Next Gen of WordPress Event Talking Points – Share Your Ideas for a New Event Format and Make It Happen!

To continue our discussion on May 25, 2023, we’ve prepared a set of talking points for you to use during 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. events, 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. Contributor Days, or just casual chats with your WordPress folks. They’ll help you kickstart engaging discussions that will ignite excitement within your community.

Discuss with Your Community

But hold on, it doesn’t end there! Share any ideas and conversations you have with your community. If you’re planning to participate in this year’s experimentation, we want to hear about your plans and insights.

Remember, our WordPress events are vibrant gatherings of passionate WordPress enthusiasts and they focus on making a real impact while embracing our open-source values. So, don’t feel like your new event format has to be grand or require extensive resources. Even a small, meaningful, and impactful event can make a difference!

Help Us Translate the Message

Here’s the kicker: we need your help to also bridge the language gap. Community leaders, we invite you to translate the Talking Points and Ideas Form for your community members to ensure that everyone can actively participate and contribute to the conversation.

Join us in celebrating diversity, fostering inclusivity, and creating an ecosystem that thrives on collaboration. Use the talking points, translate them, and share your ideas with us.

We can’t wait to see the magic we’ll create together. Thank you for being an essential part of the global WordPress community!

Thank you, @peiraisotta and @nao for contributing to this post!

#ideas #community-events

Notes of Community Team Discussion on May 25, 2023

Yesterday’s Community Team discussion was fantastic! We had 99 people registered for the event, and 43 attendees from all around the world! Thank you all for your passion, curiosity, and energy during the call and during the brainstorming session.

We started the session with an introduction about the organizer, volunteer, and sponsor struggle coming back to in-person events after the pandemic, and the new purpose that emerged from it for the WP Community. 

After clarifying doubts regarding the future of traditional 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 WordCamps, we had a brainstorming session aimed to generate new ideas for the next generation of WordPress events. Participants discussed in small groups about fundamental aspects that we have to consider when moving forward with pilot events for new event types.

We asked attendees to ignore the hanbooks and focus on the new purpose and for the event to be: 

  • doable (for human and financial resources)
  • repeatable (by new/old organizer and more than once per year)
  • scalable (other communities might try the same format)
  • desirable (for organizer, attendees, sponsors, volunteers). 

Keeping the above in mind, in 9 breakout rooms attendees brainstormed about the following topics:

  • Event formats (room 1-2)
  • Organizing team structure (room 3-4)
  • Organizing timeline (room 5-6)
  • Benefits for sponsors (room 7-8)
  • Infrastructure/tools required (room 9)

After the session, which lasted about 10 minutes, we all came back to the main room and we shared the outcomes of our discussions. Many people agreed that 10 minutes were not enough to deeply discuss the topics assigned. 

We encouraged attendees to bring the same conversation in their 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 communities, and we’ll soon publish talking points that they can use if needed.

We ended the session inviting everyone to share their ideas for new event formats using this form, so the Community Team can collect all ideas and get back to organizers who want to have pilot events in their communities.

The community team would love to support as many pilot events as possible already in 2023.

Below some ideas, feedback, and thoughts from the brainstorming session.

Event format

Ideas

  • Youth camp: open only 15-25 year old newbies, and teach them how to build an e-commerce site
  • HostCamp – WC for specific technology like – hosting, domain, performance and security
  • LearnCamp – Mainly focusing on settings up websites and CMS

Organizing Team Structure

The team setup depends on the event size and expectations. A medium sized Workshop event would need the following teams:

  • Leads
  • Sponsors
  • Logistics
  • Budget
  • Content

The content team is special in this case as it should consist of people who are great in the skills (dev, design, architecture, security, etc.) But also be capable to work with the facilitators on how to make the workshop a success for everyone involved.

Benefits for Sponsors

It is challenging to find a way to increase sponsor visibility and benefit, without taking this space from speakers and volunteers. Some ideas and thoughts about experiment to try.

  • Target a specific audience: at themed events, have sponsors interested in that specific audience
  • Networking moments for sponsors to connect with job seekers
  • Give sponsor possibility to open up to new markets (e.g. WooCommerce did not have the local currency in a country, but through WordCamps, they got it! Yay!)
  • Organize for attendees a “sponsor tour” to meet all sponsors

Tooling

Ideas

  • AI airpods for instant translations
  • For speakers application: having 1 tool to manage all applications, instead of having different manual processes (email, form) to manage by organizers in each website
  • Have dedicated and specific tools depending on the event size

General doubts and challenges shared by the attendees

  • It’s difficult to decide the local sponsorship level, it would be useful to have guidelines for each country or based on the Mac Index
  • It’s very challenging to get local sponsorship (especially Nigeria/Uganda if communities are small) but organizing big events is hard because of the lack of volunteers. One solution could be organizing an event halfway in attendance between Meetup and WordCamps, but keeping it to 1 event per year
  • For Regional WordCamps one day is not enough, people travel from other cities and need to spend more time together
  • The current ticketing system is limiting

Thank you so much to all people who attended yesterday’s session, there will be more to come next month, both online and in-person!

