General Assembly 2018
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00:00
WhiteboardRoundingWebsiteSelf-organizationEngineering physicsBitElectronic mailing listTraffic reportingSystem callLattice (order)Multiplication signWhiteboardRoundness (object)MereologyRegulator geneMatching (graph theory)EmailEvent horizonFeedbackNumberSet (mathematics)Dependent and independent variablesOcean currentVotingMusical ensembleTask (computing)Staff (military)Arithmetic progressionBlogFrame problemComputer animation
06:11
WhiteboardRoundingWebsiteResultantMultiplication signInformationRight angleCartesian coordinate systemPublic key certificateWhiteboardNumberProcess (computing)BitUniform resource locatorFunctional (mathematics)Electronic mailing listComputer programmingScheduling (computing)Wave packetWebsiteMathematicsLine (geometry)CurveImage registrationSystem callExtension (kinesiology)Computer animation
11:11
CodeCode refactoringMereologyWebsiteSelf-organizationUser interfaceProcess (computing)Local ringMoment (mathematics)Domain nameTerm (mathematics)Group actionEvent horizonDiscounts and allowancesFreewareElectronic mailing listMultiplication signTheory of everythingSlide rule1 (number)Different (Kate Ryan album)Self-organizationImage registrationProjective planeDomain nameOnline helpDiscounts and allowancesProcess (computing)Group actionSet (mathematics)Combinational logicLevel (video gaming)BitCode refactoringNumberWebsiteTotal S.A.Selectivity (electronic)Roundness (object)Computer networkRight angleTerm (mathematics)Computer animation
16:12
Event horizonDiscounts and allowancesLocal ringGroup actionFreewareElectric currentConnected spacePlastikkarteExplosionEvolutionarily stable strategyNumberWhiteboardPresentation of a groupRow (database)AuthorizationRight angleJames Waddell Alexander IITwitterEmailElectronic mailing listTraffic reportingPosition operatorSimilarity (geometry)NumberOnline helpSelf-organizationPlastikkarteTerm (mathematics)Scaling (geometry)SoftwareWordVideoconferencingCoprocessorOrder (biology)Bit rateWhiteboardProcess (computing)Statement (computer science)Web crawlerText editorMereologyEvent horizonVotingPerfect groupClosed setTranslation (relic)Touch typingComputer animation
23:48
WhiteboardSoftwareGoodness of fitWhiteboardNominal numberComputer virusService (economics)QuicksortCASE <Informatik>PlanningBitPhysical law1 (number)Electronic mailing listVotingGroup actionOnline helpEngineering physicsCodeComputer programmingMultiplication signWeb 2.0James Waddell Alexander IIMusical ensembleLattice (order)WordPiWebsiteSound effectUltraviolet photoelectron spectroscopyComputer animation
31:24
WhiteboardVotingAstrophysicsField (computer science)Parallel portSelf-organizationProjective planeWhiteboardGroup actionTelecommunicationNumberBitGame theoryOnline helpWebsiteDigital photographyMusical ensembleComputer programmingLocal ringComputer networkVotingElectronic mailing listSource code
39:01
WhiteboardVotingDecision theorySystem callElectronic mailing listBit rateComputer animation
40:08
VotingWhiteboardCASE <Informatik>Inheritance (object-oriented programming)Event horizonMoistureEngineering physicsComputer animation
41:13
VotingWhiteboardWhiteboardEngineering physicsSystem callPerfect groupComputer animation
43:24
VotingEngineering physicsProcess (computing)WhiteboardNominal numberLattice (order)BitMultiplication signSelectivity (electronic)Right angleComputer animation
45:37
VotingPresentation of a groupOnline helpExpected valueVotingCASE <Informatik>QuicksortPropositional formulaPresentation of a groupNominal numberNumberWebsiteDecision theorySystem callRow (database)WhiteboardComputer animation
48:53
Presentation of a groupElement (mathematics)VotingCore dumpSoftware developerPattern recognitionWhiteboardPropositional formulaOnline helpElement (mathematics)Propositional formulaCore dumpSoftware developerFreewarePattern recognitionEmailCodeWhiteboardTrailDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Cartesian coordinate systemOffice suiteAverageBitElectronic mailing listVideo gameFormal languageTerm (mathematics)Finite-state machineRight angleEscape characterEngineering physicsPower (physics)Social classBeta functionPoint (geometry)Thermal conductivityWordExtreme programmingComputer programmingMultiplication signCommitment schemeLattice (order)WebsiteFocus (optics)Value-added networkTelecommunicationRoutingOrder (biology)View (database)Electronic program guidePresentation of a groupComputer animation
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:00
The official part. Maybe we can make it a bit more fun than usual. I mean, so this is a general assembly. We're supposed to have all the EPS members sitting here. We have lots of EPS members. We just had, how many did we vote in now? Like eight maybe? Eight what? Oh yes, something like eight. Yes. So a big welcome to all the new EPS members.
