Welcome to the official blog of the community/outreach team for the WordPress open source project!
This team oversees official events, mentorship programs, diversity initiatives, contributor outreach, and other ways of growing our community.
If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
Getting Involved
We use this blog for policy debates, project announcements, and status reports. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to comment on posts and join the discussion.
You can learn about our current activities on the Team Projects page. These projects are suitable for everyone from newcomers to WordPress community elders.
You can use our contact form to volunteer for one of our projects.
We also have regular Community Team meetings on the first and third Thursdays of every month at 11:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC in #community-team on Slack (same agenda).
Deputies with swag shipping permissions may send lanyards to WordCamps, and WordPress button and sticker packs to WordCamps or Meetup Groups.
People with access to send swag currently are: Andrea Middleton, Birgit Pauli-Haack, Cami Kaos, Courtney Kranzke, Hugh Lashbrooke, Jenny Wong, Josepha Haden, Larry Swanson, Mayuko Moriyama, Roberto Remedios, and Rocío Valdivia.
For WordCamps, an automated email to remind us to order swag will arrive in Help Scout 9 weeks before the camp’s scheduled date. The subject line is something like “Ship Supplies to WordCamp CITYNAME”.
For Meetups, please search in Help Scout and/or check the Meetup Status document for the last time swag was ordered for them.if the group has not received swag in the past 18 months, they are eligible for a 100-pack of WordPress swag. If the group has received swag within the past 18 months, we should review their request on a case by case basis.
Before you order anything for WordCamps:
Search Help Scout and/or review the notes in the WordCamp’s listing on Central to see if we’ve already ordered swag for this WordCamp. Sometimes organizers reach out before the automated reminder email is sent to request swag, so checking if an order was already made will avoid a duplicate order.
Reach out to the organizer to confirm some information:
In the Help Scout thread (“Ship Swag to WordCamp CITYNAME”), copy the organizer’s email address from the body of the email. Select the gear icon in the right sidebar, select ”Change customer” from the dropdown menu: …then change the customer to the organizer’s email address. This ensures that your reply goes to the organizer, and not back to us. Now you can reply and…
Confirm the shipping address. Although we have an address in the listing on WordCamp Central, organizers may want swag shipped to a specific person on their team, especially in cases where someone needs to be there to sign for it or if there is one person who will be transporting items to the venue.
Confirm the number of attendees expected. The number in the WordCamp listing may have been estimated months earlier and may have changed. Finally, confirm the phone number as well, since it is required for customs clearance or delivery in many countries. There is a Predefined Reply in Help Scout that asks for all this information, titled “WORDCAMP: Swag shipment info request”.
Once the address and estimated attendance is confirmed, it is time to send out some swag!
Button and stickers come in packages of 100 or 200. The number of “mixed buttons/stickers” means that many each of buttons and of stickers, so the total number of pieces in the pack is actually twice the number listed. In other words, a 200-pack has 200 stickers and 200 buttons (a total of 400 items). One package of 200 is sufficient for a WordCamp with up to 400 attendees. If the WordCamp will have more attendees, send an additional pack or two to ensure they have enough to go around.
For meetup groups that have not received swag in the past 12 months, they are eligible for a 100-pack of WordPress swag.
Lanyards come in packages of 100. Enough lanyards should be sent to ensure there will be one for each attendee. If a WordCamp is planning to have 250 attendees you will need to send them three packages of lanyards.
Contributor Sticker Packs are packs of 50 sheets of stickers with a sticker for each current team. Please do not send these to all WordCamps by default since supplies are limited – these packs are only to be sent to WordCamps that are having a Contributor Day and have requested the stickers.
When all items for an individual WordCamp or Meetup Group have been added, click on the shopping cart icon at the top of the page.
At this point, please take a moment to confirm you have the right amount of both swag and lanyard packages in your cart. In this example, we are ordering swag for WordCamp Narnia. They plan to have 250 attendees. With one 200-pack of stickers and buttons and three 100-packs of lanyards, there will be enough of everything for their attendees. If the amounts look right for the event you’re shipping to, you can proceed with filling out the shipping information.
If you need to edit the cart before placing the order (i.e., to delete items or change quantities), you can do so by going to: https://mercantile.wordpress.org/cart/
The deputy placing the order will use a coupon code at checkout which is good for a 100% discount and free shipping. For security purposes, the coupon codes are not shared on this page, as it will be shared with individual deputies when they are trained on this process.
If this is the first time you have ordered from the WordPress Swag Store, you may have to fill out your billing details. Fill in the details required. You should not be asked for a credit card. If you are asked for a credit card, the account is not set up properly or you have additional swag that is not available to WordCamps and Meetups in your cart. Make sure you have only swag packs and lanyards on order. If a credit card is still required, reach out to support@wordcamp.org to resolve the issue. Do not pay for the order.
If you have ordered swag or lanyards before, your billing details will be pre-filled as shown below. You can use your name, but the mailing and email address for WordPress Community Support.
Check the box to “Ship to a different address” then fill in the shipping details.
If you have any special order notes or would like to include a phone number or the organizer’s email address you can leave additional information in “Order Notes.”
The best practice for filling in shipping information is to copy and paste the details provided to you by the organizer. This helps to reduce the chance of small mistakes, which can lead to shipping delays or prevent the organizer from receiving the supplies they need in time for the big event. Once you have filled in the details, scroll back up and click the “Place order” button.
If your order was successful you will see a confirmation like this:
If you used the support email address in the billing info, we’ll also receive an automated email in Help Scout to confirm the order. This will include the order number, items, and address, so you can re-review it for accuracy.
Tag the order confirmation ticket properly (i.e., “swag, wordcamp, narnia”) and close it. If there are any discrepancies, send an email to orders@hellomerch.com to make any corrections.
In the original ticket, It’s helpful to add a note that reads something like “Swag ordered 1 January 2017, Order #5555”.
Now you can update the notes in the Meetup Status doc or the notes in the WordCamp’s listing on Central to let the rest of us know that swag has been ordered. If there is an open ticket from the organizer, reply to let them know their swag is on the way and close any tickets associated with that swag request.
When the order has shipped, we’ll receive another email from the Swag Store with the tracking number. You can then email the organizer with package tracking information. Orders being shipped outside of the US are typically shipped via DHL, so you can use the Predefined Reply in Help Scout titled “SWAG: International tracking number DHL”.
