The Community is Rooting for us!
From the Community
Here is a highlight of things that were shared in the community.
A musical journey from Herve
Community member Herve shared how he was able to convey different concepts around music using Python! You can learn more about his journey on his LinkedIn Post.
The Community and Friends Showing Up
We were saddened that many members of the Black Python Devs were not able to secure travel grants from the PSF to attend PyCon US. We haven't heard much about the foundation's commitment to increasing the diversity of their conference's audience! And the selection process didn't have much transparency around it.
We also heard from members that in order to re-request funding, you had to forfeit the complimentary virtual ticket given to all that apply and don't receive funding.
This is a difficult conversation for many as they have to think about travel plans well in advance due to visa concerns. Many folks chose to accept the virtual ticket due to feeling like something was better than nothing.
I feel that the confusion around requesting more funds may be a misunderstanding in the process but that doesn't change the fact that folks were not sure as to why some requests for funding were accepted over others especially when the funding amount varied between requests.
The Community Showed Up!
We received $2100 in pledges to cover virtual tickets for those that would like to attend but were worried about losing their virtual ticket. That's over 20 virtual tickets and over 200% more than our goal of $1000. When asked what to do with the excess, many pledges asked their money be either saved for future funding needs or to offer those tickets to anyone that wouldn't be able to attend in person (whether they asked for a gant or not).
Others worked to make sure folks could attend
We also had a few members that were determined to attend in person. BPD Member and PSF Director Dawn Wages started a fundraising campaign to help one of our community leaders be able to attend in person and help with all of our plans for PyCon US.
You can pledge support following this blog post - https://dawnwages.info/bajoran-engineer/2024/02/29/match-my-300-contributors-to-black-python-devs-pycon-us/
We're so amazed by their generosity
We also received a message from a benefactor who agreed to cover community members ticket, hotel, and travel if they requested a travel grant and were rejected.
This is going to help more Black Python Developers attend PyCon US which can be an amazing opportunity for those looking for work or hoping to get more involved in the greater Python ecosystem.
It is our hope that, in the future, Black Python Devs can establish more partnerships with Python focused conferences to help get more members attending conferences that will help them excel in their careers. We're looking at starting an Opportunity fund to supplement other travel grants in attending Python conferences.
We also want to ensure that we're doing our part to get more folks on stage and not in the audience. We offer talk practice and CFP support for all members in our Discord.
Upcoming Conferences
Speaking of conferences, there are a lot of events being planned across where many of our members call home.
Here are some that you should be thinking about:
PyCon Namibia (Starts today!)
PyTexas (We're sending 5 folks there from the community!)