Hello all! This is an official announcement of my candidacy for PTL of Sahara for the Train development cycle. # Who I am My first introduction to Sahara was in the summer of 2016, as an operator. It wasn't long until I sent my first patch upstream. Following the first PTG in Atlanta in 2017 I became increasingly involved with the project and later that year I became a core reviewer for Sahara. I must emphasize that all of this was set off by a series of fortunate coincidences; regardless, it's still a nice story of OpenStack gaining a new (and lasting) contributor. My affiliations remain with Red Hat and the Massachusetts Open Cloud (both of which have at various times funded my work on Sahara). Like many 22-year-olds, I'm about to finish undergrad: I studied computer science and linguistics. # Goals for Train I am impressed with what we have accomplished in past cycles with such a small team. We've implemented big features (APIv2, out-of-tree plugins) and kept up with the pace of OpenStack as a whole. Looking at where we stand now I propose that we focus on the following areas during the Train cycle: * Castellan/Barbican integration: it's been broken for an embarrassing amount of time, yet it's a highly desirable feature. * Python support for Spark EDP jobs: many users come to Sahara expecting this but then leave disappointed... it's time to bite the bullet. * Finishing transition to sahara-image-pack: let's have support for all our plugins in a single tool, so that sahara-image-elements can be deprecated. * Rehoming sahara-extra: the code should be hosted in one place, and I believe that place should be Apache's repository, where it will receive proper care. I have chosen these goals as a strategic investment into the reduction of future maintainers' pain. The emphasis is on fixing existing features and cutting down the number of components to maintain. Any extra capacity should be directed towards plugin upgrades or towards increasing the breadth of scenarios tested in upstream CI. # Beyond Train It is hard to tell what the future will hold. The team is at its all-time smallest. I'd suggest that the focus on stability continues. # Acknowledgements We owe a massive debt of gratitude to Telles Nobrega, who heroically served as Sahara PTL for four exhausting-yet-rewarding cycles. I also want to thank all those who have ever contributed to Sahara (or to Savanna, or, for the trivia nerds, EHO). We wouldn't be here without you. # Conclusion I'm continously honored to be a part of the OpenStack community and of the Sahara team. Thanks for your consideration. Here's to a great cycle. Best, Jeremy