NumFOCUS 2025: A Year of Transition and Renewal

When I rejoined the NumFOCUS Admin Board in late 2024, I knew we had significant work ahead. What I didn't fully anticipate was just how transformative 2025 would become. This was a year defined by leadership transitions, governance improvements, and laying the groundwork for NumFOCUS's next chapter. As Secretary this year, I had a front-row seat to all of it.

Leadership Transition

The biggest story of 2025 was our executive leadership transition. Leah Silen, our founding Executive Director who had been with NumFOCUS since 2012, announced her departure. Leah built this organization from nothing into an entity that now supports nearly 100 scientific software projects. The community owes her an enormous debt of gratitude for her tireless work.

Our first order of business in January was establishing a hiring committee. I proposed the resolution and Julie Hollek took the lead as committee chair. We engaged Perrett-Laver as our search firm and cast a wide net. Jim Weiss stepped up as interim ED in March, keeping operations steady while we conducted the search. By July, the board accepted the hiring committee's recommendation, and Rachel Kerestes joined us as our new Executive Director by September.

Rachel hit the ground running. By December, she was already auditing internal policies, working with legal specialists on contracting procedures, and planning strategic sessions for 2026. The transition was smoother than I had dared hope.

NumFOCUS Governance and Transparency

One resolution I'm particularly proud of came in our very first meeting of 2025: we voted to make board minutes public by default. Previously, minutes took months to publish and required approval from a quorum. Under the new policy, minutes go public unless a board member specifically moves to redact sensitive information. You can see all our 2025 minutes at numfocus.github.io/numfocus-board. This aligns with the community standards of transparency that our open source projects embody.

We also modernized our bylaws to address board member accountability. The new amendment codifies that directors who miss three consecutive meetings without valid excuse may be deemed to have resigned. This wasn't theoretical—we had to apply it during the year when a board member became unreachable.

Financial Health

The 2025 audit came back clean. In the auditor's words, our financial statements and practices are in good order, there's no evidence of fraud or theft, and we can be trusted with people's money. We couldn't have hoped for a better outcome.

The board also approved a comprehensive Financial Policies and Procedures Manual in June, bringing more rigor to our operations. We approved the 2026 budget in December and established quarterly financial reporting to keep the board informed throughout the year.

Key Resolutions

Looking back at the year's board resolutions tells the story of our priorities:

• January: Public minutes by default, ED hiring committee established
• March: Bylaws amendment for attendance, Jim Weiss appointed interim ED
• April: $10K budget for PyCon booth presence
• June: Financial Policies Manual approved
• July: New ED hire accepted, PyData Global established as a committee, Small Development Grant fund restrictions formalized
• September: EU Cooperation Agreement with NumFOCUS France
• December: 2025 election results certified (welcoming James, Francesca, and Noor), 2026 budget approved

Looking Ahead

As I write this, we're onboarding three new board members and kicking off a strategic planning process. Rachel is recruiting a Chief Financial and Operations Officer. We're moving to monthly board meetings instead of the quarterly schedule I was skeptical about last year—turns out my instincts were right on that one.

The Technical Steering Committee is finalizing its charter. Projects are pushing back on some process changes, which I actually see as a healthy sign that they care about how NumFOCUS operates. We're also exploring domain-specific events in areas like biotech, climate, and AI as smaller, more focused gatherings.

2025 was a year of foundations. We navigated a major leadership change, improved our governance, and maintained financial health. The work continues, but I feel the organization is pointed in the right direction. NumFOCUS exists to help scientists build better tools for discovery, and that mission remains as vital as ever.