I would like to propose something that might help people getting involved with Julia. I found that sometimes it is difficult to know how to help. There are things that I want to do and submit a PR that maybe the devs do not like (e.g. my request for a break line operator…).
I know that we have a lot of issues open but it is difficult to follow if you are new. Hence, if it is possible (I know it takes time to do), then it will be great to create some kind of dashboard (do not know the name in English) with many tasks that devs deem good, the required skill level, and a focal point to answer questions and look the work. In this case, people can see if a particular task seems feasible for them and start working by contacting the focal point.
At the risk of stating the known, I would like to point out that most of the issues already have labels attached to them. Most notably we have labels such as: good first issue, needs docs, needs tests, help wanted, priority, which should help the new contributors with selecting the issues to address.
Once they’ve settled on the issue to attack there is #my-first-pr and #helpdesk channels in Slack, which should further support them on the journey to their first PR. Once PR is submitted then reviewers (or what you call focal point) will emerge and discussions can take place around the submitted piece of code.
After few of those intro issues, contributors can start moving on to more serious PRs according to their interest and domain of expertise. Labels again do a great job of informing decisions here. So overall, IMHO, what we currently have is optimal tradeoff between support for new contributors and involvement of core devs.