SiteGround Joins the 2023 Global Sponsorship Program

I am thrilled to announce that SiteGround has become a Gold Level Global Community SponsorGlobal Community Sponsor Company that sponsors the WordPress community events through the global sponsorship program. for 2023!

Once again, a big thank you to all the sponsors that support the WordPress community programs and events.

Full details on the 2023 Global Sponsorship program and packages can be found here

The Global Sponsor information for event organizers page in the handbook has been updated, and we’ll be updating the rest of the Central, handbook pages, 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. websites, WordPress Chapter 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. group pages in the coming days to acknowledge our global sponsors.

Please join me in giving another big thanks to all the global sponsors for their continued support!

#global-sponsors#global-sponsorship

#global-sponsors, #global-sponsorship

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: May 2023

Hello, Organizers!

WordPress 20th anniversary is just around the corner, have you already scheduled your celebration events? Check out the latest news about #WP20 on the official anniversary website.

In this month’s newsletter, we invite you to experiment with new event formats, join the Community Team at 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. Europe, and have fun while translating WordPress using the Live Translation Playground tool. Read on to discover more about all three!

The Next Generation of WordCamps

Since 2006, WordCamps have been a staple way that WordPress enthusiasts meet. Coming out of the pandemic, we’ve been hearing from many organizers and attendees the desire to experiment with new event formats, and we want to support you!

Join the discussion on The Next Generation of WordCamps post to learn more about the new purpose, the next steps, and ways to share your ideas for new event formats. You can also start discussing your ideas in the 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/. #community-events channel or reach out to WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. via email support@wordcamp.org.

Do you already have a specific idea in mind for a new event type? Use this form and share it with the Community Team!

Join the Community Team at WordCamp Europe 2023

WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. 2023 is happening in Athens on June 8-10. If you’re planning on attending and you haven’t purchased your ticket yet, do it as soon as possible on the WCEU Ticket page. There are only 50 tickets left! 

June 8 is the 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/.. Come contribute to one or multiple WP teams in-person, or participate remotely. Check out the WCEU Contributor day page for all details, including how to prepare for Contributor Day.

If you attend WCEU in person, don’t miss the Community team WP Connect events: we’ll be hosting four panels where everybody who wants to participate can join and share their experience about all things WordPress. Additionally, there will be 2 special events focused on development and the WordPress Playground.

We hope to see you all in Athens!

Translate Live tool: Translating WordPress Plugins has never been easier!

Did you know that now you can translate WordPress plugins and themes directly from your browser? Oh yes, you can! Translate Live is a tool that uses WordPress Playground to allow everybody to execute live translations without leaving your browser. Find out about the latest updates and instructions on how to use it on the Polyglots blog.


A special thank you to our Global Sponsors: Jetpack, WooCommerce, Bluehost, Nexcess, Weglot, and WordPress.com!


If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. are here to help. Please email us at support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community—let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!

See you online soon!

The following people contributed to this edition 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. newsletter: @mysweetcate , @devinmaeztri , @bjmcsherry , @akirk, @amieiro , @spiraltee

#community-team, #meetup-organizer-newsletter, #newsletter

#community-team, #meetup-organizer-newsletter, #newsletter

Announcement: Increasing Meetup Venue Support Funds

Did you know that WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support WordPress Community Support PBC is a subsidiary of WordPress Foundation. It is created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program., thanks to our generous Global Sponsors, provides a stipend to cover the cost of meetup venues

Knowing that venue costs have increased significantly, particularly in some parts of the world, WPCSWPCS The collection of PHP_CodeSniffer rules (sniffs) used to format and validate PHP code developed for WordPress according to the WordPress Coding Standards. May also be an acronym referring to the Accessibility, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, etc. coding standards as published in the WordPress Coding Standards Handbook. will be increasing 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. venue fund guidelines from $5 USD/person per event to ~$10 USD/person per event. The Community Team’s hope in allocating more funding towards meetup venue costs is to support increased meetup activity, especially in areas where venue costs are prohibitive.

Requests for Meetup venue funds still need to be submitted to the Community Team for approval first. As always, please take time to find a venue that is cost effective, and when possible free, while providing the local community with an inclusive, welcoming location to meet. The Community team will vet each request against local cost of living before granting approval. 

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Leave them below! 

Thanks again to our Global Sponsors for making this possible!

#meetups-2

X-post: WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program: Pilot Program Proposal

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Contributor Working Group: Mentorship Chat Agenda | May 18th 07:00 UTC (APAC/EMEA) and 16:00 UTC (AMER)

The contributor working group is gearing up for its next Mentorship chat on Thursday (May 18th) to continue its work on building a Mentorship Program for WordPress! For more information on the working group and its plans, check out our launch post.

Meeting times

To make accommodations for as many timezones as possible, we will be holding these chats in multiple timezones. Based on feedback from last week, we will continue holding these chats on the Third Thursday of every month.

The chat will be held on the #community-team channel of the Make/WordPress Slack. Here’s the link to a handy `.ics` file which contains calendar entries for our upcoming chat, so that you won’t miss it. These chats have also been added to the Make/Meetings calendar. Everyone who is interested in building a mentorship program is welcome to attend these chats.

