[PyAR2] [PSF-Board] Funding pyArkansas

[Steve Holden]

Greg Lindstrom wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am writing on behalf of the Arkansas Python Users Group, Python
> Artists of Arkansas (PyAR^2).  Our group is just over 6 months old and
> are planning the first annual "Python Arkansas" conference on the
> campus of the University of Central Arkansas (www.uca.edu) on October
> 4th.  This will be a 1-day conference currently planned from 8:30AM -
> 4:00PM with an emphasis on introducing Python to High School and
> College students.  We have Jeff Rush scheduled to teach a "Python 101"
> track and well as other group members presenting talks on file/text
> processing, Django, packages/modules, pyGame and database methods.
> There will also be a panel discussion/Q&A to end the day.  We have
> commitments from PyMagazine, O'Reilly, WingWare and Elegant Stitches
> for swag as well.
> 
> The venue for the event is the Computer Science Department at the
> University of Central Arkansas.  I wrote Dr. Hu (the department
> chairman) about the event not expecting much in return but they have
> been extremely encouraging, committing not only 3 classrooms (with
> computers) and a wireless network. but making sure the UCA cafeteria
> can handle us and they are tossing in at least 2 faculty members as
> well.  One faculty member has recently moved to Arkansas from Georgia
> Tech (where he taught Python to non-CS majors) who has offered to
> teach a class on modules and packages.
> 
> To promote the event we plan to send a letter to all High Schools in
> Faulkner County as well as all of the adjoining counties (17 High
> Schools) and all of the 2 and 4 year Universities (12 if my count is
> correct).  I am putting the letter together and Chad Cooper (group
> member) is putting together a flier to post as well.  We will try to
> get announcements in the University newspapers, but we don't know
> what's involved with that.  I would like to see 100 people attend, but
> we really have no way to know the numbers at this point.
> 
> To raise funds, we are asking businesses in Central Arkansas that we
> know use Python (Acxiom Corporation, Novasys Health, and others).
> David Goodger suggested that we check the Python Job board for other
> that use Python, and we are looking at listings on Internet job
> boards.  We do not want to charge the attendees if at all possible,  A
> very modest proposed budget is:
> 
> $  75.00 Promotional mailing and fund raising letters
> $ 600.00 Speaker (gas (from Texas), 2 nights hotel, meals and stipend,
> currently aimed at Jeff Rush)
> $ 100.00 MIsc. Expenses
> 
> It's modest, but a big part of this is due to the response we have
> received from UCA.  Lunch will be the responsibility of each attendee
> at the UCA student center (one member is working on getting meal
> tickets for all organizers and volunteers).
> 
> We are asking for any monetary support you can provide.  We will
> provide receipts to account for all funds you can provide, as well as
> a report on how the conference went (what went well, what flopped,
> etc).
> 
> Thank you for your consideration,
> 
> Greg Lindstrom, on behalf of PyAR^2

Dear Greg:

We have just concluded the Board meeting at which this request was 
considered. I am pleased to be able to tell you that the Board 
recommended that we fund your event with a grant of $300.

Since you apparently do not yet have a formal organization, if you are 
unable to provide an invoice we can instead reimburse a single 
individual in return for an expense claim backed by receipts.

I trust that this will help you to run a terrific event. Please don't 
hesitate to ask for appropriate publicity items on the python.org web 
site or the PSF blog.

You might also want to contact Catherine Devlin, who recently ran a 
successful event for PyOhio, and is therefore the current expert on 
regional Python conferences :)

regards
  Steve

PS: on an unrelated matter I understand we are still missing addresses 
and IRS forms for a number of this year's PyCon tutorial presenters. As 
we are getting close to the deadline for financial reporting I'd be 
grateful if you could liaise with Kurt Kaiser to get this issue cleared up.
-- 
Steve Holden        +1 571 484 6266   +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC              http://www.holdenweb.com/