I've been working with PostgreSQL since the 7.0 days, and joined the Community shortly after that. First by participating in discussions on IRC and mailing lists, and then starting around 2004 by organizing a PostgreSQL presence at a number of different events across Europe (FOSDEM, CLT, DLIT, BLIT, FrOSCon, CeBIT, and others).
Over the years the PostgreSQL Project, and the PostgreSQL Community, grew bigger, I found a number of good friends here. Back in 2007, during the first Italian PGDay, we discussed the idea of a PostgreSQL User Group for everyone in Europe. One year later this idea became PostgreSQL Europe, and I'm proud that I am a founding member of this User Group.
This project evolved from a little PostgreSQL conference at an University, and a small annual FOSDEM presence, to a well recognized annual European conference, a number of satellite conferences (pgDay Paris, Nordic PGDay, PGDay Belfort, PGConf.de, FOSDEM PGDay) and an ever growing presence at FOSDEM itself.
After all these years I still enjoy being actively involved in organising three of these conferences. Despite the growth in number of attendees, these are conferences which are organized by the community itself. That is something the attendees value a lot, and keep telling us that.
Another part of my ongoing responsibility is handling the merchandise for the project. This does not only involve selling these items, the majority of the time and effort is spent on finding new and interesting gadgets and items, dealing with both the supplier as well as the approval from the other board members, and providing a storage for most of the items in my home. You might remember the famous Slonik plush elephants which are loved by virtually everyone, but there also stickers, pins, different cups, hats, umbrellas, shirts, hoodies, thermo mugs, pens, and more.
Of course serving on the PGEU board it's not only about conferences and merchandise. As PostgrSQL Europe we support local PostgreSQL Communities and activities all over the continent, but we also have to deal with day-to-day activities like banks or tax authorities. In the past we found that this is quite cumbersome, and recently started several activities to improve this situation. The board posted about these activities on the website.
If I'm re-elected to the PostgreSQL Europe board, I commit to continue the work on improving the events for the Community, and help foster support for other local communities. Further it is my goal to ensure that our events stay open and familiar to everyone.