 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 ups members sitting here. We have lots of ups members We just had how many did we vote in now like eight maybe Yes, so a big welcome to all the new ups members So now we have 212 members Right, so meeting business, okay So we need to have a meeting chair person the secretary and two checkers of the minutes Okay, checker the secretary someone who takes notes and it's responsible later on for making sure that everything is signed We also have this this list here everyone who is here from the EPS and wants to vote needs to sign myself Do we have everything we have a do we have a chairperson the chairperson it basically Manages the meeting so Alexander's going to that Secretary Sorry Yes, it's in the blog post A secretary who's going to take notes a native speaker Okay, Alex is our secretary to check us of the minutes Check us of the minutes basically have to take whatever the secretary produces and then verify that it's actually correct I matches what we've done here. Okay We need one more So we have we have to We have to checkers The secretary needs to know your name. So I don't know who this person is and And Maybe you can give him your name as well So So Alexander first task we have need a motion Establishing the timeliness of the call To the meeting So You need to 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 so No And poor a joke so Okay, and your report by the board So what we're gonna do is we're gonna give you a short overview of the timeline the timeline that we actually around this year And also talk about the organization a bit and what we would like to do going forward So the timeline this for this event was that in July 2017 we had the election of 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 send out the documents to all the different venues Then we collected all the feedback Then we selected out of those of 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 and then we had the second round and The way it works is that you send out the documents you set a time frame in the document They have it as a strict deck line. They have to submit the their bits within those deadlines And then you you have a list of proposals and then you can select whatever Based on your criteria that you choose which venue then you want to go for so that worked really well and That did not I produce any problems except I had a bit of problem doing the RFP Because I was on the business trip at that time. So it was a bit difficult, but maybe next year we can time that a bit better 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 we in January we started to ask our Swedish accountants Whether we have to register in the UK how it works the Swedish accountants turn out didn't have a clue so We went to we went to the they literally told us that we don't we have to pay Swedish VAT Which is completely wrong because the EU Regulations say that we have to pay VAT where the conference has helped and so we then started to find an Accountant in the UK and we contacted a few people. It didn't really work out that well Then we asked Picon UK our friends there what? They would recommend and they recommended their They recommended their accountant and in the end it turned out that we we actually we chose them As our accountant and then they started Think in March it was they started the registration process for the UK VAT which involved basically sending in all our details me personal details from the board members from the directors to The accountants so that they could put all this information into the application for the VAT so that was a big hassle for us Because we had to send in like supporting documents like an electricity bills and 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 And then in the end it turned out to be two months. So we had to wait really long We we did not in the end. We did not really wait for the VAT ID We just started ticket sales and then had this the issue with the invoices 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 location is and doesn't have 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 conference was organized in May From the let's say the program side of things and a ticket sales side of things The schedule itself then took a bit longer to 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 enough a lot of time to do all these things It was very intense in the last few months But I think the the conference works works well and they're 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 We turned from a five-day conference setup which has the trainings basically integrated into the conference into a setup where we have two days for trainings workshops and then three days for conferences and then two days for sprints This change is still It's still kind of ongoing because not all people all attendees have really understood and all Sponsors 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 how we just how we Make this visible to two people so that they don't get questions But as you can see here So the this line here the 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 In What's the green one? 2017 we started like around 95 days or so before the conference with the sales and In 2018 we started. What is it? It's like maybe 55 Days before the conference are really late What's interesting though is that we always reach the same numbers regardless of when we start it's just the 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 Yes, it's and this is an interesting result because it basically says that if you give people more time They use more time right if you give them less time they use less time so Then maybe next year we can start one month before the conference Assumption No, but Right, but but look I mean we in the last years we haven't grown run. So I think we're going to grow next year. So We I mean 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 it's a it's a nice conference. It's it's not too big. It's not too small. It's It's we have a very very diverse set of Talks of attendees of people attending from different countries. It's I think It's it's a really nice combination that we have So I think we should stay at this level. I think we should not Like like a company you have a steady growth path To always have more attendees So what did we do different from from last year? We removed a lot of inactive workgroup 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 on the on-site team in last year in Rimini We thought we had an on-site team which turn out eventually that we only had a single person helping us Actually, no is to it was Francesca was helping us as