Alright guys, Id be happy to help out with the "how-to" stuff. Maybe we can create a separate topic for that? In any way, the general direction would be like this:
- Get comfortable with dotfiles (what files are used by which program, which locations are typically used for which purpose - like ~/.config/latterc for example controls Latte dock settings
- Play around with the settings until you find a "sweet spot" and get all the configurations (dropping device specific stuff etc.) in the settings package. The existing packages at GitLab can be taken as example for which files are needed at minimum
- Create a nice selection of applications which fit into the DE
- Test changes either by building own iso or requesting an iso build (requires to do 5. first)
- Fork the *-settings package / iso-profiles from GitLab, insert changes & create a PR at the GitLab so we can review changes and merge afterwards
General maintainer work is often also:
- Respond to issues related to the maintained DE, fix issues
- React to updates related to the DE, update configs as needed
- Explain how to do stuff
And of course also working together with the rest of the team to get good solutions to all kinds of issues 
Hope that gives a plain overview of what work taking maintainership involves 