Announcement: Changes in Community Team meetings

Already some time ago @kcristiano, @angelasjin, and I proposed changing the Community Team meetings. Given that all commenters were unanimous on changing the team meetings, here we go!

Starting from October, the Community Team is going to leave behind all of our current meetings. The new meetings are geared more towards the Community Team members who are out there running events and in general doing other things than admin work. All meetings are repeated twice on the same day for timezone considerations.

Summary & timeline of the change

After 2021-10-07 all current team meetings will be removed from the Community Team calendar. New meeting types are explained a little down below in this post. In short, these meetings will be replaced with three new ones:

  • Community Team Meeting on the first Thursday of each month at 12:00 UTC and 21:00 UTC
  • Community Local Event Organiser meeting on the second week of each month, exact date and time will be chosen based on Doodle poll.
  • 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 DeputyProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. Chats on the third week of each month, exact date and time will be chosen based on Doodle poll.

These new meetings will be rolled out gradually, to allow everyone to vote on new times and adjust calendars. The timeline for changes is:

  • On 2021-10-07 last Team Meeting with the old structure.
  • On 2021-10-07 the poll for Mentor and Deputy Chats time closes.
  • On the week of 2021-10-18 first Mentor and Deputy Chat will take place.
  • On 2021-10-31 the poll for Community Local Organiser meeting time closes.
  • On 2021-11-04 first Team Meeting with a new structure.
  • On the week of 2021-11-08 first Community Local Organiser meeting will take place.

New meeting types, places and times

Community Team meeting

Meeting for anyone currently involved (event organisers, 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., 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.) or who wants to get involved with the Community Team. Also the place for cross-coordination between 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/ teams when needed.

Compared to the old team meeting, these new team meetings will have a shorter agenda and more time for open floor discussions. Also, a place to spark new ideas on how our community could be developed. Highlighted blog posts will be shared only at the end of the meeting.

The meeting takes place in #community-team 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 on the first Thursday of each month at 12:00 UTC and 21:00 UTC.

Community Local Organiser meeting

Meeting for all local event organisers out there! Whether you are 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., 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. or do_actiondo_action do_action hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Learn more on doaction.org. organiser or planning to organise an WordPress event – this is the meeting for you!

The purpose of this meeting is to help and connect the local community organisers. A place to share your best ideas, concerns and challenges with others. Or just to reach out to the Community Team for some help. The meeting will have a light structure and theme for each time.

The meeting takes place in #community-events Slack channel or in Zoom on the second week of each month. Vote for the meeting time!

Mentor and Deputy Chats

Meeting for all active WordCamp Mentors and Community Team Deputies.

Place for mentors and deputies to share knowledge with each other, talk about ideas and challenges encountered in weekly work and get peer support.

The meeting takes place in Zoom on the third week of each month. Vote for the meeting time!


Thank you to everyone involved in the previous discussion! Feel free to comment on this post if you have any questions about the new meeting formats!

#commu, #contributor-meetup, #deputy-chat, #meeting, #meeting-times, #meetings, #meetup-organizers, #team-meeting, #wordcamp-organizers

Proposal: Updating Community Team meetings

Few weeks ago, @kcristiano, @angelasjin and I began discussing our Community Team meetings, and how they could improve to foster more discussions and connections.

The Current Challenge

In short, we believe that there are too many meetings taking place at the moment and the format of those meetings are not catering to the Community Team as well as they could. To give you a hint where the problem lies, here’s a list of current Community Team meetings (not including working groups):

  • Community Team meeting every first and third Thursdays of month. Repeated twice on the same day to cater different time zones. Takes place in #community-team 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. Meeting agenda consists mostly of going through published blog posts about current matters and important discussion.
  • Community Office HoursOffice Hours Defined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time. every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Takes place in #community-events Slack channel. Opportunity for community members and event organisers to ask everything from community 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..
  • DeputyProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. Office Hours every other week on Thursdays and Fridays. Repeated twice on the same day to cater different time zones. Takes place in Zoom. No agenda, more a space for 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. to talk about their work and related challenges face to face. This is a new thing that started in 2021.

The basic problem appears to be hat there are many meetings, but attendance and engagement is low. These meetings are mostly targeted for community deputies that are deeply involved with the team, and not for event organisers. That feels a bit skewed, as the Community team’s ultimate objective is to work to benefit the greater community.

The Proposal

To make Community Team meetings more interesting, helpful, easier to approach and attend, Angela, Kevin and I would like to propose updating our meetings! Instead of the meetings listed above, the Community Team would move to the following ones:

Community Team meeting

Once a month for anyone currently involved or who wants to get involved in the Community Team. Still repeated twice on the same day to cater time zones and taking place in #community-team Slack channel.

Shorter agenda, more open floor discussion and personal updates from community members. Highlighted blog posts at the end of the meeting instead of being in limelight and taking most of the time. We will encourage discussion in these meetings and link to the discussions on the agenda posts for those who cannot attend to review.

