Angela Byron (webchick)
Wed, 01/02/2008 - 00:52 — webchick
What is your motivation for being a member of the Drupal Association?:
I eat, sleep, breathe, and live Drupal. The Drupal community is where I got my start in open source, it's where most of my best friends hang out, and Drupal pays my bills, too. It's therefore very critical to me that the Drupal Association succeeds as an entity, in order secure the longevity of the project and its community. I want to do my best to help ensure that success.
What are the primary goals you would like to work on?:
Last summer, I volunteered to take on the position of Secretary when Steven Wittens resigned, and I would like to resume this position in 2008, in an officially elected capacity. Outside of these duties, my passion lies getting new contributors involved. My "dream job" in the Drupal Association would be in organizing and creating efforts that help attract and retain new developers, writers, designers, marketeers, and so on. Short term, that means continuing to organize efforts around programs such as Google Summer of Code, and lowering the barrier of entry for contributors. Long term, that means us running our own internal mentorship programs and reaching out to do collaboration with other open source communities.
What strategy will you employ in order to accomplish said goals?:
For the "Secretary" role, I'll mostly continue doing what I'm currently doing: summarizing the discussions held on each agenda item, and thoroughly documenting all votes and action items so that they can serve as a record of the proceedings. I'd like to also investigate into a more formalized system for tracking action items, so they don't fall through the cracks.
For the "Community Growth Spurrer" role, short-term strategies include improving documentation and tools for contributors, and lowering the barrier of entry by identifying and promoting "low hanging fruit" tasks that can help get people hooked. Longer-term, I'd like to build a Drupal installation profile that could run our own Google-esque mentorship programs, and promote it so other open source projects could use it to do the same. This would not only build good rapport between our community and other projects' but also exposes Drupal to a lot of other smart people. ;)
What yearly budget would you need in order to accomplish said goals?:
For the "Community Growth Spurrer" role, I'd love to have a small budget of $2,000-$5,000 to help with things like, for example, runner-up cash prizes for participants in GHOP, or holding contests for bug squashing and patch reviewing, or rewarding "most valuable mentor" for things like GSOC.
In the longer-term, the budget would need to grow, the amount depending on how extensive we'd like our internal mentorship programs to be, and in how much support we get from community volunteers.
What strengths/experience you have to help you accomplish the goals?:
For the Secretary role, I compiled all meeting minutes from 2007-07-16 onwards. This required attention to detail, strong communication skills, and organization skills. My peers on the Association have had positive things to say about my notes' thoroughness and the speed with which they are posted.
For the "Community Growth Spurrer" role, I organized Drupal's efforts in Google Summer of Code and Google Highly Open Participation Contest, I've taught in the Drupal Dojo, I've given presentations on how to contribute to the community (always growing the # of docs team members in the process ;)), and I've started a "Contributor Spotlight" feature on my blog to highlight specific contributor efforts (esp. non-coders).
How long have you been using Drupal, and how'd you get your start?:
I got my start in the Drupal community in the summer of 2005 as a Google Summer of Code student, and have been hooked ever since.
Have you made existing community contributions, and if so, what?:
Pretty much, if it's possible to contribute to Drupal in some way, I contribute in that way. ;) I code and test core patches and contributed modules/themes, I help with documentation and user/developer support, I do various marketing/PR efforts (though I'd love for someone to take that job away from me ;)), and I am/was? a member of the Board of Directors on the Drupal Association. Some may call me passionate, I prefer obsessed. ;)
How much time can you invest in your Drupal Association work?:
21-30 hours/month
Apply for Board of Directors membership:
Apply for Board of Directors membership
Board of Directors position:
Secretary
Statutes:
I have read and understood the Statutes of the Drupal Association. I am prepared to participate by following those statutes.
Comments
Angela - you have my support
Angela,
You have created a reputation and your contributions are very much appreciated by everyone. You have my support.
Roshan Shah
CEO
BPO Canada
604-630-4292
A tremendous asset to Drupal at large
I can't imagine how anyone really involved with Drupal could miss webchicks footprint. Friendly, knowledgeable, a good speaker, she would be a tremendous asset to any organization she would choose to be involved with. I find her enthusiasm and skill level to be a benchmark for any aspiring drupal developer.
Angela is an amazing ambassador
Angela is an amazing ambassador for the Drupal community. Thousands know her work, and every person who needs help is treated like the most important person.
Angela stepped into a critical role, to fill a neglected capability that association needed to develop. Angela healed this neglect, by communicating the board decisions immediately and effective to the entire association. The result has been the association is now a unified working group, due to her excellent work to unite the board and keep the full association aware of all decisions, and the reasons for them.
I strongly support Angela's candidacy.
Kieran