Proposal: Steps to Integrate #WPDiversity into WordPress Event Organizing

Context

To fulfill WordPress’s mission to democratize publishing, the Community team seeks to actively reduce barriers to current and future participation, engagement, and sense of belonging in WordPress events.

People who experience marginalization in broader society are more likely to experience barriers to full participation in their WordPress community. As community contributors, we have the ability and responsibility to actively counteract these forces to build a thriving, inclusive community.

The WordPress community is diverse and global. The power of 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. is that anyone can contribute from anywhere at any time, regardless of their background.

The more diverse our community is, the stronger it becomes. With different perspectives come new innovations, ideas, and solutions. This results in better user experiences for all, from bloggers setting up sites to organizers and attendees of our in-person community events.

Inclusive environments don’t happen overnight – or without effort. As our community grows, so have ideas and efforts to help welcome more diverse voices into the fold.

WPDiversity Programs

#WPDiversity programs are designed to empower WordPress community members with skills and resources to organize and contribute to diverse and inclusive WordPress events. This proposal offers a pathway to introduce all 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 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 to #WPDiversity programs, with the aim of helping to strengthen their events from inception.

By proactively sharing information about these programs and an invitation to participate with new and existing event organizers, we can shape a culture in which awareness of and action toward diversity and inclusion are embedded in events from the planning outset.

Proposal

Existing WordCamp and Meetup Organizers

All WordCamp and meetup organizers would receive an email inviting and encouraging them to take the following actions in preparation for their upcoming or ongoing WordPress events:

  • Participate in the Allyship training (interactive video watch party or watch the prerecorded video on their own);
  • Organize an Allyship and/or Diverse Speaker training for their local community, or invite their community to join one of the regularly-scheduled global trainings.
  • Join the #DiverseSpeakerSupport 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, participate in the channel discussions, and share their event’s calls for organizers and speakers; and request that their Speaker WranglerWrangler Someone, usually a person part of event organizing team, who looks after certain things like budget or sponsors. do the same.

New WordCamp and Meetup Organizers

All new WordCamp and meetup organizers would automatically receive the invitation described above as they are onboarded.

All WordCamp and Meetup Organizers

Further, all event organizers would be required to:

  • Read handbook pages that cover key concepts and practices for creating a welcoming and inclusive event;
  • Demonstrate comprehension through the completion of a quiz.

An effective starting point would be to add new lessons to the Meetup Organizer Training and WordCamp Organizer Training. The required reading would include links to optional resources to go deeper.

Share Your Feedback!

Please share your thoughts on this proposal by Friday, April 8! I would be interested to know:

  • How might this approach impact your community?
  • What do you like about this approach?
  • What’s missing?
  • What other ideas do you have?

Kudos to @angelasjin, @mysweetcate, @alliennimmons, @wpfangirl, @devinmaeztri, @peiraisotta, @jillbinder, @nao, @tacoverdo and @planningwrite for contributing to this post.

#community-events, #community-team, #event-planning-training-materials, #events-2