00:28
So now we have two hundred and twelve members. Right, so meeting business. Okay, so we need to have a meeting chairperson, a secretary and two checkers of the minutes.
00:47
Okay, the secretary, someone who takes notes and is responsible later on for making sure that everything is signed. We also have this list here. Everyone who is here from the EPS and wants to vote needs to sign.
01:07
Do we have everything? Do we have a chairperson? The chairperson basically manages the meeting, so Alexander is going to do that.
01:38
A secretary, who's going to take notes? A native speaker? Okay, Alex is our secretary. Two checkers of the minutes.
02:06
Checkers of the minutes basically have to take whatever the secretary produces and then verify that it's actually correct and matches what we've done here. Okay, we need one more. So we have two checkers. The secretary needs to know your name,
02:32
so I don't know who this person is and maybe you can give him your name as well.
02:50
So Alexander, first task, we need a motion establishing the timeliness of the call to the meeting.
03:25
The secretary needs to take a note on that. Maybe someone wants to abstain, maybe because they weren't reading email for two weeks or something?
03:43
I'm poor at jokes. Okay, annual report by the board. So what we're going to do is we're going to give you a short overview of the timeline, the timeline that we actually ran this year and also talk about the organization a bit and what we would like to do going forward. So the timeline for this event was that in July 2017 we had the election of
04:07
the current board. From August to November we ran the RFP. We did that in two rounds. So we had a first round where we sent out the documents to all the different venues. Then we collected all the feedback. Then
04:24
we selected out of those, the feedback that we got, we selected the number of candidates that got on the shortlist and then for the shortlist we then specifically created a new set of questions based on what they had answered in their responses so that we get more details.
04:42
And then we had the second round and the way it works is that you send out the documents, you set a timeframe in the document, they have a strict deadline, they have to submit their bits within those deadlines and then you have a list of proposals and then you can select whatever is based on your criteria that you choose which venue then you want to go for.
05:09
So that worked really well and that did not produce any problems except I had a bit of a problem doing the RFP because I was on a business trip at that time so it was a bit difficult but maybe next year we can time that a bit better.
05:26
January until June 2018 we had this big issue with the UK VAT. So just to give you a quick round of what we did, in January we started to ask our Swedish accountants whether we have to register in the UK, how it works. The Swedish accountants turned out didn't have a clue.
05:43
So we went to the, they literally told us that we have to pay Swedish VAT which is completely wrong because the EU regulations say that we have to pay VAT where the conferences held. So we then started to find an accountant in the UK and we contacted a few people. It didn't really work out that
06:05
well. Then we asked PyCon UK, our friends there, what they would recommend and they recommended their accountant and in the end it turned out that we actually chose them as our accountant and then they started, I think in March it was, they started the registration process.
06:26
For the UK VA team which involved basically sending in all our details, I mean personal details from the board members, from the directors to the accountant so that they could put all this information into the application for the VAT so that was a big hassle for us.
06:45
Because we had to send in like supporting documents like electricity bills and birth certificates and all kinds of stuff. So we did that, it took a while to get all the documents together and then we put in the application and then the application was supposed to be finished in maybe two weeks or so they told us.
07:06
And then in the end it turned out to be two months so we had to wait really long. In the end we did not really wait for the VAT ID, we just started ticket sales and then had the issue with the invoices
07:21
as you probably remember so we couldn't issue invoices because we did not have the VAT ID to actually issue the invoices. And we then created the invoices afterwards and I think everyone was happy with that. So that was a bit special this year. In February we launched a preview website, we always set up a website to basically show people where the
07:44
location is and it has all the information that we have up to date but it doesn't have any functionality with it. So and then in April we launched the real website where you can sign up and in May we then started the ticket sales, we did the Finite, we did the CFP, the talk voting, the session list so basically the whole
08:02
conference was organized in May from the, let's say the program side of things and the ticket sales side of things. The schedule itself then took a bit longer to arrange and so we published that in July really late, next year we should be faster. But as you can see we still managed, I mean we did not have a lot of time to do all
08:26
these things, it was very intense in the last few months but I think the conference works well and there are not too many issues. So these are some charts for the ticket sales. To give you an idea, so this year we had something special,
08:42
we turned from a five day conference set up which has the trainings basically integrated into the conference into a set up where we have two days for trainings, workshops and then three days for conferences and then two days for sprints. This change is still kind of ongoing because not all people, all attendees have really understood and all sponsors
09:08
have understood how it works so we need to basically communicate this a little better next year, maybe also work on the website a bit and how we make this visible to people so that they don't get questions.
