Sam Suresh 12:17 am on April 14, 2021

Proposal: Adding topic-based meetup groups as part of the Meetup chapter program

The purpose of this post is to discuss proposed changes to the WordPress Meetup Chapter Program.

WordPress 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. Chapter program is part of the overall WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project. 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. are an opportunity for people who love and value WordPress to get together to learn from and connect with each other. As of today, there are 745 meetup groups with approximately 460,351 members under the chapter program.

A group is not required to be in the WordPress chapter program to host WordPress meetups. However, if a meetup is in the chapter program, it has some benefits which include Meetup account dues being covered by 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., and events being displayed in the WordPress dashboard, among others.

Background

Typically, WordPress Meetups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on at least a monthly basis. The WordPress Meetup Chapter program requires that a meetup be hosted for a city or a specified location. It is also expected that meetups be in-person events attended by local community members.

However as COVID-19 pandemic changed the world, changes were made to the events program to allow for online Meetups. Today most meetup groups are running online events and it has become a new norm.

The Learn WordPress Meetup Group

Recently, the Training and Community teams launched the Learn WordPress project which focuses on Group Discussions, Workshops and Lessons.

The Learn WordPress project has its own Meetup.com Group to host the group discussions. This new meetup group is a break from how WordPress meetups are historically held, and have led to some new, exciting meetup group ideas.

Proposed changes: Allow non city-based meetup groups to the chapter program

Recently, the Community team received two applications to start a meetup group globally for a specific topic that is not tied to any city. The purpose of this post is to discuss whether or not to allow a non city-based Meetup under the Chapter Program.

As the pandemic affected face to face events and online events have become the new norm, meetups that are topic-based could be an alternative way to move forward.

A topic-based meetup group could;

Allow organizers to start Meetup groups based on topics such as SEO, Hosting, etc. (Excluding brand based groups such as WooCommerce, Divi, etc. However you can host such meetups outside the chapter program)
Be a global meetup group rather than a city-based one
Focus on only one niche / topic / be a Focus group
Allow multiple organizers globally to organize events in the same group
Allow multilingual events for the same group (TBC)

Also such topic-based global meetup groups can co-exist with city-based meetups even after the pandemic is over.

Things to consider

If topic-based meetup groups are allowed, the following changes might be required;

Meetup Application form need to be amended
Meetup handbooks require updating with new guidelines
Require some workaround at meetup.com as it requires a city for each meetup
Changes in the events 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. to display online event timing correctly across the globe.
How many topic-based meetup groups can the Events API support? Should the Events 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. handle each topic-based meetup group equally?
How do city-based and topic-based meetups coexist?

Request for Feedback

Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts on including topic-based meetup groups in addition to the existing city-based meetup groups. The discussion will be open until 2021-04-27.

Thanks to @nao @camikaos @angelasjin and to all other 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. helped to put together this post.

Crixu 7:15 am on April 14, 2021

The Hosting community had the same idea to have a monthly “WordPress Hosting 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.” meetup with the focus on the hosting topic. As part of this we not only wanted to livestream presentations and sessions but also prepare them afterwards for learn.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/.
Cami Kaos 2:10 pm on April 14, 2021

Thanks for putting this together @samsuresh!
Hari Shanker R 6:37 am on April 15, 2021
Thanks for sharing this proposal, @samsuresh! I thought about this quite a bit, and I must admit that I’m personally a little conflicted about this proposal.

The objective behind community events and 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. program is to foster local connections. While events have moved online due to the pandemic, our events are still local in their spirit, which is something we should foster.

However, we now have the Learn WordPress discussion group which is essentially what we can call a “global meetup”. However, as far as I understanding, hosting discussion groups in Meetup.com is a temporary arrangement – the idea is to integrate discussion groups deeply with Learn WordPress in future.

Having topic-based groups poses a lot of challenges, as far as I understand. Some thoughts that came to my mind (this includes points that I’ve picked up in discussion with other 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.) include:
- What are the guidelines for creating a topic based meetup?
- Who would lead the meetup group, what criteria should we have for that?
- What are the topics that we should have for these 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.?
- Once we’re back to in-person meetups, how do these topic based meetups and city based meetups co-exist?
I don’t have solid answers to these questions, but I just wanted to think out loud and share these thoughts with y’all.

With that said, I do have a suggestion though. Perhaps, we can experiment with one or two topic-based meetup groups as a pilot project and see how/where it goes? The proposed Hosting team meetup sounds like a great way to test it out.
Taco Verdonschot 10:16 pm on April 15, 2021

My first thought is it totally makes sense to have topic-based events. In fact, many 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. groups already have topic-based events within their meetup group, but then the topic usually changes with every event they organize.

@harishanker wrote “The objective behind community events and our meetup program is to foster local connections.”. I’d say the objective behind community events is to foster connections. And for in-person 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., local connections simply make the most sense as that’s what most meetup attendees have in common.

But now we’re taking things online, geographical location is no longer a shared property. Online, people don’t (necessarily) come together because they’re from the same place, they come together because they have something else in common; a shared interest. And thus, a topic-based meetup group makes absolute sense.

And thus I think our challenge with topic-based meetup groups isn’t their philosophy. Other factors complicate simply adding topic-based groups.

