For those of you who may not have heard, the Drupal Association is electing two new board members. You can read more about that at the Election 2013 page.

I participated in the first meet the candidates session. If you didn't have the chance to listen in my answers are available in text format and are posted below.

TL;DR - I want to be part of the DA Board because I want to help shape the future and growth of the community. Having worked with the DA in the past, through my organizational experience with CapitalCamp, I bring a different perspective that will help the overall governance of the DA. So please, vote for me!

(06:09:32) stevepurkiss: If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the Drupal Association, what would it be and why?
Drupal Camps and Cons generate a wealth of information that is spread out out over the various sites. Those who are new to Drupal are definitely not aware of all this great session material. The community needs to have a 'one stop shop' for all this great information. If I can point a new community member to a website with hundreds of videos about theming, I have drastically increased their ramp up speed. This is important for addressing the knowledge gap and growing the community as a whole.

(06:20:11) Senpai: QUESTION: How much money should the DA spend each year on furthering Drupal?
The Drupal Association exists to serve the Drupal community and every reasonable dollar should be spent on serving this goal. Budgeting and saving for the future are important aspects of this if the Drupal Association wants to continue going great work. My aim will be to keep administrative overhead low so that every dollar coming in works for the Drupal Community.
Followup Q: How much of that money should come from the users of Drupal vs sponsorships or advertising?
Funding should come from everywhere. A diversified income stream is a happy income stream. As long as the Drupal Association stays creative with fundraising the money should be accepted from whomever to keep the DA working for the community.

(06:29:23) KatteKrab: QUESTION: How would you help make the Drupal Association reach out to parts of the world that aren't yet active in our community? How can we be more international?
Drupal is a very international community, but how to do grow participation from under-represented areas. I had first heard about Drupal at school. My local Linux user group had been trying to get a website off the ground and we had been investigating the various open source CMS offerings. I think this is our grassroots base that we need to be engaging at a higher rate.

(06:35:32) dstol: QUESTION: What is your biggest annoyance with Drupal.Org currently? [the website]
I asked this question. In project context is lacking for maintainers. When I am making a commit I need to have three or four tabs open to be able to provide information in the commit message and then in the issue itself. I think there really needs to be a Drupal.Org power users mode.

(06:35:39) steveoliver: QUESTION: What role do you see for the DA in developing and/or certifying formalized Drupal training/testing?
While I think certification and trainings are a great way to fundraise, I do not think this is a good role for the Drupal Association. There are many Drupal Association member organizations who offer formalized trainings. It would not be appropriate for the DA to get started as a competitor to member organizations.

(06:43:41) beeradb_: QUESTION: What community leadership have you show that you think positions you well to be a community representative on the board?
I am:
* active Drupal evangelist
* popular module maintainer
* local Washington, DC community group organizer
* organizer of CapitalCamp
* occasional speaker at Drupal Camps
* hard working
* committed to improving and growing the Drupal community

(06:44:30) j_matthew_s: My question is related to Governance VS Operations at the DA. Where are the lines between what the Board should do vs Staff? For example - who should be directing mission vs strategic planning vs program management?
The Board sets the high level tone; values, mission, goals of the Drupal Association. Everything else should fall to the operational full time staff. However, as a Board member, I am still invested in the organization and willing to get my hands dirty, if I am asked. After all, this is a do-ocracy.

(06:45:07) joebachana: What is the greatest threat to the Drupal project today and what should the DA's role be in ameliorating/resolving that threat?
Drupal's biggest threat is not growing enough talent to keep up with the demands of the community. Who will be doing core development when they start burning out? Who will be our future community leaders? More strategically, if companies can't hire talented Drupal developers our growth as a community will start to shrink, as companies start to use other platforms.

(06:46:01) starl3n: Q: how do candidates define the Drupal 'community'? And, developers Vs users...
Everyone who uses Drupal. From project managers, users, developers. Anyone who interacts with Drupal in some minuscule way is a community member. Drupal 8 will do a great job of expanding the community to include more traditional PHP developers.

(06:48:42) beeradb_: QUESTION: If you weren't running, which of the other candidates do you think would be great for the board?
All the candidates are great and in talking with them more and more it makes my decisions even harder. I know that they all have some great ideas to help grow and improve the community. I am excited for the future of the Drupal Association.

Even if you don't vote for me, please do vote, it is important.

Tags: 

• Planet
• DA