09:22
But as you can see here, so this line here, the first one there, that is 2016. So in 2016 we started really early. The numbers, I don't know if you can read that, it's like minus 150 about. These are the number of days before the conference starts.
09:46
In 2017 we started around 95 days or so before the conference with the sales and in 2018 we started maybe 55 days before the conference, so really late.
10:05
What's interesting though is that we always reach the same numbers regardless of when we start. It's just the curve itself looks a bit different but in the end we meet the same numbers so I think this is an interesting result because it basically says that people are going to show up anyway so regardless of when you start.
10:27
We're basically the same also with the call for proposals. All we change that we clearly communicate is going to be for two weeks, no extensions and we have hit the same numbers. Yes, and this is an interesting result because it basically says that if you give people more time, they use more time,
10:44
right? If you give them less time, they use less time. So maybe next year we can start one month before the conference. If you have the assumption that you have the same number of people, if you have the assumption that you have the growth every year, then that's not true. So if you have 10% growth, then you lost 10% growth.
11:02
In the last years we haven't grown. I think we're going to grow next year. We tried for a couple of years to actually grow but I think the numbers that we have here are really nice numbers so it's a nice conference.
11:20
It's not too big, it's not too small. We have a very, very diverse set of talks, of attendees, of people attending from different countries. I think it's a really nice combination that we have. So I think we should stay at this level. I think we should not, like a company, have a steady growth path to always have more attendees.
11:48
So what did we do different from last year? We removed a lot of inactive work group members and we were very strict with the members that we still have in the group. We don't have an on-site team anymore in the sense that we actually do rely on the on-site team.
12:06
Last year in Rimini we thought we had an on-site team which turned out eventually that we only had a single person helping us. Actually no, it was two. Francesco was helping us as well. But that was basically it and so we decided that for
12:24
next year this is not going to be, and for this year as well, this is not going to be essential for us. And we did some refactoring of the website. Arto has spent a lot of time on working on that. So thank you for that. Right, this list you already saw, these are the most active team members, 20 people in total.
12:53
But this is still too small because for some people it was really hard. So we need to distribute work better than what we did this year.
13:04
Yes, I already talked about the selection process so we're going to do RFPs again. When we do the RFPs of course when we get to the second round we have to be careful not to basically compete with the local conferences in those countries. So once we have basically reduced the list then we have to go out to the local communities and then talk
13:27
to them to see how the timing fits so that we don't step on anyone's toes because that's not what we want. Yeah, I don't know why I have yet another slide about this but there you go.
13:42
So what did we do for the EuroPython domains? For the existing ones we didn't do much, we registered a few more so we have quite a few EuroPython domains now. I don't know whether we actually cover all the different countries in Europe but we do cover quite a few.
14:03
Trademark and logo, we have a new logo as you know it's again designed by Symmetrico, the designer that we have for basically most of our stuff. And for the first time as I already mentioned we are billing both the sponsors and the attendees.
14:23
So this basically also created this issue with the ticket sales. Because the sponsors are invoiced by the Swedish organisation and for the attendees we have to go to the local, to the country and then have the registration there and then we have to bill them basically using the UK not entity but the UK VAT number.
14:46
So what do we want to do going forward? Help conferences with brands. We actually started this already but we haven't really published this yet so this is one thing that we still need to do. And going forward once we are more basically accustomed to this whole grant process
15:03
thing then we are also going to issue grants to Python projects and user groups. So we want to use the money that we make in these conferences and then give it to the community. So these are the conferences that we funded in the last term. So PyConDE we funded twice actually. We gave them a grant for 2018 in the last few weeks.
15:28
We funded PyCon Italia for 2K and JungleCon Europe also for 2K. And we gave our discount coupons to Python user groups. So not a big discount because we cannot afford big discounts but it was 10% and it was like any user group could just apply for it and get it.
15:51
We also had the Python organiser lunch today and we invited a couple of people to that organiser lunch and they got free tickets as well.
