Andrea Middleton 4:56 pm on November 20, 2014
Tags: multi-event sponsorship ( 7 ), sponsorship ( 21 )

Community event sponsorship in 2015

One of the goals I had for the Community team working days after WCSF was to iterate on the Multi-Event Sponsorship program for 2015. Kevin Cristiano, Tina Kesova, and Karim Marucchi met with me for a couple of hours to discuss where we thought the program needed to go for next year, and below are the results.

Great things about the multi-event sponsorship program:

When WordCamps get their budgets approved, they know they can count of a certain amount (sometimes a lot) of sponsorship money from multi-event sponsors. Reducing the fundraising burden on organizers allows them to spend more time on making great WordCamps.
Larger companies that want to support WordCamps but don’t have the time to spend working with individual organizers can just work with WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each., be billed quarterly, and get an email every time a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. is added to the schedule with useful information about the WordCamp.

Issues with the multi-event sponsorship program:

In 2014 many WordCamps (especially in the US) were over-funded before ever recruiting local sponsors. We don’t want to leave out our local sponsors, since WordCamps are local events, but we do want to keep providing WordCamps with a funding “nest egg” at budget approval so that the fundraising burden on organizing teams is eased.
WordCamps received lots of financial support in 2014, but more communities are looking at doing more events that are not WordCamps, so we’d like to extend that support to those events, too.
Since chapter account meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. now have their meetup.com dues paid by the Foundation and can now ask to have the Foundation pay for their meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. venue costs, it’s appropriate to extend the sponsorship relationship to include meetups.
Some WordCamps did not fulfill the sponsorship packages as consistently as we expected them to.

Moving forward, I think the best course is to facilitate the sponsorship of local communities, not just WordCamps. Therefore, this proposed 2015 Community Sponsorship program addresses sponsorship of all official events.

The other big change in this proposal is that we’ll still be billing sponsors based on (projected) attendance, but we’ll be distributing sponsorship funds to events based on need. I’ll give an example based on WordCamp workflow: when a WordCamp’s budget is being reviewed, the organizing team will be asked how much they think they can raise from local sponsors with about 20 hours of work (including the work needed to acknowledge those sponsors). The budget reviewer will then suggest a sponsorship blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. grant to the WordCamp to help them reach their fundraising goals. This will allow us to give more support to new WordCamps (and other events) that don’t have the established fundraising relationships like other, more established events.

In the discussion we had at the Community Summit about the IRS rules that affect how official events can acknowledge sponsors (due to the non-profit status of the WordPress FoundationWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org.), it was agreed that while those rules were a little complicated, following them was preferable to the unattractive alternatives, and that in fact those rules resulted in a much less commercial “feel,” which we like for our official events. When those discussion notes are published, I’ll come back and edit in a link to them. 🙂

Read on for the proposed 2015 Community Sponsorship program in its novella-level entirety, and reply with a comment if you have a suggestion, doubt, or concern. 🙂

Sponsoring Community Events

Thanks for your interest in supporting the WordPress community via event sponsorship! We’re so grateful to our sponsors, because without them we couldn’t put on the events that help our community connect and grow.

When you sponsor an official WordPress event, you’re not giving money in exchange for marketing/advertising at the event or with the attendee audience. Sponsorships are donations, given to support the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project.

There are two ways to sponsor: through the Global Community program, or through direct sponsorship of individual events. Sponsors for any official WordPress event must follow the requirements laid out in The Legal Stuff section below.

Global Community Sponsorship

If you’re interested in sponsoring all the WordPress communities in the world (or in your corner of it), then the Global Community Sponsorship program is for you. Global Community Sponsors are acknowledged at every official event, from official meetups to WordCamps.

As a Global Community SponsorGlobal Community Sponsor Company that sponsors the WordPress community events through the global sponsorship program., you’ll be emailed when a WordCamp is put on the official schedule with information about the event’s date, number of attendees, shipping address (for swag), venue address, twitter handle and hashtag, lead organizer and sponsor wranglerWrangler Someone, usually a person part of event organizing team, who looks after certain things like budget or sponsors. contact info. Your company description and logo will be published to the site automatically when the site is launched (but won’t be visible until organizers remove the “coming soon!” screen).

Billed based on attendance, awarded based on need

Sponsorship levels are based on projected attendance at official community events for 2015. Sponsorship fees will be static and billed quarterly. Companies can begin sponsorship in the middle of the calendar year, if desired.

To help foster community growth, we’ll be awarding block sponsorship grants to WordPress community events based on need, not on attendance. We’ll provide more financial support to communities that are just getting started and less to communities that already have stable, longterm relationships with local sponsors. All official WordPress events will be expected to acknowledge the Global Community Sponsors in their region.

These sponsorship packages exclude WordCamp USA (or whatever we end up calling it) and WordCamp Europe 2015.

