jillbinder 12:39 pm on October 17, 2022
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Report: Diverse Speaker Workshop September 2022

In September 2022, the #WPDiversity group held a speaker training workshop to empower WordPress women in India across two days.

September 2022

Diverse Speakers Program

Speaker Workshop For Indian Women in the WordPress Community, September 24 and 25, 2022

Facilitator: @jillbinder

  • Number who attended or who watched the recording after: 24
  • From number of cities: 13
  • From number of countries: 2 India, United States

Average self-reported increase in preparedness to help create more inclusive WordPress event after taking the workshop: 137.5%

Testimonials

“This is a wonderful opportunity to learn. Even if you may be confident in public speaking, this workshop can be useful – understanding how to narrow down a topic, how to pitch, and the do’s & don’ts of public speaking. Thank you to the organizers for supporting this & Jill for conducting it and involving all participants.”

– Akshaya Rane, Software Developer, Thane, India

“The feedback process was great. It was a great balance between constructive criticism and praise, so it helps build confidence. The environment is inclusive and the exercises done together help refine our thought process, which is hard to do on your own and without feedback.”

– Karishma Sundaram, Content Strategist

“Thank You Jill, Anna, and Ericka for doing this!”

– twitter/@MeherBala (Meher Bala)

diverse-speaker-support channel

We have a 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 (#diverse-speaker-support) in the Make WordPress Slack for:

  • workshopping talks with each other and with 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.
  • finding out about WordPress speaking opportunities from WordPress 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 WordCamps
  • getting to know other WordPress speakers and organizers

Wins this month: 7

  • Flagship WordCamps:
    • 1 spoke at WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event.
    • 2 sent in speaker applications to WC Asia
  • 2 spoke at 3 other events
  • 1 got speaker mentorship

Testimonial

“I truly appreciate the existence of the Diverse Speaker group. Definitely wouldn’t have done a successful talk 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. US without it. I guess I can’t say that I suck at public speaking anymore!” – Ebonie Butler, Senior Software Engineer, Philadelphia USA

Thank you

A lot of people contribute to making these workshops successful. Thank you to each and every one!

Upcoming Workshops

October 29, 2022 @ 10am-6pm CST: WordPress #WPDiversity Speaker Workshop for Women Voices in Latin America 

New! The list of upcoming #WPDiversity events is posted on the Diverse Speaker Group (#WPDiversity) page in the Community handbook. Please check there for upcoming events.

#diversespeakerworkshopsreports

jillbinder 9:11 pm on October 12, 2022
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Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on October 12, 2022

Attending: @jillbinder, @juliarosia, @katiejrichards, @kcrockett, @leogopal, @onealtr, @santanainniss, @sc0ttkclark, @sippis, @volkswagenchick

Facilitator: @juliarosia

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1664384439597139

Summary

1 Attendance and check-ins (everyone)
2 First time here
3 Comments, questions, ideas (anyone)

  • We talked about where to put an “Upcoming Events” box on our handbook page

4 Workshops – Inclusion (@jillbinder)

5 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/ chat – Inclusion (@jillbinder)

  • We are going to have a follow-up Slack chat to this workshop on Thursday, November 17th. Trying a different format: “bring successes, challenges, questions.”
  • Talked about who should be invited to the Slack chats. Experiment: most recent workshop participants + past slack chat participants.
  • @katiejrichards suggested we reach out to workshop participants to help them with their journey beyond our Slack chat reminders

6 Workshops – Speaker (@jillbinder)

7 APAC WPDiversity Network Building (@onealtr)

  • @onealtr shared upcoming WP Asia events
  • We talked about upcoming date and time changes for APAC meetings

8 Diverse Speaker Support channel (@kcrockett, @juliarosia, @jillbinder)

We discussed the automated introduction message when people join the channel

9 Marketing (@santanainniss)

  • We discussed:
    • Posts promoting the benefits of WP Diversity (e.g. xyz % of people felt more prepared to speak after the training)
    • Share statements like: how do we define diversity? Elements from the trainings etc.

10 Daylight savings — changing the meeting time in November (@jillbinder)

  • Starting on November 6th, 2022 and going until March 13, 2023, when daylight savings time ends, we are going to move our meeting to 6pm UTC.
  • We discussed how to write this on the Make WordPress Community sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme..

11 Other Updates + Next meeting facilitator (anyone)

  • @jillbinder is starting to work on a (working title) “So you wanna run a Speaker workshop?” page for the Community Handbook.

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1664387534721449

#wpdiversity

jillbinder 4:04 pm on October 7, 2022
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Upcoming #WPDiversity Events: October 2022

Here are the October 2022 #WPDiversity workshops. Please join us and help us spread the word!

Diversity and Inclusion Workshop

October 13, 2022 @ 5pm–7:30pm UTC: Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events

Want to see WordPress events be more welcoming, diverse, and inclusive?

Join our 2.5-hour interactive watch party online to learn how to create welcoming and diverse WordPress 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 WordCamps.

This is not just for organizers, but for anyone in WordPress.

