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Hugh Lashbrooke 12:39 pm on January 15, 2020  

Community Team Reps: Submit Your Votes

In December we opened up nominations for new Community Team Reps to replace myself and @francina. Due to the end of year rush, we’ve been a bit delayed with getting the voting poll out, but it’s now ready and open for voting!

You can find the poll below. Since two reps are elected each time, you can select up to two people to vote for.

What Are Team Reps?

In 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, each team has one or two (or more!) representatives (“reps”). The role goes all the way back to 2012.

Initially, it was a six months tenure, but most reps end up doing this for at least a year. The current Community Team Reps have been serving in the role for three years now.

Folks who serve as team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. are responsible for communicating on behalf of the group to the other contributor groups via weekly updates, as well as occasional chats and such. 

It is not called “team lead” for a reason. While the people elected as team reps will generally come from the pool of folks that people think of as experienced leaders, remember that the team rep role is designed to change hands regularly.

This role has a time commitment attached to it. Not a huge amount, but in my experience, it’s around one hour a week.

Here are the main tasks:

  • Writing the agenda for the biweekly chat
  • Running the community team chat (or finding another 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. to do so)
  • Writing the recap and posting it on the Updates P2
  • Keeping an eye on the moving parts of the team to be able to report for quarterly updates (example).

Over the year, the team might decide to add one or two people to help: some teams have up to five, six people, depending on how much work there is. For now, we’re going to be electing two team reps and, if the need arises later in the year, we can elect further people to serve in this role.

Where Can I Vote?

You can vote in the public poll here. You can vote for up to two people at the same time, but once you have submitted your vote you won’t be able to vote again.

This poll will remain open until the end of January 2020, after which team reps will be selected based on the votes received.

Hugh Lashbrooke 1:40 pm on October 22, 2019  

WordCamp Application Vetting Sprints | 23 & 25 October 2019

We currently have an abnormally large backlog of 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. applications that need their initial vetting (27 at the time of writing this!) and we need the help of all 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. to get this sorted out. To that end, we will be holding two WordCamp application vetting sprints this week:

Each sprint will last for 2 hours, and we will collectively vet as many WordCamp applications in that time as possible. If you are a 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. and would like to coordinate a sprint at another time this week (or any other week), then please comment on this post and I’ll add it to the list.

All deputies are welcome and encouraged to join! Please comment on this post if you think you can take part.

What is a Vetting Sprint?

A vetting sprint for WordCamp applications is a scheduled session where all available deputies meet together in the #community-team channel in the 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/. group. Over the course of the sprint, we will all work on vetting applications and use the Slack channel as a central place to discuss what we’re working on and support each other.

Who can take part?

Any deputies who have access to the WordCamp central listings can take part. That means people who have completed the deputy training, signed the deputy agreement and been given access to the dashboard.

If you are a deputy who has been active in the last year, then you should have access to this. If you don’t have access and still want to take part, please comment here or ask in #community-team and we’ll sort out your access.

How Does it Work?

As mentioned above, we will be going through the open WordCamp applications that still need vetting – you can find all of those here. We also have some handy notes to help you with the process.

As always, deputies can work on these things at any time that suits them, but these dedicated sprints help to provide some direct focussed time for it.

Francesca Marano 2:44 pm on October 10, 2019
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Handbook Working Group – Let’s do this, take two!

Despite a banging start, with a lot of talented people showing interest and willingness to make the Community documentation better, I failed at keeping the group going, due to biting on more than I can chew.
It happens.

What is so great about having things published in the blog and in TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. is that other people can adopt the project, so here we go again!

Rocìo @_dorsvenabili has kindly offered to continue with the project and enrich it with another layer that will make it even more impactful for our global community.

I won’t spoil anything, but I ask you please to re-commit to the group if you can or join it anew if this is the first time you heard about it! Leave your 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/. name in the comments, thank you!

If you want to read more before raising your hand:

Thanks!

#community-handbook, #handbook
Francesca Marano 10:28 am on October 2, 2019
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WordCamp US 2019 – Community Team Plans

We are less than a month away from WordCamp US 2019, which means it’s time to get organised!

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 WordCamp US are what we consider flagship events and are always a great opportunity for teams to get together, contribute and onboard more people. There are going to be a whole lot of us present and we should take advantage of that and maximize our time together.

Please add in the comments ideas and suggestions for tasks we could work on together while in Saint Louis.

We also need at least two, three Team Leads to coordinate the different activities:

  • Deliver the Team initial presentation
  • Onboard new contributors
  • Help coordinate work during the day
  • Deliver the end of day recap of what was achieved during the day

Please raise your hand in the comments if you are available for this.

Deadline to comment is October 17 so we can discuss this during the next two Community chats: after that date I will summarise in a “squad goals” post (like the one we had last year) and we will go from there!

