Process for committing files

[home4slc]

Hi,
I believe I have gotten my repository for apache incubator-quarks set up 
correctly.
It appears we don't have github integration yet, so would it be best to wait 
for that to happen before we commit any changes?
Also, should we open a JIRA issue prior to committing any changes?  If we are 
not waiting for GitHub integration if someone else has already made a pulland 
can reply with an example git sequence of commands, that would be helpful.
Thanks,
Susan