Statement regarding the events program

To all WordPress event organizers:

We know recent changes announced by Automattic and its temporary reduction of contributor efforts have raised questions and concerns, and we want to reassure you that the Community Team remains committed to supporting you.

Since the announcement states that contributors from Automattic time will be greatly reduced and focused on other areas until further notice, this team needs to determine a path forward. Fortunately this team comprises dedicated individuals —independent contributors and those sponsored by other companies— who are doing their best to keep things running and will continue to do so.

We expect processes to be slower during this time, and we sincerely appreciate your patience and support as we navigate this situation. We also want to thank the contributors from Automattic who have been instrumental in building this program over the years, and we look forward to their return.

Our focus on helping every event and organizer worldwide remains unwavering. Together, with the invaluable support of the rest of program and event supporters, we’ll continue to maintain this incredible community.

If you have any questions, we are at the #community-events channel or at support@wordcamp.org.

—Community Team Program Managers: Aditya Kane (@adityakane), Juan Hernando (@unintended8), Junko Nukaga (@nukaga), Kevin Cristiano (@kcristiano), Timi Wahalahti (@sippis)

#meetups, #community-team, #highlight, #wordcamps

2025 Community Team Reps

We are beyond thrilled to introduce the new WordPress Community Team Reps for 2025!

This year’s selection process was a true celebration of community spirit, with record-breaking engagement and a shared commitment to shaping the future of our vibrant team.

🌟 Reflecting on Progress: Evolving the Role of Team Reps

In 2024, we introduced a new structure for Community Team Reps, inspired by thoughtful discussions at the 2023 Community Summit. This updated framework brought several key changes:

  • Extending the term for Team Reps to two years to ensure deeper impact and continuity.
  • Increasing the number of Team Reps to four,
    • with two Team Reps continuing from the previous year.
    • and two Team Reps newly elected annually.

These adjustments fostered a smoother transition between terms and allowed for a balance of fresh perspectives and experienced guidance. In 2024, our incredible team consisted of:

Their leadership and dedication have made a lasting impact, and we are profoundly grateful for their service.

💪 The 2025 Selection Process: A Community Effort

This year’s nominations and voting process set a new standard for community participation! We received an impressive nine nominations, reflecting the enthusiasm and dedication of our members.

During the final voting, we saw unprecedented engagement, with the highest voter turnout in recent history. The results presented us with an exciting challenge: a tie for the second new Rep position. After thoughtful deliberation, the current Team Reps made the decision to welcome all three top-voted nominees, recognizing the value they bring to the team.

🌟 A Fond Farewell and New Beginnings

As we welcome the new Reps, we also celebrate the achievements of those stepping down.

  • Leo Gopal (@leogopal) and Junko Nukaga (@nukaga) have completed their two-year terms, leaving a legacy of leadership and dedication.
  • Shusei Toda (@st810amaze) will continue into his second year, offering his invaluable experience and guidance.
  • Isotta Peira (@peiraisotta) will transition into an honorary role as a Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. Supporter, providing mentorship and advice to the new Reps while stepping back from the official title.

We deeply appreciate their contributions and know their influence will continue to shape the Community Team’s future.


🎉 Welcoming the 2025 Team Reps


Please join us in giving a warm welcome to the three exceptional reps who will help guide the WordPress Community in 2025:


Pooja Derashri (@webtechpooja)

Pooja began her WordPress journey in 2013 as a developer. In 2015, she co-founded WPVibes, a pluginPlugin A 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 development company. Her involvement with the WordPress community deepened in 2017 when she attended her 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., marking the start of her contribution journey.

Within the WordPress project, Pooja has held several significant roles. She served as Co-Team Rep of the Training Team for the 2022 and 2023 terms and made notable contributions to the WordPress releases.

She was part of the release squad for 6.3 & 6.4 as Test Lead. In 2024, she represented the Test Team and continues to serve as a General Translation EditorGeneral Translation Editor General Translation Editor – One of the polyglots team leads in a geographic region https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. Further information at https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#general-translation-editor. (GTEGeneral Translation Editor General Translation Editor – One of the polyglots team leads in a geographic region https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. Further information at https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#general-translation-editor.) for the Hindi locale. She is a member of the Plugin Review Team, and a co-organizer of the Ajmer 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.. She is one of the organizers of the WordCamp Asia.