This watch party workshop will NOT be recorded to support a comfortable space for open dialogue.

Register now

Speaker Workshop

October 29, 2022 @ 10am–6pm CST: WordPress #WPDiversity Speaker Workshop for Women Voices in Latin America – this is an in-person event for women in Costa Rica that is sold out with a waitlist. 

#wpdiversityworkshops

Sjoerd Blom 7:53 pm on October 6, 2022
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Idea: Freescout for WordCamp organising teams

When organising 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., the organisers have to handle a large number of emails. Large is actually an understatement. For the past years, WordCamp Europe has been using email addresses in the domain wp-europe.org, every team had their own mailbox: sponsors@wp-europe.org, content@wp-europe.org, and so on. Somehow this is ideal, as it allows to structure mailboxes across the teams, but it does not allow teams to see each other’s emails, nor an easy email handover from one team to another.

WordCamps have its own email address in the wordcamp.org domain by default: berlin@wordcamp.org, madrid@wordcamp.org, europe@wordcamp.org, and so on. And since October 2020 WordCamps are given Google Workspace because of the non-profit status of the Foundation (https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/first-steps/web-presence/g-suite-for-wordcamps/). 

For the past editions, the WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. organisers have been pleased with Freescout as it is right now: it’s mature, it’s stable and allowed us to handle large numbers of emails. Freescout started as an 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. clone of Helpscout. We discovered that it has a very powerful search engine for emails. 

Advantages of Freescout over Google Mail

  • no need to share the credentials of Google Mail with 40+ organisers
  • Google Mail credentials are only known to Freescout, not to the users of Freescout
  • grant individual access in Freescout to the general inbox
  • keep track of which user did what in Freescout (replied to customers, moved/deleted emails)
  • assigning emails to users (handlers)
  • adding internal notes to emails
  • smart tagging and structuring of incoming emails
  • quickly handing over emails from one team to another
  • notify 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/ about new emails
  • keeping track of previous conversations for a particular email address
  • email is still received in the Google Mail
  • email is still sent out via Google Mail

The only disadvantage of Freescout is that it needs a web server to offer its service. Since WCEU 2021 we’re using a small Digital Ocean VPS to host our Freescout instance.
I’ve had a couple of talks with the organisers of WordCamp Asia and WordCamp US, they both have a similar setup. We have come to the conclusion that we’re reinventing the wheel here and that it would make sense if Freescout would be part of the default stack for WordCamp organising teams. Especially the larger WordCamps would benefit from Freescout, as they have to handle very large quantities of correspondence with sponsors, speakers, volunteers and other external parties (WCEU 2022 had over 3,000 emails to process!)

Let me know what you think.

#wordcamps

Oneal Rosero 6:40 pm on October 6, 2022
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Recap of APAC WPDiversity Network Building – 10th meeting (Sept 29, 2022)

Thursday, Sep 29, 2022

https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1664420421262379

Host: Oneal Rosero @onealtr

Participants: Devin Maeztri @devinmaeztri

Agenda:

  1. Check-ins (everyone)
  2. First time here
  3. Volunteer needed to take notes!
  4. WPDiversity at WordPress events
    1. 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. Nepal, November 5-6, 2022
    2. WordCamp Gresik, Indonesia, November 9-10, 2022
    3. WordCamp Nagpur, India, November 12, 2022
    4. WordCamp Kolkata, West Bengal, India, December 2022
    5. WordCamp Asia 2023, Bangkok, February 17-19, 2023
  5. Outreach to get more participants in our meeting
  6. Updates, comments, questions, ideas  (anyone)
  7. A reminder of next meeting and facilitator (anyone)

Notes: 

  • Devin tagged some organizers of the WordCamps listed above in case they were available to join the meeting and share some updates regarding their Camps and if they have diversity-specific questions. Asynchronous responses were also welcome!
  • Devin added some Calls that are still open for WC Asia 2023.
  • Oneal suggested to bring Devin’s question regarding finding a way to get WP APAC community leaders to support the APAC Diversity Initiative to WordCamps and 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.. 
  • Devin’s share #WPBriefing archives: Josepha on the importance of diversity in #WordPress. https://bit.ly/3zd5895

#community-team, #wpdiversity

Megan 12:00 pm on October 5, 2022
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Community Team Meeting Agenda for Oct 6, 2022

The Community Team chat takes place on the first Thursday of every month. This regular meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team! 🤝 We’re always happy to have new folks join!

This meeting will be held in the #community-events channel in the Making 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/ at the following times:

Both meeting times use the same agenda.

You will find a preliminary agenda for the meeting below. If there’s anything you’d like to discuss, please comment on this post or reach out to one of the team reps: @megabyterose or @samsuresh. It does not need to have a corresponding blog post to be discussed in this meeting!

❔ 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-Ins

What have you been doing and how is it going? What did you accomplish after the last meeting? Are there any blockers? Can other team members help you in some way?

Mentor Check-in October 2022

✨ Highlights

Thank you to everyone who worked on the WordPress Community at the WCUS 2022 Contributor Day! If it was your first time contributing with our team, we hope to see you in Slack and at future team meetings/events. 😄

We recently hosted another WordPress Events Organizer Training. A recap post about our discussions is on the way.