Outstanding Community Sponsorship Acknowledgement:

Acknowledgment on sponsor page on WordCamp Central
Announcement as a Global Community Sponsor on WordCamp Central blog
Acknowledgment on all WordPress chapter account meetups/user groups as a Global Community Sponsor
Name, logo, and company description/blurb on WordCamp Website
Dedicated tweet announcing your sponsorship from WordCamp Central for each WordCamp
Inclusion in a blog post thanking all WordCamp sponsors for each WordCamp
Your stuff added to each WordCamp’s “swag table,” if available (subject to approval)
Table for meeting attendees if space is available*
Reserved tickets for company representatives**
Thank you to sponsors in opening and closing remarks of each WordCamp and logo on any printed programs and any between-session slideshows

Superb Community Sponsorship Acknowledgement:

Acknowledgment on sponsor page on WordCamp Central
Announcement as a Global Community Sponsor on WordCamp Central
Acknowledgment on all WordPress chapter account meetups/user groups as a Global Community Sponsor
Name, logo, and company description/blurb on WordCamp Website
Dedicated tweet announcing your sponsorship from WordCamp Central for each WordCamp
Inclusion in a blog post thanking all WordCamp sponsors for each WordCamp
Your stuff added to each WordCamp’s “swag table,” if available (subject to approval)
Reserved tickets for company representatives**

Splendid Community Sponsorship Acknowledgement:

Acknowledgment on sponsor page on WordCamp Central
Acknowledgment on all WordPress chapter account meetups/user groups as a Global Community Sponsor
Announcement as a Global Community Sponsor on WordCamp Central
Name, logo, and company description/blurb on WordCamp websites
Inclusion in a blog post thanking all WordCamp sponsors for each WordCamp
Your stuff added to each WordCamp’s “swag table,” if available (subject to approval)

*Not all WordCamp venues will have space to provide tables to sponsors, but if the venue has enough space to accommodate sponsor tables, then community sponsors will have first crack at exhibition space. In your notification email, you’ll be informed whether or not the venue has exhibition space so you can request a table right away.

**Reserved tickets will return to the general ticket pool if they are not claimed one month before WordCamp. Reserved tickets should not be used for ticket giveaways; these are only for your company representatives who wish to attend the event. Number of reserved tickets will vary based on the size of the event and capacity of the venue.

Sponsoring individual events:

Most official events post a Call for Sponsors early in the planning cycle. If the official group or event has not posted that it’s seeking sponsors, emailing the organizers to find out what kind of help they need is a great way to find out ways to support the event or group. In-kind sponsorship (providing event organizers with something that they were planning to pay for) is a great way to support events, but please don’t ask for credit as an in-kind sponsor in return for paying an employee to help organize an event or for providing something for the event organizers to give away to attendees on your behalf.

Sponsor Acknowledgement:

Sponsors are acknowledged in different ways for different events, and we’ll work with you to make sure you have clear expectations. We’ll always do our best to acknowledge sponsors in a way that is appropriate to the event but still demonstrates our gratitude for your support.

Sponsors might be recognized or acknowledged in the event listing, website, with a verbal thank you at the event, or via a mention from the official event Twitter account. We don’t put sponsor logos on official event swag. Sponsorship is in no way connected to the opportunity to speak at an official WordPress event, and organizers will not provide sponsors access to attendee information. Please don’t skip reading The Legal Stuff, as that section applies to sponsoring any official event.

The Legal Stuff:

Official WordPress events are backed by the WordPress Foundation (a US non-profit) as their legal (and usually financial) entity, and so the relationship between events and sponsors is subject to some restrictions from the IRS.

WordPress Foundation is grateful for the valuable support sponsors provide to official WordPress events. For tax-related reasons, we ask our sponsors to observe certain practices in presenting themselves and their products and services at official events.

Sponsors may provide:

The sponsor’s name and logo
Slogans that are an established part of the sponsor’s image
The sponsor’s brands and trade names
Sponsor contact information (such as telephone numbers, email addresses, and home page URLs)
Factual (value-neutral) displays of actual products
Displays or handout materials (such as brochures) with factual, value-neutral, non-comparative/non-qualitative descriptions or listings of products or services

Sponsors may not provide:

Promotional or marketing material containing qualitative, comparative, or non-neutral messages about the Sponsor, its products or services (such as “the first name in WordPress hosting”, “award-winning”, or “the best e-commerce pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party”)
Qualitative or comparative language, price information, or other indications of savings or value
Inducements to purchase or use the Sponsor’s products or services (for example, by handing out coupons or discount purchase codes)
Calls to action (“visit this site for details”, “call now for a special offer”, “go to”, “join our league of savings”, etc.)
Claims that WordPress Foundation, WordCamps, or WordCamp organizers endorse or favor a Sponsor or its products or services

Sponsors agree that the Foundation and WordCamp organizers have the right to request and review sponsor materials in advance of an event, to require changes to any materials in advance, and to require that any materials that do not meet the above expectations be taken down or that any practices that do not meet the above expectations be discontinued during a WordCamp or event. The above restrictions also apply to material placed on any self-serve swag tables reserved for sponsor use.
All sponsors are expected to support the WordPress project and its principles, including:

No discrimination on the basis of economic or social status, race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, or disability.
No incitement to violence or promotion of hate
No spammers
No jerks
Respect the WordPress trademark.
Embrace the WordPress license; If distributing WordPress-derivative works (themes, plugins, WP distros), any person or business officially associated with WordCamp should give their users the same freedoms that WordPress itself provides: 100% GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. or compatible, the same guidelines we follow on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/.
Don’t promote companies or people that violate the trademark or distribute WordPress derivative works which aren’t 100% GPL compatible.

