Hello Stackers, We're 7 weeks away from the date of the coordinated release of OpenStack 2026.1 "Gazpacho" [1]. At the end of this week, Oslo libraries and python-openstackclient will observe a feature-freeze until we are past the coordinated release. Project teams are busy reviewing feature changes in "cycle-with-rc" deliverables [2] with the hope to observe feature freeze in two weeks (February 26, 2026). In the past week, the OpenStack Technical Committee reset the leadership model for the Oslo and Requirements project teams. This means that these project teams could nominate and elect a PTL during the ongoing elections [3]. We do this with cautious optimism to indicate to the wider community that project governance is hard and it's extremely valuable. Oslo and Requirements are two project teams that maintain deliverables that affect nearly every other OpenStack project. However, we've only at best received part-time interest in their maintenance. Project liaisons have told the TC that they would really like help in the form of newer maintainers. If you're thinking about joining these project teams and lending a hand, please let us know. In a similar vein, over the past several weeks, the TC has noted that the FIPS compliance goal has degraded in its purpose [4]. In the past few release cycles, more work has been put into maintaining test jobs and this has threatened to divert our limited resources. The effort to pull together testing across OpenStack projects has turned out to be too large for an individual to handle. Therefore, we've dropped the cross-community goal for the moment. For it to be revived, we would need a level of commitment from a team of individuals, a clear definition of what can be tested, how the tests will function, and who would maintain them. We understand that FIPS compliance can be essential for a subset of organizations or countries that OpenStack serves. The TC doesn't seek to push back on the goal, but we need specifics and resources that we can't dedicate at the moment. As a consequence, project teams can choose to tear down existing jobs, or choose to maintain them using their best judgment. Finally, the elections are underway. We are seeking nominations for 5 seats on the OpenStack Technical Committee and for PTLs across project teams, with the exception of the Freezer, Ironic, and Release Management teams that have decided to follow a Distributed Leadership Model for the 2026.2 release cycle. If you wish to nominate yourself, please note that the nominations need to be accepted by 23:45 UTC on February 18, 2026 [3]. I hope you are able to verify your eligibility to be a part of the electorate as well [5]. === Weekly Meeting === The OpenStack Technical Committee meeting on February 3, 2026 focused on our feedback loop on project health as we approach the Gazpacho Feature Freeze [6]. We discussed the OpenStack User Survey with Allison Price (aprice), VP of Marketing & Community at the OpenInfra Foundation. We've concluded that the survey’s current complexity has become a barrier for operators; our goal is to rebuild it from a clean slate. A thought was to move to an opt-in model for questions with which we can deliver a leaner, more impactful survey by August 2026. We hope that the survey will provide PTLs with actionable data rather than just historical noise. I encourage all project leads/liaisons to participate in the upcoming feedback sessions to ensure the insights you actually need for development are prioritized. [7] On the technical and governance front, we're supporting the revival of Cyborg by resolving Launchpad ownership issues and ensuring the team has the necessary core permissions to land release-critical patches before M-3. We also addressed the reality of declining synchronous meeting attendance in projects like Barbican; while we are comfortable with teams moving to ad-hoc or asynchronous coordination to match their contributor velocity, the TC remains firm that design discussions must stay public and logged. Finally, we discussed the ongoing elections and the difficult and thankless job of maintaining cross-functional project teams like Requirements, Oslo, and Release Management. A hat tip to you folks that volunteer to do this! The next meeting of the OpenStack Technical Committee is on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. It will be hosted on the #openstack-tc IRC channel on OFTC. Please find the agenda on the meeting's wiki page [8]. I hope you'll be able to join us there. === Governance Proposals === ==== Merged ==== - Move FIPS Compliance goal back to proposed | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/969145 - Reset the DPL model for Oslo project | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/974929 - Reset the DPL model for requirements project | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/974927 ==== Open For Review ==== - Add a script to abandon changes on retired repositories | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/975594 - Revert "Revive os_monasca" | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/974775 Thank you very much for reading! On behalf of the OpenStack TC, Goutham Pacha Ravi (gouthamr) OpenStack TC Chair [1] 2026.1 "Gazpacho" Release Schedule: https://releases.openstack.org/gazpacho/schedule.html [2] Cycle with RC release model: https://releases.openstack.org/reference/release_models.html#cycle-with-rc [3] OpenStack "2026.2" Elections: https://governance.openstack.org/election/ [4] FIPS compliance goal dropped back to "proposed": https://governance.openstack.org/tc/goals/proposed/fips.html [5] Check your eligibility to vote: https://lists.openstack.org/archives/list/openstack-discuss@lists.openstack.... [6] https://meetings.opendev.org/meetings/tc/2026/tc.2026-02-03-17.00.html [7] Streamlining the OpenStack User Survey: https://lists.openstack.org/archives/list/openstack-discuss@lists.openstack.... [8] TC Meeting Agenda, February 10 2026: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Meetings/TechnicalCommittee#Next_Meeting