Looping in folks that had expressed interest in the program: @williamsba1, @megabyterose, @wolfpaw, @soulseekah, @courtneypk, @amethystanswers @leogopal @milana_cap @unintended8 @lesleysim @itsjustdj @evarlese @prathameshp, @webcommsat @meher @kcristiano @leonnugraha and @dpknauss.

Also looping in the folks who attended the last chat:

@adityakane @nao @oglekler @yoga1103 @mikeschroder @st810amaze @onealtr @carl-alberto @tobifjellner @javiercasares @sz786 @meher @courane01 @jeffpaul @sereedmedia @cbringmann @angelasjin @juliarosia @askdesign @nomadskateboarding @harishanker @javiercasares @gounder @unintended8 @webtechpooja @thewebprincess @fitehal @desrosj @askdesign @nikita22 and @nomadskateboarding

Agenda

Last week, our focus was on finalizing a Minimum Viable ProductMinimum Viable Product "A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia (MVPMinimum Viable Product "A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia) to test out our Mentorship Program. This week, based on all our findings, we have finalized a pilot for our mentorship program and start working on implementation steps.

1. Welcome, introductions, and check-ins
How is everyone doing? New members joining the group can also introduce themselves.

2. Mentorship Program Pilot
Based on discussions from our last chats, the working group has identified a pilot program for our projectwide mentorship! We briefly go through the pilot program to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Here’s the link to the draft blog post announcing the program’s MVP/Pilot and a white paper about the program.

3. Implementation and Assigning Tasks
Now that everyone is on the same page on the pilot program, we start talking about implementing our mentorship program! We will try to come up with a plan to implement our program, identify a list of tasks, and put out a call for volunteers to help with the different tasks. We will also try and find a project management tool to keep track of our work!

4. Next steps
Based on next discussion this week, we will identify a task list for the group until next week.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

#contributor-working-group #mentorship-program #wpcontributors #mentorship-chat #mentorship-chat-recap

Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on May 10, 2023

Attending: @angelcabaleiro, @askdesign, @franrosa, @jillbinder, @juliarosia, @martatorre, @onealtr

Host: @askdesign

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1683738048042419

Summary

1 – First time here


2 – Who we are (@jillbinder) + Comments, questions, ideas (anyone)

  • @jillbinder described our programs and how to get involved.
  • @askdesign shared that her involvement in this group has increased her awareness about diversity outside of WP


3 – Headlines (@jillbinder)

  • @martatorre held the first diversity table at a local 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. this last weekend
  • This coming weekend, lead by @pastelito, San Carlos is holding a 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. for the Women of their WordPress Community, running the speaker workshop
  • Past monthly reports are up, with fantastic results: December 2022 and January 2023, February and March 2023
  • In April we had the follow-up 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/. discussion to the March Inclusion workshop


4 – Upcoming workshops (@jillbinder)


5 – Diversity in Spain project (@martatorre)

  • @martatorre told us all about the diversity table at WC Barcelona community day. Well attended, good discussions about diversity in Spain, and new interest in our #WPDiversity programs
  • @martatorre told us about her talk about diversity at WC Barcelona
  • We started talking about what more active contributions could be done at more diversity tables at WordCamps in Spain
  • And started talking about brainstorming a set of questions for the Meetup and WordCamp organizer handbooks that organizers can ask themselves to support them in organizing diverse and inclusive events. We will brainstorm at our next #WPDiversity meeting.

6 – WPDiversity APAC (@onealtr)

  • @onealtr shared upcoming WP events in Asia
  • WordCamp Iloilo 2023 will be holding a #KidsCamp. The last time was in 2019.

7 – Marketing (@jillbinder)

  • @jillbinder is meeting a potential new Marketing team representative for us next week.
  • Marketing for this weekend’s workshop has been more challenging as a result. Jill asked for help with getting the word out.
  • Jill asked for retweets when a post goes out May 11 in APAC time on the WordPress account

8 – Other Updates + Next meeting host (anyone)

  • @juliarosia asked people to apply to participate at the Community Summit. The summit is looking for more people who are passionate about diversity in WordPress.

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1683741587728029

————————

Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship for WordCamp US 2023

The WordPress FoundationWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org. is once again offering the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship for travel to WordCamp US 2023.

Kim was a valued and committed contributor to the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project, and this is the WordPress Foundation’s way of honoring her. The Foundation’s goal is to further the efforts of contributors who demonstrate Kim’s spirit, by helping to ease the financial burden of travel to 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. US.

This scholarship is awarded to someone who:

  • Identifies as a woman
  • Is a WordPress contributor
  • Has never attended WordCamp US before
  • Requires financial assistance to attend

This Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship is awarded to one recipient, and covers travel to WordCamp US from the recipient’s home city, hotel stay for the duration of the event, and a ticket to WordCamp US.

If you meet these requirements and would like to be considered, please apply no later than Monday, June 12, 2023 at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. All applicants will be notified by June 29, 2023.

For more details, please visit the WordPress Foundation’s About the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship page.

Apply for the scholarship here.

