What does the DSF Board Actually Do?
Nominations are open for the 2023 Django Software Foundation Board, the non-profit behind Django. There are 7 DSF Board Members. Anyone in the community can nominate themself and the final vote is made by the DSF Individual Members. There is a strong desire for the Board to represent Django’s global reach.
What follows is a descriptive list of what the Board currently does, not necessarily what it should be doing going forward. Being on the Board means continually redefining its role and how best to serve the broader Django community.
At the moment, the minimum commitment is a monthly one-hour meeting. Beyond that each Board member has individual areas they focus on that may require additional hours. At present, there are 4 Officer roles:
- The President chairs meetings
- The Vice President oversees discussion of new DSF Individual Member nominations
- The Secretary prepares the monthly meeting agenda, posts the public minutes on the DjangoProject.com site, and manages Board elections
- The Treasurer works with DSF Assistant Catherine Holmes to compile a monthly report on financials, coordinate with corporate sponsors, and file annual returns
The other three members on the Board informally have roles such as DjangoCon liaison, enforcing Django’s trademark, managing Code of Conduct violations if they arise, and so on.
There are several ongoing projects that the Board currently handles including:
- Annual DSF Board elections
- Annual Django Developers Survey
- Sponsoring and supporting DjangoCons and other community conferences
- Django Merchandise Store
- Annual Malcolm Tredinnick Memorial Prize
- Annual PyCharm promotion which accounts for 1/3 to 1/4 of the DSF’s total annual budget
- Copyright and code of conduct issues as they arise
At present the DSF annual budget is ~$200,000 and the majority goes to the Django Fellowship Program which funds Carlton Gibson three days a week and Mariusz Felisiak five days a week. There is also hourly funding for Catherine Holmes who is the DSF Assistant and helps with accounting and sponsorships. The rest of the budget goes towards sponsoring DjangoCons, DjangoGirls events, and related conferences; to the Ops team who manages the infrastructure of the DjangoProject.com sites; and a minimal amount to file required legal and financial forms to maintain the DSF’s 501(c)(3) non-profit status.
It is worth emphasizing that although this is what the Board currently does it is not set in stone. The Board is meant to reflect the global Django community and adapt as needed. If you’d like to have a direct impact on Django’s future please consider nominating yourself.
Several members of the current 7-member Board are planning to step down this year. Officer roles are decided upon during the first meeting and it is not uncommon for them to switch around even among returning members based on individual preferences.
If you have additional questions, you can contact the current Board or reach out to individual Board members directly.
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