Our First Election

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The Software Carpentry Foundation's bylaws state that the Steering Committee must be elected annually. With a new year upon us, the interim committee has decided that the first such election will take place in the week of Jan 26-30, 2015. Here are a few key points:

1. Every qualified instructor who has taught at least twice in the past two calendar years is automatically a member of the SCF, as is anyone who has done 30 days or more work for the SCF in the past calendar year, and anyone who has, in the opinion of the Steering Committee, made a significant contribution in the past year.

2. All SCF members may both stand for election and vote in it. We'll explain how to do both after the next interim committee meeting on December 16.

3. As discussed in an earlier post, members of the Steering Committee are expected to volunteer at least 2-3 hours a week to help mentor our instructors, conduct assessment, oversee major changes to the curriculum, manage our finances, and so on.

Since January 2012, 220 of you have run more than 270 two-day workshops for over 8300 learners in 21 countries. As my seven-year-old would say, that's literally wow. You have more than earned the right to decide what happens next—what Software Carpentry is, what it does, and how it gets there. I'm very proud to have worked with you all, and I look forward to finding out what you will choose to do next.