16:01
And we plan to grow this a bit more because we want to have more contacts with the organisers in Europe. I think it's very useful to exchange experience and get to know each other and also learn how we can help. Also learn from them of course because it's very likely that they do things. Maybe they have some smart ideas
16:20
that we don't come up with and then we can see how maybe we can use those ideas for EuroPython. And we can also help with the EuroPython organisation, show them how they can maybe improve things. Of course the scale is a bit different usually but anyway I think some things are the same so I think it's going to work out.
16:45
And of course talking to people and getting in touch with people is always nice so networking is something that's very important. So next is the treasurer report. Anders can say a few words about that. If you want to come up here you have to stand here because otherwise it's not on the video.
17:05
Nothing really revolutionary. Currently we have 418,000 euros in the bank but that will drop because we'll have bills to pay after the conference. We have most of our assets in the Swedish bank account. There are some in PayPal and some with the credit card processor.
17:27
You should tell about the issue with PayPal. Oh yes we should tell about the issue with PayPal. We have some money that is more or less stuck in the PayPal account because in order to get it out of the PayPal account we have to convert it to Swedish crawlers at PayPal's rate which is really high.
17:42
And then since most of our bills are in euros we would have to change it back into euros. So it's basically stuck there. And we'll try to use it as much as possible paying for stuff directly with PayPal. What's the next one? Auditor report. So it's Stefan.
18:10
My job was as the editor of the bank account and the statements. In fact I didn't find any problem with the banks and with the invoicing incoming and outgoing invoice.
18:26
Sorry sorry. I think that will be great for the next year because we will have a lot of money for a very bigger event for the next year. Thank you. So as you can see here there are two positions still open. So for EP 2016 which is two years ago in Bilbao we still have to get the final payment.
18:52
And similar for Python Italia for last year. Last year the Python Italia paid back the 40k loan that we
19:01
gave them last year to basically pay the initial bills because last year they had to pay for example the venue. We did not pay it directly. And this is still in the works. So of course for them it's always it's a lot of work getting all the bills and all the accounting together and so on.
19:21
And AC Pi SS is currently being audited by the tax authorities. It's finished but I didn't. Ah right okay. So I have to translate from Spanish to English. It's not a very good translation because I thought I'd send half of it even in Spanish.
19:46
I mean there are some parts that I don't understand but we can... Yes we can finalize this I think in the next few weeks and then maybe we can have the payment. There's not going to be an issue with the payment itself. It's just that we have to basically sign off the...
20:03
The money is there is waiting. Yes. Perfect. And it's similar for Python Italia. So we just have to finalize the numbers. We do have the numbers in the budget right? So we can show them. Maybe I should jump to that slide so that you see how much we expect.
20:30
Down here. Anders is it in here?
20:41
No not the... Okay so it's useless right? No it's not. It's useless for this particular question. So let's see. We are here I think. Vote to discharge.
21:03
So Alexander? Yep. No more Twitter now? No? Actually I'm working on the closing session. Working on the closing session okay. Okay now we move to the discharge from the liability of the board.
21:24
I happen to be I think the one in the room who knows most about how these things work in Sweden. And we can't actually vote to discharge the board without having finalized accounts and a formal report from the auditor.
21:45
That is not done in Sweden. But he just gave a report right? There has to be a written auditor's report based on the finalized accounts for 2017.
22:04
We have the finalized accounts. And are sent around all the documents to the mailing list. So that we have right? And maybe you can send a quick email and then we have the written report as well.
22:38
The document that Jacob was asking about is just a short text saying that I looked at the accounts and everything looks fine.
22:46
Okay I can do that. Can you just send an email now? Quickly? Then we have that requirement. Do you want documents? No email. Because we sent the documents by email as well maybe you can just reply to it and say okay this is all good.
23:00
And then we should be fine I think. Anyway the vote to discharge basically means that you say that the board members are no longer personally liable for what happened in the last term. So that's the intent of this vote of discharge.
23:22
I actually never understood why this has to be done. It's some legal process. Because if you don't vote for discharge I don't think anything happens. Actually I think the reason is if there is any suspicion that the board members maybe had like a side business running or like making money or misuse of the board authority or something like that.
23:51
Essentially we're saying that we're not going to sue you for misusing the funds.
24:00
But if this vote would not happen would it have any effect? I mean you could still not sue us right? Then you would have a year and a day to actually sue you. Okay. Okay sue us all.
24:24
Done? Is there like lawyers that the board relies on? We don't have any lawyers. We don't do this lawyer stuff.
