About Py-CU:

We're still building the site, but in the mean time, here are the business meeting notes from our first planning meeting:

The first Py-CU meeting took place at 6:30pm on February 1, 2013 at the Makerspace in the Independent Media Center of Urbana, IL. A small core group of members addressed basic issues and interests to order to start Py-CU activity during the month of February. Py-CU is a community of Champaign-Urbana python users. Their members seek to create an educational, collaborative environment with and within the Champaign-Urbana community with programming and hacking in mind.The first meeting's topics included basic group structure and educational priorities. The following is a summary of information and conclusions from that meeting.

Concerning group structure, the group covered basic administrative organization and financial support. Py-CU works as a subgroup of the Makerspace located in Urbana’s Independent Media Center. The focus of Py-CU will be driven by a core admin group who will run open business meetings, which will be held as needed and will be announced and scheduled in advance for interested parties to attend. This group will communicate amongst themselves in person and a dedicated mailing list. This admin mailing list will discuss formal Py-CU business, which the regular member mailing list will not have to avoid overwhelming Py-CU members’ inboxes. Py-CU will not be supported by dues from members Donations and sponsorships will be welcomed instead. Further developments for group structure will be made as needed.

Py-CU plans to have numerous gathering opportunities in order to discuss, learn, and work with Python and other related topics. These opportunities will target different types of users and different skill levels. Regular bi-weekly general meetings will be held with a basic structure meant to promote the core of Py-CU’s purpose. The topics addressed at these meetings may be anything about Python or related to Python in some way. Each meeting will start with three lightning talks, which will last from three to five minutes. A main presentation will follow and last for a maximum of fifteen minutes. Birds-of-a-feather sessions will immediately break out afterwards to further discuss various topics, including any of the earlier presentations. Hack sessions during this time will be strongly encouraged. In addition, Py-CU can organize opportunities for Python users to develop specific skills and projects. Members of particular expertises may offer workshops on topics such as javascript, beginner python, beginner hacking, and coding assistance. Time set aside for hacking projects is still being determined. Presently the Makerspace has open hours Wednesday evenings from seven until nine. Many current Py-CU members typically attend those hours. Those interested in learning more about Py-CU are encouraged to stop by. For now these are all the scheduled events.

The group plans to communicate and collaborate in many ways. Currently, we have a Facebook group, a mailing list, a GitHub account, a Meetup account, a Twitter account, and a website.

Py-CU will convene in person again for the first regular bi-weekly meeting at the Champaign Public Library, February 15, 2013, at 6:30pm.