Sponsorship is in no way connected to the opportunity to speak at an official WordPress event and does not alter the WordPress or WordCamp trademark usage policy found at http://wordpressfoundation.org/. WordPress Foundation reserves the right to modify the above requirements and expectations at any time by providing written notice to the sponsor.

#multi-event-sponsorship, #sponsorship

Hugh Lashbrooke 5:11 pm on November 20, 2014

Nice to have this expanded upon as I wasn’t really sure how that side of things all worked anyway 🙂

So if I’m reading this correctly, it means that the global sponsorships can be applied to any meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. or event throughout the year now and not just WordCamps? The need for sponsorship will be decided by the local organisers then I assume?
- Andrea Middleton 5:28 pm on November 20, 2014
  
  The way I’ve laid it out here, the global sponsors would support all community events associated with an official WordPress meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. (which means a WordPress meetup on the chapter account, or if they don’t use meetup.com, they follow and have publicly posted the 5 good-faith rules for official meetups).
  
  If a community is not willing to accept those 5 good-faith rules, then we should probably have a talk about how to resolve that. We didn’t make belonging to the chapter account a requirement for communities interested in organizing a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. in 2014, but I think those rules are basic and open enough that if the local community leadership is NOT ok with following them, then that should be resolved before another WordCamp planning cycle begins. Most non-creepy objections I have heard to the good-faith rules are pretty surmountable. 🙂 (An example of creepy objections being “but I run this local meetup to create business for myself” or “but I don’t want people with that last name coming to my meetup.”)
  - Hugh Lashbrooke 5:31 pm on November 20, 2014
    
    Great stuff – I’m trying to get a meetup.com group going for Cape Town, but haven’t heard back from y’all about it yet. Obviously happy with the good-faith rules either way though. This is awesome news – thanks for clarifying 🙂
    - Andrea Middleton 5:40 pm on November 20, 2014
      
      Yeah, we need to get the community volunteers who agreed to help with meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. application processing trained for SURE. 🙂 Sorry for being slow there. In the meantime, what other groups who don’t use meetup.com is just post the rules on their proprietary site.
Rafael Ehlers 9:26 pm on November 20, 2014

Okay, just as a follow up from the discussion we have today at the SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.’s meeting:

When I read this blog post it wasn’t clear to me that there’s an idea about meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. being considered official if they agree to those 4 principles, whether they are on meetup.com or not or whether their accounts there were paid or not by the Foundation.

Also that those said “official” meetups should acknowledge in some way the Global Sponsors.

My point was, no meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. should be considered official (I’m totally against that word). WordCamps are official events, meetups are informal events.

As an example: my city meetup group is on meetup.com, I agree to the Foundation principles for the benefit of the whole community, but the account there is not paid by the foundation. This being said I won’t like anybody saying that this meetup is not an official one. And I also didn’t like the idea to acknowledge Global Sponsors for this meetup. I should have the freedom to chose to look for sponsors or not.

I’ve also mentioned as an example something that happened in one of the latest WordCamps in Brazil that a local Host company would like to sponsor the event, however, since we have hosts already sponsoring the event because of the Global Sponsors, this company was not ok with that. Ok no problem, we prefered the money from the Foundation. However, we don’t want to close this door, if this said Host Company wants to sponsor a meetup. If Global Sponsors should apply for meetups also, then we’re dead with this local company.

If we have to accept those ideas, then we’ll probably have to look for another name for our local meetups, like some people are doing with WordCamps already when they don’t agree with the rules of the foundation for the event. They go out and create another WP related events with other names.

Just because I don’t agree with these ideas our meetup shouldn’t be tagged as “not official”, c’mon!
- Chris Koerner 9:48 pm on November 20, 2014
  
  I think you’re stuck on the word ‘official’. In one way, your non WP Foundation-backed (financially) meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. is the “official” meetup in your city/town. You can call it that. The Official Podunk WordPress Meetup.
  
  Then there’s ‘official’ meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. where the WP Foundation provides financial support (meetup.com dues, facility space fees) and organizational support (these are a few rules you have to abide by).
  
  The latter ‘official’ groups (now I’m just using the quotes out of habit!) will receive the opportunity to have financial support via sponsorships. If your group is WP Foundation official, then you’ll be part of this program of sponsorship/financial support as a default.
  
  Does that help clarify the difference between the uses of the word ‘official’?
Aditya Kane 11:23 pm on November 20, 2014

Okay, continuing from a previous slackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. meeting/chat about this post.

I have an issue with Global Sponsors getting acknowledged at local meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. (especially the ones which are not funded by them).

I understand that Global Sponsors getting acknowledged when the community is using funds to book a venue, etc for their meetups.

I also understand its great to acknowledge Global sponsors even if one meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. in the whole calendar year has been funded through the WordPress foundationWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org..

Where I have an issue is when just for paying meetup.com fees, WordPress foundation gets to have communities acknowledge global sponsors.

