The next chapter of django CMS starts with our members, past, present and future.

Fifteen years ago, a developer we worked with introduced my UK agency, Compound Partners, to django CMS. We built our first website with it, then another, and another. Today, Compound Partners has more than twenty enterprise client sites on django CMS, and some of those client relationships go back more than a decade.

So when I say I care about the future of django CMS, I mean it. We've built our business on it, and I know we're far from the only organisation whose success is closely tied to the project's success.

That's one of the reasons I'm excited to take on the role of President of the django CMS Association, following my election at the General Assembly in September.

Over the next two years, I want us to build on the project's strong foundations, strengthen the relationships with our existing members, welcome new ones, and make sure django CMS continues to be a platform that developers, agencies and organisations can confidently build on.

Building on strong foundations

I'm fortunate to be taking on this role at a time when django CMS is in great shape and well positioned to take advantage of the new AI world we find ourselves in. That's thanks to the dedication of the people who have guided the project and the association over many years, and to the members and contributors who continue to support it.

In particular, I want to thank Mario Colombo, who helped found the association, has led it as President since 2021 and helped provide the continuity that has brought us to where we are today. I'm pleased he isn't going anywhere: he moves to Secretary, so the handover is a change of role, not a change of people. Joel Burch, who also helped found the association, has stepped down as Secretary. Joel was instrumental in the successful handover from Divio to the dCA, for which we will be forever grateful. Mark Walker becomes Vice President alongside his role as Tech Lead, and Arthur Macherel continues as Treasurer.

Fabian Braun remains our fellow, a position he has held since October 2022, and in that time he has done more than anyone to bring django CMS up to date and keep it there: the releases, the security work, the new website, and now django CMS 6. I've worked closely with Fabian since the move to django CMS 4 in 2022, and I've seen first-hand how much he contributes to the project. But django CMS is a community effort, and where we stand today is thanks to the dedication and voice of many contributors, maintainers and supporters.

I have been Vice President since 2024. I am not a developer and that gives me a different perspective. I'm the person who has to explain to a senior client stakeholder why the CMS is credible. I think that gives me a useful perspective as we move into the AI era, which will change business models as well as technology.

What we already have

We've made important progress over the past two years. The new django-cms.org, launched in June, gives us a much stronger platform for reaching the people who choose django CMS as well as those who develop with it. It was a collaborative effort involving my team, Surfgreen and Fabian Braun.

Our finances have improved, and the budget approved at the General Assembly allows us to fund essential work while investing selectively in growth.

On the technical side, django CMS continues to evolve, with django CMS 6 and the proposed service architecture opening up exciting possibilities for integrations and AI-powered workflows.

These are strong foundations to build on. But technology alone doesn't guarantee the long-term success of an open-source project. We also need an engaged and growing membership and an ecosystem in which developers, agencies and organisations can thrive.

What I'd like us to do

Three things, in order.

Make membership more valuable, and grow our community

My ambition is simple: to build an association whose members feel involved, see real value in their membership and are proud to encourage others to join. Our members play a vital role in making sure the project has a sustainable future.

But we also need to ask ourselves whether we're doing enough for our members in return. We haven't had a structured conversation about what members value, what they expect from the association and where we could do better for quite some time.

That's where I want to start. Over the coming months, Mario, Fabian and I will reach out to every member to listen, understand their needs and explore how we can make membership more meaningful. And importantly, we'll share what we learn and how it will shape our priorities.

If you have been a member and let it lapse, we'd like to hear from you too. These conversations help us decide how the association spends its money, so this isn't a survey for its own sake.

I also want us to become more active in welcoming new members. There are many agencies, businesses and organisations that rely on django CMS but aren't yet part of the association. We need to demonstrate why joining matters, not just because membership helps fund development but because it gives organisations a voice in the project's future and an opportunity to be part of a stronger ecosystem.

Make django CMS the obvious choice for agencies

Agencies play an important role in growing the django CMS ecosystem. One agency choosing django CMS can mean dozens of websites and long-term client relationships. We want to make it easier for agencies to choose django CMS, deliver successful projects and build sustainable businesses around it.

The technical direction of django CMS creates some exciting opportunities. In his recent articles, The CMS Is Not the Application and One operation, three interfaces, Fabian outlines a more flexible architecture that opens new possibilities for LLM integrations and AI-powered workflows.

We're already exploring these possibilities in our own agency, and I want the association to help turn such innovations into practical benefits for agencies and the organisations they serve.

Bring the community together

A strong community needs more than online conversations. Meeting in person helps us build relationships, exchange ideas and find new ways to collaborate.

DjangoCon Europe in Innsbruck next February, 17 - 21st, will be a great opportunity to do just that. Fabian and I are exploring the possibility of a joint talk on how AI is changing the way we build websites and run our businesses.

We'd also love to bring together django CMS members, contributors and anyone interested in the project for an open discussion about its future and what we can achieve together.

I hope this will be the first of many opportunities to connect more closely as a community.

Building the next chapter

The future of django CMS depends on all of us: the developers who contribute, the agencies and organisations that build on it, and the members who make its continued development possible.

If you're already a member, I'd love to hear your ideas and understand how we can make the association more valuable to you. If you've been involved in the past, let's reconnect.

And if your organisation relies on django CMS but hasn't joined the association yet, I invite you to become part of it. Membership fees stay at the same level for the next 12 months, as agreed at the GA.

I'll share regular updates on what we're doing and the progress we're making. In the meantime, you can always reach me on Discord or at mike@django-cms.org.

I'm looking forward to what we can achieve together.

Mike Barrett

President, django CMS Association