Title: Mentor Tools Author: Corey McKrill Published: December 16, 2016 Last modified: July 12, 2019 --- [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coreymckrill/) [Corey McKrill](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coreymckrill/) 12:43 am _on_ December 16, 2016   # Mentor Tools During Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of [https://make.wordpress.org/](https://make.wordpress.org/) There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. [https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/](https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/) at WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event., I worked with [@brandondove](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brandondove/) to scope out some improvements to the MentorsEvent Supporter 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. aspect 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). sites. By the end of the day we had a pretty good outline and had started putting some code together. This post is to share our intentions and gather thoughts and feedback. Here are the pain points we are aiming to address, as I understand them: * Contact information for a mentorEvent Supporter 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. is not used consistently across all of the camps they are mentoring. So for example, maybe Andrea is mentoring two camps, but each one has a different email address for her. * Camp organizers don’t always know how the Mentor fields are used, and end up putting incorrect information in them. * Camp organizers aren’t always sure what all the next steps are as they progress through the planning process. By the same token, mentors don’t always have a full picture of where their camp is in the planning (especially if they are mentoring multiple camps). To address these issues, the project has two parts: **Part 1** For the first part, which is now mostly complete, we made improvements to how mentorship is tracked and managed across all the WordCamp sites. This mostly involved using a mentor’s 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/](https://wordpress.org/) username to associate them with a camp, rather than their name or email address. On the Edit WordCamp screen, we added a Mentor WordPress.org User Name field to go along with the Mentor Name and Mentor E-mail Address fields. We also made all the Mentor fields readonly, except to admins who manage the mentorship program. On the Mentor Dashboard, we created an input for listing the usernames of all the currently active mentors. Then, the details of each active mentor are listed, along with the camps they are currently assigned to. Since this is now based on username rather than email address, the problem of the same mentor being listed multiple times with different emails is eliminated. A separate list shows which camps still need a mentor, sorted by their start date, so the ones coming up the soonest can be prioritized. Other improvements in the works here are automating the introduction emails that get sent out when a mentor is assigned to a camp, and automatically adding the mentor as a user on each of their sites. **Part 2** For the second part of the project, our aim is to provide a shared tool for organizers and mentors to track the progress of a camp’s planning. This will consist of a series of task checklists, each focusing on a different aspect of the WordCamp planning. Originally the idea was to have all of these checklists live in a 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. on each camp’s WP-Admin Dashboard, but it quickly became clear that the size and number of checklists would make this unwieldy. Instead, there will be a separate WP-Admin page showing all of these checklists. The tasks will have togglable checkboxes next to them, so that organizers and mentors can get a visual impression of where they are in the process. One advantage of having these tasks live within WordPress is that they can be set up as translatable strings. This way, the organizers and the mentor can each view the tasks in their preferred language while staying on the same page about the current status. One thing we definitely don’t want to do is end up building a full-blown project management app just for WordCamps. There are plenty of more robust tools out there that organizers can choose if task lists fit their organizational style. This is meant more as a lightweight overview or a starting point. So that’s where we’re at right now. Thoughts and feedback welcome. ### Share this: * [ Threads ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/12/16/mentor-tools/?share=threads) * [ Mastodon ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/12/16/mentor-tools/?share=mastodon) * [ Bluesky ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/12/16/mentor-tools/?share=bluesky) * [ Facebook ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/12/16/mentor-tools/?share=facebook) * [ X ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/12/16/mentor-tools/?share=x) * [ LinkedIn ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/12/16/mentor-tools/?share=linkedin) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F12%2F16%2Fmentor-tools%2F%23respond&locale=en_US) 1. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/fbe9d8b8e3580ba760b7af40d117c0ce53d495ca80c80d0f35a1878971b6eca5? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 2. [Manny (emanweb)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/emanweb/) 6:59 am _on_ December 16, 2016 3. This is awesome. I was a first time organizer this year and I think this will benefit a lot newcomers. Thank you! 4. