We normally share  our financial statements in posts about public board meetings, since that is the time when board members approve the statements. However, I wanted to give this quarter’s update its own blog post. We’ve made many changes to improve our sustainability over the last few months and I am fully embracing our value of communicating with transparency by giving insight into our progress.

Today we held the last Board meeting of the year. We met virtually via Zoom and covered two important topics. The first one was a presentation by Angie Byron, who serves on the Technical Advisory Committee. She gave an update on the group’s current tooling study along with next steps, which will include a community blog post where members can provide input on the various tool options being studied.

On September 28, 2016, The Drupal Association board hosted a public board meeting during DrupalCon Dublin. It was wonderful to connect with the community in person to share updates and answer questions.

Over the last few months, we provided an update on The Association’s current focus followed by department-specific updates. This board meeting shared highlights of specific areas including:

Our mission is to unite the community to build and promote Drupal. As I mention in my blog post, now that Drupal 8 is out, our focus is to put more energy into the “Promote Drupal” portion of the mission.

Drupal 8 creates many opportunities for organizations worldwide to build something amazing for complex web solutions, mobile, SaaS, the Internet of Things, and so much more. The Drupal Association is reorganizing to help create these opportunities.

After five and a half years of serving the Drupal community as a Drupal Association staff member, I’m honored (and thrilled!) to step into the Executive Director role. This community is magical. Your generosity, kindness, and drive to create something meaningful together inspire me every day. Drupal 8 is destined for success, because each drop of code captures this ethos.

What’s the most clever way to raise funds for Drupal? Ask Ralf Hendel of Comm Press in Hamburg Germany.

The Drupal Association is working with the Drupal 8 branch maintainers to provide $250,000 in Drupal 8 Acceleration Grants that will be awarded to individuals and groups, helping them get Drupal 8 from beta to release.

It was the best of shows, it was the worst...no wait. That’s not right. DrupalCon 2014 was just great and there are always new learnings to make it better.

Last year, DrupalCon really hit its stride, especially in Europe. We have already produced one of three great DrupalCons in 2015, so before we get further into the year, I’d like to summarize what happened with DrupalCon in 2014. More posts will come to highlight our 2015 DrupalCon planning so there is more transparency into our team’s work.

While we know there are over 33,000 Drupal developers around the globe, I had no idea how strong Drupal was in India until I was there with Rachel Friesen, scouting locations for a possible DrupaCon Asia. By meeting with the community at camps, meetups, and dinners, we saw first hand how strongly India is innovating with Drupal and contributing back to the Project.

DrupalCon is an important community event that brings a diverse group of Drupalers together under one roof to share knowledge, grow skills, and strengthen community bonds. As an organization, it is very rewarding to facilitate these experiences around the world.