Self-nomination for 2026-2028 Community Council term

Community
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I, Aaron Rainbolt, hereby nominate myself to be a member of the Ubuntu Community Council’s 2026-2028 term.

Introduction

Hello, and thanks for taking the time to read this! I’m Aaron. I’ve been involved in Ubuntu for about four years, working mostly on Ubuntu Flavor maintenance, communications platforms, and community maintenance in general. I am a current member of the Ubuntu Community Council, Ubuntu Communications Council, Lubuntu Council, and Kubuntu Council. I also help out as an Ubuntu Matrix Operator, and use my upload rights as a MOTU to assist Ubuntu’s development where I’m able to.

Back in 2024, when Community Council elections were starting, I didn’t intend to run for CC. However, I was convinced to during one of the Ubuntu Flavor Sync meetings, since I was interested in helping out more with the community side of Ubuntu and thought my experience with moderation, spam defense, and conflict de-escalation could be useful to the community. I’ve learned from my first term on the CC that I love the job, love working with the other CC members, and appreciate having the power to fix or at least start fixing complex issues that parts of the community may be facing. If possible, I’d like to continue to do that, which is why I’m applying for a second term.

What I helped work on this term

  • I helped play a role in the formation and election of the Ubuntu Communications Council, initially bringing together the governance bodies of our Matrix, IRC, Discourse, and unofficial Discord communities under a united umbrella. I’ve acted as a point of contact between the Comms Council and Community Council during both my previous and active terms on the Comms Council.
  • I helped lead a successful effort to resurrect the Kubuntu Council, working with the CC and Kubuntu’s developers and leaders to bring it from a deadlocked state with only two members to a self-sufficient state with five members.
  • While I am far from the primary contributor to it, I worked with Ubuntu flavor leads, Canonical, and the CC and TB to create an official specification for Ubuntu flavors, defining among other things the responsibilities of flavor leads, contributors, and the teams flavors depend on such as the Release Team. This specification has not been formally ratified yet, but it is getting there.
  • Without going into detail for privacy reasons, the majority of my work this term has been resolving conflict between individuals and teams in Ubuntu and between Ubuntu contributors and other communities, including handling/forwarding ban appeals for various platforms.

I’ve also continued to contribute heavily to Ubuntu in my roles on other councils and as part of other teams.

Goals for the future

  • In as much as the project is healthy (which it appears to be in almost all respects), I want to help maintain that. Whether that means de-escalating conflict, connecting communities that need help with individuals that can help, or something else, I want to make sure that things are at least no worse at the end of my term than when I started. This was my primary goal for my first term, and with the exception of some infrastructure-related issues and some communication disconnects between the community and Canonical, I believe the current Community Council has succeeded in this.
  • I’d like to improve communication between Canonical and the Ubuntu community, to ensure that Canonical and the community can trust each other and collaborate effectively.
  • I’m not sure if it will be complete this term or next term, but I intend to continue to help drive the Ubuntu flavor spec effort to completion.
  • The current Community Council is working on expanding the Ubuntu community to include more projects adjacent to Ubuntu, such as Ubuntu Touch and various Canonical projects. I’d like to help with this where possible.

Final notes

I’d like to give a huge thank-you to the Community Council members I’ve worked with, and to the Canonical Community Team. Together, we’ve been able to solve problems that I most certainly could not have solved properly on my own. I hope I’ve played a valuable role in that during my time here, and if re-elected, I hope I’m able to continue to do so.

Thanks for everything, and I look forward to continuing to contribute to Ubuntu in whatever capacity I can.

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Call for nominations: 2026 Ubuntu Community Council
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I’ve worked closely with Aaron for the past 3-4 years. First as part of Ubuntu’s testing and adoption of Matrix and then as part of the Community Council.

Over that period, Aaron has shown to be an incredibly compassionate person who cares deeply about making Ubuntu a welcoming place that treats everyone fairly.

During CoC enforcement cases, I’ve seen Aaron go to great lengths to understand and empathise with everyone’s perspective, even when people have different backgrounds than him. He assumes good intentions and takes decisions in the best interests of the project, instead of based on personal preference.

Aaron’s knowledge about Ubuntu’s technical processes is very valuable in our work on the flavor spec, our work to make Ubuntu’s processes more transparent, and our work to improve Canonical-community interactions.

During these past two years, Aaron was one of the most active and most responsive councilmembers. He’s an incredible force and I’d love to serve another term with him.

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