently is no actual need, since the bylaws already say “one chair + 2-6 board members”, which already gives us enough flexibility.
  

The bylaws allow for additional propositions to be announced up until 5 days before the GA, so the above list is not necessarily the final list.

Motions from the members

EPS members are entitled to suggest motions to be voted on at the GA. The bylaws require any such motions to be announced at least 5 days before the GA. If you would like to propose a motion, please send it to board@europython-society.org no later than Saturday, July 18 2015.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

We are pleased to announce the list of accepted sessions for EuroPython 2015 in Bilbao:

EuroPython 2015 Session List

The sessions were selected on the basis of your talk voting and the work of the EuroPython program work group.

From the over 340 proposals, 205 sessions were chosen for EuroPython 2015:

• 169 talks
• 11 posters
• 20 trainings
• 5 help desks
  

Many thanks to everyone who submitted proposals. EuroPython wouldn’t be possible without our speakers.

The program work group will now work on the schedule. Given the number of sessions, this may take a while, but we’ll try to get it done as quickly as possible.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython 2015 Team

After today’s posting, it became apparent that we have made a mistake in communicating the issue properly. We’re sorry for this, would like to apologize and hope to do better this time around.

Breach of CoC

Reading the more comprehensive transcript by Yamila Moreno, it is clear that there was no room for misinterpretations to Manuel Graña’s comments.

The statements made in that part of the interview were:

• a clear breach of our Code of Conduct
• not in line with anything EuroPython stands for
• completely out of touch with the Python community and its values

Actions taken

Manuel Graña was removed from the EuroPython 2015 team right after we had found out about the issue (on April 3rd), first as temporary step to start investigating and later as permanent action.

Apology from the EuroPython 2015 Team

We are really sorry for what has happened and our failed initial attempt to address the issue this morning.

The podcast should have been properly reviewed by the communications team before going live to not create the impression that we as EuroPython 2015 Team approve of such opinions and statements. We’d have taken action right after the review, instead of having other community members make us aware of the breach of our CoC.

The fact that an organizer of the team made such comments is particularly alarming. We’d sincerely like to apologize for this.

Apology from the ACPySS

(English) On the behalf of EP2015 organizers, we would like to sincerely apologize. We are sorry that this was said. It was completely wrong. Manuel, the person who made such poorly worded statements, had been removed from the organization team as soon as were reported the issue. This decision was shared and taken by Manuel himself. You can see a related tweet by one of the organizers here: https://twitter.com/alex_savio/status/583762837971042304

(Español) Nos gustaría pedir nuestras más sinceras disculpas en el nombre de la organización del EP2015. Lamentamos mucho lo que se dijo y estuvo completamente fuera de lugar. Manuel, la persona que hizo esas declaraciones, se retiró del equipo de organización tan pronto como se informó al respecto. Esta decisión fue compartida y tomada por el propio Manuel. Se puede ver un tweet relacionado de su marcha aquí: https://twitter.com/alex_savio/status/583762837971042304

(Euskara) EP2015 antolatzaileen izenean barkamena eskatu nahi dizuegu. Barkatu azken hitzak gure ahotik irten izanak. Ez ziren aproposak izan. Hitz ez egoki hauek esan zituen pertsona Manuel izan zen. Aipatu behar dugu elkarrizketa gertatu eta hurrengo egunean antolakuntzatik kanpo geratzea erabaki zuela. Erabakiaren berri antolakuntzako beste kide batek idatzitako tweet honetan ikus daiteke: https://twitter.com/alex_savio/status/583762837971042304

Help us do better in the future

EuroPython is created and run by volunteers and everybody is welcome to join and help make EuroPython a better and more welcoming conference. We need your help to improve every aspect of EuroPython, if you can help us please sign up for one of our EuroPython Workgroups.

Thanks

We’d like to thank  Yamila Moreno for the transcript and everyone who pointed out our mistakes.

Best Regards,
–
EuroPython Society
EuroPython 2015 Team

We have been made aware of a possible controversy around a recent interview given by some of the on-site team organizers from the ACPySS (Python San Sebastian) to the “Python en español” podcast.

In one section of the interview, addressing ways of improving the Python community, one of the organizers, Manuel Graña, makes statements which can be interpreted in many ways, one of those interpretations being that he feels that DjangoGirls and similar groups are different than the rest of the Python community.

We have addressed this issue with the ACPySS to find out what was really meant with the statements.

It turned out that the statements used in the interview were, unfortunately, very poorly worded. Manuel wanted to raise the valid question why we need separate organizations to address interests of different groups in the community instead of trying to get the community at large to welcome everyone in the same way.

The ACPySS organizers and specifically Manuel himself are very sorry for the misinterpretations and would like to apologize to everyone who felt offended by the podcast.

EuroPython has always been a very open minded conference and we’ve always supported activities which help grow the community, reach out to new community members and help them feel comfortable within the Python community.

