One of the more daunting things we encounter in open source development is getting enough people to regularly contribute. To be sustainable, we need to encourage new contributors to participate.
To that end, we seek to engage new contributors and experienced developers alike to participate in mentoring. Mentoring provides participants with direction and encouragement to help them find their way.
This session is for anyone who would like to learn more about the Drupal mentoring program, mentoring in open source in general, how to mentor new contributors, or how to organize their own sprints. We will cover tools available to mentors, documentation, and practical techniques for mentoring newcomers. We will include strategies for how to:
- Make sure people feel welcome
- Match tasks to participants
- Keep people engaged even when they struggle
- Help without being overbearing
- Answer questions even if you do not know the answer
- Enable folks to continue afterward on their own.