24:45
They didn't sue me for the board because the board did something wrong. Which is different from someone suing the society. Yeah yeah but if someone from the party is sued against the board is there...
25:07
I know what you're getting at. Normally for example the PSF in the bylaws has extra clauses for this particular case. So for example in the PSF the bylaws say that the PSF is going to pay for lawyers to defend the board members against such cases where members then try to sue those board members.
25:29
So essentially the PSF pays for the lawyers right? We don't have that in the EPS. I don't know how Swedish law works. Maybe it has provisions for that.
25:42
Oh okay. So yes? Excellent. Done. What do you mean just to the board? Maybe to the members as well. No the members have to know right? Not all the members of Europe has in the of the EPS.
26:38
Yeah maybe we should just move on to the next step. Or we can vote on the new board members.
26:47
Can we do that before we discharge the old one? Okay we can. Good. Well first of all I'd like to thank all the board members that have stepped down for the excellent work they did last year. So the ones that you don't see on this list are Alexander or Alex.
27:07
Who else do you... Christian did not reapply. Jill did not reapply. Daria did. Did I forget anyone? No. So give them a big hand. I hope they still stay around in the work groups though so if they leave then we have a big issue.
27:36
At least another fifth year. That's why I just wanted to have to limit my work. So it's not any move I'm not happy in the board.
27:49
I just want to say hey this is all I can contribute next year. Beyond that I cannot provide. That's the only reason for me not reapplying for the board.
28:01
Good. So these are the candidates. How should we do this? I mean I think most are here except for Daria and Mario. I sent around the nomination texts for all of them. So Daria has been on the board for quite a while.
28:24
Mario wants to join. He has been working on support a lot this year and especially on site last year. And he would like to contribute to the board as well. For the others I think it would be good if you could just come up here maybe say two words or so.
28:44
So let's see. Let's start with Martin. Hello. My name is Martin. I do Python every day.
29:01
I have a big problem. No, no. Just joking. I'm teaching Python at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in northwestern Switzerland. And as I said I do three semesters in the bachelor program and I also have a course in the master's program.
29:25
I organized the Geo-Python conference. It's now a yearly conference. I started it in 2016. And today I just announced it will happen again in 2019. And also I want to help in the Euro-Python board.
29:43
I have time because Python is really my profession so I can spend at least 100 to maybe 150 hours a year in the board. Next one is Darius.
30:07
Hello. I'm Artur. I joined the web work group last year and the support group later on. And I did a lot of refactoring on the web work group and I'm planning to do more of that.
30:26
And sort of try to improve the workflows of other work groups through our sort of EPCOM software. Whether that's help desk or the main website code or the other services that we're running. And yeah that's sort of the plan for the next year.
30:49
Okay, Anders do you want to say something? So I was the treasurer for this year and I'd be happy to continue as treasurer.
31:01
I have some ideas for maybe getting a bit better at it but yeah. So next is me. I've been doing this for quite a while. I can continue another year so there you go. Valeria is next.
31:33
Hi everyone, I'm Valeria. So I first met, I learned about Euro-Python I think three years ago when I met Alexander in some local meetup in Germany.
31:45
Doing something completely different usually. I would say I've used Python, mainly I'm an astrophysicist so I've been using it in my field and also in parallel with some healthcare project that I worked on for a while.
32:06
And then also in the first year in Bilbao I came as a speaker and then I met all the organisers, I wanted to volunteer. I actually like to organise conferences so I joined the organisation mainly two years ago for the communication working group and the program.
32:29
And then this year I tried to look at what was the activities ongoing in other working groups. I think that was too much, in fact I should, it just paralysed too much my attention so I'd rather actually focus on one or two.
32:52
But it gave me a better idea of what's going on in other working groups. And this year I wanted to apply for the board also to see what happens from this other side of the organisation.
33:10
Thank you. Okay, Maria is not here, I already mentioned him, Silvia.
33:23
Hi, I'm Asis Admi and today is Asis Admi day so yay for me. And I work in the sponsor workgroup and I enjoyed working with this guy a lot. And so that's why I'm here, I love the community and I'm glad to help and that's it.
33:54
Sorry, I thought you wanted to introduce Mario, that's why. I already did before, so maybe you have a photo of Mario somewhere.
34:05
Somewhere. Maybe we want to say something about Daria. Yeah, I mean Daria, she's been, I can do that, I mean she's started to, she was in the build-out team, then she joined the board, she was maybe taking care of the financial aid workgroup.
