Meetup Organizer Newsletter: February 2022

Hello, hello!

It’s hard to believe that we’re just two months into this year. Nevertheless, we have some exciting stuff to share in the February 2022 edition of the monthly 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. Organizer Newsletter. 

Last month marked a significant milestone for WordPress, not only because of the release of WordPress 5.9. As WordPress Co-Founder Matt Mullenweg announced at last year’s State of the WordState of the Word This is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/., WordPress News also got a new look—be sure to check out the new design tomorrow (February 16, 2022), when it goes live!

Here’s what’s inside this issue:

  • New guidelines for in-person WordPress events
  • Diversity in WordPress 
  • WordPress 5.9 Joséphine 
  • WordPress events

Keep reading to learn about the latest news and resources from the WordPress community, and share them with your local meetup groups!

✅ Follow the latest safety guidelines for in-person WordPress events

Following the recent proposal for updated safety measures for WordPress events in 2022, we’ve announced new safety measures for in-person WordCamps and 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.

If your local guidelines allow in-person events, you can still host meetups. However, to ensure the safety of the community, we require you to fulfill the safety checklist for in-person WordPress. For more information, read the mandatory safety guidelines published recently.

A chart explaining the steps for hosting in-person WordPress events in 2022 while following safety protocols.

🏳️‍🌈 Help strengthen diversity in WordPress

We believe that diversity leads to a stronger, more innovative, and resilient WordPress community. On that note, the Community Team has recently published an open discussion on diversity in WordPress events. This discussion has been translated into several languages so far, including Indonesian, Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), Japanese, and Portuguese (Brazil).

If you’re comfortable sharing your experience, we want to hear from you. Please share your story by commenting on this post.

✊ Join the Diverse Speaker Training volunteers meeting 

There’s an open invitation for the Diverse Speaker Training zoom call for volunteers that will be held on Wednesday, February 23, 2022, between 5 pm and 6 pm UTC. Join the meeting to learn more about #WPDiversity and how you can contribute to creating a diverse and inclusive WordPress community.

Interested in widening your pool of 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. speakers from underrepresented groups? Join the #diverse-speaker-support channel on the Make WordPress 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/..

🎷 WordPress 5.9 Joséphine released on January 25, 2022

Keeping with WordPress tradition, WordPress 5.9 Joséphine was named in honor of the acclaimed jazz singer Joséphine Baker. This much-awaited release holds many exciting updates, such as the introduction of blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. themes which makes full site editing a reality. For more information, read the WordPress 5.9 Field Guide and check out the talking points for WordPress 5.9!

Download WordPress 5.9 and organize an event to help spread the word among your meetup groups!

🌍 What’s happening with WordPress events?

2022 has many exciting WordPress events, both in person and online. As always, we strongly urge you to follow the mandatory safety guidelines and also learn about the legal protections available to you for in-person events.

🎪 WordCamps on the horizon

We have plenty of WordCamps taking place this year. Below are some of the WordCamps coming up soon—feel free to attend or share them with your meetup groups!

💛 Upcoming WordPress meetups

Check out the WordPress meetups coming up in February:

📚 Support the Learn WordPress initiative

Help make Learn WordPress the official resource on WordPress! Share your knowledge with others by organizing a social learning space based on any of the Learn WordPress workshops. Alternately, use lesson plans on Learn WordPress to organize WordPress meetups in your community! See the Tuesday Training for Meetup Organizers for an overview on how to use lesson plans.

And that’s a wrap! For more news from the WordPress community, check out the latest Month in WordPress


If you have any questions, Community Team 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. are here to help. Please email us at support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community—let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!

See you online soon!

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The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @rmartinezduque @eidolonnight @harishanker @courane01 @evarlese @webcommsat

#community-team, #wordcamps