Sharing some of the questions I got in private, and my answers, for others’ benefit. Specifically on the theme of eligibility and who should / shouldn’t go for it.
Do I need a certain number of years of experience to nominate myself?
Nope, no official requirement there. Personally I’d say 6 months of experience is a good minimum to make sure you understand what Django and its community are about.
Is there any other requirement I have to satisfy in order to nominate myself?
The only requirement is to submit the form we shared, providing your “reason for nomination” so when time for voting comes, people have a sense of why you would be a good fit as a board member.
How do I know if I’m a good fit?
My take is what’s most important by far is having the motivation to take that kind of governance position. The DSF is both a large open source community and a mid-size non-profit. It’s not all glamorous, we need motivated people 
Aside from that I’d say some experience with the Django community / specific communities also helps a lot to have a good sense of who you’d be working with / on what.
Aside from motivation (and time), we also want a board that’s representative of our wider community. There’s currently no specific requirement there either, just want to encourage people to think of who is and isn’t represented on the board.
What’s your advice for people who are interested?
My main advice is to go for it if:
- You won’t feel bad if you’re not elected. That’s the most likely outcome. There are a lot of big names in the community that’ll get elected just by virtue of name recognition.
- You have a clear idea of what you’d want to do if elected.
- You have enough time to commit to the DSF board activities (I’d recommend 1 to 2h/week as a minimum)
I’d also recommend to ask people you know and trust in the Django community, whether they’d think it could be a good fit for you or not. Always helps to get advice from people who know your personal outlook on things, and circumstances.