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e286b52ca6080c7457f0e382fa70e3f4e8780c2df5891b4c3161eeba14c08117? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 5. [Peter Nemcok](https://profiles.wordpress.org/savione/) 9:17 am _on_ December 16, 2016 6. This is a great idea and I think it will help a lot. 7. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4766888911f84ffe981190a286670a07caf5eb144b0c3e26700f25bff33319c3? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 8. [Brandon Dove](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brandondove/) 6:08 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 9. Pinging mentorsEvent Supporter 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. for feedback: [@adityakane](https://profiles.wordpress.org/adityakane/), [@digisavvy](https://profiles.wordpress.org/digisavvy/), [@amylaneio](https://profiles.wordpress.org/amylaneio/), [@andreamiddleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/),@ brianhogg, [@camikaos](https://profiles.wordpress.org/camikaos/), [@courtneypk](https://profiles.wordpress.org/courtneypk/), [@dimensionmedia](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dimensionmedia/), [@davidjlaietta](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidjlaietta/),@ emanuel_blagonic, [@francina](https://profiles.wordpress.org/francina/), [@hlashbrooke](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hlashbrooke/), [@miss_jwo](https://profiles.wordpress.org/miss_jwo/), [@vegasgeek](https://profiles.wordpress.org/vegasgeek/), [@chanthaboune](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/), [@judiknight](https://profiles.wordpress.org/judiknight/), [@karenalma](https://profiles.wordpress.org/karenalma/), [@kdrewien](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kdrewien/), [@kcristiano](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kcristiano/), [@nofearinc](https://profiles.wordpress.org/nofearinc/), [@mayukojpn](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mayukojpn/), [@rafaelfunchal](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rafaelfunchal/), [@ramiabraham](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ramiabraham/), [@vc27](https://profiles.wordpress.org/vc27/), [@_dorsvenabili](https://profiles.wordpress.org/_dorsvenabili/), [@00sleepy](https://profiles.wordpress.org/00sleepy/) 10. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0de4cf2b707d9b3b9668bcea583008c1b2289c9474a607bb55f7845283555bff? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Brian Hogg](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brianhogg/) 6:11 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 * Good ideas! Agreed you don’t want this to become a full blown project management tool, but a high level checklist (perhaps with the ability to leave comments) is a great idea to keep mentorsEvent Supporter 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. and organizers on the same page. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9cc64cf0f650f165ac55f1294105259f82f2b72c4c24903a79af6d6cd1ad2a9a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Corey McKrill](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coreymckrill/) 6:31 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 - Thanks, Brian! I’m not sure how comments would fit into the UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing., but it’s something we could consider for a v2. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 8:28 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 - Regarding comments specifically, I think that the best place to keep those might be in the Central post 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).. 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/community-deputy/). who work with WordCamps look to previous years’ logs (which include the functionality for notes) to inform much of the work they do while processing an application. 11. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3570426dc554b821b457cc8807eea58efd745bc3b8f8a8c6a80a2641add6608? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 12. [Randy Hicks](https://profiles.wordpress.org/vc27/) 8:14 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 13. I feel like this is heading in a really great direction! It’s clear there has been a lot of thought put in to this and I appreciate it! 14. **My personal #1!** 15. > Camp organizers aren’t always sure what all the next steps are as they progress > through the planning process. By the same token, mentorsEvent Supporter 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. don’t always have a full picture > of where their camp is in the planning (especially if they are mentoring multiple > camps). 16. I was always getting lost until I created my own list. Looking forward to seeing this in action as we move forward! 17. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 18. [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 8:36 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 19. I really like the current edits to the MentorEvent Supporter 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. Dashboard. That makes it a lot easier to see, well, all the things. 