34:24
Unfortunately she could not make it I think because of visa issues actually, because she's a Ukrainian, is working in France. Yeah, so that's it, so if we have to, then we can move to the election of the members. Let me just, what is this jitter thing?
34:44
So this is the text that she sent in, well she's the same text as last year but I just modified the numbers. So she's been doing a lot of work on the financial aid group and also on the board.
35:01
And Mario is down here, so there you go, I can read this. Mario has been helping a lot with Europath in recent years, mostly working on supporting attendees through the help desk on site to make sure that SetUp and Teran run smoothly and more recently also on the sponsors for a group.
35:20
And he's not going to be here but he would still feel honored to be voted into the board. So what happens, I suppose we do it alphabetically as listed here.
35:47
So the first is Martin Kristin has applied for a vote and who is in favor of voting Martin into the forthcoming Europath in the board.
36:01
So who is abstaining? Two. Who is against? Zero.
36:20
Okay, so Martin has been voted into the board. We were joking before this.
36:40
The next is Daria Chirik. Who is in favor that Daria is on the Europath in the board? 21. 21, yeah.
37:00
Those are guys that are new, right? We have new people back there. So just to check, who is abstaining? Who is against? 21. Okay, next on the list is Antwo.
37:24
Who is in favor of Antwo? You can vote first. Just to check, who abstains? Nobody. Who is against? 21. Next is Anders. Who is in favor of Anders?
37:51
Who abstains? Who is against? So that's 21. I was kidding. Come on.
38:03
Okay, so, sorry, let's make one bigger false at the end. Next on the list, you've probably heard of, is Margaret Drake. So who is in favor of Margaret Drake? Who abstains?
38:23
Who is against? 21. No, no, it was 20 and what am I saying? Okay, we come to Valeria. Who is in favor of Valeria voting the board?
38:41
I abstain. Who abstains? Against? Okay, there's more typing for Alex, so... Then for Mario, who abstains?
39:02
Who is against? Okay, that's been 21. Great. Finally, Sylvia, who abstains? Who's against?
39:20
21. Okay, so then welcome all the newly voted and abstained members on the board, who will make a false. The next on the list is voting for a chair.
39:44
And basically we need a chair for making the final decisions and making all the calls. So who wants to apply for being the chair of the European Patent Society?
40:02
Maybe Marc Andrei? Maybe somebody else? Okay, so Marc Andrei applied for maybe becoming the chair for the European Patent Society. For another successful year. Who's in favor?
40:23
Sorry. Who abstains? Who is against? Okay, 20 in favor and one abstain. I know. We also need to vote.
40:41
Last year we changed the rules, or not the... Bylaws. Bylaws, sorry. We also introduced a vice chair. So in case, for example, Marc Andrei is super busy or he has to go home, he has to have some unforeseen event,
41:01
to tell that the EPS can basically run its business, we need a chair. So we introduced a vice chair, basically as a backup. So who's applying for being the vice chair of the EPS? It should ideally be one from the board, but we basically beat Alex to do this.
41:34
If you are voted in as vice chair, you are on the board.
41:44
If you vote for you as vice chair, you are on the board. Your call.
42:02
Perfect, thank you. So let's vote. Here comes the vice chair of the EPS. Who abstains?
42:20
He can. Okay, so welcome Alex to the board and vice chair of the EPS.
42:45
So next is election of one auditor and one replacement. So essentially the work that Stefan did. Who did we have as replacement, by the way? Mario. So do you want to volunteer again?
43:02
Yes, excellent. And one replacement we need. Replacement is basically, perfect. If I'm sick, you can replace me. Okay, then let's move to the election. So Stefan has applied for becoming the auditor of the European Press Society.
43:24
Who's in favour that Stefan becomes the auditor of the European Press Society? Who abstains? Who's against? So 21 would be the replacement auditor for the EPS.
43:53
Who's in favour of becoming the replacement auditor?
44:01
Who's against? Sorry, who abstains? Who's against? So thank you Jakob for... Okay, the next is the optional election of the nomination committee for the next annual meeting of the General Assembly.
44:25
This is something we might want to remove from the agenda going forward. But we cannot do it this time. We have to do it next year because so far we have always voted against this. And it just keeps us from doing a bit more important things at the General Assembly.
44:48
Because nominations for the board members can be entered by anyone. This election, the nomination committee is not really needed, right? They can propose people to be on the board.
45:03
But a few EPS members could just get together and propose without having this committee anyway, so... Essentially it means if you have a hard time getting people for the board. Ah, you mean if there are not enough candidates then you go out and find people, right?