In-person discussions at WC Europe, Athens:

Keep an eye out for the next virtual discussion!

Thank you to all organizers who have already shared their ideas for new event formats and want to give it a try in 2023! If anybody else has an idea in mind, share it with the Community Team and we’ll get back to you to try to make it happen!

When thinking about new formats, please keep in my the purpose:

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.

The new generation of WordPress events will be:

  • doable (for human and financial resources)
  • repeatable (by new/old organizer and more than once per year)
  • scalable (other communities might try the same format)
  • desirable (for organizer, attendees, sponsors, volunteers)

Looking forward to meeting with you all soon again!

Thanks again to @samsuresh , @devinmaeztri, and @angelasjin for facilitating the session.

#community-events, #events-2

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

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: APRIL 2023

Hello 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. Organizers,

As a fellow community organizer, I am thrilled to connect with all of you and share the excitement of organizing 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.. This newsletter is your go-to resource for tips, tricks, and inspiration to plan successful community events. 

Get ready to ignite your passion for organizing and empowering your local WordPress community!

Let’s Try This Together! 

If you are thinking of trying a new event format for your Meetup that will allow you and your members to learn together, check out the latest Tutorials that our Learn Team has prepared. You can choose to start with the Tutorials for WordPress users or WordPress developers. They range from how to display testimonials on your website, to how to interact with the WordPress REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/..  

Better Engagement Strategy to Grow Your Group

Even if you host the most jaw-dropping events, it’s still important to keep group members involved between meetings to maximize engagement year-round. Do you have a solid communication plan in place for your group? Check out Meetup’s guide on how to pair events with a personalized communication plan that makes members feel at home.

Just Out: Downloadable #WP20 Celebration Photo Props!!

Keep the engagement rolling by adding some pizzazz to your WordPress Celebration photos. Simply download and print one or more of these newly created images. No shipping is required! Whether attending in-person or virtually, adding a prop to show your spirit is a fun way to celebrate 20 years of WordPress.

Download, print, photograph, and share using the hashtag, #WP20!

Continue to keep an eye on https://wp20.wordpress.net/ for updates and new information!


A special thank you to our 2023 Global Sponsors: Bluehost, Weglot, GoDaddy, Automattic, and WooCommerce


Need support or guidance from the WordPress Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps.

You can always reach the Community Team by sending a message to #community-events in Making WordPress Slack or an email to support@wordcamp.org.  

Thank you for your contribution to the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ projects and for supporting the WordPress Community. Let’s come together, share ideas, and make a difference in the WordPress community!

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @bjmcsherry @devinmaeztri, @juliarosia @mysweetcate, and @nao.

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

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

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: March 2023

Hello 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. Organizers,

Time indeed flies as we are in March already! After the first 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. Asia took place in Bangkok in February, WordPress community gathering continues to happen.

Folks are excited to start a new meetup group or reactivate the existing one, and plan for a WordCamp.

WordCamp Asia 2024 will be in Taipei and the Call for Organizers is open until April 15, 2023.

Contributor Working Group: Call for Volunteers! 

The Contributor Working Group of the Make/WordPress Community Team has been revamped to focus on building a WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program. The membership to the working group is open to everyone. So, if you are interested in volunteering, you can comment on the article that @harishanker published or reach out to him directly on 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/.. The first team chat will be on March 20, 2023.

Getting Feedback from Your Event Attendees

Reviewing feedback from attendees is a great way to improve your events and the overall experience for your group members. Meetup has made some improvements on the post-event feedback feature on the Meetup App (iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads. & Android). Check this page out to learn more about viewing feedback from your members. 

WP20 Celebrations and Wapuu Contest

#WP20 is coming soon and a fun way to bring your community together to acknowledge the power of WordPress and the love we have for it is with a party!

Don’t wait to schedule your meetup’s Celebration event. Planning resources are available in the Meetup Organizer Handbook. Sign up to have a bundle of event-specific swag shipped right to you! Once scheduled, you’ll be showcased on the event site alongside all of the Meetup Celebrations from around the world.

