The selection process for representatives on the Leadership Council is starting today.
Every six months, half of the council terms end. Since this is the first rotation since the formation of the Council in June 2023, we have chosen the following teams (and their current representatives) to establish who will start this process:
- Compiler — Eric Holk
- Crates.io — Carol Nichols
- Devtools — Eric Huss
- Launching Pad — Jonathan Pallant
We are aiming to have the teams confirm their choices by March 22, 2024, and for any possible new members to be ready to join the Council meetings starting March 29th.
Criteria for representatives
Any member of the top-level team or a member of any of their subteams is eligible to be the representative. See candidate criteria for a description of what makes a good representative.
There is a limit of at most two people affiliated with the same company or other legal entity being on the Council 1. During the selection process, the Council will consider the affiliation of candidates to decide if all choices will be compatible with that constraint. Note that the Council is currently investigating clarifications and changes to affiliation limits, but we do not expect these changes to be ready before this selection process is over.
Representatives may serve multiple terms if the team decides to choose the same representative again. There is a soft limit of three terms.2 It is recommended that teams rotate their representatives if possible to help avoid burnout and to spread the experience to a broader group of people.
What do Representatives do?
A representative provides a voice on the Council to represent the interests of their teams and contribute to the long-term success of the Rust Project. Some examples of the activities that representatives take are:
- Participating in Council meetings every other week.
- Responding to proposals needing a decision.
- Work on the policies and proposals concerning the Council itself.
- Communicate activities and decisions to the team and subteams, and the Project as a whole.
- Coordinate with the Foundation and the Foundation Project Directors to represent the needs of the Project to the Foundation.
The amount of time the position takes varies depending on which initiatives the representative participates in, and how frequently decisions are brought to the Council. In general you may expect to spend at least a few hours a week on Council tasks.
How should teams make their selection?
We currently don't have a recommended process that teams should use to make their selection. In the meantime, teams may want to consider the consensus selection process which some teams used during the initial selections of the Council. Team members should consult with their team leads if they are interested in being nominated. We hope that in the future we can formalize a recommended process.