Outreachy update

The summer term of Outreachy has begun, and I’m pleased to announce that we’ll be working with Elena Petrashen (@epetrashen) through August 23, 2016! Elena will bring her professional experience with instructional design to a learning-related project for the Community team that I’m pretty excited about.

The Project: Community Organizer Self-Training

Participation in WordPress community organizing efforts continues to grow, which is amazing and wonderful and everything we want. That said, helping new volunteer organizers learn our methods is incredibly time-consuming. We can just keep telling people “read the handbook” over and over, but just because someone reads some documentation doesn’t ensure they 1) understood everything, and 2) know the parts that are really important to the program.

So Elena’s going to work with me on designing three self-training courses based on our handbooks: one for 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., one for 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, and one for 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. organizers (I promise we’ll have some material in that meetup organizer handbook in a week or so)! The courses will be self-serve and will include quizzes, so people can test their understanding of the materials. There won’t be a certificate at the end — just the confidence that you’ve attained mastery over our team’s community organizing knowledge base. I’m kind of incredibly excited about this; it might be the key to helping a bunch more people feel confident in their organizing work. 🙂

Elena will be posting weekly updates on Tuesdays. Please join me in giving her a warm WordPress welcome!

#community-management, #meetups-2, #outreachy, #training-workshops, #wordcamps