# Contributing

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Please note we have a [code of conduct](https://www.govstack.global/coc/) that applies to all interactions with the project.
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The GovStack community understands that there are a wide variety of people from different backgrounds that have valuable insight into the work GovStack is doing. Therefore, we provide multiple ways in which people from those different backgrounds can interact and give us their insight. Here are three:

### 1. Proposing changes by joining our working groups

Join the discussion of the working group preparing the next release. The process is as follows:

1. Submit the form on <https://govstack.global/join-our-tech-community/>
2. You will be invited to an onboarding call covering all essentials of the GovStack Community
3. The respective working group of you interest will invite you to slack, GitBook and meetings

### 2. Proposing changes via a pull request

Some members of the community will have experience using git to directly interact with specification content and you may do so with the following process.

Note that the content in the GovStack specifications follows the Markdown standards applied by the [GitBook](https://www.gitbook.com) tool.

1. Check our [issue queue](https://govstack-global.atlassian.net/jira) first to see if anyone else has already reported this issue.
2. Create a new issue and tell us about the problem that you see.
3. The maintainer of this section will be alerted and work with you to decide what changes should be made
4. If invited to do so, create a pull request in the appropriate GovStack GitHub repository, including the issue number and short description in the pull request title, for example:\
   `{Jira issue number} - {short description of the change}`- an example would be `gov-001 - Adding contribution information`.\
   Note that pull requests that do not mention an associated issue number will not be alerted to our maintainers
5. Once the issue describes the reason for a change and links to the change you propose, a maintainer for that building block is alerted
6. The maintainer will work with you to ensure that the change meets our standards for inclusion
7. We value all contributions to the project and, even if the change is not accepted, we always strive to give feedback that helps you understand the decisions taken.

###


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