Hello Stackers, We're 8 weeks away from the date of the coordinated release of OpenStack 2026.1 "Gazpacho" [1]. Next week is the feature freeze for OpenStack's Common Library projects ("oslo"), and this includes python-openstackclient and python-openstacksdk for this release. It's also the deadline for PTLs and DPL liaisons to propose additional names as contributors to OpenStack [2]. Please take this opportunity to credit folks who have been contributing to project maintenance without having any merged changes via Gerrit. Recording these individuals' contributions as "Active Contributors" acknowledges their effort and allows them to vote in the upcoming elections. Speaking of elections, the nomination period for TC and PTL elections begins this week. If you intend to contest these elections, please do submit your candidacy [3]. In the past week, the OpenStack Technical Committee began updating projects that followed the "Distributed Leadership" model during the 2026.1 "Gazpacho" release cycle. The release management team has opted to govern itself using the distributed leadership model and has retained the liaisons. The Watcher project has decided to move to the PTL model, and its PTL will be elected in the upcoming elections. We're awaiting decisions from the Ironic, Requirements, Freezer, and Oslo projects. Please review the open governance patches to help these teams make appropriate governance decisions. === Weekly Meeting === The last weekly meeting of the OpenStack Technical Committee was hosted on January 27th, 2026 in OFTC's #openstack-tc IRC channel [4]. We focused our attention toward the 2026.2 Election cycle, which is fast approaching. Nominations open on February 4 and run through February 18 [5]; since our election officials are spread a bit thin this time, several TC members who aren't seeking re-election stepped up to help attest nomination patches. We’ve decided to retarget the MariaDB/MySQL Character Set community goal. While it’s a vital piece of technical debt to address, we’re looking to define and commit to this in the 2026.2 cycle to ensure the rollout is realistic and implementable across the projects. We had a robust discussion regarding updating the Technical Vision [6] and how it intersects with the Foundation’s "Next Level in 2026" initiatives [7]. The goal here isn't just to produce a static document, but to use the vision as a tool to refocus the "What is OpenStack?" question, helping us stay consistent as we also define how to evolve the vision. We also touched upon the retirement of some inactive projects in the 2026.2 "Hibiscus" cycle [8]. We hope to make practical decisions in the interest of conserving the community's energy and focusing on paying down technical debt such as eventlet removal. The next meeting of the OpenStack TC is on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026. It'll be at 1700 UTC in OFTC's #openstack-tc channel. Please find the agenda on the meeting's wiki [9]. This week we're looking to discuss improvements to the User Survey, revival of Cyborg, and begin planning our presence at the PTG in April. I hope you're able to participate. === Governance Proposals === ==== Merged ==== - Remove rbd-iscsi-client from release management | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/972316 - Remove barbican-ui from release management | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/972315 - Update mission statement for kolla project | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/974421 - Reset the DPL model for watcher project | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/974926 ==== Open For Review ==== - 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 Freezer project | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/974931 - Reset the DPL model for requirements project | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/974927 - Reset the DPL model for Ironic project | https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/974930 - 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] Nominate "Extra ACs": https://releases.openstack.org/gazpacho/schedule.html#extra-ac-freeze [3] Be a candidate this election: https://governance.openstack.org/election/#how-to-submit-a-candidacy [4] TC Meeting IRC Log, Jan 27 2026: https://meetings.opendev.org/meetings/tc/2026/tc.2026-01-27-17.00.html [5] 2026.2 Elections: https://governance.openstack.org/election/ [6] Vision for OpenStack Clouds: https://governance.openstack.org/tc/reference/technical-vision.html [7] "Next Level in 2026": https://lists.openstack.org/archives/list/openstack-discuss@lists.openstack.... [8] Inactive Projects: https://governance.openstack.org/tc/reference/emerging-technology-and-inacti... [9] TC Meeting Agenda, Feb 03 2026: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Meetings/TechnicalCommittee#Next_Meeting