For the past few years the primary task for the NZPUG committee has been to get through the COVID pandemic. It has been a difficult time for an organisation whose activities involve face to face meetings. Things are still pretty far from "normal" and quite honestly the post-COVID "normal" is likely to be quite different from what we've known, but we now have some idea of what this new normal is. With that in mind, I'm comfortable saying that we have reached a point where NZPUG can offer more of the activities that we have enjoyed in the past.

The biggest example of this is Kiwi PyCon that many of us enjoyed attending, either physically or virtually, in Ōtautahi Christchurch last month. It was exciting to gather again with friends and share our enthusiasm for Python. The conference was smaller that some of the past ones and suffered a financial loss, but we learned some lessons about running a conference in world where illnesses like COVID require us to take extra precautions. Thank you to everyone who helped make it a great weekend. I'm excited for next year in Waihōpai Invercargill and I hope to see you all there.

I had the pleasure of joining an online meetup with our Auckland group earlier this year. It was fun to connect with other Python people and the online format worked well. I applaud the efforts of all our regional meetup organisers who worked hard to keep their communities going while still managing COVID risks. I also think that there's a model there we should consider. Many of us don't live in one of the major cities that host a meetup. Perhaps we should have a nationwide online meetup that serves people outside the big urban centres. There's certainly the knowledge within NZPUG to make such a thing work.

2022 will be my last year as President of NZPUG. It's been my great privilege to serve in the role, but it's time for new people and new ideas. Also, I'm planning to put my energy into some other Python projects that I have had to defer for the past few years. I will use my last bit of presidential prerogative to share a few thoughts.

After posting somewhat actively for many years, I recently deleted my Twitter account and generally abandoned social media. After some reflection I had come to understand that while I was having a large volume of interactions with people, the kind I was having were shallow and had almost no value. I wasn't connecting with people as people. And since I wasn't having quality interactions with people, I tried to make up for this with a greater volume of them. Finally I came to realise that it didn't matter how many people "liked" my posts, because that didn't mean we liked each other. I left social media and I've been happy with the change. I say these thing not to exhort any of you to do the same thing, but just to establish a theme.

During the past few unusual years the NZPUG committee has also done a bit of organisational self-reflection as we try to determine what the group's role is and how to make it successful. We've looked at how to engage with members and how to attract new ones. These efforts are important and should continue, but in some sense the answer is obvious. NZPUG is a community of people who are united by a shared appreciation for the Python programming language. The fundamental substance of our community is the set of interactions between the people in it, and the strength of the community comes from the quality of those interactions. If we want NZPUG to be a successful organisation, then we all need to start by engaging with each other in meaningful ways. Everything else - the conferences, the meetups, the education and advocacy - are all found downstream from this spring.

So now I do want to exhort you all to do something. I want each of you to make an effort to have meaningful, high-quality interactions with the other people in our community. It's not that hard to do. For example, if you're struggling with a Python problem, ask about it on the mailing list or at a meetup. Other people may have the same problem and will be reassured to learn that they're not alone in this. Someone may be able to help and in the process of explaining things they will come up with an idea for a PyCon talk to give next year. And when we listen to each other and respond respectively and helpfully, we'll come to know each other as people. This will empower us to do bigger and better things. More than any other thing, the success of our organisation comes from individuals connecting over and sharing their love of Python.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to NZPUG in the last year, and I look forward to what we will do in the year ahead.