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The PSF's annual election completed yesterday. Please welcome the new PSF Board of Directors for the 2016/17 term! Annapoornima Koppad  Carol Willing Carrie Ann Philbin Diana Clarke  Jackie Kazil Kushal Das Lorena Mesa  Naomi Ceder Trey Hunner Van Lindberg Younggun Kim These eleven directors represent a range of continents, genders, ethnicities, and technical specialties. Their biographies, and their plans and hopes for the PSF, are in their candidates' statements on the wiki . Our heartfelt thanks to the outgoing board members Nick Coghlan, Lynn Root, Alex Gaynor, Marc-Andre Lemburg, Anna Ossowski, and Ashwini Oruganti.

If you're a voting member of the Python Software Foundation, then on May 20 you were emailed a ballot to vote for this year's Board of Directors. The voting booths close at the end of May 30, Anywhere on Earth , so please get your votes in! Who is a voting member? Details of membership levels and voter registration, along with the list of candidates for this year's board, are on the PSF wiki: Voting, Election Process, and Candidates' Statements Image: Women voting in New York City, 1917. Library of Congress file no. 00037.

This morning at OSCON, O'Reilly Media gave Brett Cannon the Frank Willison Memorial Award. The award recognizes Cannon's contributions to CPython as a core developer and project manager for over a decade. Beginning in 2002, the Frank Willison Memorial Award for Contributions to the Python Community is given annually to an outstanding contributor to the Python community. The award was established in memory of Frank Willison, a Python enthusiast and O'Reilly editor-in-chief, who died in July 2001. Tim O'Reilly wrote In Memory of Frank Willison , which includes a collection of quotes from Frank's insightful and witty writing. O'Reilly Media maintains an online archive of Frank Willison's column, "Frankly Speaking" . O'Reilly Media presents the Frank Willison Memorial Award annually at OSCON, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention. The recipient is chosen in consultation with Guido van Rossum and delegates of the Python Software Foundation. Contr...

This is the second in a series of posts on my trip in April to Havana, Cuba to attend CubaConf , an International Conference on Free Software.  Day one of CubaConf started out with a bit of confusion. A last minute change of venue was necessary due to some bureaucratic red tape surrounding the government controlled Palacio del Segundo Cabo . Luckily, a short walk across the Plaza de Armas, the Colegia San Geronimo  was available and happy to step in to provide meeting rooms for the approximately 180 speakers and attendees. And in spite of the spotty internet service that plagues the island, difficulties in communicating the change did not prevent the conference from starting smoothly and nearly on schedule. The organizers, including  Pablo Mestre , a member of the PSF-Cuba workgroup, deserve much credit for their smooth handling of the situation. Preliminary announcements and welcoming remarks revealed that speakers and attendees came from 17 different countries: Argent...

I recently had the amazing opportunity to travel to Havana, Cuba to attend several free software events. My partner, David Mertz, was invited to talk at a meet-up of open-software developers and to present at the International Conference of Free Software sponsored by the Grupo de Usarios de Technologias Libres . On my first day in Cuba, I attended the tenth  Encuentro Social de Desarrolladores .  This group, a regular meet-up of open-software developers, just last month held the first "PyDay Havana." At the meeting I attended, approximately 70 people gathered at a local Havana restaurant, La Casa de Potin. I was told that more people were interested in attending, but the space was limited so advance registration was cut off at 70. Several members of the enthusiastic crowd sported PyCon T-shirts--many from PyCon Montreal, perhaps as one could expect, but one from as far back as PyCon Chicago in 2009 ( elegance begets simplicity ). Clearly, this group has been using Python for...

As we announced last week , the Python Software Foundation is seeking candidates for this year's directors. Nominations are open now until the end of May 15  Anywhere on Earth . Candidates from anywhere in the world are welcome; members of the Board do not need to be residents or citizens of the United States. There are 11 directors, elected annually for a term of one year. Directors are unpaid volunteers. The list of nominees is on the PSF wiki: Candidates in the 2016 PSF Board Election . If have a passion for the Python language and community, add yourself to the list! If someone you know would make a great member of the board, ask if they'd like you to nominate them.