[Chicago] Chipy Thursday Meetup
Rob Kapteyn
robkapteyn at gmail.com
Wed Feb 12 04:35:45 CET 2014
Yup. This meme sucks.
I've been going to ChiPy meetings since 2004, and I agree ChiPy is
special among tech groups.
The issue of governance has come up before, and IIRC, we pretty much
agreed that -- as intelligent
adults with common interests -- we could spontaneously auto-organize on
a deliberately Anarchist model.
Back in the beginning, it was simple because there was no money involved.
Meeting space was always donated, web server donated, etc, etc.
The only place where "the State" got involved was the chipy.org domain
name registration;
IMHO -- this is the only thing that pushed Brian (reluctantly) into
becoming a sort of BDFL.
Things are more complicated today, because of the money that recruiters
give us for food, subsidies we give
to students to go to PyCon, etc.
I support and applaud Brian's move to hand off as much of this as is
practical to the PSF.
sheila asked:
"Other python user groups have a good model of governance and are
transparent, for example, the Boston Python User Group. They have
multiple activities and their group is not just about one night a
month. *I have felt that Chipy is more than just a group that meets
once a month. Am I mistaken?*
IMHO, organizationally, that is all we are -- and that is a wonderful
and beautiful thing.
Anarchy can work -- Intelligent people can create a POWERFUL community
without "governance".
I believe that this is why ChiPy has grown and earned the reputation of
being the best of all of the Python User's Groups.
I've been involved in lots of other interest groups, and I really
believe that elections and "boards" just ruin them.
The only people who volunteer to take on the responsibilities of
governance are arrogant or uninteresting,
or worse -- people who just want something to put on their otherwise
pathetic resume.
We don't need a board to adopt a Code of Conduct.
+1 that we accept the PSF code.
*Anyone violating that code will be ignored or ridiculed.*
I searched my archive, remembering that back into 2002, Peter started a
thread on this list about "Incorporating, etc.?":
On 09/06/2012 04:07 PM, Peter Fein wrote:
> Hi all-
>
> Looking for some advice/a howto on setting up a solo dev consulting
> shop - getting a lot of inquiries, but my sense is that it's easier
> for clients to pay corp-to-corp instead of a W2/1099. Need direction
> on logistics - incorporation, billing, taxes, etc.. If anyone's got a
> book/account/lawyer to recommend, I'd be grateful. Or if you just
want
> sit down for an hour and explain it to me, I'll make it worth your
> while...
I can see that he learned all about it, and I think he is a bit
over-enthusiastic about it all.
When he used the word "fraudulent" I think he crossed a line.
If it wasn't for his previous contributions to the community, I would
move to ignore him.
Instead, I stop with this ridicule ;)
Maybe he wants to apologize or revise his wording ?
-Rob
On 02/11/2014 05:37 PM, Daniel Peters wrote:
> So, not to be a dick. but that meme sucks man. governance, positions
> and elections may be boring, but they're also a necessity in the real
> world. I'm not for electing anyone to anything at the moment, its not
> really necessary, but just shitting on the conversation from the list
> recently doesn't really help. As to talks not being interesting or
> well prepared, well....its an organic user group, and that means less
> polish and what might not be interesting to you (or whoever happens to
> be complaining to you) could very well be incredibly interesting to
> someone else.
>
> I've spent a good deal of time visiting other user groups around the
> city (ruby, postgres, js, etc) and this one is .....unique. The
> average level of knowledge (computation/maths/tech in general) is
> simply higher, the people are friendly, there's a much higher
> concentration of academics (cool to me) and professional scientists
> (also very cool to me). I'm a nobody in the python world, literally.
> I've been to a few pycons, etc, but there are /multiple /dedicated
> python core devs in chicago, and sometimes they even come to meetings
> and its nice to be able to meet them in person and chat. If we need
> to do some seemingly tedious work
> (volunteering/bylaws/fill-in-necessary-organizational-task) /at the
> meeting/ where its transparent and we can avoid the sort of dust-ups
> that come as a result of email exchanges on a list then lets do that.
> Its worth it.
>
> +1 for group discussion on governance.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 12:58 PM, Japhy Bartlett <japhy at pearachute.com
> <mailto:japhy at pearachute.com>> wrote:
>
> -1 to elections, positions, governance, everything on this list
> lately:
>
> http://www.quickmeme.com/img/68/6890238a19f066b77cd019a1540447ce13036ca427bf1384555bfc847c51596a.jpg
>
> Biggest criticism I consistently hear about Chipy: the talks are
> not very interesting and not very well prepared. Maybe you could
> spend 30 minutes coming up with talk ideas, since the group seems
> to be short again this month.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 12:11 PM, JP Bader <jp at zavteq.com
> <mailto:jp at zavteq.com>> wrote:
>
> Elections? What would we be electing? What platforms are
> people running on?
>
> I digress.
>
> -1 for elections.
> +1 for a discussion about our group's governance.
>
> JP
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 12:03 PM, sheila miguez
> <shekay at pobox.com <mailto:shekay at pobox.com>> wrote:
>
> Here are my discussion votes:
>
>
> Pete running discussion about group governance, +1 (it's a
> good idea and I added it to the agenda on chipy.org
> <http://chipy.org>).
>
> Elections Thursday, -1.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 11:53 AM, Brian Ray
> <brianhray at gmail.com <mailto:brianhray at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Peter requested we talk about getting organized and
> I'm supportive of the idea.
>
> So let's hold elections Thursday.
>
> Unfortunately, I'm in Texas right now and might get
> stuck here so someone else (Peter?) will have to run
> these if I don't make it.
>
> Cheers, Brian
>
> Ps wouldn't worry to much about the state of Illinois
> listing. It's already taken care of and has nothing to
> do with the bank account.
>
>
>
> --
> Brian Ray
> @brianray
> (773) 669-7717 <tel:%28773%29%20669-7717>
>
>
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> --
> sheila
>
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>
>
>
> --
> JP Bader
> Principal
> Zavteq, Inc.
> @lordB8r | jp at zavteq.com <mailto:jp at zavteq.com>
> 608.692.2468 <tel:608.692.2468>
>
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