Timi Wahalahti 6:41 am on September 19, 2019
Tags: community-events ( 55 )

Proposal: Changes to application workflow for better communication

Our 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 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. vetting queue might sometimes be a bit long. It causes a delay, sometimes almost a month, between sending the application and 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. vetting it. The long gap between submitting the application and receiving an update might be frustrating for some applicants. Some do also come to #community-events 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/. channel and ask to confirm that their application is received.

Public application report page helps a little with this, but not all applicants know about it. Even if they do, it does not feel like personal contact with Community Team.

I propose the following change to our application workflow, to keep applicants informed and to add a bit more personal touch after sending the application:

Create a HelpScout ticket and in that ticket:
Send a short warm confirmation that the Community Team has received the application.
Keep ticket open and mark it with the tag “application-confirmation.”
The application tracker on central.wordcamp.org is updated with a link to the ticket for later communication.

This can be done pragmatically leveraging HelpScout APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways., so manual deputy work is not needed.

After this process has been set up, we could use HelpScout workflows to do different things. For example, send a short message if there hasn’t been any activity for two weeks after the application was received. This message could contain an apology that we have a bit of queue right now and promise that we will vet the application as soon as possible.

Possible advantages 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.:

Deputies can view the queue from HelpScout and not require to visit the application tracker queue to figure out which one to conduct a vetting
Easier and trackable way to assign applications to deputies

What do you think, is this a good idea? Do you already imagine how the messaged are phrased? Tell it in the comments! Deadline for comments is 2019-10-04.

Thanks to @adityakane for brainstorming this proposal with me and commenting the draft.

Francesca Marano 8:29 am on September 19, 2019

Yes yes yes
Thanks!
No idea about how to phrase it, but definitely yes to not leave people hanging
Hugh Lashbrooke 8:56 am on September 19, 2019

I love this – better and more immediate communication with applicants would be hugely valuable.

This can be done pragmatically leveraging HelpScout APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways., so manual 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. work is not needed.

Using the API would require a bunch of dev time that we don’t really have available, but this same thing could likely be achieved by simply emailing the applicant and then CCing (or BCCing) support@wordcamp.org, then we use an HS workflow to tag and handle appropriately. It would have the same effect with essentially zero development hours.
- Timi Wahalahti 5:49 am on September 20, 2019
  
  I like this approach! Not only because we don’t have dev time, but also because it simplifies the functionality overall. The only thing we lose when not using APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. is automatically updating the HS ticket link to tracker.
  
  same thing could likely be achieved by simply emailing the applicant and then CCing (or BCCing) support@wordcamp.org
  
  Hopefully, you didn’t mean that we’d send those emails manually 😅
- Aditya Kane 12:12 pm on September 25, 2019
  
  +1 – I like this approach too!
Sam Suresh 11:27 am on September 19, 2019

I think this is a great idea. We can see a lot of people complaining lack of action. In fact the action is being taken in the background. A quick email to inform them the status will be very helpful.
Junko Nukaga 11:29 am on September 19, 2019

＋1
I was unable to handle many of the reviews and was worried about making the applicants wait.
I think this is good idea!
clarissa0707 4:18 pm on September 19, 2019

Yes, it would be a great idea!
Miriam Goldman 8:12 pm on September 19, 2019

Giving this another +1! Not everyone understands the vetting process, and people can be impatient. More communication, the better!
imath 11:48 am on September 21, 2019

Thanks a lot for brainstorming about this @sippis & @adityakane

About:

Send a short warm confirmation that the Community Team has received the application

I’ve just checked 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./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 code from the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. repository because I was almost sure we already receive a notification when the application has been successfully saved in database. Here’s the message built by Event_Application->notify_applicant_application_received() :

Thank you for applying to organize a {event_type} in {event_city} ! We’ll send you a follow-up e-mail once we’ve had a chance to review your application.

You can probably edit this method to add a Bcc headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes.. So far the existing header is setting the Reply to:
$headers = array( 'Reply-To: support@wordcamp.org' );
You could simply edit this in favor of:
$headers = array( 'Reply-To: support@wordcamp.org', 'Bcc: support@wordcamp.org' );

To automatically update the WordCamp/Meetup post type with the HS ticket url, this probably require some more development to use their APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways..

About the other parts, as I’m not used so much to HelpScout, I don’t really see the benefits, but I trust your expertise 🙂

I do see a benefit about having all the log data in the WordCamp/Meetup Post Types: you can directly view the chronological informations about the city, searching in HS is not that great for this part imho (but I’m probably off topic 🙂 ).
- Timi Wahalahti 3:21 pm on September 29, 2019
  
  Ha, true! Even easier to add those automated messages when the only real dev time needed is to add that Bcc. Thanks for digging this information 🙂
Andrea Middleton 8:09 pm on September 25, 2019

If 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. agree that BCCing support@wordcamp.org would help with coordination and communication, and if that can be done without leaning on our limited developer time, then I think we should go ahead with it! Who can volunteer to report back on whether the experiment was successful in 3-6 months? 🙂
- Aditya Kane 9:34 am on October 1, 2019
  
  I could volunteer to report back in 3-6 months 🙂
Birgit Pauli-Haack 12:41 pm on September 26, 2019

I really like this process! Great job, Timi! @sippis
Timi Wahalahti 3:26 pm on September 29, 2019

Now that I think of it, I feel we have also a small gap between vetted application that is moved to orientation and sending the email to schedule the orientation. Should we send a message to the applicant when their application is moved? Telling that someone will contact them shortly to schedule the orientation.
- Aditya Kane 9:32 am on October 1, 2019
  
  Should we send a message to the applicant when their application is moved? Telling that someone will contact them shortly to schedule the orientation.
  
  That might be another process change and another p2 post I think. Would it be useful to actually see how this change goes and tweak it further with more changes to the workflow?
  - Timi Wahalahti 7:17 am on October 4, 2019
    
    Yup and yup! Let’s keep this in mind and check back in 3-6 months after we have implemented the first step.
Mariano Perez 12:13 pm on October 3, 2019

I think it’s fantastic. It has to be done.
Andrea Middleton 3:00 pm on October 11, 2019

I love the amount of interest in this topic, but I’m now confused about the new “final” process that we’ve collectively landed on. 🙂 Can someone re-state it for me? #lazyweb
- Cami Kaos 4:23 pm on October 24, 2019
  
  I was thinking the same. Really in favor of improving communication with applicants though as I know how frustrating the process can be when it’s a busy application time.
  
  Additionally it sounds like some things that could help keep us on our toes in terms of getting those responses out.
- Aditya Kane 2:22 pm on November 4, 2019
  Currently the method we have agreed to seems to be
  - Create an email that is sent to the applicant and the gets CCed or (BCC) to support@wordcamp.org
  - We create a workflow to tag and handle the ticket appropriately.
  - The ticket should not be closed when its created – and should be used for further communication.
  We will check-in with more data and how help it has been possible in 3-6 months.
  
  @sippis @hlashbrooke @imath @andreamiddleton
  - imath 3:37 pm on November 4, 2019
    
    👌 Looks good to me
  - Courtney P.K. 11:16 pm on November 9, 2019
    
    This sounds good. Thank you, Aditya and Timi!
Ian Dunn 8:41 pm on January 29, 2020

Fixed in b8e6074e.

I also noticed there was a bug where 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. applications emails were never getting sent, but that’s fixed now in a13b8071.

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Proposal: Changes to application workflow for better communication

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