Members of the Drupal community who want to contribute their time to improving the software or documentation are sometimes overwhelmed by trying to figure out how to get started. If you have some experience contributing, you can help others get started by becoming a mentor, either on-line or in person.

Where and when to mentor

  • Ad-hoc mentoring often happens in instant messaging tools, such as Slack (sign up, then join channel(s) #contribute or #documentation to mentor others) and DrupalChat.me (sign up, then join channel(s) #general to mentor others).
  • The Discover Drupal program, which aims to unlock opportunities for people who have been underrepresented in the open source community, needs mentors who can make a weekly commitment to meet with a student for several months while they complete their coursework.
  • Coordinated mentoring happens at events, many of which have contribution days. Check the Finding events page for event listings.
  • If you want to plan a mentored contribution event, see the Organizing Contribution Events documentation section.

Staying in contact with other mentors

Mentor issues, tag, queues

Tasks and Roles in this area

Community Tools Lead for Mentoring (Contributor role)
Make sure mentors are aware of contribution tools and how to install them
Duration:
several hours
Discover Drupal mentor (Contributor role)
Share your experience and expertise with an underrepresented student in the Discover Drupal program
Duration:
ongoing
DrupalCon Scholarship Program Mentor (Contributor role)
Publicize and select the recipient of scholarships to DrupalCon attendees
Duration:
several weeks
DrupalCon Track Chair Lead (Contributor role)
Coordinate the Drupal Track Chairs to determine the speakers at DrupalCon
Duration:
several weeks
DrupalCon Volunteer Coordinator (Contributor role)
Oversees everyone who has volunteered to help at DrupalCon and assigns them to available tasks
Duration:
several weeks
First time contributor workshop lead (Contributor role)
Prepare and run the first time contributor workshops
Duration:
several hours
Greeter (Contributor role)
Welcome and direct contributors to the appropriate contribution space at Drupal events.
Duration:
several hours
Major issue triage lead (Contributor role)
Recruit mentors and train them on how to triage major Drupal Core issues
Duration:
several days
Mentor (Contributor role)
Inspire, enable, and encourage new core contributors. Work on the core tools and process for mentoring
Duration:
several hours
Mentor Communications Lead (Contributor role)
Coordinate communications with volunteer mentors for an event
Duration:
several weeks
Mentored Contribution Event Planning Lead (Contributor role)
Coordinate a contribution event
Duration:
several weeks
Mentoring booth lead (Contributor role)
Set up the mentoring booth at a DrupalCon, and coordinate volunteers for booth time
Duration:
several days
Mentoring coordinator (Contributor role)
Coordinate mentoring activities across the Drupal project and community
Duration:
ongoing
Mentoring room lead (Contributor role)
Support mentors at a contribution event
Duration:
several hours
Novice issue triage lead (Contributor role)
Recruit volunteers to triage novice issues for a mentored contribution event
Duration:
several days
Recruit new Mentoring Coordinator (Contributor task)
Recruit further mentoring coordinators to help lead the mentors
Duration:
several weeks
Triage Novice issues and tasks (Contributor task)
Choose issues and tasks for a novice contribution event
Duration:
several hours
Write or review a Contributor Skill page (Contributor task)
Fill in the details for a skeleton Contributor Skill page, or review one
Duration:
20 minutes

Skills used

There are tasks and roles in this area that require these skills:

Drupal site administration
Updating site configuration, managing content, managing user accounts
Editing (English)
(needs review) Editing and proofreading English text
Event planning
(needs details) Planning events, including DrupalCons, DrupalCamps, and mentoring events
Local development environment installation
Setting up a local development environment for Drupal sites
Mentoring
Build confidence in novices by helping novices complete relevant tasks
Teaching/Training
(needs review) Ability to teach skills or tasks to others in a group or classroom setting
Technical writing (English)
Ability to communicate well about technical topics in written English
Using Git
(needs details) Applying patches, making patches, using branches and tags
Wrangling volunteers
(needs review) Recruiting volunteers to help with an event or other project

Help improve this page

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Need help deciding how to contribute?

Visit the Community landing page to learn more about the Drupal community, or start at the top of the Contributor Guide to find roles and tasks organized by skills and community areas.

Need help completing a task?

Check out the Getting help with contributing section.