GDG Algiers — A Story to tell!
How it started …
I remember a family friend asking me what CS school I was joining at the time. Once I told her, she directly recommended joining GDG Algiers as it is an active developers community there. The only argument she mentioned: “My friend was an active organizer and she could never stop telling how cool the people there, are”. In my first week, most of the student clubs held an open/welcome day to show what they do exactly to the new students. I was there on GDG Algiers day, surprisingly I was the only one who raised her hands when the audience was asked “Who heard of GDG Algiers before?”. The next day, I just signed up for membership.
A week later, I got welcomed as a member through an email from the organizer “Mehdi ‘’ back then, calling for a first general meeting.
Too bad, that was my first and last meeting that year. The next year, I was called for the first general meeting of the season too. I joined, and again that was the only one during the whole season.
I wanted to do something the second season, then I felt a little intimidated by the other organizers and I didn’t feel like those were the cool people I belonged with. Yet, later on this story, you’d figure out that I regret not getting closer to knowing those people, I’m sure they were cool because they were GDG Algiers!
Ironically, in the following season, my membership was not denied. And I had to do something about myself feeling intimidated. We received a call for members to organize the first Google Developers Roadshow in Algeria. This time, I decided to look more into the group, I wouldn’t say it was a great experience because I still felt like not belonging. However, there were a few people that made me feel like I could belong.
I tried to fit myself in whatever the group was doing. And that wasn’t great either, but I ended up happy that I did that, by the end of the season.
There were some things I didn’t like seeing in the community back then. Yet, I came to understand later that it was hard for the team back then to get on one foot with the challenges they’ve been facing. So I decided to fit in the team in another role, to do something about those challenges. I applied to be a co-organizer.
… GDG Algiers has given me a TEAM
Before that application, I had other team experiences in other programs and groups, I’d judge most of them as failures, there were plenty of personal conflicts and interests that got in the way of the group’s goals. I couldn’t get the support needed to build things actually. It made me realize that the TEAM matters! I quit the other groups and focused on giving what I can to whom I wanted to make a team of, GDG Algiers!
We struggled at the beginning to get on well with each other, Amine’s (the organizer on that season) job was the hardest: to get the whole team to work together. It couldn’t be his job only, it needed team efforts. As we still shared the same goals, we were always reminded of the challenges we wanted to cross and the changes we wanted to make. Everyone looked into this direction. Thus, we supported each other and we could achieve things. When some of the teammates had to leave, the rest supported each other. I can’t forget the back up I received from my mates in doing my own job when they had their own job to do. Now when I think of it, I never received a no as an answer! It was always “I’ll do my best!”
I achieved something for my own, I had a team.
GDG Algiers has given me PEOPLE …
If I am asked what GDG Algiers has given me, my answer is, more than the team it gave me, it has given me lovely people, it has given me friends who were always there for me in hard and good times, I can’t forget the fun times we spent on my most stressed period. It was a small family with whom I shared a lot and there is plenty to remember: the meals, the preparation days, the meetups, the evenings after a long day… and it was within a bigger family to whom I look up to keeping GDG Algiers chapter going!
What it turned out about …
On our mission, we have never stopped giving an added value to our community, whether that is to our audience or to our own members. Let me let you in on a little secret! We support everyone on their tech journey and we teach how “sharing is caring”. We teach by doing, because by supporting we are getting supported, and by learning on our own and sharing what we learn we’ll eventually get to learn from what others share. That is GDG Algiers infinite continuity chain that keeps the group going. And It widens our vision!
Now I’ll let you in on a bigger secret …
I have done with my GDG Algiers team more than I did anywhere else, and I lived special moments with the group that I’d get too selfish to share! I reached a point with GDG Algiers that I could never stop giving to it, I simply could not just STOP! even on the times it was consuming me!
Every single team worked hard to get GDG Algiers to where it is today. It’s every GDG organizer’s duty to carry out the mission of keeping GDG Algiers as awesome as it had become, lead it and raise the bar. It felt like I was giving up on a friend, on family… on my own team when I had to stop. I had thoughts about quitting, I tried to get away bit by bit, but it didn’t feel right! It’s then that I realized, I can always carry the GDG mission at heart, whether I’m part of the team or not. Just as I could find a way to fit in the group at the beginning of my GDG journey I can always find a way to do something for it. I want the team to continue shining and to put in efforts for the goals they set. I will keep giving to GDG not for what it has given me but just as much as it means to me! because GDG Algiers is where I belong!