By 15 October – Please complete the Annual Meetup Survey and share widely!

📌 Posts

2023 Global Sponsorship Working Group

Proposal: CampTix Attendee to Google Sheets integration

Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on September 14, 2022

Celebrating APAC WPDiversity Network Building: Update on Our 10th Meeting

📣 Announcements/Newsletters

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: September 2022

🗣️ Open Floor

Here is your chance to bring things into discussions that weren’t on the meeting agenda. You can also use this opportunity to share anything that you want with the team. If you have a topic in mind before the meeting, please add it to the comments of this post, we will update the agenda accordingly.

Hope to see you tomorrow, either in the Asia-Pacific/EMEA or Americas-friendly version of the meeting!

#meeting-agenda, #team-chat, #team-meeting

Rocio Valdivia 10:49 am on October 4, 2022  

WordCamp Mentors’ October check-in!

Hello 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.!
Are you currently mentoring 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. and you want to share how the team is doing and any other insights or interesting ideas and/or innovations they’re planning?

Leave a comment on this post and share your update, thanks! 🙂

Cate DeRosia 9:45 pm on September 30, 2022
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Help Improve the Make/Community Contributor Day Onboarding

Look familiar? You’re right; this is similar to the other post!

However, the goal of this one is to focus on onboarding experiences had at or around Contributor Days.

As we grow, it’s important to reflect on where we can make our processes smoother for everyone. So this post is gathering feedback specifically related to 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/.

  • Any blockers you’ve found to participating in a Contributor Day
  • Any blockers you’ve found to helping others participate in a Contributor Day
  • Anything you think it would be useful to share

That’s it. Short and sweet. Please leave feedback in the comments.

#feedback #ContributorDay #onboarding

Cate DeRosia 9:41 pm on September 30, 2022
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Help Improve the Overall Make/Community Onboarding

Hello, all. In an effort to make our content more engaging and more useful for everyone, I have been working on updates to our Make/Community site and the pages within.

You may have noticed updates to the Welcome Box, the Team Projects page, the Community Team Handbook, and have recently started on the Meetup Organizers Handbook.

About the Project

The goal is to fill in any missing knowledge and make our information easier to find.

The project impacts two sets of people:

  1. organizers who are trying to find information to host an event
  2. new contributors to the community team, such as 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. 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.

My approach so far has been to update and simplify information while moving frequently used links to more accessible locations.

How you can help!

Please comment here with insights into:

  • frequently used information that you struggle to find
  • blockers you have hit that make it difficult to contribute, or to help others contribute
  • information that is confusing or outdated
  • processes that are confusing or outdated
  • frustrations you’ve faced when planning an event or assisting others to do so
  • anything else that could help improve the experience for event organizers and contributors

Thank you in advance for your help.

Hat tip to @juliarosia for editing assistance.

#feedback #onboarding

jillbinder 7:28 pm on September 29, 2022
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Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on September 28, 2022

Attending: @juliarosia, @katiejrichards, @kcrockett, @onealtr, @santanainniss

Attended by proxy: @jillbinder

Facilitator: @santanainniss

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1664384439597139

Summary

1 Attendance and check-ins (everyone)
2 First time here
3 Comments, questions, ideas (anyone)
4 Workshops (Speaker & Inclusion) (@jillbinder)

Great speaker workshop for women in India over the weekend. We had about 20 attend, and we are pretty certain that at least 3 are going to start speaking. 

Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events
Thursday, October 13 at 5pm-7:30pm UTC
Please share: https://twitter.com/jillbinder/status/1574899555455610880

Talked about the workshop’s call to action.

5 APAC WPDiversity Network Building (@onealtr)

We are already in discussions to bring a similar workshop as India’s to other countries and possibly other languages.

List of upcoming WordCamps in Asia.

6 Diverse Speaker Support channel (@kcrockett, @juliarosia, @jillbinder)

The channel is doing well and continuing to grow.
Do folks have any feedback that would help improve your experience of the group and the value that it offers you and the community?
Additionally, if you have any suggestions for our weekly Fun Discussion Topics please send them to @kcrockett!

7 Marketing (@santanainniss)

We shared posts on September 15/16th and September 23 about the India Women’s speaker workshop to push last minute registrations.

Coming up next:

  • Promotion of the upcoming October training (diverse & inclusive WP events workshop)
  • Promotion of LATAM women’s speaker training (in-person)
  • Promotion of WP Diversity APAC meeting, celebrating its 10th meeting

Please help us promote the October 13 Inclusion workshop. Social going out on Thursday (today)!

8 Daylight savings — changing the meeting time in November? (@jillbinder)

Thinking about making our meetings 5pm UTC during Daylight savings and 6pm UTC when Daylight savings ends. This would keep it at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern all of the time. Everyone in the meeting agreed.

9 Other Updates + Next meeting facilitator (anyone)

@juliarosia will facilitate the next meeting.

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1664387534721449

#wpdiversity