Source: Drupal Contributions Platform

DrupalCon North America 2021's main program starts tomorrow! Hope to see you in Hopin for the keynotes, sessions, BoFs, Expo Hall, Driesnote, Drupal Trivia, and more.

This year, instead of being only on Friday, Drupal contribution has been spread across the whole week. I'm excited about the new scheduling and hope to see you this week in the contribution areas. For those new to Drupal or new to contribution, I'd like to convince you that Drupal contribution is worth your time... starting with the contribution event is *free*!

All roles and skills are welcome!

Don't code? No worries! Drupal contribution isn't just for coders. We have contribution tasks for all sorts of roles and skills... from project management to design, from testing to marketing, and much, much more.

See below for a sample of roles to get an idea of the variety. Don't fit into one of these? Check out the Drupal Contributor Guide for more roles and skills. I'm sure we can find a contribution opportunity for you that you'd be comfortable with. And, you can even expand your skills through contribution!

Source: Drupal Contributor Guide

Communications

• Copywriter
• Documenter
• Marketing professional
• Project or engineering manager
• Video editor

Frontend

• Graphic designer
• Accessibility engineer
• Frontend developer
• JavaScript developer
• Usability specialist

Backend

• Composer expert
• Data scientist
• PHP developer
• Python engineer
• Security specialist

Tasks start at as little as 20 minutes

Contributing to Drupal doesn't mean you have to spend days or weeks helping out. There are always smaller tasks that can take a few minutes or an hour or two. Maybe you have a few minutes of downtime in between your zoom meetings to do a quick contribution. That's great!

And, remember, most of us are volunteering our time. Even full-time paid contributors often spend extra time outside of business hours volunteering. So we understand. Things can get busy and maybe you don't contribute for a while. It's okay. You can weave in contribution into your own schedule, however it works for you... one day a month? A few minutes a week? A longer period every few months. You're in charge.

Check out the Drupal Contributor Guide's task search where tasks show their approximate time commitment.

Source: Drupal Contributor Guide

You are not an imposter!

Most of us suffer from some level of imposter syndrome. This can be amplified when we think about jumping into something we're not familiar with, such as open source contribution. Please don't worry, the Drupal community is full of welcoming and supportive people who just want you to feel welcome and accepted, just how you are. There is nothing to prove. Just show up and let us help you shine.

Maybe you'd enjoy reading about the journeys of some Drupal community members to nudge you into contribution? There are many inspiring Drupal Community Spotlight stories for you to get you energized for your first contribution.

Source: Drupal Community Page

You will not break Drupal :)

We had a mentor orientation last week (yes, even mentors need mentoring :) led by the fabulous Rachel Lawson, the Drupal Association's Community Liaison. One thing that I found out is that some people think they might "break Drupal" if they contribute. If you are worried about such a thing, please don't; it won't happen. Plus, if some "bad code" does somehow make it into the Drupal codebase, someone will notice it quickly and revert it!

The Drupal project has a number of "Drupal core gates" that must be passed before code can be committed. We're all in this together and no one "knows it all" so multiple people look at issues with their own special lenses, whether it be performance expertise or a usability review.

Source: Drupal Core Documentation

Mentors are dedicated to help you succeed

You are welcome to contribute any time, day or night, every day of the year. The special thing this week is you'll have mentors to guide you. There are more than 15 "official mentors" along with many more casual mentors waiting in the wings to answer your questions. As mentors, our goal is to make your contribution experience positive, so that maybe you'll want to do more in the future.

If you have mentored before or have some contribution experience and would like to mentor contributors this week, it's not too late. Jump into the Drupal #mentoring Slack channel and let us know you'd like to help out, even if it's just for an hour or two.

If you want mentoring this week, check out the resources below.

Source: Michael Cannon

I've convinced you, so now what?

Yay! The first thing is to pat yourself on the back. Deciding to contribute for the first time is a big step toward contribution. Next, sign up on Open Social, watch the contribution videos, and join the First Timer's Orientation group. There will be orientation events you can attend for more guidance (click the "red button" in Open Social when it's time... you may need to reload the page for the button to show up).

Here's a summary of resources you may find helpful for this week:

• DrupalCon NA 2021 Agenda
• DrupalCon NA 2021 Hopin Event
• DrupalCon NA 2021 Contribution Overview
• Drupal Contributions Open Social Site
• Drupal Contributions Open Social First Timer's Orientation
• Drupal Contributions First Time Contribution Videos
• Drupal Contributor Guide
• Drupal Slack Page
• DrupalCon Slack Channel
• Drupal Initiative Days
• Drupal Strategic Core Initiatives
• Drupal Community Initiatives
• Drupal Core Mentoring on Twitter

Thank you in advance for your contributions! Feel free to tweet at me about your experience :)

Image credit: Aaron Deutsch

Apologies, my old website is still on Drupal 6 and looks particularly bad on mobile. I have started playing with the migration to Drupal 9 and hope to be done fairly "soon". :) Please ignore the cobbler's old shoes for now, thanks!