Here in Mumbai, I recently got the meetup.com community I was paying for to come under the WordPress umbrella. It mainly was done so the community at large does not feel like there are any owners of the meetup group and to encourage more distribution.

The meetup.com organizer fees at $12 for six months, were not really an issue at all. In that case, I can see why people would rather pay those fees and not acknowledged Global sponsors or get themselves called “official”

When sponsor acknowledgements are mentioned, people attending meetups assume money is being raised. If the explanation is we acknowledged 3 sponsors because they paid our $24 annual fees, it really can look suspicious.

For new communities this could get even worse. Last year, when we organized meetups for the first time, it was difficult to find good accessible places. We used to have meetups at food-courts of popular shopping malls in the city. They were imperfect places to have meetups but it got the meetups going.

I can imagine giving Global Sponsors acknowledgements and then having meetups in a foodcourt of shopping malls, then a first time attendee is going to think that the organizer is pocketing money being raised through sponsorships by not spending on a decent venue.

Sorry if this reads like a rant! I am just not convinced that global sponsors should get acknowledged when only meetup.com membership fees are being taken care of. Anything more than that, I can completely understand.
- Andrea Middleton 9:47 pm on November 25, 2014
  
  I didn’t read this as a rant. 🙂 How to acknowledge global sponsors in communities that don’t have any need for financial support (and therefore no reason to require sponsors) is a quandary. I want to start supporting ALL of what a community is doing, instead of supporting only the big event (if there is one) in the community. How cool would it be if you could plan a series of new user trainings or contributor days without having to worry about finding sponsors? But if the meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook./user group does not want to do anything beyond the monthly gatherings, and they don’t need any money to help them with that, then it is weird to acknowledge companies for sponsoring when they’re not giving any money. Maybe a compromise would be to post somewhere on the site that “These companies support the WordPress community in our region” with just a text link to a centralized page, though until we get the communities hub up and running, it would probably have to go to a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more.-related page, which would also be a little weird. 🙂
  
  I’d like to stop associating fundraising with WordCamps, and make it more focused on the local communities themselves, so that we can provide a stable financial environment for local groups to try new kinds of events like trainings, diversity mixers, and contributor drives. There’s a tendency to try to include everything in the local WordCamp, which makes it really complicated and hard to organize, and therefore less easy to train new community members to do well.
Rafael Ehlers 2:01 am on November 21, 2014

By the way, the The Legal Stuff section is very cool, is there any URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org with this text already? I want to translate that so we can put on the Sponsorship doc that we send to future sponsors.
Karissa 9:02 am on November 21, 2014

I have some reservations about promoting the Global sponsors on the MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. sites. Rafael & Aditya have made some valid points. For the financial benefit of the paid Meetup Group for the Unlimited plan at $179.88, it doesn’t seem to offset the negatives of the perceived “they don’t need anymore sponsorship help”.

They should NOT be put on the side menu under sponsors as that would get WAY to long and local sponsors should take higher priority. Perhaps if it MUST then it would be better to have a “Global Sponsors” page explaining that they pay for Meetup dues and help with WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more..

Beyond finding free venues, how are WP Meetup Groups supposed to get money to fund refreshments and amenities that other Meetup groups provide to attract and improve the local reputation of WordPress as a whole, when we have one arm tied behind our back in the ability to raise funds because of the non-profit rules? (Sorry for that long run on sentence)

Perhaps its so but not made clear, but is each Meetup chapter going to be receiving a balanced % portion as an monthly functioning allowance? Or do we just have to wait for our WordCamp and get the excess funds to actually have money for the rest of the year?
- Andrea Middleton 9:59 pm on November 25, 2014
  
  I don’t think we need to make it part of the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme.; I think including them on the meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.’s Sponsor Page would work.
  
  how are WP Meetup Groups supposed to get money to fund refreshments … when we have one arm tied behind our back in the ability to raise funds because of the non-profit rules?
  
  I shortened that for ya. 🙂 What kind of meetup sponsorship would have to go away based on The Legal Stuff rules? If we’re following that “WordPress MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. are for the benefit of the WordPress community as a whole, not specific businesses or individuals” from the 5 good-faith rules, then giving a company time to pitch their product in return for buying everyone pizza isn’t really kosher.
  
  Other than refreshments, what kind of amenities are you thinking about?
  
  is each Meetup chapter going to be receiving a balanced % portion as an monthly functioning allowance
  
  Well, my personal dream would be for each meetup group to have an organizational meeting once a year (or even twice) to plan out their activities for the next 6-12 months, and then send in a yearly budget proposal that would include monthly meetup group gatherings, WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more., a couple of trainings and contributor drives, and maybe an ice cream social in August! Then you’d send it in to the centralized group of volunteers to review, get it approved, and go forth into the year with everything programmed and funded, or at least funded 50% (to allow for local sponsors). 🙂 How does that sound?
Andrew Nacin 6:58 pm on November 25, 2014

Acknowledgment on all WordPress chapter account meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook./user groups as a Global Community sponsorGlobal Community Sponsor Company that sponsors the WordPress community events through the global sponsorship program.

