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It’s September and a lot has happened recently in the WordPress community. Sit back, relax, and read on to discover this month’s highlights. But first, meet these Marlborough, MA USA meetupMeetupMeetup 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. members!
Community Summit Notes are Published – Leave Your Feedback
Let’s keep the discussions going! The in-person phase of the WordPress Community Summit was only the beginning of very important conversations around issues impacting our global WordPress community. Fortunately, the intention is always that these conversations would continue long after the in-person phase concluded.
In Phase Two, everyone can now read and comment upon the session notes. Visit the full list of Community Summit 2023 sessions to find a link to the corresponding session notes. Read and comment to share your unique and valuable perspective on these important issues.
Don’t Miss the Upcoming Diverse Speaker Workshop
Meetup organizers in India! Would you like to encourage more women to speak at your WordPress MeetupsMeetupMeetup 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., WordCamps, and Next Gen events? Then this upcoming #WPDiversity workshop is for you. Invite your community to share this opportunity and sign up for the Speaker Workshop for Indian Women in the WordPress Community, September 23–24, 2023.
Not in India, but still interested in growing the diversity of your speaker lineup? Reach out to the #WPDiversity team to schedule an event for your community. You can find them on Making WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. in either the #diverse-speaker-support or in the #community-team channels.
Learn WordPress: The Training team is creating new material and resources – don’t miss their latest updates.
Reaching Out to Include New Meetups in the Chapter Program
In partnership with Meetup.com, we tested a 13-day, 3-touch email campaign to invite 144 groups related to WordPress to join the WordPress Chapter Meetup program, and we contacted the entire leadership team of each group to increase our chance of success.
How did it work? Of the 144 groups contacted, 5 or 6 groups confirmed they submitted an application. We also had a nearly 40% open rate which means that approximately 35 meetups were informed of the program. Who knows what the future holds; they may join yet!
Meetup Tip of the Month – Optimize Your Topics
If you’re looking to maximize your reach on Meetup, evaluate the topics listed for your events and for your group.
Topics are a key element of the Meetup algorithm – the more topics you include, the more members will learn about your events & group. When WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation, 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. creates a new Meetup group, we apply our best guess as to what topics you will cover. You can change these listed topics at any time to best represent your specific community and focus.
Additionally, meetups evolve overtime. The topics that fit at the beginning may no longer be relevant to your group.
Now, you can take advantage of the Event and Group topics to optimize your presence on Meetup. You can add up to 5 topics for each event you schedule and up to 15 topics for your group. Follow these instructions for Meetup to see how.
If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram SupporterCommunity 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. are here to help. Please email us at support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-eventsSlack 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!
Thursday, August 17th: Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events — Follow Up SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. Chat on #community-events
@Julia’s set of questions for organizers to think about diversity and inclusion at their events
Organizing Inclusive & Welcoming Events – new format
9 – Comments, questions, ideas (anyone)
@jillbinder shared about being called in on a tweet she wrote
@martatorre asked for ideas on how to get more women and other underrepresented groups onto the pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party review team
How can we get more WP MeetupMeetupMeetup 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 WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. organizers into the channel?
How can we help these WP event organizers connect with speakers and be more effective at getting underrepresented voices from our channel speaking at their WP events? :arrow_right: :arrow_left:
We welcome more ideas from anyone in the community (particularly from WP Meetup and WordCamp Organizers!):
5 Feedback on the organizer self-reflection questions (@juliarosia)
@juliarosia is working on questions to support organizers in reflecting on what diversity and inclusion means for their group, in their particular region; and how they can strengthen their group/event’s diversity and inclusion. Julia would like our feedback and re-working the document.
Anyone in the community is welcome to add thoughts and suggest edits: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Yaja3j3NKPGSmipqHObmMvZtYK9zjaIhtsy85l_KlNg/edit?usp=sharing
0 – Attendance and check-ins 1 – First time here 2 – #WPDiversity Member Updates (anyone) 3 – Brainstorm exercise: set of questions for WP event organizers to support organizing diverse and inclusive events (@juliarosia)
@juliarosia lead us in doing the brainstorming for a Handbook page with a set of questions for organizers to ask themselves and reflect on to help strengthen their group/event’s diversity and inclusion. We looked at a document of suggestions and added comments and more suggestions.
