Django Steering Council Elections

Based on the Django documentation, the Steering Council is a critical governance body within the Django project. The council consists of five experienced contributors who oversee Django's development and release process, set direction for feature development, select Mergers and Releasers, and have tie-breaking authority when other decision-making processes fail.

Election Process

According to Django's organizational structure, a new council is elected after each release cycle. The standard election process follows these steps:

1. The current Steering Council notifies the DSF Secretary to announce the election
2. Voter registration begins (DSF individual members are automatically registered)
3. Voter registration closes after one week
4. Candidate registration opens for one week
5. One week after candidate registration closes, voting begins
6. Voting lasts for one week, with each voter able to select up to five candidates
7. The five candidates with the highest vote totals become the new Steering Council

Candidate Qualifications

Candidates for the Steering Council must demonstrate:

• A history of substantive contributions to Django or its ecosystem beginning at least 18 months prior to candidacy
• Contributions in at least two of these areas:
  • Code contributions to Django or major third-party packages
  • Reviewing PRs or triaging tickets
  • Documentation, tutorials, or blog posts
  • Discussions on the Django Forum
  • Running Django-related events or user groups
• Engagement with Django's direction and future (candidates inactive in the past three years must still demonstrate understanding of recent changes)

For specific details about the current 6.x election timeline and process, I recommend checking the official announcement linked in your message or contacting the Django Software Foundation directly.