about.html

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    <h1 style="text-align:center"> About Py-CU:</h1>
    <p>We're still building the site, but in the mean time, here are the
    business meeting notes from our first planning meeting:

    <p>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.

    <p>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.

    <p>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.

    <p>The group plans to <a href="contact.html">communicate and
    collaborate</a> in many ways.
    Currently, we have a Facebook group, a mailing list, a GitHub
    account, a Meetup account, a Twitter account, and a website.

    <p>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.

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