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It appears that CNRI can only think about one thing at a time <0.5 wink>. For the last 6 months, that thing has been the license. If they ever resolve the GPL compatibility issue, maybe they can be persuaded to think about the PSA. In the meantime, I'd suggest you not renew <ahem>.

I think we need to find a better answer than that, and soon. While everybody reading this list probably knows not to renew, the PSA is the first thing that you see when selecting "Python Community" on python.org. The first paragraph reads

# The continued, free existence of Python is promoted by the # contributed efforts of many people. The Python Software Activity # (PSA) supports those efforts by helping to coordinate them. The PSA # operates web, ftp, and email services, organizes conferences, and # engages in other activities that benefit the Python user # community. In order to continue, the PSA needs the membership of # people who value Python.

If you look at the current members list (http://www.python.org/psa/Members.html), it appears that many long-time members indeed have not renewed. This page was last updated Nov 14 - so it appears that CNRI is still processing applications when they come. It may well be that many of the newer members ask themselves by now what happened to their money; it might not be easy to get an answer to that question. However, there is clearly somebody to blame here: The Python Community.

I don't know how many memberships CNRI has received, but it can't be many, since we sent out no reminders. I'll see if I can get an answer.

So I'd like to request that somebody with write permissions to these pages changes the text, to something along the lines of replacing the first paragraph with

# The Python community organizes itself in different ways; people # interested in discussing development of and with Python usually # participate in <a href="MailingLists.html">mailing lists</a>. # # <p>Organizations that wish to influence further directions of the # Python language may join the <a href="/consortium">Python # Consortium</a>. # # <p>The <a href="http://www.cnri.reston.va.us/">Corporation for # National Research Initiatives</a> hosts the Python Software # Activity, which is described below. The PSA used to provide funding # for the Python development; that is no longer the case.

If there is a factual error in this text, please let me know.

I've done something slightly different -- see http://www.python.org/psa/. I've kept only your first paragraph, and inserted a boldface note before that about the obsolescence (or deprecation :-) of the PSA membership. I've removed the references to the consortium, since that's also about to collapse under its own inactivity; instead, the PSF will be formed, independent from CNRI, to hold the IP rights (insofar they can be assigned to the PSF) and for not much else. I'll see if I can get some more news about the creation of the PSF (which is supposed to be an initiative of ActiveState and Digital Creations). --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)