@jillbinder asked for ideas on how to improve the diverse-speaker-support SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel to increase how many underrepresented speakers are placed at WordPress MeetupsMeetupMeetup 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.
March 1, 2023: Speaker workshops for Americas/Europe. We have a few speaker mentorsEvent SupporterEvent 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. 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 WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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 MeetupMeetupMeetup 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
They discussed things such as: Diversity challenges in the past. What is diversity in Asia? How did WCUSWCUSWordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. and WCEUWCEUWordCamp 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.
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
@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)
Results from the December AMER/EMEA speaker workshop:
22 attendees
12 countries (Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Philippines, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Uganda, United States)
21 cities
public speaking confidence increase: 48%
Results from our January APAC speaker workshop:
25 attendees (not final number, many are asking for the recording)
7 countries (Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, United States)
23 cities
public speaking confidence increase: 40%
We targeted helping WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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 with getting more representation in their speaker lineup, and already 3 people from the workshop have applied to speak
Women speakers in India workshop from September 2022:
@onealtr: During Contributor dayContributor DayContributor 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/., volunteers from the #WPDiversity team will man a table and hold casual discussions with attendees regarding Diversity in the WP community in Asia. We will hold a workshop and ask people their opinions, experiences and blockers they have encountered in their local communities and how it has changed in the past few years.
The organizers of the WordCamp Granada 2023 to be held in October have asked me for help to make their event more diverse. In the next few days I will meet with them to see how I can help them and when I know I will comment so that you can give me ideas.
WordCamp Barcelona 2023. We are going to create the first diversity table on contributor day. I have to talk to volunteers to translate the Workshop into Spanish and my idea is to hold a workshop for organizers the day of the event. If you have any other ideas, they are welcome.
8 – Diverse Speaker Support Channel “Wins” project (@jillbinder)
@jillbinder asked for help on how to track the “wins” of the #diverse-speaker-support channel (someone from the channel applied to speak or got accepted to speak, someone from the channel spoke).
Some of the first ideas people gave:
Spreadsheet people fill out themselves
Us going through meetupMeetupMeetup 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 WordCamp speaker lists to see who from our channel has spoken
Having the community report to us who from the channel has spoken at their event
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 mentorEvent SupporterEvent 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. 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:
Our first BIG success story on the channel: member @metalandcoffee did a great job at her lightning talk at #WCUS!
Ebonie added in the meeting: “I truly appreciate the existence of the Diverse Speaker group. <3 Definitely wouldn’t have done a successful talk without it!”
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.
To accommodate the WCUSWCUSWordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. organizers, we held short discussions on two different dates (May 10 and 14, 2022) about the videos on Learn WordPress. Also invited: All event organizers, contributors, and the mentorsEvent SupporterEvent 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. in the #diverse-speaker-support channel.
Total number who attended both: 21
From number of cities: 23 (one person represented MeetupsMeetupMeetup 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 3 cities/countries)
From number of countries: 8 (Bolivia, India, Nigeria, Philippines, The Netherlands, Portugal, Cabo Verde, United States)
Self-reported increase in preparedness to help create more inclusive WordPress event after taking the workshop: 23%
Testimonials
“I grew from the experience of attending the #WPDiversity workshop. What I took away is that we are stronger together when creating diverse spaces. We see each other’s blind spots and through collaboration we can ensure everyone feels included.” – Winstina Hughes, Community Contributor, US
“This session offered new methods to make events even more inclusive. We absolutely loved discovering that simply changing a few phrases may make meetups & wordcamps even more open to more people.” – WP Swings
“I found the Inclusion training for WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. organizers inspiring and helpful. If you’re involved in events in any way, I recommend it.” – Jonathan Wold
“Five minutes in, I felt inspired to start trying some of these ideas as we restart in person meetups. No matter your goal, there are so many applicable basics for community building in this workshop that anyone attending can take something away that they can use immediately in their community.” – Cate DeRosia, WCUS 2022 Lead Trio, Grand Rapids, MI
“I have a better understanding of real inclusion resources.” – Mike Straw, WordPress Code WranglerWranglerSomeone, usually a person part of event organizing team, who looks after certain things like budget or sponsors., Athens, Ohio
We talked about holding a prep session for the speakers accepted to WCUSWCUSWordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. from the #diverse-speaker-support channel.