1. Where do topic-based groups reside?
I’d say they should only exist online. Because if a topic-based meetup group starts meeting in-person, they’ve basically crossed into “regular” meetup groups. As the local meetup could have hosted a meetup around that specific topic for their (local) audience.

2. What language is spoken in topic-based meetup groups?
This question is already hard to answer for some city-based meetup groups, but becomes particularly hard when you want to serve a broader/global audience. Should there then, for example, be a Spanish SEO group, an English SEO group, a Dutch SEO group, etc? And would those be different groups, or would they be part of the same meetup group but with different events?

3. Does our current tooling allow for this?
I think @samsuresh already answered that in his initial post; no. We’d have to work around meetup.com to be able to do this. However, I don’t think we should let our dreams be ruined by tooling. If we want to make this happen, there’s probably tooling out there that can cater to our needs. But that’s a different topic of discussion.
Javier Casares 10:30 am on April 17, 2021

Hi! As @Crixu commented, from the Make/Hosting team we have made this official proposal along these lines and after much discussion, including conversations with the Learn WordPress team.

Our initial idea is to do something that has been done in LearnWP, such as including multi-language in 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. (and as it was my turn, being the first one in Spanish, indicating that at the beginning of the title of the Meetup).

Our goal is to make eta Meetup led from the Make/Hosting and without limitation of topics (within all that the team manages), without level limit (the original idea is to make talks for a high level, and those that are more accessible synchronize them with LearnWP) and not limit them only to English, but, indicating the language at the beginning of the title, we can offer diverse information to as many languages as possible.

It is true that Meetup.com has certain limitations in terms of schedules, geolocation and other issues. At first we considered setting up a “subsite” in Make/Hosting for events with some kind of pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, but in the end it was discarded to avoid giving more workload to other teams (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. type) although there is some plugin (/meetup/) that could solve this problem / casuistry.

Personally I think that we should not accept any geolocalized thematic group and that there are 10 SEO 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., but that, within the management of the different teams or locations and with a lot of control, something like this can be organized.
Amber Hinds 3:44 am on May 5, 2021

👋 Hi,

I submitted one of the “global” applications mentioned by @samsuresh, so I thought I would chime in though it’s past the official deadline for discussion (I just now saw this thread).

I completely understand the idea of building local WordPress communities and I think they are incredibly important, but there is a real downside to limiting the chapter program to local areas only: it means that people’s learning is limited to the people who are in their area. I’ve been organizing 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. since 2016 and also helped to organize 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. Denver. While we lived in Colorado, I had the opportunity to learn and grow immensely through my local 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 it 100% contributed to my business and WordPress knowledge – but at that time I was lucky enough to live in an area that was very tech-focused and where we could run “developer” and “business” focused meetups every month in addition to our “user” meetups.

Since moving to a smaller town in Texas a couple of years ago, I started a meetup that has turned out to be 99% user-focused. We don’t have any other developers or agency owners attending our meetup and it’s essentially community service: me providing free WordPress help to local business owners purely as a way to give back. I haven’t learned anything at a WordPress meetup for years.

Limiting chapters to local areas or discouraging online meetups post-COVID means that people who live in areas without a large tech focus will have fewer learning opportunities. This goes not just for devs/agency owners, but also rural business owners with no user-focused meetups in their area. In contrast, allowing topic-focused global online meetups achieves WordPress’s mission of democratizing publishing because it grants people who would not normally have access to a meetup in their local community learning opportunities.

I submitted an application to start the WordPress AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Meetup because it is an area in which I have a particular interest and would like to have to opportunity to learn from other professionals building accessible websites with WordPress. It’s a very niche area and even if I were to go to a larger city in my area, I’m unlikely to find a large enough group to run a successful meetup. Online, however, would likely be much better as I’m certain we could find enough people across the globe interested in regularly sharing their WordPress Accessibility knowledge or attending meetups to learn more.

This is a crazy long message, so I appreciate you bearing with me. I have a couple more quick thoughts about some of the issues raised above:

RE language, I wouldn’t be opposed to adding talks in other languages if I could find a co-organizer who spoke that other language within the same meetup. I think that’s necessary in order to properly vet and promote, but it does make sense to just have one meetup group per topic that has multiple events in different languages (rather than different groups for each language).

A second note RE language is that it is possible with Google Meet to set the closed captions to translate. Auto-captions are not the best and I’d guess auto-translating them is even more challenging, however maybe that could make these meetups more globally accessible in the short term.

I would be happy to be your guinea pig if you want to try it out. I’d love to start organizing accessibility meetups sooner rather than later and have some ideas about who I could ask to speak.
jillbinder 9:44 pm on May 6, 2021

In theory, I think the idea of topic-based 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. is fantastic! From my point of view, as more people from underrepresented groups step into more leadership roles and bring in fresh ideas, it will allow for more creativity in developing different styles of meetups. After our second round of diverse speaker workshops in Vancouver in 2015, for example, some of the workshop grads created a User track for our local 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 it was immensely popular.

But I’m also seeing here about how much work it will take to accommodate a whole new meetup paradigm. And that is giving me pause for thought.
Sam Suresh 12:24 pm on May 7, 2021

Thank you everyone for your opinion on this proposal. I appreciate all your thoughts and issues raised in this discussion.

As for the next steps, community team will proceed to onboard topic based 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. based on current 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. onboarding checklist.

If you wish to start a new topic based meetup under the meetup chapter program, go ahead apply today.