The Community Deputy role was created in an effort to both decentralize management of the overall Community program and help with the large volume of daily emails. It started with a small pilot program in October of 2014 and has grown from there.
In 2023, the Deputy name was retired and new contributor names were chosen:
- WordCamp Mentors became Event Supporters.
- Community Deputies became Program Supporters.
- Super Deputies became Program Managers.
While the name has changed, Program Supporters remain vital to our event programs and come from all cultural backgrounds and parts of the world.
Training is done in orientations and through our handbooks, and peer mentoring is an important part. There is not nearly enough full-time Community Team staff members to support all of the meetup groups and WordCamp organizers in the world; our Program Supporters make the Make/Community program possible.
What Program Supporters Do
Here is an example of the types of tasks Program Supporters do.
- Email triage in the Help Scout queue for support@wordcamp.org
- Application processing for Meetups, WordCamps, do_action, and other events
- Orientations for Meetups, WordCamps, do_action, and other events
- Answer questions in the #community-events and #community-team channels on Slack
- Attend the monthly Community Team meetings on Slack
- Contribute to Community Team discussions and decisions
- Design, build, and test new tools for WordCamp.org
Program Supporters can also ask for additional training to do these tasks.
- Zoom reservation management
- WordCamp mentoring
Qualifications and Resources
In order to become a Program Supporter you must:
- Be a very trusted and experienced community member
- Have experience as a Meetup and WC organizer, preferably as a lead organizer
- Not have had any previous incidents or conflicts with the Community Team
- Have good references from other Program Supporters or Managers, or very trusted members of the community
- Have finished the required training courses and passed the quizzes
- Be able to chat with community members on Slack, Google Meet, and/or Zoom
Required training courses:
- https://learn.wordpress.org/course/wordpress-community-deputy-training
- https://learn.wordpress.org/course/wordcamp-organizer-training
Recommended courses:
- https://learn.wordpress.org/course/basic-principles-of-conflict-resolution
- https://learn.wordpress.org/course/open-source-basics-and-wordpress/
Get Involved!
If you need more information about becoming a Program Supporter, you can join us in a Community Chat on Slack or ask to join the next Program Supporter Training Session.
