Start thinking about running for the Django Steering Council

Every election cycle, qualified Django community members talk themselves out of running. This post is for you!

The Steering Council eligibility requirements have been updated in DEP 19 so that it’s clearer that there should be a diverse panel of people on the Steering Council. This means valuing people who have contributed to Django’s code, those who teach others about Django, and those who have organized the community. No one person will have all the qualified traits, so people shouldn’t feel inadequate if they don’t have all of them.

While I’m a member of the 6.x Steering Council, this is a personal opinion and not an official statement from the Council.

Which eligibility traits do you possess?

When reviewing the traits, consider which you possess and how you’ve grown them. This will form a solid foundation for your nomination statement as to why you’re qualified. If you’re the type of person who feels weird about this, talk to friends in the community and ask them for their opinion. Get their feedback on how they’ve seen you exhibit these traits. The community wants to build you up, so let them!

Why do you want to be on the Steering Council?

An important step is understanding why you would like to be on the Steering Council. This motivation is what will drive you through your term. How do you want to grow, sustain, and support Django for the next two years? What do you see as the important challenges facing the community that we need to address?

If you’re looking for inspiration, listening to Django Chat can be helpful. The magic wand question at the end of an episode is particularly helpful in this regard. The variety of guests that are on the podcast provides a diverse collection of considerations about the Django community and where they see real need. If you find a topic that resonates with you, reflect on that. Is it something you can move forward for the community?

How do you plan on achieving your goals?

You’re going to have less than two years to make tangible progress on your efforts. You should be prepared to be the primary advocate for your ideas. Ideally you’ll find someone else on the Steering Council who will want to collaborate, but that’s not a guarantee. So hope for the best and plan for the worst.

The point here isn’t to generate a foolproof plan. No plan is. The purpose is to go through the planning process so that you’re aware of what you’ll need to do, who you’ll need buy-in from, and a rough idea of the schedule of things. You should consider asking friends in the community to review your ideas and plans. They can provide feedback, which is invaluable for improving your pitch and understanding the challenge¹.

Preparing for the election

Every election comes down to trust. Voters aren’t choosing the most technically impressive candidate. They’re choosing someone they believe will act in the community’s best interest. Trust is built through familiarity, so the goal is to become genuinely known before the election begins.

So what should you do? Get your name out there.

Write about your ideas regularly. It doesn’t need to be as obvious as “I want to be on the Steering Council for X, Y, and Z.” A more appealing approach: a post titled “Why X is critical to Django’s success.” A week or two later, “How Y makes Django better for everyone.” Then, “We don’t need a magic wand; we can do X, Y, and Z!”

After publishing, post these on Mastodon, X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn. Use the #Django hashtag so other community members find it. Share it in the Show and Tell section of the forum and Django Discord. Some posts can even be cross-posted to the djangoproject.com blog! It doesn’t hurt to ask, and the community is constantly looking for more content.

Creating content about your ideas and sharing it does two things. First, it brings attention to your idea. If you can sway the community that your ideas are needed, your nomination statement looks more appealing. Second, it brings attention to yourself. If people recognize your name, believe that you’re well-reasoned, and feel that you care deeply about the community, they are more likely to vote for you.

Now get creating! The clock is ticking.

I want many candidates, so consider running

I believe Django is better off when we have multiple perspectives on the challenges we’re facing and the solutions we need to meet those challenges. We’ve seen Django grow into more than just the single package django. It’s a community and ecosystem. You don’t need to be an expert on Django’s internals to be a Steering Council member. If you need an example, I was elected in 2025 and my contributions were far more about the community and third-party packages rather than core Django code.

The next election will get started when 6.2 is released in April. The official announcements will be found on the djangoproject.com blog, on the forum and in the Discord server.

If you’re a contributor to the Django community, please consider running for the Steering Council. Stop talking yourself out of it and start preparing.