This past week has been just amazing for me, and a real reminder of how incredible, huge and diverse the Joomla! community is.

Last Saturday, I was at the Joomla! Day New England organized by the Joomla! Users Group New England. The setting was beautiful and the group enthusiastic. I heard great talks by Ryan, Joe LeBlanc and Ken Crowder. I also got to lead my own discussion of how to get involved in various parts of the Joomla! project. Here's a link to my slides, though I'm more of a discussion person than a slide person. What we talked about is how so much of getting involved is just "showing up." This has been my experience in many different volunteer efforts, whether a neighbourhood group, a congregation, a school or an open source project: taking a deep breath, overcoming the fears that go with entering a group where everyone seems to know each other, and rolling up your selves is what it takes. It is, indeed scary, and it's true that in most things like this, there is no instruction book beyond "come in and grab a broom."

One person participating in the discussion was Bernice Singley (you can see her photo on the JUGNE site) who is a great example of this. Not many people know this, but Bernice comes up with the lists of new books for the Joomla! Book Store and has done so for several years. It was a need that the people running the shop had, and she stepped up and has been dong it ever since. She has made the book store a much more interesting and more lively resource. Bernice is definitely a doer and an unsung hero.

Then, on Sunday, we had a bug squash at the Marlboro Graduate Center.  About 10 people showed up from 10 to 2 for pizza, learning how the tracker works, learning how to use a subversion client and ... learning to make and apply patches! What a great time and an eager group. I know we have a number of new bug squad helpers coming from there. Some issues were fixed and pizza was eaten--it was a fun day.

Wednesday morning started bright and early for me sitting in a coffee shop and chatting in the "meet the team" IRC room. It was a small group, but we had a great conversation about topics ranging from the Joomla! ecosystem to how to get involved in the bug squad. This is the second of the chats I've participated in, and both times there have been lots of good comments and discussions. Thanks to Robert Deutz for being the driving force behind these events.

Last night (Thursday) topped off the week with the JUG NYC talking to 20 people about the status of 1.6, showing off some features, and again discussing ways to get involved in JBS and the help screen project. There were lots of great questions and I also got to hear a presentation about Microsoft's web platform installer and other open source initiatives.

What an amazing week. I hope you'll think about jumping in to participate in the project in a way that will be fun an make sense for you. And if you get a chance to meet other Joomla! people face to face, grab it.