Python Software Foundation opens membership to the entire Python community

[Posted April 13, 2014 by jake]

During an April 13 keynote at PyCon, Van Lindberg, chair of the Python Software Foundation (PSF) board, announced that PSF membership would now be open to the entire community. It had previously been a self-sustaining membership, with current members nominating new members, but that has now changed. Community members can sign up as PSF members by way of a "Become a Member" button at the bottom of the Python home page. Filling out a a form and agreeing to the Code of Conduct is all that is required to join. Instead of the roughly 200 members reported at PyCon 2013, he would like to see 30,000 or more PSF members by the end of 2014. This is part of an effort to diversify the PSF in much the same way that the Python community itself has diversified over the years, Lindberg said.

Python Software Foundation opens membership to the entire Python community

Posted Apr 14, 2014 8:29 UTC (Mon) by salimma (subscriber, #34460) [Link]

Finally! I just signed up but somehow I don't seem to be getting any email confirmation -- and the email address I provided is still not registered (I couldn't reset my password).

I guess they might be swamped / are still working out kinks.

Do members pay?

Posted Apr 14, 2014 11:39 UTC (Mon) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (3 responses)

The sign-up form doesn't mention payment. Charging membership fees is usually a great idea because it makes the organisation reliant on pleasing its users rather than some rich corporate sponsors.

What's the goal of opening membership if it doesn't raise funds?

What can members do, and in what way does signing up then help to "diversify the PSF"?

Do members pay?

Posted Apr 14, 2014 13:20 UTC (Mon) by tartley (subscriber, #96301) [Link]

In the past, members have had invite-only meetings, mailing lists, and have voted on issues such as what the PSF should be spending its effort and resources on. Presumably these will be opened up to represent a greater breadth of the Python userbase. The old membership process was a bit of an old-boys-club, in that nominations for new members tend to traverse the social network. (I have been a member for a couple of years.)

Do members pay?

Posted Apr 14, 2014 14:53 UTC (Mon) by tseaver (guest, #1544) [Link] (1 responses)

"Basic" membership is open, without payment. "Basic" members don't
vote in PSF elections.

"Supporting" memberships require payment.

"Managing" and "contributing" memberships require a time committment
(5 hours per month).

People can move between these classes annually, by self-reporting.
All members eligible to vote must explicitly declare that they intend
to vote in a given year; missing four elections removes voting
privileges until the subsequent year.

"Fellowships" are like lifetime "managing" or "contributing" memberships,
elected by the members. The 245 "nominated" embers (elected under the pre-2014 by-laws) are fellows by default (they could choose otherwise).
Fellows must still do the annual declaration of intent to vote.

https://www.python.org/psf/membership/

Do members pay?

Posted Apr 14, 2014 15:00 UTC (Mon) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

thanks