This article is the next part in our series about recent changes at the Drupal Association. I'll be focusing on what these changes mean for the Engineering team and the impact that will have on the work we're doing for the Drupal Community.

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.

Thank you, to everyone who participated in our 2016 certificate campaign. We sent a personalized certificate to everyone who joined or renewed their Association membership. We also asked members to help boost our outreach by encouraging others to join or renew. These contributions matter. The funds you helped raise support the Association’s work, and your goodwill inspires us. Whether you became a member for the first-time, renewed, or took the time to share, you made the campaign a success.

There are so many amazing companies in the Drupal universe contributing their time and resources to the community and project right now. They’re taking the initiative to encourage their employees to contribute code. They’re sharing what they've learned while trying to provide clients with superior digital experiences. They’re donating their time to provide educational content to the community. And they’re doing a lot of it through their own internal operations.

Drupal was at OSCON 2016 in Austin, TX, represented by a team of volunteers and Association staff members. Big thanks to Mika Aguilar, Stephanie El-Hajj, Michael Favia, Jeff Linwood, Michal Minecki, Emilie Nouveau, Cole Pacak, Jakob Perry, Ed Reel, Patricia Silva, and Jason Yee for helping out.

Thanks to the media partnership between DrupalCon and O'Reilly Media, we received a table in the exhibit hall to promote Drupal to the wider open source audience of OSCON. Here is how the days went, according to our volunteer crew:

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.

My first day on the job, I got on an airplane and flew to Australia to attend DrupalCon Sydney. As first days on the job go, that’s gotta be up there as one of the best. It definitely set the tone for life in the Drupal community - it’s been an exciting adventure every single day. I’ve traveled around the world, worked with incredibly smart people, and learned four or five Git commands (thanks Cathy!).

Today we begin our first membership campaign of the year. It’s all about making your contribution official with a personalized certificate of membership.

In our 4th year of running this campaign, we hope that you will help us by either joining the Drupal Association or by letting others know about this opportunity. Members who join or renew from now through June 30 will be sent a certificate. Our goal is to send 675 certificates, which is a 10% increase from last year’s final count.