45:23
Okay. And if you have too many candidates then they can do a vetting process. Pre-selection, yes. Yes, okay. Do you want to say a few things?
45:43
Can they join during the process? Or is it someone who becomes, I don't know, the one who resigns? Resign, yes.
46:01
Are you working on your back-up solution there, yeah? Any more, and you need more people? No, let's just check. I mean, there's always one thing. I mean, in case that you all seven drive, unfortunately, in the same bus, something happens to the rest.
46:21
The auditor can call in case of crisis for an extra meeting, for example. So do we need, I think we can just vote on not having the election? So let's vote who's in favor of, listen carefully, who's in favor of having the election of a nomination committee now?
46:46
Who abstains? Who goes against? Ah, finally! So that's 21 against. Okay, then we move to the propositions from the board.
47:03
There's one proposition from the board, so I guess you will present it, Mark? Yes, yes, I was just trying to find whether we have anything on what Valerio was asking, but I don't see it right now. I think we do, but you can definitely step down. But I'm not sure whether the board could, for example, decide on a replacement.
47:24
No, you would have to call an extra. I think we have to call something extra, right? Okay, good, so now we have the, no, first the budget presentation. Anders, maybe you can, because you made this, maybe you can say something?
47:42
Yeah, I should not be here so that it's recorded. The first column is what we ended up with in last year. As you can see, we started giving out grants, but only two thousand. These numbers are in thousands of euros, by the way. So, last year we had a surplus of 124,000 euros coming in from various conferences in previous years.
48:08
I think it was two years of Bilbao that came in to this site last year, that's why it's such a high number. The next column is sort of the first half of this year, but the conference surplus is a guess for the entire year.
48:26
Just to give you an idea of what sort of numbers we're expecting. And then the budget for 2019 is we hope to give out grants of about 40,000, 20,000 euros.
48:43
We're thinking about hiring a secretary to deal sort of with ongoing issues. Maybe you want to say something more about that, Mark? Yes, because what we found is that a good way to use the money would be to basically help the volunteers,
49:04
not have to write so many emails and not keep so much track of all the things that need to be done. Especially, for example, for sponsor communication, this is very intense. And paid help there would really do make a big difference for everyone and would reduce the strain a lot on people.
49:23
So we're thinking of hiring someone, probably not hiring, probably just contracting someone to do some work for us. Less work during the year, but then a lot of work before the conference so that we can address this issue a bit better.
49:41
And as you can see, we also want to do more grants, so we have set up the budget to 20K per year. So once we actually publish that we're doing these grants, I think we're going to get more applications and then it's going to be quickly used up. So I think we're doing pretty well with the…
50:02
Can you just say something about the grants? Yes. There is actually, to stay a non-profit in the public interest, as it's called, we have to give out a large amount of the money we make. Approximately 80% of our profit we have to give out or use for the purpose.
50:25
So we really need to get the grants up so that we don't accumulate profits. I think that conference, I mean, organizing the conference is also counted as a…
50:40
Yes, of course. But if we, let's say, we end up with a profit of like 200K at the end of the year, then I assume that the tax office in Sweden is going to come to us and say, okay, you're not actually using your money, right?
51:04
Yeah. You have some reason why you can't. There is this complicated thing with like rolling average something, right? So, yeah, we have to figure that out. I mean, now that we're actually making money, this is actually a good problem to have.
51:22
So what's next? We have to vote on the membership fees. The board always recommends keeping them at zero.
51:44
So the proposition is to give you the same membership to zero euros, no membership fees, so who is in favor of giving this? Always. Who abstains? Who is against? Anyone in favor?
52:03
Okay, then we have a proposition from the board. I already explained a bit on the mailing list about the motivation for this proposition. So the proposition is to make it possible for Python core developers to basically come to EuroPython and get free entry for life.
52:33
So the reason why we're doing this is that, well, first of all, the core
52:40
developers are, in our view, they're not getting enough back for the work that they do. Because there isn't much recognition for them, many people don't even know them. The list that we have, that the PSF has, or actually the core developers themselves have on the website, in the development guide, is not complete.
53:09
So this is a very poor situation, especially because they also want to attract more Python core developers, they want to make sure that the language continues to be developed.
53:21
And now that Guido stepped down as BDFL, it's going to be even more complicated to do development because someone, of course, has to decide on how the development should actually work. And this is currently being discussed among the committers of how this should work going forward. And we think that it's a good idea to give something back to the Python core developers.