Pooja’s dedication to WordPress was recognized with the Kim Parsell Scholarship, which granted her the opportunity to attend WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. 2022.

Unfortunately, visa issues prevented her attendance.
Based in Ajmer, a picturesque city in Rajasthan, India, Pooja balances her WordPress contributions with hobbies like gardening, exploring new places, and listening to music.


Aditya Kane (@adityakane)

He is passionate about community building and that passion led him on starting his journey as a contributor in 2012.  He co-founded the WordPress meetup in Mumbai, which was the very first one in India.

He currently contributes to the project as a Program ManagerProgram Manager Program Managers (formerly Super Deputies) are Program Supporters who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. on the Community Team, along with being part of the WordPress Incident Report Team.

Aditya Kane lives in Pune, India. He works as a freelance consultant for WordPress projects and agencies.

He believes that open-source, the open web, an open culture that nourishes, informs, changes and invites participation feels inherently authentic.


Kasirye Arthur (@thehopemonger)

Arthur has also spearheaded local groups such as the ElementorWooCommerce, and WordPress Entebbe communities in Uganda.

Arthur Kasirye is a founding member of the WordPress community in Uganda, renowned for his leadership and mentorship roles. He has supported the global WordPress ecosystem as a community lead, 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., and program supporterProgram 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., guiding numerous WordCamp organizers worldwide.

A passionate advocate for localization, Arthur has contributed significantly to translating WordPress into Ugandan languages, including Luganda. He is also the founder of Kasiryelabs, a digital agency he established eight years ago, where he continues to excel as a web creator and creative designer.


Shusei Toda (@st810amaze)

Shusei is a creative director and business strategist based in Tokyo, Japan. With a background in web design and engineering, Shusei specializes in crafting comprehensive brand, corporate, and visual content for clients.

His expertise spans project management, photography, videography, and creative strategy. Since joining the WordPress Community, Shusei has been an active contributor both locally and globally.


We are excited to see their unique perspectives, creativity, and leadership come to life as they work alongside the broader community.


🚀 Looking Ahead

This announcement marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the WordPress Community Team. Thank you to everyone who participated in the nominations, voting, and discussions—it’s your engagement and passion that keep our community thriving.

Together, let’s continue to innovate, support one another, and grow as a community in 2025. Here’s to an incredible year ahead!

A big thanks goes out to (@nukaga) (@peiraisotta) (@st810amaze) for all their hard work and contributions during this process. None of this would have been possible without their deep care and understanding.

Sincerely, Leo Gopal (@leogopal)

#community-team, #community-team-reps, #highlight, #mentorship, #team-reps, #team-update

Hosting WordPress Events for Women on International Women’s Day

In honor of International Women’s Day, we propose that local WordPress communities around the globe consider organizing WordPress events for women to celebrate, empower, and inspire women within our ecosystem.

Note: This WordPress event is for women and gender minorities in tech, and we kindly request for organizers of these groups to apply to be the organizers.

Why This Matters:

The WordPress community thrives on diversity, inclusivity, and collaboration. Hosting women-focused WordPress events provides a safe and welcoming space for women to:

  • Share their experiences, challenges, and successes in WordPress and tech.
  • Learn and grow through focused workshops, talks, and discussions.
  • Build networks, gain 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., and foster confidence to take up leadership roles within the WordPress community.
  • Inspire women in the tech world through the experiences and leadership of other professional and accomplished women.

What These WordPress Events Could Look Like:

  • Inspiring Talks: Invite women leaders, contributors, and professionals in WordPress and related IT communities to share their journeys.
  • Hands-on Workshops: Cover topics like WordPress basics, pluginPlugin A 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/theme development, blogging, digital marketing, design, business, entrepreneurship…
  • Networking Sessions: Facilitate connections among women to build strong, local support networks.
  • Inclusive Stories: Create a platform for women from diverse backgrounds to share how WordPress has impacted their lives and careers.
  • Highlight Local Success Stories: Share stories of women in your local community who have achieved milestones in WordPress or tech.
  • Fun Games and Learning Activities: Include interactive games and activities that are both engaging and educational, such as quizzes, or team-building challenges.
  • Offer Mentorship Opportunities: Pair beginners with experienced WordPress users for one-on-one guidance during or after the event.
  • Follow-Up Events: Plan follow-up 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. or workshops to keep the momentum going and track participants’ progress.

