A new way to track the status of WordCamp applications

Hey deputiesProgram Supporter 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.! Who’s tired of 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. (and 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.) Status spreadsheet? (/me imagines a forest of hands being raised) Everyone, right? We’ve made it more and more complicated so we can be more and more accurate in tracking the status of WordCamp applications, but… well, more complicated isn’t good. Also, our efforts to make the status spreadsheet public never really went anywhere.

Today we’re excited to announce a new way to track the status of WordCamp applications — on 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. itself! Deputies can go to the WordCamp Listing admin page on the WordCamp Central dashboard and quickly check the status for each WordCamp application and WordCamp in planning.

WordCamp listing new statuses

Not only that, but there’s a new page on WordCamp Central that displays the status of all WordCamp applications and WordCamps-in-planning, which is public and will automagically update as the WordCamp listing status changes. We’re super-excited about this! Check it out: https://central.wordcamp.org/application-status/

(Please note that all applications/WordCamps show a status age of 1 week ago due to the status migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies., but as WordCamp applications move through all their statuses, these dates will be updated and more reliable/accurate.)

This change is going to modify some of the ways we handle WordCamp applications — hopefully by greatly simplifying a lot of things. We’ll have the appropriate deputyProgram Supporter 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. handbook pages completely revised by the end of the week, but here are some exciting highlights:

Incoming applications will automatically create draft WordCamp listings on central.wordcamp.org, which will be set to the status “Needs Vetting.” As we move the WordCamp through all the stages of vetting, orientation, site/tool setup, budget review, etc, deputies will make notes on the WordCamp listing itself, and also update the status of the WordCamp as it moves through the vetting/set up/planning milestones.

WordCamp milestones

The change log on each WordCamp listing will indicate when the listing’s status was changed and who changed it. Hopefully this will cut down on the number of times we go searching for which deputy reviewed a WordCamp’s budget, etc.

We included certain milestones that frequently get forgotten — setting up a Polldaddy account, filling out the WordCamp listing once the budget has been reviewed, and getting the signed venue contract — in hopes that we’ll reduce the number of times a camp gets stuck in administrative limbo. All notes for a WordCamp should now live in one central location, so there’s less likelihood that an important piece of information will be missed. Only super-deputies can add/view notes right now, but that can be changed pending further discussion.

Huge props to @iandunn and @kovshenin for their diligent work on putting this all together in a really short amount of time. We’re quite squarely in v1 here, so if you have a suggestion or request for how we can make this tool even better for deputies and the general WordCamp-loving public, please share it with us in the comments!

#community-management, #tracking, #wordcamps