We’ve been recruiting and training volunteers who can help with some of the WordCamp 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. organizer vetting and oversight work that I’ve been responsible for over the past 3 years. The following people have agreed to help review incoming WordCamp organizer applications, interview new applicants, and review WordCamp budgets:
US volunteers:
Josepha Haden
Brandon Dove
Karen Arnold
Kevin Cristiano
Brian Richards
Europe/Africa volunteers:
Scott Basgaard
Mario Peshev
Asia/Pacifica volunteers:
Dee Teal
Mayuko Moriyama
Aditya Kane
Reviewing applications:
Every deputy Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. chooses a day in which he/she will review applications for 30-60 minutes. If there are no applications in that deputy’s default region, they are welcome to review applications in other regions. Applications that merit an interview will be responded to with an interview request. Deputies Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. with possible conflicts of interest will recuse themselves in a note on the SP ticket, and another deputy will review/reply instead.
Currently, that schedule is:
Deputy days:
Sun: Dee Teal
Mon: Aditya Kane
Tues: Mario Peshev, Brandon Dove
Wed: Karen Arnold
Thurs: Scott Basgaard
Fri: Kevin Cristiano, Josepha Haden
Interviewing applicants:
Two standing group interview slots per week have been scheduled for would-be WordCamp organizers. These can be hangouts or text chats on Skype, depending on English fluency. If an application looks good, then deputies will invite the applicant to that interview. We prefer to have two interviewers in each hangout if possible, for support and deputy feedback. We’ll limit the group interviews to three would-be organizers per session, and drop interview notes on the applicant into a comment on their application thread on SupportPress. Deputies won’t approve anyone IN the interview — they’ll send them a response via SupportPress afterwards. In the approval email, it’s preferred to introduce them to their mentor as well. Guidelines for interviewing applicants: https://make.wordpress.org/community/interviewing-wordcamp-organizer-applicants/
Budget review:
Since these take an hour each, my suggestion is to have one person in each region (Americas, Asia/Pacifica, Europe/Africa) assigned to budget reviews for an entire month, and that person checks in once or twice a week to see if any budget review requests come in, or the deputy checking for applications that day will “notify” the budget reviewer in SupportPress of a budget review request. The budget reviewer rotates every month. Guidelines for budget review: https://make.wordpress.org/community/reviewing-a-proposed-wordcamp-budget/
Once the budget is approved, then the reviewer notifies Cami will publish the WordCamp to the official schedule, and hey look, it’s a WordCamp!
Tracking/transparency:
Once a week, Cami will post to make/community with a WordCamp updates thread, and you’ll each reply with what you did that week as a deputy, even if it’s “no applications this week.” That way we’ll have transparency and the community will know if things are really quiet or really hopping. I’d think it would look something like this:
- replied to application from Dhaka asking for more info on the local meetup 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.
- replied to application from Pune, asking them to start a meetup
- replied to application from Tehran, asking them to start a meetup
- replied to application from Auckland, invited to interview for next Wednesday
or
- interviewed applicants from North Canton, Lousiville, and Pittsburgh.
- approved North Canton for pre-planning, assigned John Hawkins as mentor Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues.
- approved Louisville for pre-planning, assigned Erick Hitter as mentor
- recommended Pittsburgh work on developing the local meetup further, so they’d have an easier time recruiting local speakers and sponsors, and re-apply in 6 months
I’ll add the relevant schedules to the sidebar 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. later today! Please let us know in a comment if you have a suggestion or question.
#community-management, #wordcamps
