Perl Steering Council

Following the release of 5.36.0, we have a new Perl Steering Council (PSC). The PSC for the next year comprises Ricardo Signes (RJBS), Paul Evans (PEVANS), and Philippe Bruhat (BOOK). These three will serve until 5.38.0 is released, at which point the next PSC will be elected.

As described in a previous blog post, in 2020 we established a new governance structure for the Perl programming language. In brief, the perl5-porters (P5P) mailing list continues to be the place where the future of Perl is discussed. Anyone on the list can follow the RFC process to propose new language features. The PSC are shepherds for that process, and adjudicate where consensus doesn't emerge.

Every year a new stable version of Perl is released: Perl 5.36.0 was released on 27th May 2022. This is the trigger for the election of a new PSC. Members of Core Team can stand for election, and can also nominate others (including people who aren't currently Core Team members). If more than 3 people are nominated, then voting takes place. This year 3 people stood, and so voting wasn't required. Rik has served on the PSC since it was first established; Paul was on the PSC last year, and this is Philippe's first term.

This felt like a healthy and positive continuation and evolution of what is still a new governance structure and processes. Hopefully over time we'll see other members of the P5P community step forward to serve on the PSC.

If you have any questions for the PSC, they can be contacted at steering-council@perl.org.