Additionally, show off your community’s creative side by joining the Wapuu Coloring Giveaway. Follow the link to learn the details and prizes available to win!

Keep an eye on https://wp20.wordpress.net/ for updates and new information!


A special thank you to our 2023 Global Sponsors: Bluehost, Weglot, GoDaddy, Automattic, and WooCommerce


Need support or guidance from the WordPress Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps.

You can always reach the Community Team by sending a message to #community-events in Making WordPress Slack or an email to support@wordcamp.org.  

Thank you for your contribution to the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ projects and supporting the WordPress Community! Let’s keep growing together, and inspire each other!

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @bjmcsherry @devinmaeztri,@mysweetcate and @nao.

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

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

Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on February 22, 2023

Attending: @askdesign, @javiercasares, @jillbinder, @juliarosia, @katiejrichards, @kcrockett, @martatorre, @onealtr, @santanainniss, @sc0ttkclark, @webcommsat

Host: @jillbinder

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1677088827008949

Summary

1 – Attendance and check-ins (everyone)

2 – First time here

3 – Workshops (@jillbinder)

Upcoming:

  • March 1, 2023: Speaker workshops for Americas/Europe. We have a few speaker 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. and we are looking for more.
  • March 16, 2023: Organizing Inclusive and Welcoming WordPress events. Link and region coming soon.

Recent:

  • Updates to the results from the January APAC speaker workshop. 6 new attendees via watching the recording = 31 attendees total, 28 cities, 10 countries!
  • Jill shared the great testimonials from the workshop
  • 4 speakers from this workshop + our women in India workshop Sept 2022 applied to speak 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. Kerala

Other updates:

  • 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. in Africa is asking about holding our speaker workshop at their meetup

– Marketing (@santanainniss)

@santanainniss has been promoting our upcoming March 1 workshop.

– WPDiversity at WC Asia (@onealtr)

  • 15 people attended the WPDiversity discussion at the Community Team table at WC Asia. This was the largest discussion
  • Discussion was facilitated by @onealtr, @alliennimmons, and @bobdunn-trainer
  • They discussed things such as: Diversity challenges in the past. What is diversity in Asia? How did WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. and WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. work on their mix of speakers. What the results were of getting a diverse speaker lineup at WC Asia.

6 – Diversity in Spain project (@martatorre)

Things @martatorre has done recently:

  • offered to speak at WC Barcelona about diversity and what we are doing in this group
  • thinking about doing a brainstorming session with organizers and/or volunteers to see Diversity things they can do for the WordCamp Barcelona community table
  • in the next few weeks, Marta will meet with the WordCamp Granada team to help you make their event more diverse

7 – Diverse Speaker Support Channel “Wins” project (@jillbinder)

Jill talked through her current ideas on how to track speaker wins in the #diverse-speaker-support channel and got feedback from the group

8 – Other Updates + Comments, Questions, Ideas + Next meeting host (anyone)

  • Jill is working on a road map of workshops and team goals from now until end of August 2023
  • Jill is working on a “dashboard” so that everyone can see where we are and where we’re going, and feel more empowered to help out more
  • @onealtr is going to speak at Meetup Manila on March 11, 2023 about contributing to Learn.WordPress.org
  • @martatorres asked: “Any ideas to find people to join from other countries where there is not much diversity?” We discussed it a little in the meeting and also talked about where to ask the question (on the #community-events channel (during our official discussion hours or any time— and cross-post the link on #diverse-speaker-support so that people know to go answer the question)

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1677092384362039

#wpdiversity

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: February 2023

Hello Organizers,

Happy February to all! Read on for exciting updates from the WordPress community, including how you can shape the learning resources on Learn WordPress; the new and improved openverse.org landing page; and the latest Meetup.com feature – Event Chat.

Remember, #WP20 will be here soon! Keep an eye out for more information at https://wp20.wordpress.net/, and start planning your 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’s celebration.

🎓 Complete the Training Team’s Individual Learner Survey by 20 February

The Training Team wants to hear from you! Complete the Individual Learner Survey by 20 February to help shape the future of the Learn WordPress project. Your feedback will help identify the most high-impact resources for Learn WordPress! Please encourage your meetup members groups to complete the survey too.

And did you know that Learn WordPress is an excellent resource for meetup group content? If you’d like to know more, check out a recording of the recent Community Team training: Using Learn WordPress at your WordPress Meetup.

🚀 Announcing openverse.org!

The openverse project has a new home – openverse.org! With a fresh new look, it’s now easier than ever to find free to use media for your WordPress projects. More information can be found in this post.