How to Get Started:

  • Collaborate with Local Groups: Partner with women-focused organizations or tech communities to expand your outreach. Start discussions with them and begin planning your event.
  • Apply for Your Event: Local communities interested in hosting can apply via the Creative WordPress Events Form. Upon approval, you’ll receive a dedicated website for your event, similar to:  https://events.wordpress.org/LOCATION/2025/WomenDay]
  • Secure a Venue: Look for an inclusive and welcoming venue. If possible, secure a free or donated venue. If that’s not feasible, opt for the most cost-effective option. You can also host your event online.
  • Plan Your Budget: Budget for venue costs (if applicable), refreshments, snacks, and/or childcare. 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. Community Support will offer a stipend of $100 – $500 USD (depending on the host city’s cost of living and average size of 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) to support your event.
  • Curate Inclusive Content: Design a program that caters to all skill levels, from beginners to experienced WordPress users.
  • Promote Your Event: Use social media and local channels to spread the word and attract attendees.
  • Prepare Swag and Materials: If local businesses would like to support your event, consider printing swag items or stickers locally to enhance the experience.
  • Please note that if you would like to offer childcare services at your venue, you can encourage women to bring children under 10 to join the event! 

We’re seeking assistance with the following:

  • A designer to create a banner for the event that all the communities can use.
  • A designer to craft a sticker sheet featuring female-gendered Wapuu designs.
  • A designer to develop a unique logo for WordPress Women’s Day.

If you would like to volunteer for the designing part, please comment on this post!

Our Vision:

By organizing women-centric WordPress events on International Women’s Day, we can spark meaningful conversations and encourage more women to join, lead, and contribute to WordPress. It’s an opportunity to strengthen our community and amplify women’s voices in 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..

We hope this initiative inspires WordPress organizers worldwide to celebrate and empower women in their communities. Let’s work together to make WordPress a more inclusive and diverse space!

Looking forward to your thoughts and feedback!

Thanks to @_dorsvenabili, @harmonyromo, @nukaga, @peiraisotta, and @devinmaeztri for inputs on this proposal, and we also would like to thank @adityakane for sharing this idea!

WordPress Meetup Planning Template Sample

Title: Celebrating Women in WordPress on International Women’s Day 

Description: Join us for a special WordPress event for women as we celebrate International Women’s Day! This event is dedicated to empowering women in the WordPress community and beyond.

Whether you’re a blogger, developer, designer, marketer, just starting your WordPress journey or any online professional, this is a perfect opportunity to connect, learn, and grow together in a supportive environment.

What to Expect:

  • Inspiring talks by women leaders in WordPress.
  • Networking opportunities to build meaningful connections.
  • Stories of success, challenges, and lessons from women in tech.
  • Refreshments and snacks.

Date: March 8, 2025
Time: TBD
Venue: TBD
Who Can Attend: Women WordPress enthusiasts of all experience levels.

Note: This event has been created for women and gender minorities in tech, and we kindly request that other attendees please do not register.

Let’s come together to celebrate, inspire, and create a stronger community for women in WordPress. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the change!

#community-team #highlight

2023 WordPress Meetup Survey: Key Findings

Background

The WordPress annual 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. survey was open for responses from November 17, 2023, through January 14, 2024. The following Make Community posts relate to the survey creation and distribution:

About the Survey

In 2023, we didn’t have the bandwidth to prepare and coordinate two separate surveys for Meetup organizers and members in several languages as we did in 2022. Nevertheless, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to collect feedback from the global community before setting the Community Team goals for 2024.

We decided then to create a unified survey for all meetup members and organizers in one language, English. 

After the survey was closed, a working group worked on the analysis and this presentation of the findings. The Community Team members who actively participated in the survey results analysis are Luis Miguel Climent, Juan Hernando, and Isotta Peira.

Two important premises to take into consideration when reflecting on our findings:

  • The survey was open for two months, this limited amount of time might have prevented members from filling it.
  • The survey was only available in English, which might have prevented members from more diverse backgrounds from filling it.

Global overview: 595 community members from 65 countries have participated.

