contribution preferred practices

[AlvordSky]

Is there any documentation or examples on-line describing preferred
form, method and criteria for offering contributions to the memcached
project?  My group at work has a number of significant performance
improvements - some generic, some platform-specific #ifdef - we'd like
to offer.  However, we'd like to do so in a way that minimizes thrash,
maximizes utility, assures upward compatibility and provides easily-
incorporated value.