Contributor Working Group

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Originally founded in September 2020 and led by @amethystanswers, the WordPress contributor working group group did a lot of great work around suggesting improved onboarding flows, and organizing online contributor day events, even as the global COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to its knees. 

Revitalized in March 2023 by @harishanker, the group pivoted its focus to build a contributor mentorship program, based on community feedback from its proposal. After several months of work, the group drafted a pilot program, put out a call for mentees, launched its initial mentorship cohort with 13 mentees and 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. each, and successfully concluded the same. As of September 2023, the group is working on creating the second iteration of its mentorship cohort (currently planned for Q1 2024 alongside WordPress 6.5).

The group’s current focus is on the following tasks: 

  • Brainstorming and building a structure for the contributor mentorship program
  • Recruiting mentors and mentees to the program
  • Offering support and guidance for mentors and mentees in the program
  • Creating and improving learning content for mentees
  • Running at least one pilot version of the mentorship program in 2023 (complete)
  • Running the second edition of the mentorship program in Q1 2024.
  • Create a culture of mentorship in WordPress
  • Improve the WordPress contributor pipeline.

The following folks have contributed to the WordPress contributor mentorship program so far in 2023:

Mentors
@adityakane
@thehopemonger
@coachbirgit
@mysweetcate
@foosantos
@kafleg
@javiercasares
@ninianepress
@unintended8
@casiepa
@st810amaze
@topher1kenobe
@tobifjellner

Make/Team Representatives
@jeffpaul
@kirasong
@oglekler
@francina
@mysweetcate
@unintended8
@milana_cap
@ninianepress
@topher1kenobe
@tobifjellner
@nao
@mrfoxtalbot
@foosantos
@webtechpooja
@courane01
@courtneypk

Facilitators/Working Group Members
@angelasjin
@askdesign
@cbringmann
@courane01
@realloc
@francina
@harishanker
@jeffpaul
@jominney
@desrosj
@juliarosia
@leogopal
@leonnugraha
@nomadskateboarding
@kirasong
@nao
@oglekler
@onealtr
@patricia70
@webtechpooja
@sereedmedia
@sumitsingh
@yoga1103

How the group communicates

The group has a dedicated private channel in 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/. which is used for sensitive communication and coordination. However, the group works in the open with monthly chats being held in the #community-team channel in the Make/WordPress Slack. The group has also created a #contributor-mentorship channel to facilitate mentorship in public spaces.

The group meets at 07:00 UTC (Add to Google Calendar) and 16:00 UTC (Add to Google Calendar) on the third Thursday of every month in the #community-team channel.

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Joining the Contributor Working Group

Anyone can join the contributor working group! You can start by participating (even asynchronously) in one of our mentorship chats. In addition to joining our chats, you can also support the group’s work by joining one of our upcoming cohorts, as a facilitator or a mentorEvent 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.. We are currently working on providing mentorship badges for group members.

Here are some links to follow updates from the mentorship program:

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