Q: What is openverse?

A: Openverse is a searchable catalog of free to use media! Currently Openverse searches images and audio, and plans to add additional media types such as open texts and 3D models, with the ultimate goal of providing access to all 1.4 billion CC licensed and public domain works on the web. And the best part? All the code is 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. (Openverse frontend, Openverse API, Openverse Catalog), so you can even contribute to the project.

💬 Meetup.com Tip: ‘Event Chat’ feature 

Meetup.com’s new communication feature, ‘Event Chat,’ is a great way to help your meetup group stay connected and engaged between events by enabling real time conversations. It can also allow you to establish a rapport with potential new group members before the event begins, and it’s a great way to convert RSVPs into actual show-ups. Event Chat supports photo sharing, link previews, emoji reactions to messages, visible timestamps for messages & sharing pdf documents. And don’t worry, there are moderation options for organizers too! Learn more and try it out today.

A special thank you to our 2023 Global Sponsors: Bluehost, Weglot, GoDaddy, Automattic and WooCommerce

💡 Need support or guidance from the WordPress Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps.

You can always reach the Community Team by sending a message to #community-events in Making WordPress Slack or emailing support@wordcamp.org.  

Thanks for all that you do for the WordPress Community! Keep spreading that WordPress love!

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @west7 @juliarosia @bjmcsherry @rmartinezduque @sereedmedia @mysweetcate

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

Proposal: Dedicated communication place for WordCamp mentors

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. 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. are community team members who have experience organizing WordCamps and want to help other organizers have a great time planning a WordCamp.

At the point 5 of the mentorMentor 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. handbook, Turn to the Community Team when you need help, we ask mentors to reach out to the community team in the #community-events channel of Slack, or email support@wordcamp.org. I understand the importance of keeping a transparent and open communication, and asking questions in the #community-events of 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/. allows other people to learn from the questions answered. I don’t want this to disappear. However, in the past year working as a mentor and deputyDeputy 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. I found out that there are at least 3 common occasions where mentors need to discuss, and a public channel or an email to support@wordcamp.org are not the ideal solution.

  1. It often happens that a mentor needs to help WordCamp organizers who are facing delicate situations. The mentor might need the support of the other mentors, and a public conversation may be uncomfortable for them and indelicate for the organizers themselves. When this happens, some mentors might decide to not ask for help, others might reach out to one trusted peer or email support@wordcamp.org, but all the other mentors are then excluded from the conversation. By doing that, we’re losing a great chance of a group learning moment between mentors and consolidate a trusting relationship. 
  2. Some mentors are also 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 we have a dedicated private place for deputies to discuss sensitive topics. This could lead deputies to ask mentorship questions in that channel, cutting off the conversation of all mentors who are not deputies.
  3. Deputies who work on creating the websites for WordCamps need to assign a mentor to each one. Until now, we’ve been checking lists and spreadsheets of available mentors, and reached out individually to everyone. This often leads to misunderstanding or we spend too much time pinging mentors individually. 

The third point could be easily solved by creating a dedicated handle for pinging all mentors at once, but it wouldn’t solve point 1 and 2.

At the moment, there are 40 active mentors, and probably the number will increase in the future.

The reasons why I’m proposing to create a new channel for active mentors are the following:

  • Give mentors a safe place to share delicate challenges with a trusted group of peers
  • Give the chance to all mentors to participate into the conversation
  • Build trusting relationships among all mentors: the more we connect and collaborate, the better we work together and the more we enjoy contributing to the community
  • Encourage mentors to ask help when they need it during their work.

As @sippis mentioned in his proposal Dedicated communication place for deputies in 2020: “The private channel is somewhat against the transparency we as a team and as a project in general cherish. At the same time, it should be remembered that some discussions that could involve all deputies happen in smaller DM groups. Creating a private channel for all deputies would hopefully reduce the need for that kind of DM groups and add transparency amongst deputies.”  I strongly believe that this applies to mentors as well.

Also, echoing @sippis: “We are already good in directing discussion from Slack to 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/. when needed, so why we wouldn’t be good on moving some discussion from a private channel to public if the topic is something that can be discussed publicly.”

What do mentors and the whole community think about this proposal?

Please leave your feedback on the topic and particularly in the following questions:

  1. Should mentors have another place than the #community-events channel to discuss among themselves if needed?
  2. If mentors should have a dedicated channel, should it be private or public?

Please, leave your feedback before Wednesday, February 1st, 2023.