Circle graph of the survey's answers by number and country: USA 186 (31.3%), India 46 (7.7%), Spain 40 (6.7%), Canada 32 (5.4%), Germany 32 (5.4%), Italy 31 (5.2%), Netherlands 21 (3.5%), United Kingdom 19 (3.2%), Australia 18 (3%), Brazil (2%), Costa Rica (1.7%), France (1.7%), and Other 138 (23.2%)

Findings: 2023 Annual Meetup Program Survey

We sought to answer the following questions through the meetup program survey:

  • How can we increase the number of WordPress events?
  • How can we increase the number of WordPress users worldwide?

Challenges

Similar to last year’s survey, we’ve found common challenges that our communities worldwide are facing:

  • The lack of free venues
  • The lack of information about our community and the resources available for the organizers
  • The lack of ideas for engaging event formats
  • The lack of time to organize and contribute to events
  • The lack of speakers and new technical topics
Circle graph titled: Most recurrent challenges for Meetups: Venue and Attendance (39%), Awareness and Perception (29.3%), Organizational Struggles (17%), and Technical Learning Curve (14.7%)

Actionable Insights

Not surprisingly, we noticed many trends related to ideas that we’ve been hearing from many communities in the past months:

  • The need to reach students and collaborate with schools and universities to include WordPress in their curricula
  • The need to increase our community and event visibility on social media and online
  • The need to improve communication and training for community leaders
  • The need to inspire organizers and community members
  • The need of attracting to our community speakers and professionals from outside the WordPress bubble
Bar graph titled 'What ideas do you have to attract more WordPress users to join the community?'. All vary from 8% to 6% in this order: Diverse offer of topics; Promotion & outreach; beginner-friendly initiatives; Community Engagement and Networking; Onoline Presence and Accesibility.

Suggestions of realistic actions to take in 2024

The survey analysis working group suggests the following action to address some of our community’s most impactful challenges.

  • Plan cross-team projects:
    • With the Marketing Team to increase WordPress community and events visibility on social media and with media partners.
    • With the Training Team to prepare training material for teachers to include WordPress in their curricula.
    • With the Training Team to prepare material about the latest WordPress updates for 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. to discuss and for speakers to include in their talks.
    • With the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team to improve the discoverability of our events and contribution opportunities in the WordPress infrastructure.
    • With Five for the Future to increase the number of sponsorships for active contributors.
  • Improve Community Team documentation, communication, and programs:
    • Increase and diversify the communication channels to share resources (meetup venue fund program, free Zoom accounts for online events, resources for organizers like examples of where to make local contacts: associations, types of businesses, etc.).
    • Highlight one meetup per month in the newsletter/web of events, showcase format ideas used elsewhere, share stories on how to grow the local community, and attract speakers.
    • Create a program for speaker mentoring and make it available to all Meetup groups.
    • Organize dedicated training sessions for organizers about community management, leadership and event organization.
    • Create a program for meetup mentoring with scheduled check-ins between the Community Team and the meetup groups to resolve doubts, and have dedicated volunteers mentoring organizers who need support.
    • Create a starter kit for event organizers with the basic information they need to simplify the onboarding process before using the exhaustive handbook. The kit should include tools and a framework for deciding the day and time for events, better engaging with group members, and attracting speakers from outside the WordPress bubble.

Pinging the Community Team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. so this post stays on their radar for when they will present the discussion to define the 2024 goals. @leogopal, @nukaga, @st810amaze, @peiraisotta.

Discussion

In the comments, please share your reflection on the following questions:

  • What stands out to you in these findings?
  • What feedback do you have about the actions we suggest?
  • What other specific actions would you suggest to the Community Team to include in our 2024 plans?

On behalf of the Community Team, we want to thank everyone who helped create the survey, everyone who filled it, and every person who shared their suggestions. The biggest thank you goes to each of you making the WordPress Community every day with your contributions, your time, and your passion.

The following people have contributed to writing this post: @lmcliment, @unintended8, and @peiraisotta.

#meetups, #community-team, #highlight, #meetup-organizers, #survey

Share your feedback about the new WordPress Events Page!

As announced in December, we have a new centralized WordPress Events landing page in WordPress.org that aims to give more visibility to all kinds of WordPress events around the globe. It shows next WordPress upcoming events like WordCamps scheduled, 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 Next Gen WordPress Events (WordPress Events from now on).

For context, that landing page was the result of an initiative that I started with a post back in August 2023 that ended up with a first GitHub issue and a series of other related issues.

What we have now

The first iteration of this project created the following three pages:

Call for feedback!

