The Perl Foundation announces new president, steering committee members

Bill Odom has been appointed president of The Perl Foundation, and four new members have been elected to its Steering Committee, the Perl Foundation announced today.

Allison Randal, president since 2002, is stepping aside to take a more active role in Perl 6 and Parrot development. "I endorse Bill wholeheartedly," she said. "Bill is calm in a crisis, follows through on what he starts, and inspires others to do great work. I can't think of anyone better suited to lead TPF through our next steps of growth."

Bill started working with TPF at OSCON in 2004 when he organized the exhibit hall booth and took charge of the auction. Soon after, he was elected to chair the Steering Committee.

There are also big changes in the Steering Committee that does the day-to-day work of TPF. Four new members have been elected.

The Grants Commmittee will be led by Curtis "Ovid" Poe, who has already distinguished himself as a grant manager for TPF. His experience and dedication, most recently with the Google Summer of Code / Perl Foundation grant recipients, has shown how valuable Curtis is to TPF.

Long-time TPF member Jim Brandt is stepping into the role of Conferences Committee chair. He assembled and managed the incredible team that hosted the very successful YAPC::NA in Buffalo in 2004, and has used that experience to help others organize subsequent conferences.

New public relations coordinator Andy Lester, while new to TPF, is no stranger to the Perl community. He's well-known as an outspoken, steadfast advocate of Perl, and is definitely the right person to provide "Public Relations the Perl way" -- honest, forthright, and useful information, as the community rightly demands.

Kirsten Jones may be a new name to many, but brings a wealth of experience to her role as the webmaster of perlfoundation.org. A self-described "serial volunteer," she's lent her considerable skills and energy to a variety of organizations over the past few years.

TPF president Bill Odom said "I'm very pleased with the results of these elections. We're fortunate to have such capable people willing to volunteer their time and talents for the Perl community, and I'm looking forward to working with all of them."

Comment on The Perl Foundation announces new president, steering committee members

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Re: The Perl Foundation announces new president, steering committee members by Ovid (Cardinal) on Oct 17, 2005 at 19:04 UTC
The following comments should not be considered an "official" announcement but rather the casual rambling of a TPF steering committee member. As a follow-up to Andy's post, I'd also like to say that one of our biggest priorities, one we're tackling immediately, is opening up the Perl Foundation. There are some issues that can't be reasonably discussed in public. For example, if someone applies for a grant and they've put together a very bad grant request, we don't want that discussion public as we don't want to dissuade other grantees from applying in the future lest the discussion of the merits of their grant requests embarrass them. This, however, is the exception. After a fair amount of consideration, we feel that most internal information and discussion can be made public. A number of us have posted updates on our personal blogs or on use.perl but we're working on something a bit more centralized so everyone can find out what we're up to. We want you to know what we're doing and why. You should see how YAPC comes into being. You should see how grants progress. You should see how companies work with us. Most importantly, you should have one source for this information, not a collection of bookmarks. We think you'll be happy. Cheers, Ovid New address of my CGI Course.	[reply]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re: The Perl Foundation announces new president, steering committee members
by Ovid (Cardinal) on Oct 17, 2005 at 19:04 UTC

The following comments should not be considered an "official" announcement but rather the casual rambling of a TPF steering committee member.

As a follow-up to Andy's post, I'd also like to say that one of our biggest priorities, one we're tackling immediately, is opening up the Perl Foundation. There are some issues that can't be reasonably discussed in public. For example, if someone applies for a grant and they've put together a very bad grant request, we don't want that discussion public as we don't want to dissuade other grantees from applying in the future lest the discussion of the merits of their grant requests embarrass them. This, however, is the exception.

After a fair amount of consideration, we feel that most internal information and discussion can be made public. A number of us have posted updates on our personal blogs or on use.perl but we're working on something a bit more centralized so everyone can find out what we're up to. We want you to know what we're doing and why. You should see how YAPC comes into being. You should see how grants progress. You should see how companies work with us. Most importantly, you should have one source for this information, not a collection of bookmarks. We think you'll be happy.

Cheers,
Ovid

New address of my CGI Course.

[reply]