well. So But but that was basically it and so we decided that for next year, this is not going to be in 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 this is like these are the most active team members 20 people in not in total But this is still too small because for some people it was really hard So we need to distribute work a better than what we did this year Yes, and I already talked about the selection process. So we're gonna do our piece again We also 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 we once we have Basically reduce the list and we have to go out to the local Communities and then talk 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. So What did we do for the Euro Python domains we have for the existing ones we didn't do much we registered a few more So we have quite a few Euro Python domains now I don't know whether we actually cover all the different All the different countries in Europe, but we do cover quite a few Trademark and logo we have a new logo as you know It's again designed by symmetrical the designer that we have for the basically most of our stuff And for the first time as I already mentioned we are billing both the sponsors and the attendees so this basically also created this issue with the With a ticket sales Because the sponsors are invoiced by the Swedish organization 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 build them Basically using the UK not entity, but the UK VAT number So what I 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 processing Then we were 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 have funded in the last term So Picon DE we funded twice actually if we gave them a grant for 2018 In the last few weeks We funded Picon Italia for 2k and jungle con 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 We also had this the Python organizer lunch today And we invited a couple of people to that organizer lunch and they got free tickets as well And we plan to to grow this a bit more because we want to have more contacts with the organizers in Europe I think it's very useful to exchange experience and then get 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 that we we don't come up with and then we can we can see how maybe we can Use those ideas for your Python We can also help with like the Europe as an organization Show them how how they can maybe improve things Of course the scale is a bit different usually but anyway, I think some things they are the same So I think it's gonna work out 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 And as can say a few words about that if you want to come up here, you have to stand here because otherwise that on the video All right, so Yeah Nothing really revolutionary. We have currently we have 418,000 euros in the bank, but that will drop because we'll have built bills to pay after the conference And we have most of a Most of our assets in the Swedish bank account there is someone in PayPal and some with the credit card processor Oh, yes, we should tell about the issue with PayPal The reason that the 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 and then once we 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 Payings first off directly with PayPal So it's the fun Yes Just my job was Has the the auditor of the bank account and the statements and in fact, I didn't find any problem with the with the banks and with the invoicing incoming and how it going invoice, sorry, sorry And 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 Just that Thank you So as you can see here, there are two positions still open. So for EP 2016, which is two years ago from In in Bilbao, we still have to get the final payment And similar for Python, Italia for last year last year the Python, Italia paid back the 40k loan that we 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 it's a lot of we're getting all the bills and all the counting together and so on and then ACPySS is currently being Audited by the by the tax authorities, right? Right, okay Yes 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 Yes, perfect And and it's similar for Python, Italia. So we just have to finalize the numbers Do you 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 Here and it is it in here? Okay, so it's useless right No, it's not use it's useless for this particular question, so Let's see we are Here I think go to discharge so Alexander No more Twitter now, no Working on the closing session And we can't actually go to this to discharge the board without having finalized the counts and A formal report from the author That is not done Yeah, but but he just gave a report, right Yeah We the ender sent around the the all the 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 report as well I Can you just send an email now quickly Then we have for that requirement 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 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 last in the last term. So that's the the intent of this vote of discharge. 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 because suspicion that board members maybe had like a side business running on like making money misuse of the board Listen, we're saying that we're not going to sue you. Yes. Yes But but if this vote would not happen would it have any effect, I mean you could still not sue us, right? Okay Okay, okay, Sue us all We don't have any lawyers we don't do this lawyer stuff Someone No, I know what you're what you're getting at normally for example the PSF in the bylaws has extra classes 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 to sue those board members, so Essentially the PSF pays for the lawyers Right, we don't have that. We don't have that in the EPS. I don't know how Swedish law works. Maybe it has provisions for that Okay So yes Excellent done. What do you mean just to the board? Need to have the members as well. No, no, the members have to know, right? Not all the members of Europe I think the of the EPS Yeah, maybe we should just move on to the next step or we can vote in the new Board members, but 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 their excellent work They did last year So the ones that you don't see on this list are Alexander Alex Who else do you a 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 rock groups though. So if they leave then we have a big issue 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 The nomination text for all of them. So Daria has been on the board for quite a while Mario wants to join he's 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 So let's see. Let's start with Martin Hello, my name is Martin