Looking for Maintainers to Support First-Time Contributors

Do you remember your first contribution to open source? Or are you still waiting to make it?

Contributing to open source can be very rewarding, but also incredibly intimidating. When we asked about first time contributions on the rOpenSci Slack, people recalled the challenges and mistakes they made, but mostly how much they learned from and enjoyed that experience. For open source maintainers, contributions can also lead to mixed feelings, as reviewing contributions and making your repository contributor-friendly¹ can take time. Despite this, contributions can super helpful and mentoring contributors is rewarding!

Because of both the value and the challenge to both contributors and maintainers, we’re exited to announce a special series of activities to support first contributors to rOpenSci packages 🎉.

These activities consist of

• a Community Call “Making and Supporting First Time Contributions” (January 2025), and
• two 2-hour Coworking (mini-hack-a-thon) Sessions (January-March 2025)

Exact dates and times will depend on the availability of speakers and maintainers.

In the Community Call we’ll discus how maintainers can benefit from and support contributors, as well as how to go about making contributions and why you might want to.

In the coworking sessions rOpenSci staff will support rOpenSci package maintainers and contributors in making contributions. As a contributor, you can come to the coworking session to work with others or ask questions and you can continue to contribute throughout the week as part of this activity (of course you can continue to contribute afterwards as well).

If this sounds interesting, keep an eye on the Events page, our social media feeds on Mastodon and LinkedIn, or the rOpenSci Newsletter to hear when the dates are settled.

In the meanwhile we’re looking for some interested maintainers…

A call for maintainers

Because we want this to be an enjoyable and valuable experience for everyone, we want to solicit support from maintainers of rOpenSci packages. For each coworking mini-hack-a-thon, we’re looking for about 5 maintainers to support participants in making contributions to their packages.

However, we know that maintenance can be a challenge² and finding the time to support others can also be difficult. That’s why we’re happy to announce that we have funding³ to offer a stipend to maintainers who participate.

To participate, we ask that maintainers fill out the application form (below) by Nov 24th, 2024⁴.

Then, if participating, we ask that maintainers

• Work with rOpenSci staff to pick dates/times for the coworking events which best work for everyone.
• Create and/or identify issues in your rOpenSci repository as ‘Help wanted’ and ‘Good first issue’. These can range from documentation to coding changes. We just ask that some issues are relatively accessible to contributors with less experience.
• Attend one of the Coworking sessions to be available to offer advice or answer questions.
• Have some availability before and after the Coworking event to respond via GitHub and Slack to issues, comments, or PRs which may arise from contributors outside of the two-hour coworking slot.

If you participate, you can also expect that

• We will connect with you before the events to find a date/time for the coworking sessions and see if you have any questions regarding issue-labelling or the coworking sessions.
• We will be available to support you during the Coworking sessions on Zoom, as well as on GitHub, Slack, or by email before and after.
• You will receive a $200 USD stipend to help offset the time you spend teaching and mentoring these new contributors.

Interested in participating?

Please fill out an application form by Nov 24th, 2024.

Note: We understand that without dates/times, you can’t fully commit to being available, but once we know who is interested in participating, we will try to find a time that works for everyone!

Want to contribute to Open Source Software?

Great! These events are designed to support first time contributors, but any and all contributors are welcome! Stay tuned for more announcements about the Community Call date and dates of the Coworking sessions. Once we know which maintainers will be participating we’ll have a better idea of exactly when things will happen.

And remember, although these Coworking sessions will be a great time to participate, you can also make contributions asynchronously in the week around the event, or any other time by checking out issues on our Help Wanted page.

Resources

• Blog: Communication & Collaboration with Contributors in an Open-Source Organization
• Blog: What Does It Mean to Maintain a Package?
• Blog: Maintain or Co-Maintain an rOpenSci Package!
• Blog: Attract Contributors with ‘help wanted’ Issues
• Community Call: Set Up Your Package to Foster a Community