Add DSF election ramblings

content/articles/2024/board-election-ramblings.rst

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+Ramblings on the 2025 DSF Board elections
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+
+:date: 2024-11-20
+:tags: django
+
+I'd love to say I'm writing this a few days late because I've been thinking carefully
+about what to say. Sadly not, this will be as off the cuff as ever.
+
+It was an interesting election this year. There were four seats up for grabs, and
+three of the four incumbents decided not to run. The first thing I want to do is
+thank them for this, as it's allowed space for some new faces on the board. Though
+I'm not sure how well the incumbents would have done, since the one who did run
+didn't get re-elected.
+
+The first thing I notice about the newly elected members, relative to the rest of
+the field is that they are the most well-known names. The only person I hadn't
+really heard of was `Afi`_ until the ever-gregarious `Sarah Abderemane`_ clued me into
+who she is. And now I'm looking forward to working with her and the rest of the board.
+
+I don't think it's a bad thing that the most well-known people won. They're well-known
+for a reason after all, there is little doubt of their sustained dedication. And I feel
+this is the most important characteristic of any board member.
+
+I also wanted to address my own, personal goals for the board in the two year term I've
+been elected for. Some people came to me and told me that they thought my pitch was a
+bit too technical. I'm inclined to reject this as this is a technical project. What
+are the goals of the board if not to support the technical (and non-technical) success
+of Django? Still, I have my own doubts about my ability to contribute in the
+non-technical ways required. A case of imposter syndrome, I'm hoping 🙂
+
+I also think my pitch was quite populist, but hey, it worked for `Thibaud`_ in the
+previous year. Though really it's the end of the pitch that's important. Yes I want
+all these fancy things for the framework to ensure it's sustained success. The path to
+that is clear to me:
+
+We need an executive director. This was mentioned by a lot of candidates. Not by
+myself, ironically, though it was supposed to be implied. The truth is that the board
+is juggling work, life, other open source contributions, and Django can only be a part
+of that. By paying someone, we unlock someone's time that we just don't have right now.
+I can't speak for others, but for myself, fundraising is not something I have any idea
+how to do. It's just not in my bones. Having an ED means we have someone with both
+the time and the skills to do this much more effectively than we can with volunteers.
+I'm happy to see that the board seems fairly aligned on making this happen.
+
+The second thing is to use all this newly raised money to pay for fellows that can
+not only tread the water of triage, reviewing, merging and releasing, but actively
+spend time developing new features.
+
+I could ramble more but I have my own things to juggle.
+
+I will leave with thanking all the candidates that ran. I am a bit wary of mentioning
+specific names, because I know I will leave people out, but I'm going to do it anyway.
+I want to especially encourage Lilian and Priya to run again, and I single you both out
+only because I don't talk to you much elsewhere. For anyone else I do talk to, you
+should already know this 🙂
+
+.. _Afi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigail-afi-gbadago/
+.. _Sarah Abderemane: https://sarahabd.com/
+.. _Thibaud: https://thib.me/