A big thank to everyone who will join the discussion, @sippis and @angelasjin for sharing historical context and insights, @patricia70 for remembering me about the importance of this proposal (It took me a few weeks to publish it, but here we are!), and @leogopal for inspiring me to share the ideas I have in mind.

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: January 2023

Hello Organizers,

Wishing you and your 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. communities a happy and fulfilling 2023. This is a particularly special year, as WordPress turns 20 in May!

Read on to learn about how we’ll celebrate this exciting anniversary, an upcoming 26 January training for meetup organizers, and a discussion about strengthening the Five for the Future contributor journey.

26 January Community Team Training: Use Learn Wor​dPress at Your WordPress Meetup

You are invited to our Zoom Training Session on 26 January! This session will cover how you can use WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/’s free Learn WordPress platform in your WordPress meetup events.

Learn WordPress offers a variety of resources that help people learn to use, extend, and contribute to WordPress through synchronous and asynchronous learning. The learning materials on Learn WordPress include tutorials, courses, and online workshops, as well as downloadable lesson plans that instructors can use in live environments.

Register here to attend the training!

WordPress Turns 20! 🎉

May 27, 2023 marks the 20th year of WordPress. Starting now, a number of different events will bring together the WordPress community to celebrate this important milestone, reflect on the journey, and look toward the future. 

Be sure to follow WordPress’s official social media accounts along with the official anniversary website for updates on how you and your meetup can be involved in this exciting celebration by contributing content, collecting cool anniversary swag, organizing a special 20th anniversary meetup, and much more. Use the hashtag #WP20 on social media to share the excitement! 

Seeking Feedback: How Can We Improve the Five for the Future Contributor Journey?

Launched in 2014, Five for the Future encourages organizations to contribute five percent of their resources to WordPress development. The initiative intends to foster “generous collaboration toward the long term health and stability of [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 for the future.” 

This post shares research on the contributor journey for individuals and organizations committed to the Five for the Future initiative. Your feedback will be valuable in further refining the contribution experience for pledged contributors. Please read and comment on the post to share your ideas for strengthening the Five for the Future contributor journey!

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!


#WP20 will be here sooner than you think. Don’t forget to start planning for your Watch Party! Keep an eye out for it at: https://wp20.wordpress.net/


See you online soon!

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @mysweetcate @juliarosia @bjmcsherry

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

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

Attending: @jillbinder, @katiejrichards, @kcrockett, @leogopal, @metalandcoffee, @onealtr, @robinwpdeveloper, @santanainniss, @sc0ttkclark

Facilitator: @katiejrichards

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1663174848435489

Summary

Agenda:

1 Attendance and check-ins (everyone)

2 First time here

3 Comments, questions, ideas (anyone)

4 Plan for the next 3 months! ( @jillbinder )

  • Under the More link at the end of this post

5 Workshops (Speaker & Inclusion) ( @jillbinder )

  • Speaker Workshop for Indian Women in the WordPress Community https://www.eventbrite.com/e/speaker-workshop-for-indian-women-in-the-wordpress-community-sept-24-25-tickets-348466712317
    • Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and 25, 2022
    • 9:00am to 11:30am India time (IST)
  • Looking for women (people who identify as women some or all of the time) volunteers during the workshop:
    • If you’ve done public speaking or are a WP event organizer, you can mentorMentor 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. people on their talk topics, descriptions, outlines, etc.
    • If you haven’t, there are some behind the scenes admin items that we need help with (letting people in from the waiting room, muting people, checking for questions in the chat that I might miss, etc.)
  • We have 27 signed up. We are aiming for about 35 to register, so help with spreading the word would be much appreciated.
  • October Inclusion workshop: The group started the discussion on what format workshop should be to be able to cover more of the material:
    • 2.5 hours on one day
    • 2 days (1h 30m each)
    • 3 days (1h each)

6 APAC WPDiversity Network Building ( @onealtr )

  • @onealtr shared upcoming WordCamps in APAC, and shared about the APAC WPDiversity Network Building meeting later that day:

    https://twitter.com/oneal/status/1569957008484466693

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

8 Marketing ( @santanainniss )

  • @santanainniss shared that she’s been posting about:
    • Creating Inclusive WP Events content (2 parts on different weeks)
    • India Women’s Training
    • APAC meeting

      with really great engagement and click-through numbers!

9 Other Updates + Next meeting facilitator (anyone)

  • @onealtr and @santanainniss are collaborating on a new post describing the APAC WP Diversity meeting. This will be an improved place to drive social media posts to to help bringing more community engagement.

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1663178346106139

Continue reading

#community-events, #diverse-speaker-support, #wpdiversity