# We are all in the starting blocks. Who has the starting pistol?

**URL:** <https://community.openmainframeproject.org/t/we-are-all-in-the-starting-blocks-who-has-the-starting-pistol/2195>\
**Category:** Calling all COBOL Programmers\
**Created:** [April 13, 2020, 5:07am UTC](https://community.openmainframeproject.org/t/we-are-all-in-the-starting-blocks-who-has-the-starting-pistol/2195 "2020-04-13T05:07:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jmdasnoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4af34b/32.png) [@jmdasnoy](https://community.openmainframeproject.org/u/jmdasnoy)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 5:07am UTC](https://community.openmainframeproject.org/t/we-are-all-in-the-starting-blocks-who-has-the-starting-pistol/2195/1 "2020-04-13T05:07:21Z")

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_So many people answered, but how do we get them organised and use their help?_

I guess that the government agencies in need of COBOL help are thinking along these lines.  
Read all submitted profiles, check, contact and evaluate/screen all people, then enter into contracts with confidentiality and accountability charters, NDA’s, etc, quite a workload…!  
I don’t know whether the overloaded agencies have time and resources for this 🤯 !

I think this community can propose more than a listing of availabilities.

Why not ask the government agencies to state their functional issues/requirements and make their current code/ressources available for **collaborative development** à la gitHub ?  
I believe there are enough skills here to manage projects, write changes, read or validate them, document, check them for any unwanted features :-), etc  
This could be a fast and efficient alternative.

What do you think of this ?

@jmertic would you bounce this proposal on an agency you might have contacts with ?