How it started…
After the RedwoodJS v0.1 public announcement in March of 2020, we were blown away by the response — people from all over the world quickly began contributing to the project. The conversation between myself and the other three co-founders went something like this:
“Who are these amazing people? We have to meet them and say thank you!”
And that’s how the first Contributors Meetup came to be (we called it the Core Community back then). Since then, we’ve consistently hosted each month, inviting new community members to meet others who are also enthusiastic about Redwood and want to help make it even better. So far we’ve had about 80 individuals attend at least one of these gatherings. Everyone who’s currently on the Core Team started by attending regularly.
Helping each other be successful
The primary goal for these virtual gatherings is building relationships and finding ways to offer and ask for help. We believe that by helping each other be successful with Redwood, we will make Redwood Successful.
So the first Thursday of each month, we host a loosely held invite-only to anyone who’s excited about using/contributing/exploring Redwood regardless of background and experience. And an average of about 10-15 people attend, both first-timers and regulars.
Once someone attends a Contributors Meetup, they’re a part of the group forever. No requirements or expectations. Just ongoing invitation to participate. There are private channels for Contributors so they can continue conversation from the meetups within a smaller group. They are added to the Contributors Groups here and on Discord.
Anyone can be invited (regardless of background or experience)…
There’s no magic behind who is invited. It’s often just folks who are being awesome in the virtual forums or chat, getting stoked about Redwood on social media or blog posts, helping update docs, or contributing code. The common theme is that they’ve indicated (mostly by action) that they’ve come to stick around for a awhile.
But there is a bottleneck — me. Since the beginning, I wanted this to be a personal invitation following a personal thank you. I’ve sent (goes to check Gmail) a lot of emails. I’ve kept lists of lists about people to invite, people to re-invite, who’s emails I can’t find so I tried a DM on Twitter… well, you get the point. I’ve missed people who should have been invited. Which is the worst part of all.
So, as of this post, I’m doing a better job communicating one of the most important ways people can take a step further into this project; come to a Contributors Meetup! You’ll still need to be invited, but it’s now possible for anyone on the Core Team to extend invites.
…Here’s how
Update June 2022
Registration is now open to everyone. If you would like to attend, please register for the ongoing event series via Lu.ma
Want to receive an invite? Odds are we’ll reach out to you (if we have a way to connect, like Forum DM). But you can always start by letting us know you’re interested. Just say so! Better yet, reach out to a Core Team member and ask if it’s possible. (Some advice: just one member is good enough. Please don’t hit up several at once.) You might be brand new and not receive an immediate “yes”, but at a minimum you’ll have someone help you get plugged in so you can demonstrate (by your participation over time) that you’re interested in sticking around for awhile.
And you can always reach out to me directly by DM. Anytime. I’m here to answer your questions and help you find a next step, whatever that next step may be.
“By helping others be successful, we make Redwood successful.” This is our jam. If it’s your jam, too, we can’t wait to meet you at a future Contributors Meetup 