Benjamin Balder Bach is August 2026's DSF member of the month, a long-time Django community organizer. He enjoys DIY, including software, cooking, sewing, and building with wood. Benjamin started programming at 15, self-taught, exploring SQL and ASP Classic. He later pursued Computer Science and a master's in Digital Design and Communication, focusing on "Risky and Rapid Design Spaces." His masters thesis posited that rapid development thrives when developers share context with users to mitigate risks. He advocates for direct engagement between developers and stakeholders, citing the Django Fellows as an ideal model. He hopes to attend Django on the Med in 2027 and looks forward to Django Day Copenhagen. His childhood nickname, "Benjaoming," arose from a teenage desire for his name to sound Chinese. Benjamin started using Django in 2008 after learning Python for a distributed file system project. He co-founded FAIR Allocation of Infotech Resources, using Django to build a platform for reusing computers. This venture, which spanned over a decade, involved creating various tools for computer refurbishment and an online warehouse, all powered by Django. He also developed django-simplewiki, which evolved into the popular django-wiki project. He became more involved in the Django community after attending DjangoCon Europe 2013 in Warsaw, leading to the establishment of Django Denmark in 2018. Benjamin evaluated FastAPI and SQLAlchemy, appreciating SQLAlchemy's approach to typing and async, but still prefers Django's ORM for its simplicity. He sees potential in combining FastAPI with Django and has successfully integrated Hugo for frontend development with Django for dynamic sites. Currently, Benjamin is migrating django-money to Codeberg, prioritizing FLOSS and open-source platforms. His favorite Django libraries include django-admin-action-forms, django-markdownfield, django-migrations-ci, django-money, and Wagtail. He values Django's Admin reliability, the ORM's maturity, and the community's thoughtful approach to new trends like typing. Django Danmark and Django Day Copenhagen began as a result of members meeting at DjangoCon Europe conferences, fostering a vibrant local community through informal meetups that eventually evolved into an annual conference.