I’m nominating myself for the Steering Council (2022 term).
A quick recap:
- I’ve been a core developer since 2000.
- I’ve served on the SC since 2020 (my previous nominations: Steering Council nomination: Thomas Wouters (2020 term), Steering Council nomination: Thomas Wouters (2021 term).)
- I’m currently serving on the PSF Board of Directors as well (2020-2023 term, also 2001-2004 and 2017-2019) as the Vice Chair Elect (and more; see the last paragraph).
- I work at Google on the (internal) Python team. (We got rid of Python 2, y’all!)
- I’m a denizen (as
Yhg1s) of the #python IRC channel on Libera. - I also exist on Twitter as
Yhg1s.
Last year I wrote a longer nomination with some more background and a list of my priorities, and I haven’t really changed my mind on those priorities. There were some developments on all of them, though, so here’s an updated list:
- PEP management: this remains one of the highest priority items for the Steering Council. The last year has been surprisingly busy and we built up quite a bit of backlog in the run-up to 3.10, but I believe we prioritised correctly, and we’ve worked through most of the backlog by now. (We did increase our weekly meetings from an hour to an hour and half to do that.)
- Spending money on improving the life of core developers, and the robustness of the project: we clearly took a big step by hiring the first Developer-in-Residence, and I’m extremely grateful for @ambv for making it work so well. The role does mean a bit more work for the SC, but I think that’s part of the SC’s job. I hope we can continue and expand it, too.
- Code of Conduct enforcement: this year has been a bit less… exciting in that regard, but it continues to be a big topic to the Steering Council, as it should be.
- The GitHub Issues migration: Progress has been slower than we’d hoped, but there is progress, and the SC is spending a half hour every two weeks to make sure the project stays on track.
- Communication: we worked harder to keep the core developer community up to date on SC efforts this year, both by posting the monthly updates and also by providing feedback on PEPs and ideas besides the final decision. I’m also hopeful we keep up the momentum of interactions on Discord, which helps with filling the void the lack of in-person meetings has left.
The 2021 SC has been a very open, fruitful and at times joyous collaboration between @barry, @brettcannon, @willingc, @pablogsal and me. We all have different points of view and we don’t always agree, but we always take time to listen to each other and work out the differences of opinion. I hope the next Steering Council can live up to the standards set.
There will be one significant change in the Steering Council work in the coming term, which is that @ewa.jodlowska is stepping down as PSF Executive Director in December. Ewa has been one of the reasons we’ve been able to work so efficiently, and coping without her help will certainly be a challenge. I also need to mention that I have agreed to step up and take over some of Ewa’s PSF duties while the PSF continues its search for a new Executive Director; I’ll be the Interim General Manager. (I’m not taking on all of the Executive Director duties, I mostly want to make sure the PSF staff has all the support they need in the meantime.) My Google manager, Bill Yoshimi, has kindly agreed to give me the time necessary to do that job, as well as the Steering Council and PSF Board of Directors work, all of which he’s in support of.