The foundation paying for meetup.com fees for chapters is a billing convenience. That’s really about it. In DC, it’s absurd for us to recognize in any way the $70 yearly commitment of a global community sponsor. If someone wants to pony up, they can sponsor food, beverages, equipment, or a venue, all of which cost significantly more, and typically on a monthly basis. And for DC, all of our sponsors are always locally sourced, unless it’s tied to a special guest who is in town (be it a speaker or attendee).

It is possible for sponsorships to backfire based on how the sponsor is acknowledged. Sponsorship acknowledgements should be tasteful. Being the “Global Community Sponsor” branded on every random meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. group page is not exactly that, and would reflect not very well on the sponsor, or the meetup group, or WordPress.

Proper recognition for something that includes the meetup.com sponsorship would be on a sponsorships page on wordcamp.org, wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, wordpress.tv, and/or wordpressfoundation.org. And on top of that, most meetups have, do, or will lead to a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more., at which such sponsor could/would be recognized anyway. It does not belong on individual meetup pages or at the content of the meetup.
- Andrea Middleton 9:34 pm on November 25, 2014
  
  If someone wants to pony up, they can sponsor food, beverages, equipment, or a venue, all of which cost significantly more
  
  The Foundation is now helping WordPress meetup groups cover their venue costs if needed, so I would argue that the support provided by global sponsors is totally “ponying up.” We would like to help cover food and beverage next, but there are significant logistical challenges to covering food and beverage for over 100 monthly meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. groups worldwide, so we’re still discussing the best ways to do that.
  
  Sponsorship acknowledgements should be tasteful.
  
  I completely agree; this proposal does not include putting a sponsorship acknowledgement on every meetup group page, and I would never suggest that. How global sponsors would be acknowledged on a meetup group’s site is still up for discussion. I don’t think the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. is really the best place for it; perhaps on the group’s Sponsor Page is the right place — but this is why we have the topic under discussion, so people can comment and make suggestions.
  
  Proper recognition for something that includes the meetup.com sponsorship would be on a sponsorships page on wordcamp.org, wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, wordpress.tv, and/or wordpressfoundation.org.
  
  Unless I’m really out of touch, I don’t see us agreeing to putting a sponsorships page on wordpress.org — do you? If so, we should raise our levels. 🙂 I think if we get the go-ahead to make the communities hub we talked about at the SF coworking days, that might be the most appropriate centralized place to acknowledge these sponsors, but I can’t build something in to a sponsorship package for next year if it doesn’t exist yet.
  
  most meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. have, do, or will lead to a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more.
  
  While I would love to see every meetup group organize a WordCamp when they’re ready, but there are lots of meetups that haven’t yet organized WordCamps that should have access to our support if they need it. DC would be a great example, actually: your group has not yet had a WordCamp — hopefully you will someday, but maybe you won’t. I don’t think that should be a barrier to your group receiving the support from the Foundation you might need to pay for a meetup venue (or, eventually, pizza and sodas).
  
  Also, I think that if we want to support WordPress communities to organize more “bigger smaller events” like trainings, contributor days, hackathons, skillshares, etc, we should put the support structure in place to support that. One of the biggest jobs in event organizing is fundraising, and if we can provide *all* official events with 50-75% of their fundraising goals via this global sponsorship program — regardless of whether it’s a WordCamp — I think we will see a greater diversity of events and event organizers, which will lead to less organizer fatigue and greater community involvement.
- Mario Peshev 7:36 pm on December 1, 2014
  
  Agreed with Nacin and Rafael on the meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. part.
  
  MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. are often informal, or self-sustained. In numerous places people don’t use Meetup.com at all, or organize meetups at bars or restaurants, just hanging out. Also, we’re actively promoting the “local” factor – such as the 80-20 rule for speakers, or the idea of more room for local sponsors at a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more..
  
  Global Sponsors are great for WordCamps. Taking advantage of the global sponsorship at meetups is also great, as long as it’s optional. It provides an alternative for starting meetups to grow, or get more venue opportunities. However, it would definitely hurt the general meetup format otherwise, and probably even lead to some bad advertisement for said sponsors when meetups don’t require any additional funding or get a venue or help from local providers.
  - Andrea Middleton 12:14 am on December 6, 2014
    
    I think what I’m hearing is that providing centralized financial support for meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. would hurt meetups, is that correct?
Siobhan 7:38 pm on December 1, 2014
I’m going to start with the positive – “the legal stuff” is awesome. Can we have that right now?

Also – can you call it something else? “Global”, to me, means “all over the world”. And we use in WP to describe global communities. When I read “Global Community Sponsorship” it makes me think that the sponsorships are being distributed globally (as opposed to being for regions).

Some possible options:
- Regional Community Sponsorship
- Universal Community Sponsorship
- Comprehensive Community Sponsorship
- Community Event Sponsorship
- Community Sponsorship
Anyhow… on to the stuff I like less. I have major problems with some of the perks for sponsors. Here are the ones that are problematic (in order of seriousness).

Inclusion in a blog post thanking all WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. sponsors for each WordCamp

We don’t do our thank-yous like this. (Following WCSF’s model) we’ll be thanking each sponsorship level. I’m sure it would something that we could work around though.