#contributor-day, #wcus
Hugh Lashbrooke 9:50 am on October 1, 2019  

Application Vetting Sprint | Wednesday, 2 October 2019

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.! Your help is needed! We currently have 20 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. application and 8 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. applications that have not yet been vetted – that’s a lot of people who have applied, but have yet to receive an update. In addition to that, we have received the requested feedback from a number of applicants and have not followed up further, so we need to get back on those threads and make sure we bring them to completion.

@sippis hosted a vetting sprint on Sunday (thank you!) and we’re planning another one for Wednesday, 2 October (that’s tomorrow at the time of writing this). This sprint will be 2 hours and will begin at the following time:

Wednesday, 2 October 2019 at 11:00 UTC

 

All deputies are welcome and encouraged to join! Please comment on this post if you think you can take part.

What is a Vetting Sprint

A vetting sprint for Meetup and WordCamp applications is a scheduled session where all available deputies meet together in the #community-team channel in the 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/. group. Over the course of the sprint, we will all work on vetting applications and use the Slack channel as a central place to discuss what we’re working on and support each other.

Who can take part?

Any deputies who have access to the Meetup Tracker can take part. That means people who have completed 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. training, signed the deputy agreement and been given access to the tracker (details about the tracker here).

If you are a deputy who has been active in the last year, then you should have access to the tracker. If you don’t have access and still want to take part, please comment here or ask in #community-team and we’ll sort out your access.

How Does it Work?

As mentioned above, we will be going through the open applications that still need vetting, as well as following up on applications that have not had any movement in a little while. To that end, here are the relevant links to the queues that we will be working through:

  • Needs vetting: WordCamps | Meetups
  • Needs orientation: WordCamps | Meetups – we need to check Help Scout to make sure we have sent an orientation scheduling email to these groups.
  • Awaiting feedback: WordCamps | Meetups – these applications should have threads in Help Scout that are needing further vetting and/or replies.

As always, deputies can work on these things at any time that suits them, but these dedicated sprints help to provide some direct focussed time for it.

Timi Wahalahti 6:41 am on September 19, 2019
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Proposal: Changes to application workflow for better communication

Our 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. and 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. vetting queue might sometimes be a bit long. It causes a delay, sometimes almost a month, between sending the application and 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. vetting it. The long gap between submitting the application and receiving an update might be frustrating for some applicants. Some do also come to #community-events 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/. channel and ask to confirm that their application is received.

Public application report page helps a little with this, but not all applicants know about it. Even if they do, it does not feel like personal contact with Community Team.

I propose the following change to our application workflow, to keep applicants informed and to add a bit more personal touch after sending the application:

  • Create a HelpScout ticket and in that ticket:
  • Send a short warm confirmation that the Community Team has received the application.
  • Keep ticket open and mark it with the tag “application-confirmation.”
  • The application tracker on central.wordcamp.org is updated with a link to the ticket for later communication.

This can be done pragmatically leveraging HelpScout APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways., so manual deputy work is not needed.

After this process has been set up, we could use HelpScout workflows to do different things. For example, send a short message if there hasn’t been any activity for two weeks after the application was received. This message could contain an apology that we have a bit of queue right now and promise that we will vet the application as soon as possible.

Possible advantages for 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.:

  • Deputies can view the queue from HelpScout and not require to visit the application tracker queue to figure out which one to conduct a vetting
  • Easier and trackable way to assign applications to deputies

What do you think, is this a good idea? Do you already imagine how the messaged are phrased? Tell it in the comments! Deadline for comments is 2019-10-04.

Thanks to @adityakane for brainstorming this proposal with me and commenting the draft.

Timi Wahalahti 11:19 am on July 11, 2019
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Request for feedback: What data our team updates should contain?

In the last Community Team meeting, we discussed about our team updates in make.wordpress.org/updates, how those are lagging behind (last update is from January 2019) and how to revitalize Community Team updates there.

Updates with our chat recaps and general information to make/updates from our team are important, because other teams and Josepha does read those. Our updates makes assessing the project as a whole easier.

We agreed that updates should be made after every team chat. That means bi-weekly updates consisting of team chat recaps and also some other important details about how our team is doing.

My idea about other details to include in updates is:

  • Count of active 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. (from Deputies list)
  • Count of active 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. (from Deputies list)
  • HelpScout total conversations (from HS reports)
  • HelpScout messages received (from HS reports)
  • 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. in chapter program (from WordCamp Reports)
  • Meetups needing vetting (from Meetup Tracker)
  • WordCamps in the schedule (from WordCamp Tracker)
  • WordCamps needing vetting (from WordCamp Tracker)
  • List all new Meetups after the last update (from WordCamp Reports)
  • List all new scheduled WordCamps after the last update (from WordCamp Reports)

Am I missing some important number? What you’d like to add to our team updates? Leave your thoughts and ideas in comments before next team chat on 18.7.2019!

