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Leadership Interview: Nadja Lamisch, Treasurer

Written by: Anja de Crom
Category: September
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Nadja Lamisch fell in love with Joomla 2.5 when she was looking for a CMS to build larger websites with. She joined a Joomla User Group, attended and co-organized JoomlaDays and felt very welcome in the community. When she was considering ways of doing more, she decided to run for Treasurer in the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Joomla’s supporting organization - and got elected. Read all about Nadja’s plans and ambitions! 

Congratulations on your election results, Nadja! The people in the German-speaking JoomlaDays already had the pleasure to meet you at one of those events, and now it’s our turn! Could you tell us a little bit about yourself? 

Thank you for your trust and votes, really a privilege. My name is Nadja and I’m 45 years old. I live with my husband and our two daughters near Munich in Germany.

After my studies of Design/Coding/Project-Management, my first job was in a Munich based web agency. As the company registered on chapter 11 and went bankrupt during my parental leave, this was a signal to me starting my own business as a freelancer.

How did you get involved in Joomla and its community?

During the beginning of my new career as a freelancer I got more and more requests for large websites. It was obvious to develop the website with a CMS. I tested Joomla and fell in love with it. After the release of Joomla version 2.5 my first client projects went live – this was my start with Joomla ?

After a while I heard about the Joomla User Group (JUG) in Munich, which I visited to connect with more people working with Joomla. This was also where I got introduced to the “Joomladay”.

In 2018, Leipzig, I visited the event for the first time and enhanced my network with many of you, as well as I got even more involved in the organization. Since 2019 I’m in the organization team for the German respectively the D-A-CH JoomlaDay.

What is it you like so much about Joomla and its community?

Since my first day at the JUG in Munich I felt “at home” in the community. I had a very warm welcome, being very open paired with a lot of fun, both in the JUG and my first Joomladay. I met so many nice people, developed friendships and established business contacts.

When and why did you decide to run for Treasurer? 

I think it was June when Benjamin asked me if I could imagine running for treasurer. I was thinking of ways to involve myself more in the community and so it became clear this offer is my chance to go for it. After talking to my family and Robert Deutz I decided to run for this role.

What do you see as the most important job for the treasurer within Joomla? 

To protect our community, based on transparent, structured and passionate work -  to make sure we all are successful with Joomla the next years and everybody understands our financial position.

What are your short term goals? And long term?

For the moment I focus on the big challenge of learning the job quickly and becoming a reliable treasurer.

And what do you consider your biggest challenge?

Speaking English after quite some years on a regular basis.

And our biggest challenge, as Joomla, now and in the future?

Enhance the user-group and strengthen our branding; keeping strong and creative developers.

How can we help in achieving your goals and addressing the challenges?

I assume we all need to help get Joomla to the next level with passion, creativity and being the go-to CMS solution.

About the author

Before I got my current job as Coordinator Communications & Digital, I ran my own company for 25 years. The first 15 years I was a writer / editor / journalist / writing coach. 

In 2009 I started working with Joomla, not knowing anything about webdesign. I joined a JUG in 2012, two months later I was co-organizer :) (and stayed co-organizer for about five years).

I loved working with Joomla so much that I started projects, just to be able to create a website for them. That's when I thought: hey, maybe it's time for a career switch. In 2014 I decided to go pro with Joomla and switch to webdesign instead of writing. 

Volunteer work

I already mentioned the JUG. After that I did a number of other things over the years:

  • Writer: I wrote articles about Joomla in a Dutch webdesigner magazine.
  • Speaker at JUGs and JoomlaDays.
  • Member of the Dutch JoomlaDagen team for three years.
  • Member of the team that organized all three editions of Joostock (a Joomlacamp/unconference event).
  • Editor of the Dutch Joomla web agency brochure, a brochure webdesigners can use to convince their potential clients that Joomla is the right choice for them.

In 2020 I've started contributing to the Joomla Community Magazine, first as an author, and since 2022 I'm Team Leader of the wonderful Joomla Community Magazine Team. 

Why I contribute to Joomla

To many people Joomla is just a tool. But if you look a little closer, you'll notice it's much more than that. It's a living system, raised and nourished by a community of volunteers dedicating their time to make it the best CMS ever. Without volunteers, Joomla wouldn't exist. It's not 'just a product'. Everyone who uses Joomla, can do so because someone, somewhere, contributed to it. I want to give back to the community that keeps Joomla alive.

And, probably needless to say: I love being part of that community. 

Contributing to Joomla by volunteering brought me so much: valuable experience, more knowledge and a better understanding of Joomla and its community, and the opportunity to work together with a crowd of lovely people all over the world.

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Some articles published on the Joomla Community Magazine represent the personal opinion or experience of the Author on the specific topic and might not be aligned to the official position of the Joomla Project

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