Those three pages are just the beginning of a vision where we bring WordPress Events closer to our users and visitors of 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/.

The most important goal how I envision it, it’s for the Events landing page and the Organizers Landing page to become the main and only pages that anyone would need to check and/or share when want to check for upcoming WordPress events and/or when want to check or share any info about how to become a WordPress event organizer.

We want to keep iterating and your feedback is key to doing it! Please leave your comments with any relevant feedback about how you would improve those pages, and texts… are you missing anything relevant? Any ideas are welcome!

#events-2, #feedback, #highlight, #homepage, #next-gen-events

Call for ideas: new features for our NextGen WP events central page

As the WordPress.org new design is taking shape, I’d like to open a call for ideas with this post to find the most useful and desirable features for a future homepage that would host a list of all Next Gen WordPress events, have a centralized place to find the next WP events, all open calls for speakers, sponsors, volunteers, ticket sales,… and to be able to filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. them by continent, country, language, type of event, etc.

I’d like to share The Linux Foundation Events page for reference as it contains many elements that we’re missing in the WordCamp Central Schedule page and that it would be very useful for attendees, sponsors, etc.

I’d like to highlight:

  • You can search events by name, topic, categories, country…
  • Every event in the list has a direct link to its registration page, schedule, call for speakers (if currently open), call for sponsors (if currently open), etc.
  • The top submenu includes links to the pages where someone can see all the calls for speakers currently open, all calls for sponsors currently open, etc.
  • I visualize this new homepage as a place where people can find any kind of WP event: 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., WordCamps, NexGen events, WP workshops,…

Ideas are welcome!

It’s our opportunity to create something that improves our current “Upcoming Events” and WordCamp Central Schedule pages and to create a more modern and usable site that can be useful to newcomers, attendees, sponsors, etc., and to promote it publicly more.

Please comment with your feedback and please add any more features that you’d like to see in this new site, thanks!

#call-for-ideas, #design, #events-2, #features, #highlight, #homepage, #new-design, #next-gen, #next-gen-events

Community Team Goals for 2023 : Next Step

Thank you all so much for sharing your suggestions for the Community team’s 2023 goals, there are A LOT of excellent suggestions here to be excited about!

Over the next 2 weeks, suggested goals will be put into a new, public Community Team 2023 Goals Trello board as separate cards.

In March, we will hold a few chat sessions in the #community-team channel (if you don’t have an account already, sign-up for an one here: https://make.wordpress.org/chat/), where 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 anyone interested are invited to chat about specific goals, and add details to goal cards. The TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. board will be open for the next 2 weeks, so that people can share input outside of those sessions.

You can put your comments on the cards you consider high priority.
It can be just +1.

Then we will discuss final additions and priorities at our regular April chat meeting, 6 April. If you would prefer to have a Zoom hangout before then to discuss the goals, let us know what time zone and we’ll try to make that happen.

After that, the Team reps will summarize our goals and top priorities for 2023.

If any deputies are interested in helping with putting goals in Trello, or facilitating discussions and recapping goals, please pingPing The 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.” @mysweetcate or @leogopal or me(@nukaga)!

#2023-team-goals, #community-team, #goals, #highlight

Community Team Goals for 2023: Call for Suggestions

It’s time to add your voice to what you’d like to see the Community Team accomplish as a group for 2023. As you can see in brainstorming posts from 2021202020182017, and 2016, every year we collected and shortlisted a long list of goals for our team.

This is an open thread for suggestions about what this team ought to focus on and/or try to accomplish this year. It’s ok to include:

  • Ideas that have already been suggested in the past
  • Propose things that maybe no one has ever mentioned.

Once the group has had time to make suggestions, we’ll recruit someone to summarize all the suggestions (example), and then discuss as a group, to set priorities. We’ll close comments on February 2.

Because of the short time frame, we’re looking at splitting the goal planning into two phase. We’d like to plan an initial set of goals for the first half of 2023 and then open the conversation again in May for the second half of the year. That doesn’t mean we can’t have overarching goals for all of to 2023. It simply opens our thinking to short term initiatives while also making sure that we are tracking our progress throughout a long and busy year.

Consider these as you think through your suggestions:

  • What would do you think the 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. should or could work on?
  • What would help further our mission to connect WordPress enthusiasts?
  • What would inspire people to do more with WordPress?
  • How can we encourage contribution to 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, in 2023? 