I'm I do Python every day Yeah, I have a big problem. No, just joking I'm teaching Python at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts North Swiss 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. I Organize the Geo-Python conference. It's now a yearly conference. I started it in 2016 and Today I just announced it will be happen again in 2019 and Also, I want to help in the Europe Python board 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 Well, I'm Arthur. I joined the web board group last year and the support group later on and I did a lot of factoring on the web board group and I'm planning to do more of that and sort of Try to improve like the workflows of water work group through our sort of a become software Whether that's help desk or the or the main website code or the other services that we're running And yet that's sort of the plan for the for the next year Okay, and us you want to say something so I was the treasurer for this year and I'd be happy to continue as treasurer I have some ideas for maybe Getting a bit better at it. Yeah Next is me I've been doing this for quite a while I can continue another year so There you go Valeria is next. Hi everyone. I'm Valeria. So I first Met I learned about every bite and I think three years ago when I met Alexander and some local Germany Different usually I use I am I would say I mean I've used Python many I'm an astrophysicist. So I've been using it in my field and also parallel with some healthcare project that I worked on for for a while And then also in the first year in Bilbao, I I came as a Speaker and then I met all the organizers. I wanted to volunteer. I'm actually like to organize. I mean a conferences So I joined the organization mainly two years ago for the communication working group and the beat the program and And then this year I tried to look at what was the activities Ongoing in other working groups. So I think that was too much. In fact, I should it just Parallelized too much the my attention so I rather actually focus on Yeah, one or two but I it gave me a better idea of what's going on in other working groups and Yeah, this year either you wanted to see apply for the board also to see what happens from from this other side The organization Thanks. Okay, Marius not here. I will mention him Sylvia Hi, I'm as he's at me and today's is a different day. So no, yeah for me and I work in the sponsor work group and enjoyed working with this guy lot and so There's why I'm here. I love the community and I got to help and that's it. So I already did before so, okay, maybe you have a photo of Mario somewhere She joined the board. She was maybe taking care of the financial aid Unfortunately, she could not make it I think because of visa issues actually because she's Ukrainian He's working in France, but Yeah, so So this is the text that she sent in 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 on the board and Mario is down here So there you go. I can read this Mario has been helping a lot with your path in recent years Mostly working on supporting attendees through the help desk on site to make sure that set up in Tehran run smoothly And more recently also on the sponsors were approved And he's not gonna be here, but he would still feel honored to be voted into the board So Who is against Maybe we were joking before this before that Who is it Board Just like So just to check who is abstains who's against Next on the list is Just to check who abstains nobody who's against Next is Anders Who abstains So Okay, so sorry, I did yeah, let's make one bigger Next on the list you probably heard of it's a market rate. So who's in favor of market rates who abstains Who's against No, no, it was 20 and what Okay And finally Sylvia who states Okay, so then welcome all the new newly voted and staying members on the board with a big applause the next on the list is voting for a chair, so Who wants to apply for being the chair of your pattern society? Maybe Mark Andre Maybe somebody else. Okay, so Mark Andre applied for maybe becoming the chair for For another successful year Um Who abstains We also need to vote last year we changed The Vice chair so in case for example Mark Andre is like super busy or it has to go We have to have some unforeseen event we to tell that The EPS can all basically run its business. We need a chair. So we introduce the voice chair As a basically as a backup So Should ideally be one from the from the board, but we we basically beat Alex to do this If you're voted in as vice chair you are on the board if you vote for you as vice chair you are on the board Your crowd Perfect. Thank you. So So next is election of one auditor and one replacement so essentially the work that Stefan did I don't who did we have as replacement by the way Mario? Okay So do you want to volunteer again? Yes, yes, excellent and one replacement we need replacement is basically perfect Who's in favor Sorry Okay, the next This is 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 election General Assembly Because nominations for the board members can be entered by anyone This election not a comment the nomination committee is not really needed, right? They can propose people to be on the board But a few EPS members could just get together and propose without having this committee anyway, so For the board you mean if they're not enough candidates, then you you've go out and find people, right? Okay Pre-selection yes Yes, okay Oh Resigned yes You're working on your backup solution there, yeah No Unfortunately the same boss Something happens to the mess The auditor can all work and cobalt in case of crisis for an extra meeting So do we I think we can just vote on not having the election So that's who's in favor of who's listening carefully Who's in favor of having the election of a common nomination committee now who abstains? Against Okay Yes, yes, I was just trying to find whether we have anything on what Valeria 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. I Think that we have to call something extra, right? Okay Good. So no, we have the no first a budget presentation And just maybe you can because you made this maybe you can say something Yeah, I should not be here so that gets recorded the the first column is is the what we ended up with in last year and As you see we started giving out grants, but only to be two thousand these numbers are in in thousands of euros by the way So last year we had a surplus of a hundred twenty four thousand euros from from coming in from the various conferences in previous years because I think I think Bill I think it was two years of Bilbao that came in to the site last