🙂 20. I love that with part 2 folks will be able to see the lists in their native language; such a nice improvement. My one concern is that the mentor checklist we have ( [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dNU20VSTi8JZ7C2uNV9vCqIcXqQZd9rBJNYHTlleJSY/edit](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dNU20VSTi8JZ7C2uNV9vCqIcXqQZd9rBJNYHTlleJSY/edit)) might be hard to make work in this format and (just to be really complicated) might be hard to keep up to date as things change. 21. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9cc64cf0f650f165ac55f1294105259f82f2b72c4c24903a79af6d6cd1ad2a9a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Corey McKrill](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coreymckrill/) 8:49 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 * [@chanthaboune](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) This is the checklist I think we are working off of: * [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GySvL0hPA2UOLIKn1HosNMWUzCwTk7p8Gv2_OJ0YS98/edit](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GySvL0hPA2UOLIKn1HosNMWUzCwTk7p8Gv2_OJ0YS98/edit) - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 10:10 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 - Ah yes, the toolkit checklist! That one is quite comprehensive; pulled together by some large-scale organizing teams so it covers everything. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9cc64cf0f650f165ac55f1294105259f82f2b72c4c24903a79af6d6cd1ad2a9a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Corey McKrill](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coreymckrill/) 8:53 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 * I agree that it might be challenging to keep the list up to date. The impression I get from [@brandondove](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brandondove/) is that the list I linked to above gets updated in occasional batches rather than small changes here and there, which would hopefully make it easier to stay in sync. 22. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ab5fa5deb26fe8a730d11dc716d440a67fb5c48c3b74f731c505b6748a58fd7d? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 23. [Cami Kaos](https://profiles.wordpress.org/camikaos/) 10:54 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 24. Can we restrict who is able to select the mentorEvent Supporter 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. for each event to further avoid confusion with organizers not knowing how the mentor is selected? Or have you already done that? 25. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4766888911f84ffe981190a286670a07caf5eb144b0c3e26700f25bff33319c3? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Brandon Dove](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brandondove/) 10:56 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 * This is actually in place, on WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. [https://central.wordcamp.org](https://central.wordcamp.org) includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each., but there are some cases that mentorsEvent Supporter 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. are incorrectly assigning themselves to camps which can cause administrative fallout. 26. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/309427840327b0e8bfcb3bf96c4bbbb48bc23c812d8788bce66bba21e30e0b90? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 27. [Emanuel Blagonic](https://profiles.wordpress.org/emanuel_blagonic/) 2:17 pm _on_ December 17, 2016 28. I’m new to being a mentorEvent Supporter 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., but having a checklist somewhere in the admin can’t hurt. It’s a good idea to have it there, to discuss 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). organizers. 29. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/241584c8900ae5ccd62ff4c9db7d58e58bc9e0dc0162d4bdcac2a916d586c7ed? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 30. [Francesca Marano](https://profiles.wordpress.org/francina/) 3:00 pm _on_ July 12, 2019 31. The tool is done 32. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4766888911f84ffe981190a286670a07caf5eb144b0c3e26700f25bff33319c3? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Brandon Dove](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brandondove/) 3:27 pm _on_ July 12, 2019 * Woo hoo! - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/241584c8900ae5ccd62ff4c9db7d58e58bc9e0dc0162d4bdcac2a916d586c7ed? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Francesca Marano](https://profiles.wordpress.org/francina/) 3:38 pm _on_ July 12, 2019 - I mean, I assume it’s 100% done so I marked it as Completed. Do you feel it misses some bits? * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4766888911f84ffe981190a286670a07caf5eb144b0c3e26700f25bff33319c3? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Brandon Dove](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brandondove/) 4:13 pm _on_ July 12, 2019 * No, it’s been done for a while. 😀 A tool like this can always be reviewed every so often to make sure the content is still applicable. ### Leave a Reply 󠀁[Cancel reply](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/12/16/mentor-tools/?output_format=md#respond)󠁿 You must be [logged in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F12%2F16%2Fmentor-tools%2F&locale=en_US) to post a comment. # Post navigation [← Winter Holiday Coverage](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/12/15/with-the-winter-holidays-upon/) [WordCamp Talks weekly slack chat recap →](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/12/16/wordcamp-talks-weekly-slack-chat-recap/)