About Fronteers
Founded in 2007, Fronteers is the non-profit professional association of Dutch-speaking front-end developers. Its goals include the professionalisation of our trade, (improved) recognition of the front-end discipline, and improving the position of front-end developers in their companies and the web design/development world in general.
We have been quite successful in reaching these goals, as the position of front-end developers within the Netherlands has improved markedly. Companies know they can expect a lot from professional front-end developers, and accordingly afford them a lot of respect.
Membership, activities, and support
At this moment we have about 400 members.
Our main activities are organizing informal meetings and workshops, as well as a world-class conference.
Unfortunately we do not have the time to help foreign front-enders find work in the Netherlands. The most we can do is refer you to our job board, which is mostly in Dutch.
Mostly Dutch
Currently Fronteers works within the Netherlands. We have a growing number of (Dutch-speaking) Belgian members, who are getting ever more active with organizing activities within Belgium, and are exploring the concept of spinning off a separate organization (mostly for administrative reasons). Due to the fact that 90% of Fronteers' activities take place in Dutch, the organization is currently less-than-optimally accessible for people who do not speak our beautiful language.
There is one exception to this rule: our conference is entirely in English and has attracted many delegates from beyond the Dutch language area.
There are no immediate plans to develop English-language activities or translate (parts of) this site into English. Thus, at present Fronteers remains aimed at the Dutch-speaking front-end community.
International outreach
The decision to work mainly in Dutch was originally supposed to be a temporary measure. The founders' idea was to test the concept in the Netherlands and subsequently export it to other countries.
Unfortunately, developing the organization within the Netherlands has taken so much time that work on international outreach has not yet been a priority. However, while working out the necessary steps for Fronteers Belgium to become a separate organization under the Fronteers umbrella, we're very much keeping in mind the possibility of someday exporting this concept further abroad.
We're not there yet, but we are certainly interested in discussing potential Fronteers branches in other countries. Although the current Dutch Fronteers team will not take an active role in founding them, we can certainly help with advice, and work together on guidelines for what such a foreign organization would have to do to be considered "Fronteers".