Contributor Days

Contributor days are events where the we encourage, support and work on the WordPress project.

The event can be run as stand-alone events, or as part of a 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..

If they are part of a WordCamp, they can be ran

• as an event or track during the WordCamp
• as an event before or after the WordCamp

The Global Community Team thinks contributor days are great and would love to see more contributor days.

This handbook will outline what to consider when organising a contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. and what to plan for.

Who are contributor days for? #Who are contributor days for?

Contributor days are for everyone, on every experience level. Even someone who knows very little about WordPress can contribute by answering support questions or testing features.

The exception is, perhaps, focused WordCamps (i.e. Development focused WordCamps) where attendees are expected to know a bit about development, and thus the accompanying contributor day can be mostly developer-focused. Even then, it is useful to have a plan in case new contributors arrive who are not developers.

Make sure you emphasize this point in all your communication with potential attendees.

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What happens at a contributor day? #What happens at a contributor day?

The list below is how many contributor days run from an attendees point of view. It will give you an idea of the organising end result.

• Turn up and register your presence
• Welcome introductions
• Take a head count of who is interested in which teams
• Split and allocate team spaces
• Morning contribution session
  
• Lunch break
• Afternoon contribution session
  
• End of the day recap on what happened in each team.

During the morning contribution sessions,  “Getting Started” or a “Setting up a local enviroment” workshops are common, but not necessary.

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Organising a contributor day #Organising a contributor day

Contributor days organisation generally can be split into three parts:

• to organize the logistics of the event
• to organize the contributor teams
  
• advertising the event

The rest of this handbook will go through how contributor days are organised. Please treat the information as a guide and tailor the event to the local WordPress community.

The contributor day structure is not fixed. It grows, transforms, and evolves as we change and evolve as a community. If you have any resources or want to share how you have organised a contributor day, we would love to hear from you! Come and say hi in the #community-team Slack channel.