Dedicated tweet announcing your sponsorship from WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. for each WordCamp

I’m a little meh on this. How many global sponsors are there going to be? I have 15 sponsor slots for WC London. How many more tweets am I going to have to do? Will my Twitter account become spammy?

Table for meeting attendees if space is available*

and then, in the notes

the community sponsors will have first crack at exhibition space.

What this means to me as an organiser, is that I have to give up my best exhibition space to a company who is potentially giving no money to the event. Seriously? I wouldn’t mind giving them space if there’s room left over when I’ve sorted out space for our top two sponsorship levels, but “first crack”? This is quite inappropriate to be honest.

Thank you to sponsors in opening and closing remarks of each WordCamp and logo on any printed programs and any between-session slideshows

A number of problems with this one:
1. We do not put logos on our printed programs. Some WordCamps do, some WordCamps don’t, but this makes it so that everyone has to. If a WordCamp prints their programme on their name badge then space is at a premium – squeezing in a logo is difficult and looks crap. With this clause you’re making design decisions for every WC in the world. And if we’re giving that to Global Community Sponsors then we’ll need to give it to top level sponsors too and it will look terrible.
2. In between session slideshow – this is okay
3. Thank you in opening and closing remarks – this is the prime perk for our two top tiers of sponsorship. We have six sponsors at this level. Do we have to thank people who’ve given nothing alongside those who have actually given money to the event? That seems a bit empty. Again, how many global sponsors are there? Will there be 4, 6, 10? Is the person doing opening and closing remarks going to have to memorise all of these sponsors? How will our top level sponsors stand out amongst all of these?

The problem with these last two – exhibition space and opening/closing remarks – is that these are the two most valuable things that we can offer to our top level sponsors. This sponsorship programme devalues one of them (opening/closing remarks) and takes the other away (prime exhibition space). It disempowers organisers who are unable to give away their best perks to their highest level sponsors, and who are no longer even able to lay out their venue how they want to.

I’m really in two minds on this one. I do strongly feel that this is a great way for big WordCamps to indirectly support smaller WordCamps. Okay, we have some more work to do and some concessions to make but if that makes it easier for someone somewhere else in the world to organise a WordCamp then that’s amazing.

However, I would be seriously unhappy with some of the perks (as laid out above). Some I can live with (tweets, blog post etc) but in some cases they restrict what I can do as an organiser.

So what could I live with?

I don’t want to be wholly negative, so here are some thing that I think would be fair to both sponsors and to organisers (just focusing on the WordCamp ones):
- Name, logo, and company description/blurb on WordCamp Website
- Dedicated tweet announcing your sponsorship from WordCamp Central for each WordCamp
- Inclusion in a blog post thanking all Global Community Sponsors sponsors for each WordCamp
- Your stuff added to each WordCamp’s “swag table,” if available (subject to approval)
- Table for meeting attendees if space is available*
- Reserved tickets for company representatives**
- Thank you on in-between slideshows (if in use at event)
- Closing remark thank you that includes all Global Community Sponsors
- Exhibition space will be allocated by individual WordCamps, based on their venue space and individual requirements
So the biggest changes are:
- meeting space would be allocated by the WordCamp. Global sponsors wouldn’t get first pick
- that there would be a special thank you for global community sponsors in the closing remarks. So after thanking the local sponsors, saying something like “We’d also like to thank WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. Company, FooBar Limited, and DoodleCorp for sponsoring and supporting WordCamps and WordPress-related events all over the world/region.”
With regards to the meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. stuff, I have no feedback as I’m not a meetup organiser 🙂
- Hugh Lashbrooke 6:01 am on December 3, 2014
  
  +100 to all this – definitely agree about giving away prime space to global sponsors when they aren’t even present or involved in the event takes a lot of the power away from organisers and discourages local sponsors.
  
  I’ll comment below with my thoughts on the meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. side of things.
  - Andrea Middleton 12:28 am on December 6, 2014
    
    Dedicated tweet announcing your sponsorship from WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. for each WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more.
    
    I think I was unclear. What I meant by this was that WordCamp Central’s twitter account would be used for this, not the local WordCamp, so this would actually take work away from local WordCamps.
    
    the community sponsors will have first crack at exhibition space
    
    I think this is another wording issue, but also an issue of administration. We’ve actually been using this practice for most of 2014 — allowing Pillar sponsors to have a sponsor booth if they wanted one and the venue had space — and it has not been intrusive, probably because it didn’t happen more than about 3-4 times all year.
    
    But the real objection I’m hearing here is the “I have to give up my best acknowledgement methods to companies that are not adequately supporting the event” aspect. In the new model, how much support you get from Community Sponsors is essentially the amount of support you ask for, minimum 25% of your fundraising goals, maximum 75% (give or take).
    
    If you have space for tables but not much, and you need to raise £15,000 from sponsors so you’re reserving tables for sponsors giving £5000 or more, ask for the amount of money to make it fair. You don’t need to use WordCamp to fundraise for the Foundation, and if the Community Sponsorship program has not been meaningful for you in the past, this is your chance to make it meaningful by asking for meaningful amounts of funds. In the past, we haven’t had that flexibility, but now we will.
    
    Does that address your concern?
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David Laietta 2:09 pm on December 2, 2014

A lot of my comments have been stated by others above, as to how global sponsors should be recognized.