Comment below!!

#community-team, #goals, #highlight, #team-goals, #2023-team-goals

#2023-team-goals

2022 Goals for the Community Team: Suggestions Invited

As 2021 is slowly coming to an end (can you believe it?) it is time to start thinking about the Community Team’s goals for 2022. While 2021 felt like a continuation of 2020, we did see some exciting changes on the horizon, especially as we paved way for the return of in-person WordPress meetups, WordCamps, and do_action charity hackathons. I feel that 2022 will be a pivotal year for our team as we begin to see a return to in-person events after nearly 18 months of online events. Hence, it seems prudent that the team starts thinking of its 2022 goals early on.

This post is intended as an open thread for suggestions for our 2022 team goals. Please share your ideas on what our team should try to accomplish in 2022. Ideas that were suggested in the past and new ideas are welcome. 

As you can see in brainstorming posts from 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017, and 2016, every year we collected and shortlisted a long list of goals for our team. However, the team often fell short of meeting these goals. As we are on the cusp of a challenging (and exciting!) year, it feels more prudent to have a small set of achievable goals that will help us find a direction for our team.

While all ideas are welcome, we request you to focus on high-level goals that are achievable, which will set the direction for our growth as we step into a new year.

We will leave this post open for comments until December 6, 2021 (Monday) December 13 (Monday) to give everyone time to make their suggestions. After that, we will be organizing brainstorming sessions to summarize the suggestions and filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. them into a short set of high-level goals for our team.

If you would like to be involved in the goal setting process, please comment on this post expressing your interest, OR reach out to @sippis or @harishanker in the Make 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/..

What would you think the 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. should focus on, in 2022? Let us know in the comments!

#goals #highlight #team-goals

The following fine folks contributed to this post: @angelasjin, @kcristiano, @_dorsvenabili, and @sippis

Announcement and Call for Volunteers: Expanding #WPDiversity to three programs

TL;DR The Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) is launching 3 new programs:

  1. Diverse Speaker Workshops
  2. New: Diverse Speaker Support
  3. New: Allyship program

We have great opportunities for volunteers to get involved with all three programs.


Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers, the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) in the WordPress Community Team is growing once again!

This group has been helping 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 attract and develop more diverse speakers since late 2017. In 2020 alone, we quintupled our impact by reaching 71 cities in 17 countries, and participants reported a 20% increase in public speaking confidence! (Check out our impact in our monthly reports.)

With your help, we will expand #WPDiversity to three programs to continue to work towards meeting the shared vision of diversity, equity and inclusion at WordPress events around the world.

We formed these three programs based on the community’s input on “Re-imagining the work of the Diverse Speaker Training group” for 2021.

1. Diverse Speakers Workshops:

Challenge

Often the speaker lineups of our meetups and WordCamps look alike and come from a similar background. There are many other voices that aren’t being heard as much: women, LGBTQIA+ individuals (which include non-binary, trans and genderqueer folk), people of color, people of different physical abilities, neurodivergent people, people who are older, etc.

Since the events of 2020, many meetups also haven’t had the bandwidth or confidence to run our workshops for themselves in their local communities any more. How can the WordPress Community Team support more diverse contributors, organizers, and leaders in WordPress?

The “Diverse Speaker workshops” from the Diversity Speaker Training working group (#WPDiversity) is a “stealthy,” highly effective way. We don’t ask people to be leaders. We bust through their impostor syndrome and help them find topics that people want to hear. Once they take that first step, many go on to do more.

Solution: Program 1 –  Diverse Speaker Workshops

The Diverse Speaker Training working group will continue to run the workshop for the global community directly, which we started doing in response to the pandemic in 2020. Now that the workshops are up on Learn WordPress, it is easier for more people to join our team and run our workshops for the global community.

We also support and encourage meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. and WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers to run a live or watch party workshop for your local communities yourselves. We are happy to help you get set up.

“Before taking the workshops, I didn’t have the confidence for public speaking. Thanks to these sessions, I can relax, gather my thoughts, and proceed with my presentation. I would recommend this workshop to people of color in the WordPress ecosystem. You belong here; it’s a no-judgment zone where you can find your authentic voice.”

– TC, Learner Advocate, @codebrother1, USA

“LOVED the #WPDiversity Workshop! It really inspired me to bring this type of content to the WordPress Mexico community and bring more diverse groups into speaking at our Meetups and WordCamps. ¡Muchas gracias!”