#kim-parsell

X-post: Day 1: #WP20 From Blogs to Blocks

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The Next Generation of WordCamps

Since 2006, WordCamps have been a staple way that WordPress enthusiasts meet. The Community team has long held that the purpose of all WordCamps, and WordPress events broadly, was to connect WordPressers, inspire them to do more with WordPress, and encourage them to contribute back to the project. 

Especially in recent years, how the WordPress community meets has fundamentally changed. And, as more and more events are organized, several challenges have emerged, some we experienced even before the pandemic. To address these challenges, organizers, community deputiesDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook., and mentorsMentor 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. have begun to discuss different ways of meeting. 

To that end, let’s embrace these challenges and modernize our events by making some big shifts to why and how we meet. 

A new purpose

Connection, inspiration, and contribution are undeniably important to WordPressers. However, as events have returned, communities see that people are much more selective about what events they attend and want to know what they will gain by participating. 

The following proposed purpose of WordPress events is based on conversations with various community members:

WordPress events spark innovation and adoption by way of accessible training and networking for users, builders, designers, and extenders. We celebrate community by accelerating 21st-century skills, professional opportunities, and partnerships for WordPressers of today and tomorrow.

What does this mean for our events?

The hope is that a period of innovation and experimentation will follow this critical shift in the purpose of our events, with the following outcomes: 

  • Events curated for clearly defined audiences, resulting in a clearer idea of what attendees will gain from participating. For example events for students, for designers, for contributors, etc. 
  • A more precise focus around event content type or topic. This also will help further clarify who the event is for. For example events on AI and WordPress, user experience, enterprise, etc. 
  • A variety of event formats that are freshly exciting and engaging to attendees. For example workshops, unconference, job fairs, pure networking, etc.

But wait, where does this leave current WordCamps, 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., and flagships?

While experimentation of “Next Gen WordCamps” is strongly encouraged (someone, please help me come up with a better name than that!), meetups, currently planned WordCamps and flagships will continue. Here’s what the Community Team anticipates:

  • Local meetups: I strongly recommend that we continue encouraging local meetups. These are our most easy-to-access events because they can be organized by anyone and are started fairly quickly. They provide consistent, local, in-person connection and are a great, lower-barrier way to build community management and event organizing skills. With that in mind, let’s continue to 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.!
  • Currently planned WordCamps: All currently planned WordCamps can continue as is and the Community Team will continue to support them. New applications for WordCamps will be encouraged to experiment with different formats. 
  • Flagships (WordCamp US, WordCamp Europe, WordCamp Asia): These will remain our largest, broadest event that fully capitalizes on the energy of a large crowd. They’ll be the place to highlight the latest, greatest, and coolest in WordPress and where we are going. 

As we experiment with “Next Gen WordCamps,” the community team can reevaluate our full events program and how events coexist happily. 

Some suggested next steps

This change will inevitably generate a lot of excellent discussions. Let’s embrace a period of experimentation and lean into the ingenuity of the WordPress community. 

To that end, organizers who want to try out a “Next Gen 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.” are invited to begin pitching their ideas (come chat in the #community-events channel or email support@wordcamp.org). As long as the idea matches the new purpose and aligns well with WordPress community open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. values and community spirit (think five good faith rules, our desire to be inclusive, diverse, and as welcoming as possible, etc.), we approve the idea and provide some financial support from the global sponsorship fund. Organizers will be expected to publicly share the pitch and write a recap of the event, with some evaluation of event success.

With innovation comes the need for revised tooling and logistics, and future posts will request feedback on and discuss those needs. This is also a great opportunity for a beautiful blue sky exercise post on event types and formats.

Share your thoughts

This is a change; change always comes with questions, challenges, thoughts, nervousness, and excitement. Please share everything you’d like! In particular, it would be helpful to hear: 

  • What are your thoughts on the updated purpose for WordPress events?
  • What do you envision “Next Gen WordCamps” to look like?

Do you already have a specific idea in mind for a new event type? Use this form to share it with the Community Team!

Community Team Training #8: Boosting WordPress Meetup engagement with Meetup.com

We are excited to invite the community members to attend our upcoming Training Session scheduled as follows:

TitleBoosting WordPress 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. engagement with Meetup.com
Date11th May 2023
Time & RSVPSession 1: 2023/05/11 12:00 UTC (1 Hour) 
Session 2: 2023/05/11 21:00 UTC (1 Hour) 
Open toWordPress Meetup organizers & community members
LocationZoom (RSVP: https://forms.gle/9Z26EEBa4VjuPPEp7)

Training Brief

The agenda for the event includes tips and techniques to improve the engagement rate and convert more RSVPs into show-ups. The training also covers features such as the contact members tool, mailing list, direct messages, discussions, event chat, attendee manager, and event check-in.

Attendees are reminded that the event will be recorded. Questions can be submitted using the Q&A feature and closed captioning is available.

The head of customer success of Meetup.com, Marie-Lou Gauthier, leads the training.

Please RSVP, so you will receive an invitation in your email that will include the Zoom link. If you have any questions, feel free to email support@wordcamp.org or simply comment below.

REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/9Z26EEBa4VjuPPEp7