Drupal Mentoring

Drupal Mentoring and mentors inspire, enable, and encourage new contributors. They also work on the core tools, process, and community to make it easier for new contributors to get involved.

Who are we?

Mentors are individuals from many different backgrounds (technical and non-coder ones as well). Each and every one of us participate in mentoring at organized Drupal events and naturally as we collaborate working with each other on the Drupal project.

The Drupal Mentoring team is a working group that supports mentors at daily bases, organizes follow-up activities and helps the Drupal Association to manage mentoring in the community. The mentoring coordinators and mentoring room leads give talks about their mentoring experience, motivate people to become mentors and step up to take roles at Drupal events, especially on Contribution days!

Mentors at DrupalCon Vienna 2017
Photo: DrupalCon Vienna 2017 Mentor Group Photo. RoySegall. https://www.flickr.com/photos/88908040@N08/37399545541.  CC-NC-SA-2.0. 2017.

What do we do?

Mentoring team believes the following principles:

  • Good mentors share what they know, how they know it, and are open about what they do not know. Being a good mentor does not mean knowing all the things. It is impossible for one person to know (or do) all the things. As a mentor, it is OK for you to ask for help. Or say "I don't know".
  • When new contributors learn, have fun, and can see a result of their work (a comment on an issue), then they are more likely to continue contributing at home, or attend another sprint.
  • Publicly speaking is one of our key to success: When someone speaks publicly, other people can learn from the conversation. And others overhearing it can clarify or correct anything, so that everyone can learn. Let's Open source our conversations!
  • And one of the most important thing to remember, for both mentors and contributors, is to have fun.

More about what do we do at Drupal events: Mentoring role page.

Mentors in actionMentor Kazu Hodota helping configure Drupal local environment at Drupal Europe

Photo (left): Mentors and novice contributors at DrupalCon Vienna. 2017. Amazee Labs. https://www.flickr.com/photos/amazeelabs/23586892148. 2017.
Photo (right): Mentor helping at Drupal Europe First Time Contributor Workshop. 2018. Attribution needed.

The team doesn't provide direct mentoring for contributors but mainly mentor mentors, coordinate, plan and administer mentoring activities.

How do we work?

The team organizes slack meetings every 2nd Wednesdays of each month at 8PM UTC on #mentoring-team channel and getting closer to the next DrupalCon it changes to 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. Under the Mentoring drupal project we always create an issue for the meeting, which provides the agenda and a meeting log, and gives credits to the ones who attended -- see our activities under https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/mentoring. Join us at DrupalCon by clicking Community, then Become a Contribution Mentor on the current DrupalCon web site!

Follow us on twitter @drupalmentoring!


Photo: Mentors wrapping up the day at Drupal Europe. 2018. Attribution needed.

How can I get involved?

  • Volunteer to mentor at an upcoming event.
  • Get in touch with us at our Slack meetings, or join the channel and help us bring Mentoring to a new level involving your experiences!
  • Stop by the Contribution Mentoring Booth at every DrupalCon where we plan the Contribution days.
  • We organize Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions and First timer workshops—Come and be part of us!
  • Learn more about contributing to the mentoring effort on the Contribute by Mentoring page in the Contributor Guide.
Contribute today! - Welcome booth at Drupal Europe
Photo: Welcoming contributors to Drupal Europe Contribution Day. 2018. Attribution needed.