We are also hoping to record minutes for these meetings and post that to the 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/. as well. A volunteer is needed to take the minutes.  This role can rotate, one need to make a long term commitment (but we’d love it if you did).

Community Local Organiser meeting

Once a month for 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. Repeated twice on the same day to cater time zones. Taking place in #community-events Slack channel.

No formal agenda. The purpose would be to become a place where local community organisers can share how their community is doing, successes and challenges, and learn from each other. Ambition is to bring local community organisers closer to each other as well as the community team, strengthening the connections.

Deputy and 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. Chats

Once a month for all active Deputies and MentorsEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues.. Repeated twice on the same day to cater time zones. Taking place in Zoom. No formal agenda. Place for deputies and mentors to share their knowledge with each other and to talk about challenges encountered in our weekly work.

What do you think, would these new meetings make sense? Is there something that should be included in these meetings? Are some meeting types missing from the list?

Please share your thoughts and ideas by 2021-08-23 at latest.

#meetings, #team-chat, #team-meeting

Community Team Meeting agenda for 2021-04-15

The Community Team bi-weekly meeting is happening today. The meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team!

Asia-Pacific / EMEA friendly meeting: 2021-04-15 12:00
Americas friendly meeting:
2021-04-15 21:00

Note the Daylight Savings Time and how it might affect which time the meeting is taking place for you! The above times should be presented in your local time.

Below is a preliminary agenda for the meeting. If you wish to add things you’d like bring to into discussion, comment below or reach out to team reps @sippis or @kcristiano. It does not need to be a blog post yet, the topic can be discussed during the meeting nevertheless. We use the same agenda for both meetings.

Preliminary agenda

DeputyProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. / MentorEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. / Contributor check-ins

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

Highlights

Improving the Learn WordPress Working Group meetings
It’s been about four months since the Learn WordPress Working Group started meeting at its current frequency and schedule. Erica is looking for feedback about a possible change of meeting time. Please fill the doodle poll before Tuesday, April 20th if you are part of Learn WordPress Working Group or interested in contributing to Learn project.

Discussion: The Community Team Contributor Ladder
Angela put together a post that clarifies the roles and responsibilities of Community Team contributors. Good reminder and worth checking out.

The Community Deputy Round Table is Coming in June
One of the WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support WordPress 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. (WPCSWordPress Community Support WordPress 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.) team goals for Q1&Q2 is to host an online deputy round table. Currently, a small team of experienced contributors is planning to organise this round table. Please fill the doodle poll to select the times tomorrow at the latest.

New and ongoing discussions

Frequency of these meetings
Currently, our Team Meetings are held on the first and third Thursdays of every month. In some months like April, this sequence does cause three weeks gap between the meetings. After today’s meeting, the next one would be in three weeks on 2021-05-06 instead of having two weeks gap like we usually have. Should we change the first and third Thursday rule sequence to every second week, in order to avoid the long gaps between? Comment your thoughts in this post 🙂

Proposal: Adding topic-based meetup groups as part of the Meetup chapter program
Typically, 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. are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on at least a monthly basis. The 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. Chapter program requires that a meetup be hosted for a city or a specified location. However as COVID-19 pandemic changed the world, changes were made to the events program to allow for online Meetups. Recently, the Community team received two applications to start a meetup group globally for a specific topic that is not tied to any city. Sam opened an discussion around topic if we should allow these kind of Meetups in our chapter program.

Request for feedback: Team goals check
As we enter Q2 of 2021, it seems appropriate to check where we are with the action items set for Q1 and Q2 in our Team goals. If you are working with some action item or do know the progress of one, please leave an update in the comments of the post.

Open floor

Opportunity to bring things into discussions that weren’t on the meeting agenda and if anyone has something they would like to share with the team. If you have a topic in mind before the meeting, please add it into the comments of this post.

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

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

Request for Feedback: Community Team Meeting times for 2021

It has been a long time since our Community Team Meetings times have been revised, and we’ve checked the suitability of those from our current team members. As the new year starts, it’s a good time to do the check and see if there’s a need to change the meeting times.

Community Team Meetings are held on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Each meeting happens twice in the same day to cater to different time zones. We plan to keep all this unchanged.

Currently, our meeting times are 11:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC. This is the part we are interested in and looking to change in case some other times prove to be more appropriate for most of the Community Team members.

To vote on the times, please fill this Doodle. Times are shown in your local timezone by default. Make sure to check that Doodle guessed your timezone right. If you want to change the timezone for times shown, use the timezone selector right above the table view.

Please note that the poll is used to vote on times for the rest of the year, regardless it having only one date.

You can vote for multiple times and for both, EMEA / Asia-Pacific and US friendly, meeting times. Team reps will choose the two times that have gotten most votes but do use consideration in order to ensure covering all timezones.

