fidzu : cms

This post is adapted from the DA Insider, the Drupal Association's monthly newsletter. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox each month.

A note from our interim CEO

Dear Drupal community,

Open source hums along on the work that just gets done. As I step into the interim CEO seat, I'm making a point to notice the sheer volume of work powering this ecosystem, from the DA and beyond. Here's some of what has come together in the past month:

• Our engineering team migrated hundreds of projects to GitLab, security issues included, and kicked off an RFP to make launching a Drupal site dead simple.
• DrupalCon Rotterdam is ready and in the homestretch.
• The DrupalCon Orlando call for speakers opened August 4. If the event converts even half the enthusiasm of the local team (or the cuteness of Bytes the Gator), it's going to be one to remember.
• We're building a new front door to introduce Drupal to new audiences and evaluators, and we're looking for help.
• The community has 14 global events dropping this August and partnership groundwork under way in Burkina Faso.
• Nominations are open for the Women in Drupal Award, an honor I was humbled to receive back in 2023.

My goal as interim CEO is straightforward: make sure the Association's foundation is resilient enough to support all this energy. The first step is helping all of us notice and appreciate the work that already "just happens."

I hope you enjoy this month's newsletter and everything everyone's been building. And one final note: board elections are open. Please vote.

Tiffany Farriss Interim CEO

Vote in the 2026 At-Large Board Election - closes 14 August

If you're a Ripple Maker, your ballot arrived by email from Helios Voting on 22 July. Voting closes 14 August 2026 at 23:59 UTC, so there's still time to get to know the candidates: read their profiles and leave questions on the election details page, catch the Open Community Forum recording on our YouTube channel, or revisit the async conversation in #drupal-association on Drupal Slack. Every vote counts - make yours matter.

DrupalCon Rotterdam is in the homestretch

DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026 is ready. Join the global Drupal community for four days of learning, collaboration, and connection - explore the program, meet the speakers, and start planning your experience. Secure your ticket now.

DrupalCon Orlando 2027: Call for Speakers is open

The DrupalCon Orlando 2027 Call for Speakers opened 4 August and closes 20 October 2026, with some notable changes this year:

A more focused program with fewer concurrent sessions and an emphasis on high-quality, impactful content. Updated session tracks reflecting the evolving Drupal ecosystem. And a new pathway for first-time speakers: if you've never spoken at a DrupalCon, DrupalCamp, or other Drupal event, you can submit to the new Poster Session - selected presenters showcase their work at the Monday Welcome Reception and present a 10-minute session on the Lightning Stage.

And keep an eye out for Bytes the Gator, the DrupalCon Orlando mascot, who'll be visiting Drupal events around the world between now and March 2027 - with a chance to win a free registration to DrupalCon Orlando 2027 along the way.

Celebrate the women shaping Drupal's future

Nominations are open for the Women in Drupal Award, sponsored by Jakala, recognising women whose work strengthens the Drupal community - in the projects they build, the teams they support, the ideas they bring forward, and the space they create for others to grow. Know someone whose contribution deserves recognition? Submit a nomination.

Drupal Steward: extra time when it matters most

When highly critical vulnerabilities emerge - like SA-CORE-2026-004, a SQL injection in Drupal core that anonymous users can trigger - every minute matters. Drupal Steward is a security service from the Drupal Association that gives you extra time to respond before vulnerabilities can be widely exploited: early notification of highly critical issues, recommended WAF mitigation rules, and access to security expertise, in coordinated collaboration with the Drupal Security Team. It's available in a Community Tier for smaller site portfolios, plus Small, Mid-Size & Enterprise tiers for organisations that want full control. Referral incentives are available for Drupal Certified Partners.

Behind the scenes with the engineering team

The migration of projects to GitLab issues continues - including security issues and hundreds of Ripple Maker projects - with GitLab soon to be enabled by default for all new projects, alongside updated contribution docs and a new custom commands reference. The team has also kicked off a collaboration with Alpha-Omega through their Security Engineer in Residence program to triage and respond to the growing wave of AI-generated security reports. And an RFP is under way for the Drupal Site Template Marketplace, focused on closing the last mile from template selection to live hosted site.

Help build Drupal's new front door

We're building a dedicated product marketing site for Drupal - a purpose-built, marketing-led site designed to reach the people who haven't heard of Drupal yet: marketers, IT directors, and enterprise decision-makers evaluating CMS platforms.

High-priority tasks are being added to the promote_drupal project on GitLab - real, scoped pieces of design, content, video, and strategy work with significant contribution credits attached, with more added on a rolling basis. If something catches your eye, reach out to Ryan Witcombe at ryan.witcombe@association.drupal.org or @RyanWitcombe on Drupal Slack.

A milestone for open source in West Africa

On 15 July, the Drupal Burkina Faso Association, led by its president Seferiba Salif Soulama, met with Burkina Faso's Minister of Digital Transition, Dr. Aminata Zerbo/Sabane, to explore how Drupal can support the country's digital future. The meeting marks a significant step toward a formal partnership between the Ministry and the Drupal Burkina Faso Association, with Drupal at the heart of Burkina Faso's digital modernisation agenda.

This is what open source looks like in action: communities, governments, and technology coming together to build something that belongs to everyone. Read the full story.

One more thing: The AI Byte

The Drupal AI Initiative team has launched The AI Byte, a monthly LinkedIn newsletter curating the best content across the web about Drupal AI - new capabilities, case studies, events, and webinars. Subscribe on LinkedIn.

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This roundup is adapted from the DA Insider, the Drupal Association's monthly newsletter. Want it in your inbox? Subscribe to email communications and browse previous editions.

AI was used to help adapt this newsletter into a blog post. It was reviewed and edited by Drupal Association staff before publishing.