While we don’t currently do a lot locally that requires much money beyond WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more., we have plenty of ideas on how to grow. This includes fun things like the aforementioned ice cream social or a holiday party this month, but it also includes endeavors that directly benefit the causes that we’re passionate about. Going into schools to help students set up their first blogs. Training small business owners how to update and control their own site. Helping those in need form new businesses to take control of their lives.

Events like this can go a lot further if we can spend time focused on getting the best teachers and forming curricula that fit our students best, as opposed to ensuring that they have a comfortable place to learn, a few snacks the day of, perhaps even a free hosting account or similar to get them started (though this would end up being a promotion of a specific sponsor, so I’m unsure of how that last one would happen).
Siobhan 2:21 pm on December 2, 2014

Just to throw a spanner in the works: does the global sponsorship programme actually make sense in terms of the ratio between the amount of work and the pay off?

Why not just have individual WordCamps over-fundraise (by say 10%) and that money can be redistributed to other WordCamps and events? WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. London had a £3,000 surplus last year and it could very easily have been bigger. We could probably fundraise enough each year to support many of the other WordCamps in the UK.

(disclaimer: this comment comes from an organiser who sees limited benefit to the programme in her own WordCamp – maybe for others it’s awesome 🙂 ).
- Andrea Middleton 12:27 am on December 6, 2014
  
  I don’t want to put more work on WordCamps to do more fundraising. I want to take work OFF of WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers’ plates. And for new WordCamps, which we have more and more of now, the Community Sponsorship program has been transformational. It provides MUCH needed stability for events in places that do not have a rich tech scene or a fundraising culture that works within the WordCamp model (non-commercial).
  
  So no, I don’t think that’s the answer. 🙂
Anonymous User 5:11 pm on December 2, 2014

When you sponsor an official WordPress event, you’re not giving money in exchange for marketing/advertising at the event or with the attendee audience.

Please send me on the right path, I may be not getting it: Some sponsor levels at some WordCamps include a table or stand at the event. How would those not fall under the categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. of “marketing/advertising at the event” (and was there anything wrong with it)?

My point was, no meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. should be considered official (I’m totally against that word). WordCamps are official events, meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. are informal events.

Rafael

I agree in principle. While I can understand the idea why we want to get meetup groups on one accord regarding common values (now baked into the 5 good faith rules), I believe it is important to grant meetups the right to be just “grass-roots”, and thus completely “unofficial”.

It’s completely fine that you’ll need to work with official entities (WPFWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org., WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each.) in order to organize a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more., because “WordCamp” is a trademark and it needs to be protected. Nonetheless I’m strongly convinced everybody should be able to create a meetup as they see fit in the context of their local culture.

If anything should go the wrong way with a specific meetup (commercialization or so), the WPF would probably be able to address its organizers, just for using the WordPress trademark in their name (which they’d probably do). In that regard, I don’t see any pressing argument for creating an additional layer of “officialism”.

The more so as we should keep in mind that meetup starters are often people who appreciate a kind of “creative freedom” and personal liberty in how they create things. Pre-defined structures can be helpful to those who ask for them, but may slow down those who like to develop ideas of they own. While I totally agree we should work with people, let them know about the 5 good faith rules and maybe get them involved with our team here, I also strongly believe keeping meetups “unofficial” territory will work as an additional incentive to a certain type of leaders when they are about to start a group.

I want to start supporting ALL of what a community is doing, instead of supporting only the big event (if there is one) in the community. How cool would it be if you could plan a series of new user trainings or contributor days without having to worry about finding sponsors?[…]
I’d like to stop associating fundraising with WordCamps, and make it more focused on the local communities themselves, so that we can provide a stable financial environment for local groups to try new kinds of events like trainings, diversity mixers, and contributor drives.

Andrea

Understood and agreed, but can we make this a clear opt-in feature for local communities?
I for once can’t imagine any plausible explanation to give to our local meetup group why we would be expected to acknowledge any sponsor we haven’t chosen/contacted ourselves, just because they may be participating in a program set up by the WPF. It’s even likely to be a complete no-go in our local meetup culture, something that could create more issues than benefits on the local level, because it likely would be perceived as “orders from the top”.

However, if a meetup group would opt into participating in that kind of program, I agree they could be expected to promote those sponsors on their local site.

Everything Siobhan says.

All agreed.
- Anonymous User 9:31 pm on December 2, 2014
  
  …and replying to myself to make up for a bad old habit of commenting only on perceived issues: I do find the idea should be worked on for sure. For some meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., especially ones on the threshold from smaller to medium size, this could be really helpful as an opt-in solution.
Kevin Cristiano 7:28 pm on December 2, 2014

I am getting here a bit late, but wanted to chime in. To start with:

does the global sponsorship programme actually make sense in terms of the ratio between the amount of work and the pay off?

I do think it makes sense. I am biased for two reasons, I help with the setup of the program and I’ve had to fund raise for an expensive WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. with and without this program. The pressure the sponsor wranglerWrangler Someone, usually a person part of event organizing team, who looks after certain things like budget or sponsors. and in fact the entire Organizing team feels for a large WordCamp in a city that does not have free/cheap space is (IMHO) enormous. I’ve been part of the fundraising for WordCamp NYC for a long time now and I would not want to go back to the days before this program.

