Once again, welcome to Day 18 of the Drupal Advent Calendar. Today we are joined by AmyJune Hineline (volkswagenchick), who is here to tell us about the Mentoring Initiative.
I am AmyJune Hineline, volkswagenchick on Drupal.org. I have been mentoring in the open source space since 2017 and was folded into the Drupal Mentor Coordination team in 2020. I have the privilege of being a non-code developer and have always advocated that non-code contributions are as important to the project as code.
I started in Drupal mentoring by presenting a version of the First Time Contributor Workshop at the local and regional levels, but I changed up the DrupalCon Deck to allow time for demos for patching and working in the issue queue. My version of the deck included ways to contribute beyond code: DrupalCamp organization, marketing, design, documentation, etc.
I absolutely love teaching novices the joys of giving back. Novices can include people new to Drupal, but it can also include someone who has been using Drupal for 10 years yet has never contributed. After being introduced to mentoring the mentor, that is the space in which I have remained.
The Mentoring Initiative
The Drupal Mentoring team functions as a cohesive working group by providing daily support to mentors, organizing follow-up activities, and assisting the Drupal Association in community mentoring management. Mentoring coordinators and room leads share their experiences through presentations, workshops, and BoFs. They motivate others to become mentors and encourage mentors to take active roles at Drupal events, especially on Contribution days.
The team operates on the belief that good mentors openly share their knowledge, admit to what they don’t know, and create an environment where asking for help is encouraged and embraced. They emphasize the importance of making the learning experience enjoyable for new contributors, stressing the positive impact of transparency, such as issue queue triage and making comments on issues.
New contributors receive assistance from mentors in getting started with core contributions. The Drupal project relies on the community to collaborate and contribute. Novice contributor success is accelerated when guided by mentors and group collaboration.
Drupal Mentoring Coordination
The responsibilities of Drupal core mentoring coordinators are straightforward, from overseeing mentoring strategy and recruiting mentors to facilitating mentor-mentee interactions. Coordinators focus on contributor tooling, documentation, and processes to simplify the onboarding process for new mentors and contributors.
Mentoring coordinators are crucial in ensuring that mentoring occurs at DrupalCons, Global Contribution Days, and local and regional events.
It’s more than mentoring; it’s mentoring the mentor. Above all, the team believes mentoring should be fun for mentors and contributors throughout the learning and contributing journey.
How to get involved on the Coordination Team
Your involvement is valued and can make a meaningful impact on the Drupal community. Consider volunteering as a mentor at an upcoming event and actively participate in our Slack meetings.
Regularly volunteering for contribution mentoring events and taking on leadership responsibilities, such as helping with communications during events, is encouraged. Helping run mentoring orientations, lead issue queue triage, and presenting the first-time contribution workshop are vital tasks as leads.
Attend regular mentoring meta meetings in the mentoring Slack channel to stay connected and informed. Mentoring Coordinators value individuals who contribute new ideas, skills, and processes to enhance the overall performance of contribution mentoring efforts.
You can find core mentors:
- In Drupal Slack
- Social media on Twitter
And at upcoming events:
- Florida DrupalCamp, 23-25 Feb 2024, Orlando FL, USA
- Mountain Camp, 7-10 Mar 2024, Davos, Switzerland
- MidCamp, 20-22 Mar 2024, Chicago IL, USA
- DrupalCon Portland, 6-9 May 2024, Portland OR, USA
- DrupalCon Barcelona, 24-27 Sep 2024, Barcelona, Spain
You can find the up-to-date roster of Drupal core mentoring coordinators in the MAINTAINERS.txt file within the most recent Drupal core distribution.
AmyJune currently works with the Linux Foundation as their Certification Community Architect. She is responsible for supporting the Certification team’s efforts in building and maintaining exams and related documentation for exam products in the Linux Foundation’s certification portfolio. She is a Drupal Mentor Coordinator, DrupalCamp organizer (Florida DrupalCamp, DrupalCamp Asheville, and MidCamp), and a CWG Community Health Team member. She serves on the board of the Colorado Drupal Association. AmyJune helps communities discover how they can contribute and belong in more ways than code. Her ability to eat with her elbows on the table has wowed the world.
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