Following up on my previous posts How Django Works Behind the Scenes and A Month in the Life of a DSF Board Member, I wanted to do an annual look at my own work on the Django Software Foundation board. It hasn’t been a full year yet but elections are coming up next month so I want to shed a light on what the Board actually does and encourage members of the Django community–whoever you are, whether you contribute in a technical, community, documentation, education, or other capacity–to consider running in the upcoming elections. It is vital to Django’s continued health that the Board accurately represents the larger Django community.

Treasurer Role

Going into this year, I knew that the role of Treasurer was a ton of work and required familiarity with accounting and finances. My main goal was to standardize the role as much as possible. Along with DSF Assistant Catherine Holmes, we’ve done a lot of work on this front. All accounts and contact are now routed to the main [email protected] email address. There is a monthly DSF Treasurer Highlights spreadsheet that all Board members can view to see monthly and annual tallies of income/expenses. And we’re working on a public Board document listing all the contacts and duties Catherine and I perform so that future Treasurers can walk into the role prepared.

Official Merchandise Store

The official Django merchandise store is live now and listed on the Fundraising page of the docs. It has already generated several hundred dollars in revenue for the DSF. And there is a lot more we can do around better merchandise–socks, stickers, etc–that promote Django itself and foster more of a community.

One unexpected bonus this year is that the virtual DjangoCons have their official t-shirts on there. You can purchase one for DjangoCon Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America along with standard Django gear.

GitHub Sponsors

I worked with DSF President Frank Wiles and the Fellows to add GitHub sponsors as an option this year. Even something small like this requires quite a bit of paperwork and coordination. There are now 79 sponsors and counting. For some members, paying in this way is easier than standard contributions so we want to remove as much friction as we can around the process.

Django Survey

Python has an annual community survey and I felt Django deserved one as well. The last community survey was done in 2015. Django doesn’t track usage so it is very helpful for the community to weigh in on how Django is actually being used. The result was the 2020 Django Developers Community Survey. 4,379 Djangonauts responded! I hope it becomes an annual project for Django and I was very pleased to see it to through to fruition.

Conclusion

That covers the highlights of what I’ve personally worked on this year. The Board itself was busy with other matters as well, including the inaugural Technical Board Board Election and the release of Django 3.1.

If you have feedback on the Django community, you can contact the DSF directly. And look for a forthcoming announcement about DSF Board elections for 2021. If you or someone you know would be a good addition to the Board, do participate in the nomination/voting process.