Hi Fedora folks! Welcome to 2026! 
This post is a summary of the fortnightly Fedora Council meeting we held before the new year began, back in December. The Fedora Council is the top-level governance and leadership body for the Fedora Project, responsible for the project’s overall strategy and health.
Topics discussed:
- Ticket #555: Council Strategy Summit 2026 planning and agenda finalization.
- Ticket #550: A new community policy document regarding contributor expectations and communication.
Note: AI (Google Gemini) was used to summarize the HTML log of the public meeting. I reviewed and corrected the AI-generated output before posting.
Ticket #555: Council Strategy Summit
Link: Pagure Ticket #555
This meeting served as the final check-in of the year for the upcoming Council Strategy Summit scheduled for February 2026 in Tirana, Albania. 
- Agenda Finalization: This was the final week for feedback on the Strategy Summit agenda. @jflory7 and Jef @jspaleta spoke after the meeting on Friday, December 18th to shape the agenda into its final form.[1] The intent is to avoid large shifts in the agenda during January to allow Council members to prepare before arriving.
- Call for Feedback: If any Council members or community members feel a topic is missing that urgently needs Council attention, public discussion is welcome on the Fedora Discussion thread.
- Travel Logistics: Members discussed travel arrangements. @jflory7 confirmed he is handling the budget and hotel arrangements (with @jonatoni), but attendees are responsible for booking their own airfare.
Ticket #550: A new community policy/doc on what to expect from the Fedora community
Link: Pagure Ticket #550
Draft Document: Google Doc
Discussion Thread: Fedora Discussion
The Council discussed a draft document authored by @t0xic0der intended to set expectations for new contributors regarding communication and response times in a volunteer-driven community.
- Purpose: The document aims to explain that Fedora is largely driven by volunteerism, meaning requests or PRs may not receive immediate responses. It encourages collaboration rather than “demanding” fixes.
- Feedback and Debate:
- Efficacy: @bookwar expressed concern that a long document might not be effective because people frustrated by broken things are unlikely to read a four-page policy. She suggested an FAQ format or “Talking Points” for maintainers might be more useful.
- Format: There was a discussion on whether the document should be a high-level policy or a practical FAQ. @t0xic0der suggested there is room for both: a superficial overview for new users and a specific FAQ for those who have been around longer.
- Automation: @nimbinatus asked if automated bot responses could help manage expectations, noting this is a common problem across the open source ecosystem. However, @churchyard noted that automated replies to bug reports can feel disrespectful.
- Next Steps: The meeting ran out of time before a final consensus was reached.
Action Items
- @council: Leave feedback on specifics in the Google Doc. For high-level points about where the document should live and who it is being written for, use the Fedora Discussion topic.
This is now published on the Fedora Wiki page. ↩︎