The Community 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. 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 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. name was retired and new contributor names were chosen:
- 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. MentorsEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. became Event Supporters.
- Community 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. became Program Supporters.
- Super DeputiesProgram Manager Program Managers (formerly Super Deputies) are Program Supporters who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. 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 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 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 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., WordCamps, do_actiondo_action do_action hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Learn more on doaction.org., 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 SupporterProgram 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. 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 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/., 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.
