Keen observers may have noted various signs since the last Drupal Association elections that the organization is growing up.

Maybe the earliest hint came right after the elections to the General Assembly. The announcement of the election results was written and posted by George DeMet, who was himself one of those elected just one day earlier.

If the early Association leaned on an existing inner circle, change was afoot.

Keen observers may have noted various signs since the last Drupal Association elections that the organization is growing up.

Maybe the earliest hint came right after the elections to the General Assembly. The announcement of the election results was written and posted by George DeMet, who was himself one of those elected just one day earlier.

If the early Association leaned on an existing inner circle, change was afoot.

Soon afterwards came the hiring of Jacob Redding as interim General Manager. A group that had always relied on overcommitted volunteers was putting new resources in place.

A strategic retreat in April focused solidly on organizational capacity. Yes, getting things done is the aim, but to get there we've got some building to do.

The process for planning and deciding DrupalCon locations was further opened up to the community. Thanks to followup on the strategic retreat, the Association drafted new Mission and Purpose statements. More recently there was even the announcement of a town hall meeting to share information about the Association and invite responses.

All of these changes signalled an organization increasingly focused on engaging with its community, reaching out, welcoming both established contributors and newcomers into new roles, and increasing its own capacity.

But we say in the Drupal community, talk is silver, code is gold.

The decisive sign came this week, with the successful launch of the largest project the Association has ever undertaken: the ground-up redesign of drupal.org.

As the acknowledgement of key redesign contributors shows, getting the redesign done took focus and determination from both our longstanding community leaders and newcomers. It took drawing in hosts of volunteers and at the same time knowing what work should be done by paid contractors. It took decisiveness to make major investments on behalf of the community (in the past we'd often hesitated to make expenditures for tasks that could be done by volunteers). It took the ability to manage many simultaneous sub-projects. It took the courage and skill to evaluate and revise cherished Drupal icons and renew them, maintaining continuity while moving forward.

In short, it took the full capacity of an organization growing into a new level of maturity.

The Association first formed around a core of the most committed and active Drupal contributors. It was a group with an amazing level of skill and proven dedication and most of those individuals have remained key both in the Association's work and in the broader Drupal community. But it was also a group heavily dominated by developers and by indivuals already stretched by many commitments.

With each round of elections, the circle expanded. We began to attract and welcome people with skills and interests in new areas: accounting, event planning, project management, legal issues, communications. These new members and directors took their place alongside the existing leaders, filling in key gaps in knowledge and capacity.

We've got plenty of challenges ahead. With Drupal's exponential growth comes a host of new needs. How do we address those needs while holding onto the values that attracted us to Drupal in the first place? It could be a bit of a wild ride ahead.

But if the past year is any indication, we're at least getting some key factors right. With our strengthened focus on open communication and capacity building, including professional staff, we're coming of age and ready for new challenges.

The amazing new drupal.org is a sign of change afoot. Holding firm to our core beliefs and strengths while moving confidently forward--signs are that it's more than our core website that's being renewed.