We will strive to pay more attention to possible misinterpretations in the future, to avoid unnecessarily offending people.

For EuroPython 2015 we are already in negotiations with DjangoGirls for a workgroup, with the Raspberry Pi Education program and have reached out to PyLadies to participate as well. More exciting news on this is coming soon.

At the same time, we would like to emphasize that everyone working hard to make EuroPython happen is doing this based on good intentions. Just like we ask the attendees to be nice to each other, we also expect the EuroPython organizers to be treated with the same underlying respect and assumption of having good intentions.

Please all remember that we are one Python community and we should act as such, regardless of backgrounds, views, affiliations or motivations. If we want to move Python forward, we have to do this together.

Best Regards,
–
EuroPython Society
EuroPython 2015 Team

John Pinner passed away this morning after fighting cancer for the past months.

John Pinner has been a long time Python supporter and community builder. He ran his own company Clockwork Software Systems, created one of the first Open Source payroll systems built on Python called PayThyme, helped initiate the EuroPython conference in 2002, started PyCon UK in 2007 and was its benevolent chair ever since.

In 2009 and 2010, John hosted EuroPython 2009 and 2010 as chair in Birmingham. In 2010, he received the Python Software Foundation Community Award.

But most of all he was a kind and modest man with a great talent to create a pleasant and open community atmosphere.

We will miss you, John, and your kind and comforting smile.

Thank you for all the wonderful moments,
–
Your friends from the EuroPython community

The EuroPython Workgroups are busy preparing the launch of the website. Just launched in mid-January, all workgroups (WGs) are fully under steam by now, working hard to make EuroPython 2015 a fabulous event.

Community building the conference

The On-site Team WG is doing a wonderful job getting us the best possible deals in Bilbao, the Web WG is knee deep into code and docker containers setting up the website, the Marketing & Design WG working with the designers to create wonderful logos and brochures, the Program WG contacting keynote speakers and creating the call for proposals, the Finance WG building the budget and making sure the conference stays affordable for everyone, the Support WG setting up the online help desk to answer your questions, the Communications WG preparing to create a constant stream of exciting news updates, the Administration WG is managing the many accounts, contracts and services needed to run the organization.

The Financial Aid WG and Media WG are preparing to start their part of the conference organization later in March.

The WGs are all staffed with members from the ACPySS on-site team, the EuroPython Society and volunteers from the EuroPython community to drive the organization forward and we’re getting a lot done in a very short time frame.

More help needed

We are very happy with the help we are getting from the community, but there still is a lot more to be done. If you want to help us build a great EuroPython conference, please consider joining one of the above workgroups.

Stay tuned and be sure to follow the EuroPython Blog for updates on the conference.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

After a creative and inspiring Friday afternoon, we are pleased to announce our EuroPython 2015 landing page:

http://ep2015.europython.eu/

This will be the URL for EuroPython 2015 - definitely worth a bookmark, we think :-)

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

Companies who would like to sign up as a EuroPython 2015 launch sponsor are encouraged to contact the sponsor work group at:

sponsoring@europython.eu

Launch sponsors will get the additional benefit of being listed on the website when we launch - for free. You just need to be quick, since the launch is planned for early in February.

More Booths and more Sponsor Slots

The Euskalduna Conference Center and Concert Hall (ECC) venue in Bilbao was chosen as conference venue for EuroPython 2015. It offers plenty of room for sponsor booths, so we will try to make EuroPython 2015 as effective as possible for you as sponsors by offering more booth space and sponsor slots than ever before.

This is your chance to reach out to more than a thousand enthusiastic and highly motivated EuroPython attendees !

Please email us and we’ll send you the sponsor brochure.

Thanks,
–
EuroPython Society (EPS)

We are happy to announce the dates for EuroPython 2015 in Bilbao, Spain, this year:

Monday, July 20 - Sunday, July 26

Please mark your calendar. We’d love to meet you all in Bilbao - and hey, it’s summer, so you might want to combine the conference with a holiday :-)

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society (EPS) and the Asociación de Ciencias de la Computación Python San Sebastián (ACPySS)

We would like to welcome the next 15 new EPS members to the EuroPython Society. The EPS now has 121 members (*) and we’d love to grow more…

Become an official EPS member

If you have attended a EuroPython conference and would like to have a say in the organization or simply show your support by being a society member, please consider signing up using our application form: http://www.europython-society.org/application

EPS membership is free.

We’d love to hear your suggestions

We regard the EPS as representation of the EuroPython attendees and are working hard to make every single EuroPython conference a professional, high quality and fun event. Even if you don’t want to be an official EPS member, we would still like to encourage you to send in your suggestions for enhancements, changes or anything we could do to make EuroPython an even better event. Please contact us at board@europython-society.org.

(*) If you’ve seen our previous post about new members and wonder why 111+15=121, that’s because we had a few duplicate entries in our database. A cleanup resulted in the lower count.

—
EuroPython Society