Interim (Quarterly) Report of the PostgreSQL Europe Diversity Committee Q2 2025
Presented to the PostgreSQL Europe Board on 9 July 2025
Executive Summary
This interim report provides a brief overview of the activities and achievements
of the PostgreSQL Europe Diversity Committee ("The Committee") during Q2 2025.
More detailed information will be provided in the annual report prepared
at the end of the year.
Over the past 3 months, The Committee has made good progress towards the
goals that were identified in the 2024 annual report.
In particular, we have expanded our community outreach via (amongst other
things) conference talks, social media, sharing information on the PostgreSQL
Europe website and the PostgreSQL Wiki, and offering support and resources
to event organisers.
Since the previous report was presented to the board, Gülçin Yıldırım Jelínek
has unfortunately had to step down from The Committee due to other commitments.
1. Introduction
The PostgreSQL Europe Diversity Committee is pleased to present this
quarterly report summarizing our key activities, achievements, and challenges
during Q2 2025.
2. Committee Changes
Gülçin Yıldırım Jelínek has had to step down from The Committee due to other
commitments. The Committee thanks Gülçin for her contributions, and has
agreed to select a replacement by 31 October 2025.
3. Key Activities and Achievements
Over the past quarter, The Committee has worked towards the goals identified in the 2024 annual report.
The Committee has achieved the following:
- Expanding Community Outreach:
-
Extended the lightning talk that was delivered at PgDay 2025 into a
full length talk, and updated it to include more recent information.
Karen delivered the talk at
PGConf.dev 2025.
-
The Committee also created a
poster to display at PGConf.dev 2025.
-
As noted in the previous report, we created Diversity Task Force social
media accounts on LinkedIn, Mastodon and Bluesky. We have gathered a
small following on each of the platforms (see below for numbers), we
have been posting approximately once per week, and have been sharing
and interacting with other relevant posts. We plan to increase the
frequency of posting and interaction over the following months.
- Mastodon: 38 followers
- Bluesky: 30 followers
- LinkedIn: 91 followers
-
We added a page
related to diversity to the PostgreSQL wiki, including a link back
to the PostgreSQL Europe
Diversity Task Force web pages.
-
Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme:
With the agreement of The Board, we have signed up to the
Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme.
The membership will cover all events in the PostgreSQL Europe event series.
Onboarding and training will begin in the coming weeks, with PGDay Lowlands
acting as beta testers for the scheme. The main go-live is planned for PGConf.EU.
- Resources and Guidelines for Event Organisers:
-
The Committee has begun to reach out to Postgres event organisers in
Europe (whether PGEU events or organised independently) to offer support
and resources. This has been well received. Event organisers are
encouraged to contact us if there is anything they would like to
discuss/request.
-
Following discussions in the Diversity Task Force Telegram group, we
created the draft of a collaborative document containing resources
related to
Accessibility Guidelines for Presentations.
-
We have created a draft document detailing the benefits of live captioning
at PostgreSQL Europe events, and including example costs of the service
that can be incorporated into event budgets.
- PGEU Website:
Published 2024 annual report and plan to publish all future Diversity
Committee reports.
- Metrics to Measure Scope of Issues and Track Progress:
This was identified as a challenge in our 2024 annual report.
We have begun to implement the changes required to the PGEU conference
system that will allow us to gather diversity information
(on a voluntary, anonymous basis) from conference attendees and speakers.
Progress has been made on the following initiatives:
- Scholarship Scheme:
We have merged the ticket giveaway process that we already had in place
into a more generalised scholarship process. A draft version of the required
documentation and form has been created in preparation for roll-out of the
scheme. Any scholarship requests will be processed manually in the meantime.
4. Plans for Q3 2025
The Committee will continue to work on the items listed above. The priority
will be on tasks that need to be completed prior to PGConf.EU.
5. Conclusion
The PostgreSQL Europe Diversity Committee remains committed to its mission
and is making good progress on its 2025 goals. We appreciate the board’s
support and welcome any feedback or guidance.
Submitted by:
Karen Jex
Chair, PostgreSQL Europe Diversity Committee
9 July 2025
Next report: Q3 2025 interim report anticipated early October 2025.