My background and history with Drupal:
I've got a long history with Drupal stretching back to 2012.
I've worked in Government in roles such as content, development, theming, DevOps and team lead. Continuing from there, I spent some time with GovCMS during their on-boarding and migration to Lagoon - spending some time in the service provider space, still gearing towards a shift to infrastructure and really embracing technologies that have continued to serve me well since.
After government, I had the opportunity to spend some time with PreviousNext and Skpr, focusing more on infrastructure, DevOps and more niche Drupal issues, before making a complete shift to infrastructure at amazee.io. Here and presently, I am focused squarely on infrastructure, but my experience at every layer of this story is proving to be a continual advantage as I am able to help out so many more people across the community and company.
Over my time as part of this community, I've been on a slow and steady path to be committing more time to supporting people (most often developers), and communities. I continue to engage with the broader community, and I am working hard on a little project I will be unveiling next year that will be in service of the global community, and of course DrupalSouth. I won't spoil that surprise yet though.
Having been engaged with the DrupalSouth community and the steering committee regularly for some time the outcome of this nomination will not hamper my existing commitments to volunteer, and to get involved with the committee or community.
Why I'm running as a candidate:
I feel like I am a good candidate and I'd like to contribute more to the community that has been so life-changing to me. Doing my part to making our events and community as great as it can be. You could also say that I am doing this because my heart is in it, and I genuinely don't have any motive other than to be more involved with the process.
That said, my involvement with the Steering Committee to date has been somewhat limiting as I'm not part of the Committee presently - but I try to support them where-ever possible.
I would like to achieve more transparency in the management of community data, for example ensuring that data is available, volunteers, organisers and speakers are attributed credits. This contributes to a grand plan I have, which I can't tell you more about yet, but keep an eye out for a future talk.
Why you should vote for me:
I do not know who else is being nominated, and I genuinely believe there will be good competition. We are going to be in a good position with each of the nominees - I believe that.
It's something of a selfish question, but I have thought about this, and here is my answer:
You should vote for me because it's the next logical step in my volunteering and involvement with the committee and the community, and I am here, absolutely, for the community. I have plans to do some fun things with data, and I am well enough known and liked - I think - that I would be a good use of the time and commitment to the community.
In spite of all of this, my commitment to the committee is not dependent on being elected. I will continue my good work regardless, and I will see you again very soon.
Gender:
Male
Anything else voters should know?
I'm quite sure you know me well enough at this point, but I am always open to discussion. If you're so inclined, please flick me a DM on Slack if you have any questions, comments or even complaints - I love to hear them all in the spirit of continual, self-improvement. I will try to address them all, and they may help to inform decisions in the future.