Entirely true story: This year, I fumble-fingered my votes on Board, and realised I was just as happy with the outcome as if I had not. Great candidates, and if the final board doesn't include me, I'll be happy that the Board is made up of some really good people who'll do a lot for the XSF. I mean, vote for me, of course, but actually if you vote for other people we'll have a great Board anyway, so really just vote if you haven't already. Council also has great candidates, and I'm particularly happy that not only have most of the existing (very good) Council continued, but the "new" slot will be filled by Jerôme, who should have run for Council years ago. But it's a massive disappointment to see that we, as members, don't have a choice - this has been the case for a couple of years. It's nice that the choice we don't have is a great choice, of course. But it'd be better if we had multiple great choices. So, two questions: - If you're a "technical" XSF member - written XEPs, write code, review stuff, active in the technical discussions - what stops you from running for Council? - How can we encourage and enable people to run for Council? My answer to the first is actually simple enough - I've been out of the loop for a couple of years, and now I'm laser-focused on the server-side (and Metre barely counts as a server). Plus, been there and done that. And finally, I worried about the commitment level - Council needs timely, detailed, responses to things. My answer to the second mostly depends on everyone else's answers to the first, though... Anyway, it'd be good if in a year's time, there's 7 or 8 people volunteering for Council, like Board (bewilderingly) is now. Dave.