There has been some effort to rebrand contributions sprints as contribution day to increase accessibility to non-technical folks who might be willing to help out. Last year, contribution day had pretty low attendance and many of our camp volunteers were pretty burned out by Sunday.

There is a proposal that we eliminate the extra day for contribution and find some way to work contribution into the camp itself.

Here are some options for contribution day/sprints:

1) We continue with a contribution day on Sunday, but do a better job of promoting it. Work harder to have some dedicated projects and recruit more out of town sprinters.

2) We integrate contribution into the camp itself. Designate a contribution room and schedule informal sessions (more like a BOF than a presentation) to help people with different contribution tasks:

  • Documentation
  • Community contribution
  • Usability
  • Contrib projects
  • Intro to contribution

3) We eliminate contributions sprints all together. Naturally, anyone can hang out and contribute anytime during camp, but that we don't schedule any special venue, time, or programming.

Do we have any other ideas of how we might handle contribution at camp this year?

Please share your own thoughts on the value that contribution sprints bring to the camp and whether or not you think that they should be a priority?

Comments

stpaultim created an issue. See original summary.

stpaultim’s picture

stpaultim commented
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eojthebrave’s picture

eojthebrave
he/him
Primary language English
Location Minneapolis, MN
commented

I enjoy attending the contribution sprints. Though find that without having something specific planned in advance to work on that they're not very productive for me and I end up just socializing more than anything. The years that have felt the most productive are definitely the ones where we've done the work to identify topics to sprint on in advance, and done the work to make sure there are plenty to tasks for people to work on the day of. As well as those where I've been able to help with first time sprinter workshops and/or mentoring.

I'm also personally okay with eliminating Sunday from the schedule. I'm usually pretty burnt out by then, and given everything else I've got going on right now the day to recover before going back to work seems nice.

Another option would be to do something like 1/2 day session 1/2 day sprinting on Saturday. Though this would still require some topic/planning in order for it to be productive. Maybe even more so as it's 1/2 the amount of time.

jerdavis’s picture

jerdavis
Location Minneapolis, MN
commented

The option I was interested in last year was to have Saturday be more of an un-conference with a large component being about the contribution sprint/day. I figured we'd try to have some sort of introductory training, and mentoring and have folks working on that who were interested. Others could gather un-conference style for BOFs and such.

With that type of agenda and the folks who end up coming to Saturday (by and large) perhaps we take it a step farther from contribution sprint and instead of calling it contribution day we call it community day? Or something along those lines. The content could be focused around the global and local community and contributing to the project through code, documentation, participation, etc.

Thoughts?

That aside, i'd be on board with figuring out a half day thing on Saturday and forgoing Sunday.

minneapolisdan’s picture

minneapolisdan commented

I'd like to see if we can hold sprints on Saturday, and eliminate Sunday from the schedule. I also want to see if we can encourage more sessions this year, as part of bringing in new voices, and therefore NOT reduce the number of sessions we offer.

Half-day sessions, half-day sprinting is a good idea, we'd just have to work out how the hours would split. Given that few people attend the 9:30am Saturday sessions, a morning/afternoon split may be tricky. Let me spitball some options:

1) Sprint on Saturday morning, 9am-12pm, sessions from 1pm-5pm. People have to option to continue sprinting all day. BOFs available Sat morning if wanted. Catered lunch onsite.
2) Sessions on Saturday morning, 10am-1pm, and 2pm-5pm. Sprint on Thu, concurrent with training day, or on Sunday as before.
3) Sessions Thu and Friday, training and sprints on Saturday

jerdavis’s picture

jerdavis
Location Minneapolis, MN
commented

Another option for Saturday would be to orient the content selections for that day to be more niche or hobbyist friendly topics to match the folks who might show up on Saturday. We could run contribution day concurrent to that, all day and have a few session rooms (like 2 or 3 instead of 4 or 5) going at the same time. I'd suggest we build in larger centralized full-camp conversations in the middle of that to bring everyone together too. I'm not sure how to describe what I have in my head....

Here's an attempt at a crazy outline...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OxaoF-kKIz6DQoowAB5PwumeSqLxYsXt...

stpaultim’s picture

stpaultim commented

Premise: That it's been hard for local volunteers to sustain sufficient energy and time to participate in a Sunday (day 4) contribution event at Drupal Camp. But, that we really want to keep "contribution" front and center in our camp. How do we manage that?

My current thinking towards contribution at Twin Cities Drupal Camp this year is the following:

1) That we have space available for contribution throughout the camp.

2) That on Friday and Saturday, we have a contribution table staffed with volunteers who are able to answer questions about contribution and help people figure out how they can best contribute to Drupal. Maybe even help them set a goal for something they would like to do to help Drupal.

3) Rather than spend the camp trying to convince people to come to sprints on Sunday, we try to get everyone to stop by the contribution table (on Friday and Saturday) and ask how they can contribute to Drupal and get some tips on how to get started.

4) We encourage people to use the Unconference on Saturday to talk about contribution, connect with like-minded individuals, and discuss initiatives. Space will be available for contribution on that day as well.

5) We schedule a one day contribution event about 3-4 weeks after camp and offer this as an opportunity for people to reconnect and come back with any questions or progress reports on how they are contributing (Possible date: Saturday July 13th)

wylbur’s picture

wylbur commented

Here's another take on Contribution: Let's spin this off as a Fall activity, and pick a day, and announce that at Camp. We can just outboard it, and then really pour some energy into it.

We give it credibility, and attention, but we just move it to another time.

Perfect timing would be a Saturday in late October, and hope for crappy weather.
Saturday October 26th - the weekend after MEA, well after Fall colors.

We could coordinate with other groups, and have Contrib Day North, with Iowa, Chicago, Montreal. Concurrent co-locations with video feeds.

I'm fully on board with this and pledge to lead this if it happens!

stpaultim’s picture

stpaultim commented

@wylbur - not sure if you proposing a modification of my proposal, where we plan some activities during camp, but postpone an official sprint/contribution day until fall (I had suggested July). I think there is some potential here.

Or if you are suggesting that we generally table the conversation about contribution completely until a later day.

In your proposal, how is contribution dealt with at camp this year (if at all)?

jerdavis’s picture

jerdavis
Location Minneapolis, MN
commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed - issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.