year. That's why it's such a high number The next column is so is sort of the first half of this year and but the conference surplus is a guess for the entire year just to give you an idea of of what What sort of numbers we're expecting And then the budget for for 2019 is we Hope to give out grants of about 40,000 20,000 euros We're thinking about Hiring a secretary to to deal sort of with with ongoing Issues, maybe you want to say something more about that mark Yes, because what we found is that we It's a good way to to use the money would be to basically help the volunteers Not have to write so many emails and that keep so much track of all the things that need to be done and Especially for example for for sponsor communication. This is very intense And a paid help there would really do make a big difference for everyone and would reduce the strain a lot on people And so we're thinking of her hiring someone Probably not hiring probably just contracting someone to do some 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 And as you can see we also want to do more grants so we have set up the budget to to 20k per year. So We 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 just say something about the grants. Yes. There is actually because of the to stay a Non-profit in the public interest that it that's it's called we have to give out a large amount of the of the money We make we are approximately 80% of our profit. We have to give out To or use for the for the purpose. So we really need to get the grants up so that we don't accumulate profits Yes, yes, but it makes profit But if if we let's say we end up with a profit of like 200k at the end of the year then As you assume there's a tax office in Sweden is going to come to us and say, okay, you're you're not actually using your money, right? So Yeah You have some there is this complicated thing with like a 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 So what's next we have to vote on the membership fees the board always recommends keeping them at zero Who abstains Okay, then we have a proposition from the board I Already explained a bit on the on the mailing list about the motivation for this proposition. So the proposition is to Make it possible for pison core developers to basically Come to your pison and get free entry for life so the the reason why we're doing this is that Well, first of all the core developers are in in our view They they're not getting enough back from for the work that they do they because There there isn't much recognition for them. Many people don't even know them The list that we have that the not we the PSF has or actually the core developers Developers themselves have on the website on the in the development guide is not complete 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 the language gets continues to be developed and now that we Don't step down as BDFL is 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 it's a good idea to give something back to the Python core developers In terms of cost for us. It's not going to be a hola. Maybe a few thousand euros a year And we would like to see more Python core development Actually happening at your Python. So we want to see more Python core developers come to your Python do presentations Maybe do a sprints. Maybe I don't know have a summit here a language summit we had 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 we want to call this the guido widow van Rosen core developer grant Simply because Guido just basically stepped down as BDFL. 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 About this is lifetime free entry if for whatever reason someone is no longer recognized as a Whatever reason I have slight concerns that they would still retain the benefit Well as there we have this escape clause Details are to be defined by the board so if any of these issues occur We cannot put all the details into such an emotion 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 But the intent is to give them this for life, right? Oh, I think it's just a free ticket. I mean, it's not just free lunch We don't fly them in first business first class beta hotels. It's just a free ticket Person at some point it's like Commits something which is They against the code of conduct. So you wouldn't want to support that for something the case if you write already in there with the word But then we can we can work on details, but we cannot remove the I think if we exclude somebody from the conference with code of conduct as has I mean we could make Yes, of course, I mean the Basically the idea here 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 at heart So it doesn't have to be something that you have to have upfront before it happens 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 a Is something that the basically the core developers decide among themselves So if they decide that someone should not be half the status anymore Then of course they would not participate in this in this grant program I Yes Well, no, I mean the the the status you have for life I mean once you're core developer you stay core developer forever even if you don't have commit rights anymore It's it's the status right so it's something that you earn because becoming a core developer is just a lot of work and It's something that people actually have to To strive to to get it's not something you get automatically It's not something that you get by just doing lots of simple stuff. It's you actually have to commit to something No, I wouldn't restrict that I mean, let's say someone someone has contributed, I don't know 10,000 hours to to Python code development and then he stops doing it like Martin from Lewis for example Yeah, he he is 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 So that I think it would be very unfair to make it Basically just based on active core development. You mean that we remove Just It's your last person code but it was free entry to your presence in recognition to the okay lifetime is the detail but Okay, so I removed the lifetime now So we now have the PS establishes a new Guida from Russian core developer grant which allows path and code developers free entry to your private conferences and recognition For the efforts in creating and supporting the foundation on which our path community is built The details have 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, right good. Excellent. So let's vote Oh The police vote I should have removed here Who received it I think we can move to the discharge of the Yeah, let me just get the This one Okay We can discharge ourselves Yeah Yeah, any questions no then we can officially close the meeting