Welcome to the monthly call for new contributors to the Matplotlib project 🎉

* Next meeting: [September 5th, 2023 (Tuesday) @ **11AM UTC**](https://time.is/1700_1_August_2023_in_UTC/)
* Join via [Zoom](https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81285851006?pwd=Tks2QjRkNWh5NGw0TmU1RUwwOVluZz09)
* if you need a passcode for zoom MPL should work

### Code of Conduct

We want to take a moment to remind you that this meeting, like all project spaces, is meant to be open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and it's important for us to have a healthy community. Like all matplotlib spaces, and everyone participating in them, this meeting will follow our [code of conduct](https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md). If you haven't read it yet, please take some time to do so later on as it already applies to you. For now, in short, please be kind and generous towards one another.

## Agenda for August 1st, 2023

Present: Melissa (@melissawm), Alex (AlexSzatmary), Ratna (@devRD), Anshul (@devilsaint99), Chahak (), Hannah (@story645)

> please add your names (and github handle in brackets). This will make it easier to stay in touch later in Gitter and on issues and pull requests (PRs) 😉 This is optional since these notes will be recorded in our Github repository. If you’d like you can also paste your answer in the zoom chat 😉

*Feel free to add items for discussion to this agenda!*

* Introductions:
* Name
* A bit about our experience with matplotlib/python as users
* Newcomer: why are we interested to start working with the project
* Maintainer/contributor: how long have we worked with the project and what do we primarily do
* [name=Melissa] Contributor Experience Lead, she/her
* I am mostly working on documentation, and contributor experience related issues (for example organizing this meeting). I am a new contributor to Matplotlib as well! My background is applied mathematics, and I'm a maintainer for NumPy and SciPy.
* [name=Alex] Long time user of Scientific Python projects, has contributed before, wants to get back into it
* Where are good places where I can get started?
* We do not have a public roadmap. High-impact work can be found in issues - maybe start with standalone issues before tackling a big project.
* There are projects in the issues, and a few are on the small projects page.
* Link from chat: https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/20644
* [name=Anshul] Just joined, figuring out how open source contributions work.
* PR: https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/26416
* On gitter, you can find
* `#incubator`: more private channel (invite only) for new contributors - for an invite, click here: https://gitter.im/matplotlib/community
* `#community`
* `#general`
* `#accessibility`
* Tip for dealing with CI: Install pre-commit hooks
* https://matplotlib.org/stable/devel/development_setup.html#install-pre-commit-hooks-optional
* Make sure your PR is based off a feature branch on your fork (not on your `main` branch)
* If you need to update your branch with changes from main, here's a guide: https://matplotlib.org/stable/devel/development_workflow.html#rebasing-on-upstream-main

## Useful Resources

* [Our contributor Guide](https://matplotlib.org/devdocs/devel/contributing.html)
* This is where we keep past meeting notes from the new contributors meeting [on github](https://github.com/matplotlib/ProjectManagement)
* You will soon find today's meeting notes there
* You can also have a look at topics and links that were shared before 🧐
* If you are curious, here's an article about [the architecture of Matplotlib](http://www.aosabook.org/en/matplotlib.html)
* Here is a presentation on ways to contribute to Matplotlib: https://hackmd.io/@matplotlib/ncm

### Communication channels

How will we communicate asynchronously while working on the project?
* [Gitter](https://gitter.im/matplotlib/matplotlib)
* A chat platform which is useful for shorter questions
* #incubator channel, our non-public communication channel for new contributors
* Ask on chat now, or later [on the #community channel on gitter](https://gitter.im/matplotlib/community) to be invited
* [Discourse](https://discourse.matplotlib.org/)
* A forum platform which is useful for longer questions that are harder to ask on chat
* [Developer mailing list](https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/matplotlib-devel)
* We publish information which is important for contributors on this list. People from other projects might also share useful information or questions here. That said, it is also mirrored on our discourse 😉 (unless we there's a technical issue like happened recently 🙄)