Nigeria Speaker Workshop, April 24, 2022 went quite well
Allyship discussion, April 14, 2022 went quite well
We are renaming our Allyship workshops from “Allyship for WP Event Organizers” to “Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events.”
We created the May 2022 (Cohort 3) Inclusion Workshops to be a good format for the WCUS organizers: May 10 & 14, 2022 for an hour each (also invited: All event organizers and contributors, speaker mentorsEvent SupporterEvent 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. in the #diverse-speaker-support channel)
Feedback will soon be requested for: a Diversity and Inclusion Policy, a Code of ConductCode of Conduct“A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - Wikipedia
Hello everyone! As a follow-up to Matt’s mention of our Diversity work in the State of the WordState of the WordThis is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/. yesterday, I wanted to share some data and more detail around our accomplishments this year.
In 2021, the Diverse Speaker Training Group (#WPDiversity) expanded from one to three programs: Diverse Speaker program, Allyship program, Diverse Speaker Support program.
Our group and the community held 26#WPDiversity events this year.
146 participants from at least 66 cities in 16 countries attended these events from December 2020 – November 2021.
People who took at least a portion of our Diverse Speaker workshop reported an increase in self-confidence by 20%.
People who took our Allyship for WordPress Event Organizers workshop reported an increase in preparedness to hold an inclusive event by 52%!
In the Diverse Speaker Support program, as of November 30, 2021, 49 people have joined it so far. 50% (25) of these are people from underrepresented groups who are looking for speaking opportunities at WordPress events.
Testimonials
Testimonial for Diverse Speaker workshop:
“I felt like you were reading my mind on some of these points about what holds us back from speaking. And the brainstorm prompts are all really, really good. I walked away with a ton of ideas and newfound confidence. I’m excited to talk now. This workshop works!”
– Erika Lewis, WordPress Dev, Washington DC
Testimonial for the “Hold Your Own Diverse Speaker workshop” train the trainers:
“I’m excited to replicate the Diverse Speakers workshop in my beloved country, Mexico, and use it to help more women learn the right tools to communicate on stage and in meetings, and be more confident about their skills.”
– Maryl Gonzalez, Co-Founder @ The App Chefs, Guadalajara, Mexico
Testimonial for Allyship for WordPress Event Organizers workshop
“I loved taking the “Allyship for WordPress Event Organizers” workshop along with other organizers and hearing what they’ve done. The checklists in the workbook are helpful in terms of tracking what I have done and what I can still improve. I’d love to see ALL THE ORGANIZERS go through this. This felt like a great complement to other material that WordPress has about not disparaging people; the focus of the Allyship workshop was on how to be actively welcoming.”
– Sallie Goetsch, organizer, East Bay WordPress MeetupMeetupMeetup 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.
Get Involved in 2022
Want to get involved in this inspiring initiative that makes a tangible difference? Comment on this post or pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”@jillbinder on the WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. for:
Attending an “Allyship for WP Event Organizers” workshop or a “How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events #WPDiversity” (aka Diverse Speaker) workshop
Having us hold a “How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events #WPDiversity” workshop to bring in more diverse speaker applications for your Meetup or WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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.
Being a workshop facilitator
Being a workshop mentorEvent SupporterEvent 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. or background administrator
Being a Translator
Joining our #diverse-speaker-support Slack channel (open to those interested in speaking, speaker mentorsEvent SupporterEvent 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., and event organizers)
Joining our Diverse Speaker Group #WPDiversity to help out with things as needed
And more!
I will reply to your message in the new year.
Have great holidays, everyone. Let’s make 2022 our best year yet!
