Preparations for Global Sprint Weekend March 9 and 10

snapshot:

Preparation

Sprints will welcome people. Preparing ahead of time is optional, but can help people get the most out of the experience.

• The first lessons on the Drupal Ladder are good for ramping up.
• Create an account on http://drupal.org
• Install irc. Even in person, irc is super helpful during a sprint to share links and it's a good chance to get practice with irc that will be helpful after the sprint. Since contributing to Drupal is addictive, sprinters love to keep doing it. It's also useful for people who cannot get to a sprint in person.
• Set up a local development environment (WAMP, MAMP, LAMP, etc.)
• Install git.
• Use git to get Drupal and install it locally.
• Run tests locally. If they do not all pass locally, or you have trouble getting something set up, try a search to see if there are instructions for setting up drupal on your specific system, or a solution for the error you are getting. If no solution is found, open an issue on drupal.org and tag it d8 dev environment.
• Warm up for the sprint by attending Core Office Hours any Tuesday 02:00 UTC or Wednesday 16:00 UTC in #drupal on irc.
• Watch webchick's Sydney session on contributing. I love the stick figure part that talks about using the Drupal issue queue.

On the day(s)

I find sprints exhilarating. I'm so looking forward to the day!

• Food: Check for a blog, event signup, or meetup.com link from Sprint Weekend List. Local events have linked to more information. Some may provide coffee or lunch; alternatively, for some sprints bringing lunch or snacks might be a good idea.
• Outlet strip: consider bringing one with. Power is good. Some sprint locations might be at an office with lots of power, some might be more rustic.
• Laptop: bring your computer!
• Check #SprintWeekend for tweets of announcements.
• irc: With locations all around the world, in many timezones, irc will be hopping! Also, people not able to get to a location in person, can participate remotely on irc. Participates can check-in in #drupal. Mentors will be there off and on when they can be the whole weekend to help support people. Sprinters can coordinate issues they are working on, and ask questions in irc also.

No sprint near you yet?

Look for a meetup group near you by searching on Meetup.com or search for a geographical group on groups.drupal.org. Contact an organizer and ask about getting a local sprint near you started.

Support for Sprint Organizers

• There will be irc meetings as the sprint weekend gets closer for organizers to ask questions about running a sprint, Feb 18, 26 and March 5 and 7. Organizers can indicate which they want to attend on http://doodle.com/rn63c43zfvnh955g
• Planning a sprint help document has tips.
• Core Office Hours Doc: How to lead a sprint is also a good resource.
• Get experience with helping others contribute by coming to mentor during Core Office Hours

Still time to organize a sprint near you

See the Drupal Sprint Weekend wiki. List your sprint there.