For the first three months, me (Timi) and Hugh are responsible for making the updates. After that, we are going to shift the responsibility to two other Community Team members for the next three months. Responsibility is intended to be rotating thing every three months with two persons, so we can be sure that someone will do the updates.

If you’d like to be the person making our team updates after these first three months, please raise a hand in comments!

#meetings
Hugh Lashbrooke 7:20 pm on July 3, 2019
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Community Team Chat Agenda | Thursday, 4 July 2019

Hello Team!

Our bi-monthly Community Team chat is happening this Thursday, 4 July 2019. Meeting times are detailed below. We use the same agenda for both meetings in order to include all time zones.

Asia-Pacific / EMEA friendly: Thursday, July 4, 2019, 11:00 UTC

Americas friendly: Thursday, July 4, 2019, 20:00 UTC

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./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. check-in

What have you been doing and how is it going?

P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. posts needing review/feedback

Highlighted P2 posts

Please add any additional items to this agenda by commenting on this post as needed.

#agenda, #meeting-agenda
Francesca Marano 5:22 pm on June 26, 2019
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WordCamp Europe 2019 – Recap of Community Team Activities At Contributor Day + Plans for the Future

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 2019 in Berlin was great, thanks to all the people that joined us from all over the world to make WordPress!

Here is what the team worked on:

  1. Reviewing 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. Handbook – Project started, we have a document for it https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BOlBVqXOjtAqtpQmS_h6Khol5YOAVrDvajm43h3FRMU/edit
  2. Looking for links of posts published in the make.wordpress.org/community blog that should be added to the Meetup or WordCamp organizer handbooks. @_dorsvenabili lead this initiative. Links are added here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WDOqvOpsV6EgBbGqibxj9-p82QEsNhTDMQz2qhkaf_o/edit
  3. In person meetup orientations done by @angelasjin
  4. Improving 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. training questions. @sippis is working on this, with @hlashbrooke and other people
  5. How WC organizers and Meetup organizers can do streaming easily: Initiative lead by Abha, from the Marketing team. There is a working document for the handbook https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P5C1meCRzB-uddjkAKn3y0_TI8MGKp0JvCCFSpTbajA/edit
  6. How to revamp the Meetup and WordCamp application form. Sam Suresh is checking with Meta team and working on it. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AXSSZrP78bSjFClfoBj4NWWAqKlXFQSBsEfwAY9QKAE/edit?usp=sharing
  7. Need documentation. Long list of desiderata here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z3UJRaUP6ej45nOijw8U7GcxB7EfHJO9Sa8mGVMVTwQ/edit#gid=0
  8. Vetting: thanks Sam for working on vetting of 5 new 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.!

Moving Forward with Our Efforts

Contributor Days are productive because of the face to face interaction and the urgency: we want to get things done during the day 😉

How do we keep the momentum going? Folks, I am repeating myself here… but project management is the answer!

We have a Trello board and we don’t really use it. I suggest we discuss it, again, during our next team chat, July 4th.

Hopefully we can find a common procedure that I believe will make us more efficient.

Did I miss something? Add it in the comments, thanks!

#contributor-day, #wceu
Francesca Marano 1:00 pm on June 18, 2019
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WordCamp Europe 2019 – Community Team Goals At Contributor Day

In a previous post we collected ideas for projects we could tackle together during 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/. 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 2019. Thanks to all the comments we now have a number of tasks.

Here is the list of the tasks: for each one I tried to add the relevant links so we don’t have to waste time looking for them on the day. If there is already someone attached to the task I added their names as well.

Ideas for experienced contributors

  • Closing and resolving old threads, or activate the conversation again (maybe in new P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. post) if the issue/topic still needs more conversation or work before resolving it: Open threads -sheet
  • @psykro is going to work on a proposal to reach community organisers in a more effective way.
  • Check the automated replies in HelpScout and translate them into different languages (cross team effort with Polyglots). Add them to the 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. handbook.
  • Trello board: kill it or use it for real 🙂
  • Work on documentation from our “needs documentation” list
  • Improve Global Community Sponsorship documentation
  • Application vetting sprint. See:

Ideas for less experienced contributors

  • @hlashbrooke is available to run a real-time orientation for any new organisers who will be coming on board at the time. Same with WordCamp orientations if there are any folks due for them at that time.
  • @_dorsvenabili proposed to merge marketing team-contributed documentation or blog posts into our handbooks.
  • Review existing documentation: are the flows and procedures clear?
  • Gather all missing Meetup organizer wordpress.org usernames 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. tracker

See you in Berlin!

#contributor-day, #wceu