53:42
In terms of cost for us, it's not going to be a whole lot, maybe a few thousand euros a year. And we would like to see more Python core development actually happening at EuroPython. So we want to see more Python core developers come to EuroPython, do presentations,
54:00
maybe do sprints, maybe, I don't know, have a summit here, a language summit. There were two language summits in Italy when it was in Florence. And we think that this is a great way to show some recognition for them and make them, well, feel recognized. And we want to call this the Guido van Rossum core developer grant simply because Guido just basically stepped down as BDFL.
54:30
I asked Guido, he was fine, he found it an excellent idea. And so we have his permission as well for this. Right. Yeah, questions?
54:44
The only thing that worries me about this is lifeline free entry. If for whatever reason someone is no longer recognized as a Python core developer for whatever reason, I have slight concerns that they would still retain the benefit whilst not.
55:04
Well, we have this escape clause down here. The details are to be defined by the board. So if any of these issues occur, we cannot put all the details into such a motion here, right? If any of these details occur and there's something to decide, of course the board has the power to decide on these things.
55:24
But the intent is to give them this for life, right? Although I think it's just a free ticket. I mean, it's not just free lunch, we don't fly them in, first class beta hotels, it's just a free ticket. It's just a courtesy basically. But for example, there could be, suppose that there is some episode in which this
55:45
person at some point in his life commits something which is against the code of conduct. So you wouldn't want to support that, for example. If you write already in there with the word lifetime, it looks like we can work on details, but we cannot remove the lifetime.
56:05
I think if we exclude somebody from the conference with code of conduct, I mean, we could, you know, Van Rossum makes a code of conduct. I mean, the most extreme example, thinkable. So the code of conduct is always above any other things.
56:22
Of course, I mean, basically the idea, what we're stating here in the motion is just the idea behind it, right? And then the details have to be defined by the board. So things like these can of course be decided by the board and they can even be decided ad hoc. So it doesn't have to be something that you have to have upfront before it happens.
56:41
You can just say, okay, we're not going to do this for you this year. The other thing is that the Python core development status is something that basically the core developers decide among themselves. So if they decide that someone should not have the status anymore, then of course they would not participate in this grant program.
57:07
So it's not lifetime, it's just during the time that he is a core developer? If he leaves the core development team, whatever that's called? Yes. Well, no, I mean, the status you have for life. I mean, once you're a core developer, you stay a core developer forever.
57:24
Even if you don't have commit rights anymore. It's a status, right? So it's something that you earn because becoming a core developer is a lot of work. And it's something that people actually have to strive to get. It's not something you get automatically.
57:41
It's not something that you get by just doing lots of simple stuff. You actually have to commit to something. Sometimes you can wait one year or two years before to become a core developer. No, I wouldn't respect that. I mean, let's say someone has contributed, I don't know, 10,000 hours to Python core development.
58:09
And he stops doing it. Like Martin from Leuves, for example. He is one of the most proficient core developers that we have in Python. But he's not doing anything anymore because he is focused on other things now.
58:22
So I think it would be very unfair to make it basically just based on active core development.
58:51
You mean that we remove?
59:04
Just free entry.
59:25
Free entry to your presence and recognition. OK. Lifetime is the detail.
59:42
OK, so I removed the lifetime now. So we now have the PS that establishes a new Guido van Rassen core developer grant, which allows Python core developers free entry to your Python conferences and recognition for the efforts in creating and supporting the foundation on which our
01:00:00
path community is built the details are to be defined by the EPS board and of course the EPS board can say this is a lifetime thing again so that's fine
01:00:30
there are no motions from the members. Please vote, I should have removed you. We still have to vote on the discharge from the liability report. Maybe you have to moderate
01:00:44
the members because Stefan just sent it but I received the e-mail from the auditors report. I think maybe it's a moderated list. Who received it? Maybe it's another e-mail account. Ok then, I think we can move to the discharge of the board from the last year.
01:01:08
This one. Who's in favor of charging the board for viability? The board members are not allowed to vote.
01:01:22
Oh really? Oh ok, sorry. Ok. Yeah, we can't give ourselves. We can discharge ourselves. Yeah, the board members are from the last year. Can we? No. But I can.
01:01:41
So, ok now. Fourteen. Anyone who abstains? Seven. Who's against? Zero. So, I would say seven board members were not allowed to vote.
01:02:06
Ok, so that's the meeting, isn't it? Yeah, any questions?
01:02:22
No? Then we can officially close the meeting. Welcome to the meeting.
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