StartHere.md
# What is DevStaff?
So, there's a lot of us, devs, here in Crete...
> Yet, we hardly ever get together in large groups, or even know each other --
somewhat strange for our small community, we hope you'll agree.
_This ^^ is what we wrote 6 years back. There's now more than 1,500 devs in our
_[meetup group](https://www.meetup.com/devstaff/)._
DevStaff is an attempt at bringing us all together for informal chats about what
we're all passionate about: _technology_ and _software_. Our goal is to make
Crete a better place for developers to live and work in!
## Interested?
Join the Meet Up, learn, teach, speak your mind, sharpen your skills, share the
knowledge and help us build a community where devs can openly exchange ideas!
Discuss issues you've faced, discover new & better ways of working (together),
chat about tech (geeky) stuff, help others!
## Attend Meet Ups
<a href="https://www.meetup.com/devstaff/"><img src="images/meetup.png"
align="left" height="80" ></a>
The main tool for organizing our meetings is *meetup.com*. The first step is to
head [there](https://www.meetup.com/devstaff/) and join the group.
Make sure you configure your notification options on meetup.com in order to
receive notifications about upcoming events as well as activities and news of
the community!
## Join the chat
A big part of the community revolves around our Slack group
where you can find the latest tech news, interesting articles, random pieces of
information, and a lot of heated discussions! Click on the link
[here](https://bit.ly/3v9UO0f) to join.
## Topics selection / Suggest
The Org Team is responsible for curating topics and finding speakers for the
upcoming Meet Ups. Any member of the community is free to suggest new topics and
also volunteer themselves for being the next Meet Up speaker on their favorite
topic, by filling this form [here](https://bit.ly/3rw8DUI). The DevStaff Slack
channel is also a great place to propose new topics to the Org Team as well as
pointing to speakers/topics that might be of interest to the community. So if
you want to propose a topic, or you are available to present a topic, go ahead
and fill in the [form](https://bit.ly/3rw8DUI) or head out to our Slack channel
and drop us a line there! When there's interest in a certain topic, the Org Team
actively tries to find more speakers willing to talk about it. There's always
someone sharing the same passion with you!
One thing also worth noting is that although Meet Ups are usually planned for 2-3
months ahead, changes can be made by the Org Team when required, including, but
not limited to, opportunities for collaboration with other Meet Ups, expert
speakers that happen to be in Crete, etc.
For more info check the contributing guidelines [here](CONTRIBUTING.md).