I'm Keith Murray, and I am running for the Board of the Python Software Foundation.
I use the handle KeithTheEE online, and am involved in the PSF Education and Outreach Workgroup, the community run Python Discord (as a Director and Community Outreach Lead), help with PyOhio (As a volunteer this year, prior two years as a Communication Chair), and previously was a Moderator on the Python subreddit from mid 2020 through mid 2023.
My Python Community Experience:
I've been involved in a number of Python Communities and have primarily focused on relaying events from neighboring communities, as well as inviting those communities into the space I'm in so they can relay the event themselves. This is largely in the form of Conferences, however also has involved helping host community chat events around things like CPython Releases, Ask Me Anything events around Library releases, and more.
The Python Community is large, varied, and filled with amazing projects and initiatives and most of my energy has centered around sharing things across communities.
In the Education and Outreach workgroup we have focused on evaluating the resources hosted on the python.org site to understand how a new user might navigate the site to learn more. Understanding what resources are available but hidden, and what are missing for different user stories and what kinds of needs are lacking has been an enjoyable and complex experience.
Looking at the Next Three Years:
I'd love to see the python.org website get reorganized so a new user has an easier time navigating the site.
This includes improving the PSF membership experience. I'd love for the whole membership experience to live on the python.org website, and to encourage a formal process to nominate individuals for Contributing Membership.
Thinking of how the PSF Strategic Plan 2026 can take further concrete steps:
Funding
Financial Security is critical to maintain the operations and infrastructure the PSF is responsible for. The growth of the "In Residence" program with Security and Developers is a key reason the PSF has been able to respond to the impact of AI. Between the strain on infrastructure via rapid data scraping, attacks via increasingly complex code, and the drain on community energy from reviewing pull requests where there isn't a person on the other end who's growing through the guidance in the comments, the Python world is undergoing a lot of changes, and having members In Residence has helped ensure volunteering can be a joyful experience.
Sourcing and securing funding is critical to continuing and hopefully expanding the "In Residence" program to include more forms of residency, such as educators.
Empowering Communities
This is one of the areas I have a strong motivation for. Supporting communities, be it identity focused like Black Python Devs, PyLadies, and more, Regional communities, like Python Asia Organization, EuroPython Society, and more, can exist in many ways beyond just financial.
A key form of guidance and support can be greater explanation of legal limitations and boundaries regarding issues such as trademark usage, paired with solutions other communities in the Python world have implemented to grow alongside the PSF.
Building a strong habit of explaining why certain things have restrictions can help empower more communities to grow via an understanding of why some seemingly acceptable behaviors or naming conventions are discouraged. This way engagement with the PSF becomes more collaborative.
At its core
I'm running for the Python Software Foundation's Board of Directors because I feel my experience leading and connecting communities can help guide outreach and empowerment while communicating why certain limitations exist. I think the Python Community is amazing, and helping further it's outreach, and ease the process of joining the community is something I care deeply for.