Today we announced on the Rust Blog that the Leadership Council has been created and is now the top level governance body of the Rust Project. I am the Compiler Team's representative to the Council, so I wanted to share a little more about how I hope to approach this role.

The Leadership Council is new, and in many ways its first tasks will be to define what it is. We know it's sort of a replacement for the Core Team, but it's also supposed to be significantly different. A lot of our first tasks are going to seem relatively mundane: figuring out when we regularly meet, how to propose items to the agenda, how we communicate what we're working on, etc. After that, we can get on to the "more substantial" questions. One colleague of mine told me once that Rust has at least two years of governance debt, and given that they said that two years ago, at this point we probably have at least four years of governance debt!

While we figure these things out, I know there are a few things I can say about myself and values, and how I hope I can bring these to the Leadership Council. Keep in mind that these are my own opinions. I'm not speaking for the Leadership Council or the Compiler Team, so the priorities I suggest here will evolve over time.

Desiring the Work🔗

When deciding whether to nominate myself for this role, I spent a lot of time thinking about why I wanted to do it. To me, the question came down to how much I wanted to do the work.

The best leaders I've seen in my life are the ones who saw their job as serving those they lead. I want to embody this mindset as I serve on the Leadership Council.

Most of my recent Rust contributions have been primarily within the Async Working Group. Lately, I've found myself thinking more about the project and community as a whole. For example, how do we make Rust more welcoming to those who want to contribute? Or how can we make sure all the components of Rust work together as a whole? How can we build excitement for contributing, including contributions we might think of as non-technical?

I realized that questions like these are the kinds of questions the Leadership Council should be thinking about.¹ Given that I've already been thinking about these questions, joining the Leadership Council became a clear opportunity to actually get to work on these things.

I'm Here to Listen🔗

One of the most important things I can do, especially at the start, is to listen. I will be actively reaching out to the leaders in the Rust community to find out what they need and how I can best serve them in particular and the community in general.

I am also going to make myself available for office hours. I have set up a Bookings page where you can schedule a 30 minute meeting with me. Please feel free to use this if you'd like to have a synchronous chat about something related to the Rust Leadership Council or the Rust project in general. To make this easier to fine, I've added a new top level page to this site where I'll keep up to date information about how to book an office hours appointment with me.

I'm Here to Share🔗

In the conversations I've already had with folks around Rust governance, one of the clear themes that has come up over and over is that we need more transparency in Rust leadership. Fortunately, I believe all of us on the Council agree with this and are committed to improving transparency. I believe most of this transparency should come through official channels, such as published minutes from Leadership Council meetings. That said, I intend to supplement these official communications by sharing about my thinking as it relates to the Leadership Council. This post is an example, and I will continue with more like this.

How Can I Help You?🔗

I wanted to share some of how I'm thinking about my role on the Leadership Council, and the things I plan to do. I'll be honest, I'm a little scared even to post this, because if I fail at these goals it will be obvious. I think this accountability is good. If this is the last you hear from me about this, then I've failed as a leader, and people should know that.

But I also may not have the right priorities. There's a lot we don't know, and almost everything I've written here may need to change. When changes are needed and made, I promise to be transparent about them. Please help me to be a good servant and leader for the Rust community.

And with that, I want to close with an explicit call for feedback. What do you think of my priorities here? If I do these well, will you be happy to have had me on the Leadership Council? What are some things I've missed or should do instead?

Please send me your feedback, either by joining me in Office Hours, DMing me (eholk) on the rust-lang Zulip or Mastodon, or emailing me at eric@theincredibleholk.org.

Conclusion🔗

I'm thrilled to have met the other members of the Leadership Council. I think we have a great group of people who all bring important background, perspectives, and skills to the team. I'm excited to work with them to make Rust the best language and community it can be!

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