I do agree with many of the points already raised. So who does the program benefit? It certainly benefits the sponsors. By packaging all the Camps they get a clear benefit of not having to pay each one separately. They get all the sponsor benefits with a minimum of administrative effort. I believe it benefits the Camps as they start with a nest egg that may well fund the entire camp. I do believe there is a place for local sponsors and having reviewed all the camps sponsors I see that most have a place for them. The goal is not to stop local sponsors at all.

As far as meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., some meetups cost more than others :). The annual fee is meaningless as far as cost goes to some, but it can be an impediment to others. Covering the cost of getting started is a nice benefit. Having all WordPress Educational Events (A purpose of the WordPress FoundationWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org.) under the same umbrella is something I think is inevitable. As a 501(c)3 organization there are rules that we have to play by. Getting all of our community united under a single umbrella and with a set of guidelines (we should have guidelines , I’ll leave the rules to the accountants and lawyers) will make less admin work for the team overseeing this.

I do agree that sponsorships to the meetups should be opt-in. I see the program as a ‘Robin Hood’ program. We base the cost to the sponsors on attendance at WordCamps. That defines the revenue to the Foundation. The Foundation then can distribute the funds to WordCamps and Meetups on an as needed basis. If a camp does not need the money, we should not force them to take it.

I do believe that all Camps should acknowledge the sponsors. The what they get that Andrea listed was our best list of what the sponsors would get at each Camp. If there are no tables for sponsors, they don’t get one. I intended that thank you’s would be by level, I personally hate filling attendees inboxes with only sponsor announcements and thank you’s. Based on the feedback, I do think we need to clarify that the list of what a sponsor gets is contingent on the individual Camp offering it. If there are no logos on the program Global sponsors would not get this. I just believe that it is fair to give a global sponsor the same recognition that a local would have gotten at the same contribution level.
Hugh Lashbrooke 6:14 am on December 3, 2014

Siobhan already gave a pretty comprehensive comment about this from the WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. perspective above, so I won’t rehash that as we’re in the same boat in Cape Town in terms of how much we rely on the global sponsors (i.e. not that much at all).

From the meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. side of things though I’m not too comfortable with acknowledging global sponsors for every meetup. One of the main reasons is that we have a lot of local companies who are happy to sponsor our meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. when we need them to and I would much rather have local sponsors who are involved in our community be our sponsors rather than the global sponsors.

I think the problem with setting universal rules for how all communities must use the global sponsors is that every community is different. In Cape Town (and I’m sure in a number of other communities too) we don’t need or rely on the global sponsors at all. It’s great to have the extra cash for WordCamps, but it’s really necessary as we have a thriving tech community with plenty of companies wanting to get involved in what we’re doing. This is very different to communities where they will struggle to find local sponsors and would rely more heavily on the global sponsors.

I’m not sure where that leaves things with regards to the way forward on this, but making blanket rules about acknowledging companies that many people in the community haven’t even heard of (nor care about) seems like a poor way to go. If the global community sponsorship plan was optional for each community then I think that would help make things more even from the community side of things.
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Xavier Borderie 5:39 pm on December 10, 2014

I don’t have much spare cycles to think this through, but Siobhan’s comment opened my eyes on one side of things:

Table for meeting attendees if space is available*

and then, in the notes

the community sponsors will have first crack at exhibition space.

What this means to me as an organiser, is that I have to give up my best exhibition space to a company who is potentially giving no money to the event.

To me, more than giving space to a non-directly/explicitly supporting company, I have an issue with the fact that this would give top-level perks to companies that give less amount of money for the event than the top-paying ones.

Case in point: this year in Paris, we have a Platinum sponsor. This is the top level, and one of the perks is the right to a table on the WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. location. The Platinum level is quite high (purposefully), and between that level and first current Multi level (WC Champion), there is another levels: Gold — which does not have a right to a table. If Paris were to follow the new rules (which we intend to, obviously), that would mean that the Gold sponsors paid more than the WC Champion and got less perks.
The issue here might be that each Camp is free to build its sponsorship levels the way if feels (AFAIK), and this can clash with any global perk list. The 2015 perk list gives Multi sponsors expectations which might be hard to make in certain Camp, and might give other more-paying sponsors the impression that they’ve been had, in a way.
One way to avoid that is to have a set global list of levels with their perks, but that’s just not feasible for all countries and types of meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook..

In a way, I feel the current system works well, and I just wonder how the next one will turn for everyone. It feels like applying the current rules to each and every type of event might prove more complicated to get applied: WordCamp organizers expect to have to work through hoops with sponsors, meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. (and other casual events) organizers do not, and might reject the idea (even with money at hand) just for simplification’s sake (and to get off the burden of sponsor-handling).

All is not clear in my mind, and I sure appreciate the fact that the Foundation is willing to help all events the World around. I know how complicated setting this up can be so I’m not willing to destroy the great effort done by the WordCamp team with this. I just think the whole part of organizer-obligations towards the global sponsors needs a bit of work still.
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