Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) on January 27, 2021

Summary: I presented our new plan for the next few months. We decided that in February we are going to hold an experimental “Interactive, Transformational Watch Party.” We are also putting up our “Creating a Diverse and Welcoming Space” workshop from WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. up on Learn WordPress, and group member @oneal is going to help with creating items needed for it.

Attending: @jillbinder @tantienhime @katiejrichards @oneal @cguntur @ashiquzzaman @chaion07

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1611766888166800

After about a month and a half or so of deliberation, we have our new plan! The two items we want to work on for the first few months of this year are:

  1. Have as many meetupsMeetup 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 WordCamps who are running events this year around the world as possible have their community members from underrepresented groups take our workshop. That can look like a few different things, and that’s what I want to talk about today.
  2. Have WordPress events know how to be better allies for their diverse communities (and thereby also attract and retain more diverse communities). We are going to do this by putting up a workshop that has already been created and recorded onto the Learn WordPress site, called “Creating a Welcoming and Diverse Space”.

Diverse Speaker Workshops for meetups and WordCamps

This has a few possibilities:

i) 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 can run it themselves. We have all of the material and training videos up! You can also learn it by participating in a workshop….

ii) We are going to continue running it ourselves monthly, but in a different way.

First of all, the people invited to take the workshops will be meetup 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. event organizers, along with members of your community who identify as marginalized or underrepresented.

This will do two things: one – meetup organizers get to know the people who want to speak, you could even give some coaching during the exercises on topics that your community wants to hear about. two – for any of the organizers who want to learn how to run it yourself, joining a workshop is the best way to do that.

Second of all, there are two formats that we are considering, and we are thinking of trying them both over the next few months.

And here is where I’d like to hear from you which one sounds more exciting to you!

One is “Interactive, Transformational Watch Parties.”

In this format, we make it clear in advance that you’re not just watching the videos, you are going to be doing exercises together. And also, it has recently come to my attention that these aren’t just “learn how to do a thing” workshops, it’s a transformational workshop. Many people actually shift who they are, how they see themselves, etc.

So we want people to know that they aren’t just passively watching a thing. It’s going to be an active experience.

Two – The other format is more similar to the current Learn WordPress format, but a bit of a “hybrid” between the current way and what makes our workshops special:

We would play the video on day 1, and then in place of an open discussion on day 2, we would be doing the interactive exercises together.

I know some people on our team are really keen for the workshops to be entirely live, and I want to emphasize that this won’t replace those. If anyone wants to run a live workshop for your own community or even as one of the global monthly workshops, we will support and help you with that.

Do either of the two formats seem more exciting to you?

@ashiquzzaman I like option One “Interactive, Transformational Watch Parties.”. this sounds different and piques interest for new visitors

@cguntur I think the Interactive, Transformational Watch Parties will be good. It might make it easy for the meetup organizers

@katierichards The Interactive, Transformational Watch Party idea would be what I’d lean toward as an attendee, simply because its good to collaborate and learn from those in my immediate community

@jillbinder Good point, @@katierichards . Both formats actually offer the same, it just wasn’t as clear and didn’t have as catchy a title in the second one… But with 3 immediate votes for it, it sounds like it’s the one to start with!

@jillbinder If we were to hold an Interactive, Transformational Watch Party in February (date TBD), would the event organizers in our meeting today be willing to attend and invite the people from marginalized and underrepresented groups in your communities? (We can help you with how to ask. And also, if you don’t think you have diversity in your community, we can help you find it.)

@cguntur Most likely yes to attending, definitely yes to inviting others from the community

Workshop for Ontario, Canada and nearby US

@tantienhime I could see the “global” live version of the workshop be delivered to a number of meetups at the same time. I still like the live idea, but rather than doing it for each meetup, one meetup in a region could host (for example, Hamilton, Ontario) and invite some of the other local meetups (Niagara, Buffalo, Rochester, Durham, Toronto, Kingston) and get a bigger bang for the buck. This offers:
1. Lack of repetition and wider reach
2. Offers meetup organizers a chance to fill a “slot” on their calendars
I’m sure there are others, but that’s the quick version

I can get about 7 meetups together which would hopefully be enough attendees to have someone come to deliver it, much like a guest speaker.

@jillbinder I love this! I’ll try asking the few people who might be able to and let you know. 

Creating A Welcoming And Diverse Space workshop

@jillbinder Ok, for the other big item that we are focusing on, the Creating A Welcoming And Diverse Space workshop, there are a few items that we need help with in order to get it up onto the Learn WordPress site.

We have the videos up on wordpress.tv right now, and we also have a script written out.

From that, we need to create:

  • Learning Objectives: 3-5 bullet points that clearly explain what viewers will learn from watching the workshop.
  • Comprehension questions: 3-5 questions that, after watching the workshop, viewers should be able to answer. These can be more open ended questions.
  • Quiz: 3-5 multiple choice questions and answers that test the viewer’s knowledge, based on the materials presented in the workshop.
  • Lesson plan: An outline for the workshop following the format provided by the Training team. The goal of lesson plans is for them to be used by meetup organizers to host the workshop in their own groups.

@oneal I can help with these, I’ll get on it tomorrow

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1611770520222900

#wpdiversity