– Maryl Gonzalez – Co-Founder / Lead UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it./UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. Designer | Scrum/Agile PM – The App Chefs

2. New Diverse Speaker Support program:

Challenge

With the loss of in-person events, the road between Diverse Speaker workshop and public speaking was challenged, as the number of local groups running the workshop to encourage speaking at their own events dwindled. As mindset-shifting and confidence-boosting as our speaker workshops are, the most change happens when someone gets up to speak and has a good experience. We want to help people get on stage as soon as possible.

Solution: Program 2 – Diverse Speaker Support

Our working group is starting up a new 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, to provide continued support for our workshop participants. There will be mentorship, networking, and most importantly, support to apply for speaker spots in meetup and WordCamps!

3. New Allyship program:

Challenge

There were events in 2020 that raised awareness and discussions about global inequality issues and social justice. As a result, our event organizers are more aware of diversity issues, but at the same time, feel nervous about being good allies and creating inclusive events.

Solution: Program 3 – Allyship

Our working group is launching a new Allyship program. We will train our WordPress meetup and WordCamp organizers with the Learn WordPress workshop “Creating A Welcoming and Diverse Space.”

This program will be in quarterly cohorts:

  • Month 1: A private, supportive, hands-on, interactive workshop over Zoom. You will walk away with an action list to start making changes right away.
  • Month 2: Public Slack coaching on #community-events
  • Month 3: Public Slack accountability on #community-events

Once people have gone through one cohort, the WP Community would love it if they continue participating in the Slack coaching and accountability sessions in future quarters. People are also welcome to re-take the workshop at any time as well.

“As an organizer of a large event, we’re overwhelmed with many challenges and often overlook diversity. But building a diverse and inclusive event is at the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. of what makes an event extraordinary. This workshop helped me understand these benefits while also providing simple concepts that are easy to comprehend and implement step by step.”

—Eric H., New York

“Before I took this workshop, I thought to have done a good job organizing inclusive and welcoming events. Thanks to this session, I realized how far I am from that. This workshop gave me a lot of inspiring ideas to put in place! I would recommend this workshop to anyone looking to achieve more diversity in their events or communities.”

—Alessandro R., Italy

Call for Volunteers

In order to accomplish these ambitious goals this year, the Diverse Speaker Training working group would like to invite you to participate!

Why volunteer with our team?

  • Our work is inspiring and feels good.
  • We make a difference in the community — with tangible results to show it.
  • We are a highly driven group with high impact. We get the right things done.
  • You will learn a lot! You get great experience and training that you can use. Past volunteers have gone on to lead other groups or get job promotions. 🙂
  • We value your ideas and input.

Volunteers

What: Our working group has all kinds of roles, from helping us develop the new programs to maintaining our current program. Workshop trainers, 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., translations, marketing, behind-the-scenes admin, and more. We also welcome people to just hang out in our meetings to participate in discussions and be available for small one-time contributions. Specific roles come up organically as we move forward, and you are also welcome to suggest creating a new role that inspires you and will assist the team in our mission.

When: You can participate as much or as little as you would like. We’d love it if you could attend meetings on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 5-6pm UTC. Not required, but very valued.

You’re a good fit if: You have a strong desire to bring more diverse voices into WordPress events, and you want to help shape how that happens. You do not need to have any prior experience, but a willingness to share ideas, collaborate, and help define and tackle tasks would be amazing.

Please Note

Our working group needs volunteers to help move this important initiative forward. If you have signed up for something, we are relying on you! We understand that things do come up, so if you commit to a task and are unable to complete it or fulfill your role, please tell us as early as possible. The sooner you tell us, the easier it is to make sure your task is covered.

Estimated time commitment:

  • Group meetings: 60 minutes every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, 5pm UTC.
  • Attend our Diverse Speaker workshop at least once (est 2 hours).
  • Attend our Allyship workshop at least once (est 2 hours).
  • The rest is up to how much time you would like to give.

If you’d like to take part in this working group, please comment on this post or come and attend our next meeting (2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, 5-6pm UTC on the #community-team Slack channel). I will then reach out to interested folks. If you have questions, please also feel free to comment on the post. I look forward to working with you and together creating something wonderful!

Thanks to @angelasjin and @evarlese for their feedback on this post!

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