 Hello, it's Rachel Lawson here again with the next of our community chats for the Drupal Association elections 2020 and this week I'm with Imra over in the Netherlands. Hello Imra, how are you? Hi Rachel, I'm good, thank you. Thanks for having me in this interview and I'm very grateful to be part again in the board elections on the community elected board member so thank you. It's great to have you, we are so lucky that we have 10 actually really incredible candidates. Yes I do. I'm going to be really happy whoever wins so as far as I'm coming from we're already there you know. So I was just trying to think actually back when we first met I can't remember it's like we've always been there. Yes so that is the same for me and I think I mean it was around Drupal County London 2012 I believe something. Oh my god yeah it could be. So yeah it feels like feels like a long time but I think somewhere around that time. Wow yeah it just seems so long ago now so much has happened since then and you know the world has changed and everything and you know so Drupal County London you know that nearly didn't happen because there was rioting in the actual street where the conference centre was two weeks before. Ah there was all right yeah I did we did not notice at all so we had a great time anyways. Yeah it was good we had a really good time I remember that it was a good place yeah. So I thought you know get us together and similar to the other candidate chats that we've been doing just ask a few questions find out more about you so that people know who to vote for and so on and I thought I'd start with something that I know is very close to your heart because you've evolved in many different ways and that's around building community. Do you want to tell us what that means to you and how you get involved? Yeah so I think you know from day one I've been advocating about our community and you know the passion that is in the Drupal community you know I for one as a person I'm a very strong believer in like socially sustainable ecosystems right in like sharing as opposed to a licensing model or proprietary thing so I'm very fond of that and Drupal is a very powerful example of how that sort of thing can become great so this is one and I for one I'm very strong about connecting people around that concept and around things that we do and I noticed that actually rubs off on people you know when I meet new people whether it be journalists or clients or maybe new talent and developers you know when you start telling when we start telling about our story and the things that we do it starts to rub off on them and you know they actually some of them are actually they join they purchase Drupal they adopt Drupal and I think that's a magical thing so that's for me is building community you know holding on to our own but also expanding and growth and I'm very much in that latter part and that's really interesting and in fact actually it sounds like what you do is you take that community that we have and bring it out and you're talking about Drupal all the time which almost leads into my next question which is around advocating for Drupal so what can you tell me about that what can you talk about how you see how we advocate for Drupal now and maybe in the future yeah you're on the board yeah so I've you know I've been in roles advocating Drupal professionally for the bigger part of my life that includes larger agencies you know even even like thousand or so co-workers advocating Drupal within our company as well as you know two outsiders also expanding the role for the development teams you know I've been like like a Drupal evangelist on that part and also I'm very proud of my you know my role taking part in getting one of the largest ports in the world uh run Drupal and there were many factors involved many people were involved but you can feel it when you tell someone your highest truth you know when it comes from your heart you are touching others right whether it's marketing managers or contract managers or content editors and I find this so empowering so that is that is to me about advocating for Drupal now as for the future I think there is a big challenge that we as a community but also the Drupal Association has is is advocating Drupal internally right so so from the community towards the Drupal Association and vice versa advocating amongst ourselves so I think there is a big challenge for us to you know you need to have people that are willing to you know keep keep you know keep the developers and the development community going and get get the talking off their backs and have others do the talking and I'm you know this is something that I'm good at and I'm willing to help and relay what's happening within our community and the needs that it has towards the DA and vice versa I like it yeah sounds good so it sounds like you you're coming at this from a position of lots of experience and so it sounds like that's something that's worth describing so can you tell us about board positions that you've held in the past or maybe still holding and what you're learning from those that applies to the Drupal Association board yeah so um so I've been part of the the board of our our own region like the Dutch Drupal Association for I think since 2013 I've been chair of the board for the past few years and I think much of the challenges that we have happening worldwide and we have happening in other region I mean it's the same with us maybe on a smaller scale right so I think one of the things that is you know that happened just that was just that was just happening a few days ago that was that was happening around the you know the the voting and and the the the membership commitment that you need to have for that right that's happening like on a global scale and the discussion that is happening around that is something that we you know that we see in our country too and that we have to deal with as a board in our country as well it's much similar it's actually actually the same but we do it on a smaller scale if you will so yeah I think that that that the things that we can that I that I that I learned from our region or you know the European region and the countries that I've been working in could help me you know convey the feelings and the and the you know the ways of looking at things towards the board and vice versa so that is where I will be looking to to help add my experience to the board that'd be really useful cool okay so as we talked to the staff we've been we've both seem to have been here for quite a while doing Drupal and learning any particular favorite memories from that time or so many it's you know it's I of course you know you'll there's too many to choose from if I were to pick a few I mean you know the Drupal cons have been great obviously it was great to you know I was part of of a smaller shop Clemson at the time of Drupal Communic which turned out into into Wunderkraut at the time that was that was a wonderful moment I remember having Dries in our office even before that I think it was 2008 and it you know I was still able to call him on a cell so I mean that was I'm very proud of that that you know that that could still happen at that time I mean he's still approachable but I don't expect him to answer my my call when I when I ring him on a cell another moment I mean a great one was was was Drupal Jam our camp last year which peaked at around 500 attendees and we had a great show two days also business involved so that that is that was a great one obviously you know Drupal Con Amsterdam last year the way I was I was taking part in that also the track team and the splash awards that was great so those are those are moments that definitely stand out yeah fantastic great thing about the splash awards though is that you know that is and that's something that goes to my heart where there's you know there's our development community or community that we that we are all part of standing you know shoulder to shoulder with clients on stage you know being proud of the of the common work that we do and that is building a community for me yeah that common yeah working together so it's not just because someone builds Drupal it's because they're consuming it as well and making use of it and changing the world with it yeah exactly and all those users users out there like content editors and marketers from the clients that we you know that we help with Drupal that we bring them in and say hey you know you're already part of the community you just in no way and now you're on stage with us so be welcome that that is a really interesting way of looking at that I think that's something we should do more yeah I mean I know that yeah as a team you know whether you're a developer or whether you're a designer I mean you're proud if you have your client next to you know taking in that that you know that spotlight brilliant I really should ask at this point if you have anything of any topic that you want to add to this uh but that might be of interest to the electrode well um we talked about I mean I think that we have a challenge ahead for us for us all and you know a challenge for that for the DA is also a challenge for all of us in a way so I think that is crucial in the coming months in the coming year you know to to keep our community united and together um you know and I think is a challenge to focus on internal advocacy as well and when I say internal I mean you know within our community and there is a great lineup of candidates I mean everyone is great like you said but I would call upon ourselves to find people like you Rachel that cross gaps between different kinds of people you know because both um you know towards you know inside our community as well as outsiders because I truly believe that is crucial um you know if you want to to to grow Drupal and to come out stronger that we have those those gap crosses well you'd be glad to know that we have a Drupal booth at the open up summit in a couple of weeks good good yeah brilliant okay well thank you very much Imran thank you absolutely the best of luck for the next few weeks and see until we see what happens and we will see I look forward to speaking with you again soon same here thank you very much