New to the Joomla Community? Join a session to get settled in!

Starting a new initiative is always an adventure: will people turn up? Will it be a success? Sigrid Gramlinger, Joomla's Production Department Coordinator, started the New to Joomla sessions a couple of months ago, to welcome new people and help them find their way in the Joomla Community. How is this going, and how can you join? Read all about it!

Thanks for joining us in this interview, Sigrid! As the Production Department Coordinator, you started the New to the Joomla Community sessions. Why?

As an active member of the Joomla community I noticed that people join the communication channel in Mattermost and they did not really know where to go. There were questions about how to become a member of the community and where to find people.

I wanted to create a safe space so that - not only new - people can ask questions about how the project works. We already have a channel called “Ask OSM anything” but for that you have to know what OSM stands for. 

At the moment of writing, four editions of the sessions have taken place. How is it going?
Quite well, I would say. There are always a few new people joining and also long-time members from different teams. 

I have hosted three of the sessions, Phil Walton hosted the last one, as I was not available. Phil also reported back, 

How does it work? What do people have to do to join?

The online sessions take place every 15th of the month at 3pm UTC as a Google Meet session and the duration is one hour.

Usually we post a reminder in the “New to Joomla” channel on Mattermost. I also try to invite new people joining the Town Square channel, with a private message. We offer to add them to the Google calendar entry as a reminder.

Every session starts with a presentation about the community and the structure of OSM including the volunteers portal, different teams and the release cycle.

And what is really important, we have an introduction round after that where every person is invited to introduce themselves.That is where the magic happens :-) and the networking and chatting starts.

If you want to join the sessions, this article may be helpful: https://magazine.joomla.org/all-issues/april-2024/finding-your-way-in-the-joomla-community

What’s happening in terms of outcome? Did you have any goals for the sessions?

The feedback so far was that people did not know about the structure of OSM, they did not know what the “full board” is or how the departments work or when you are an official “member”.

The main goal was to connect to new people, to see what their needs are, to invite them to become active members and maybe even join a team.

However, I don’t want the sessions to have the impression, you have to sign up to a team afterwards.

I want them to be a welcoming event, to get to know each other, to lower the barriers to ask questions, and to keep people around.

Did anything unexpected happen? Any pleasant surprises, maybe?

In the very first session, there were some people who had already attended JoomlaDays but they did not know the structure of Open Source Matters and that this is the organization behind Joomla. I think we often expect people to know how the structure works, but many people don’t. 

Who should join the New to the Joomla Community Sessions?

Anybody who is new in Mattermost, but you don’t have to be on Mattermost.

Anybody who is interested in meeting other community members.

Anybody who wants to know how the Joomla project works.

Anybody who has questions about Joomla but doesn’t know where to find answers.

If you are not on Mattermost, just send me an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I am happy to invite you to the next meeting.