Next two team meetings, on 2021-01-21 and 2021-02-04, will still be held 11:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC. If meeting times are subject to change as a result of this vote, first meeting which will take place at the new time is 2020-02-18.

Please vote before 2021-02-05.

This post was written in collaboration of @sippis and @kcristiano.

#meeting, #meeting-time, #meetings, #team-meeting

Request for feedback: What data our team updates should contain?

In the last Community Team meeting, we discussed about our team updates in make.wordpress.org/updates, how those are lagging behind (last update is from January 2019) and how to revitalize Community Team updates there.

Updates with our chat recaps and general information to make/updates from our team are important, because other teams and Josepha does read those. Our updates makes assessing the project as a whole easier.

We agreed that updates should be made after every team chat. That means bi-weekly updates consisting of team chat recaps and also some other important details about how our team is doing.

My idea about other details to include in updates is:

  • Count of active 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. (from Deputies list)
  • Count of active 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. 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. (from Deputies list)
  • HelpScout total conversations (from HS reports)
  • HelpScout messages received (from HS reports)
  • 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. in chapter program (from WordCamp Reports)
  • Meetups needing vetting (from Meetup Tracker)
  • WordCamps in the schedule (from WordCamp Tracker)
  • WordCamps needing vetting (from WordCamp Tracker)
  • List all new Meetups after the last update (from WordCamp Reports)
  • List all new scheduled WordCamps after the last update (from WordCamp Reports)

Am I missing some important number? What you’d like to add to our team updates? Leave your thoughts and ideas in comments before next team chat on 18.7.2019!

For the first three months, me (Timi) and Hugh are responsible for making the updates. After that, we are going to shift the responsibility to two other Community Team members for the next three months. Responsibility is intended to be rotating thing every three months with two persons, so we can be sure that someone will do the updates.

If you’d like to be the person making our team updates after these first three months, please raise a hand in comments!

#meetings

Community Team Chat Agenda | 17 August 2017

Hey Team!

Our bi-monthly Community Team chat is happening this Thursday, 17 August. Meeting times are 08:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC in #community-team on Slack – we use the same agenda for both meetings in order to include all time zones.

Agenda

1. DeputyProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. check-in – What have you been working on? Any blockers? Anything that you need help with?
2. Welcome pack for new contributorsWe’re putting together a welcome pack for new Community contributors. Thoughts need to go on the post, but this would be a good time to throw some ideas around in real-time.
3. 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/. posts – Some P2 posts to highlight:

If you have any other items to add to the agenda, please post them in the comments below!

#meetings #agenda

#meeting

Community Team Chat Agenda | 03 August 2017

Hello community team!

Our bi-monthly Community Team chat is happening this Thursday, August 3rd. Meeting times are 08:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC in #community-team on Slack – we use the same agenda for both meetings in order to include all time zones.

Agenda

Please post in the comments if you have some agenda items to add so we can update this post as we go.

1. DeputyProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. check-in – What have you been working on? Any blockers? Anything that you need help with?
2. Decision Making Process – we posted about it on the 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/. and we would love to gather more feedback, discuss this during the call.
3. Highlighting a few P2 posts – No real discussion needed, but these are posts worth highlighting for all 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. (add the posts in the comments and I’ll add them here 😉)

Recaps will be in the comments

  • 08:00 UTC
  • 20:00 UTC Notes

#meetings #agenda #meeting-notes

#meeting

Community Team Chat Agenda | 20 July 2017

Hello community team!

Our bi-monthly Community Team chat is happening this Thursday, July 20th. Meeting times are 08:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC in #community-team on Slack – we use the same agenda for both meetings in order to include all time zones.

Agenda

Please post in the comments if you have some agenda items to add so we can update this post as we go.

1. DeputyProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. check-in – What have you been working on? Any blockers? Anything that you need help with?
2. Decision Making Process
3. Highlighting a few 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/. posts – No real discussion needed, but these are posts worth highlighting for all 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.:

Recaps in the comments

#meetings #agenda #meeting-notes

#meeting

Slight change in Office Hours time

UPDATE: The poll is now closed and the Tuesday/Thursday Office HoursOffice Hours Defined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time. time is now going to be 9:00 UTC (1 hour later than previously held). The sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. is updated with the correct info.


We currently hold Office Hours at the following times:

  • Mondays & Wednesdays at 22:00 UTC
  • Tuesdays & Thursdays at 8:00 UTC

As the bi-monthly Community Team chat falls at the same time as the Thursday Office Hours, we are considering moving the time of the Tuesdays & Thursdays session by 1 hour in order to help us be more effective. This time slot for Office Hours is designed to conveniently serve people in the EU and Asian time zones, so with that in mind, would either of the following times work for those of you spread across Africa, Europe and Asia:

  1. Tuesdays & Thursdays at 7:00 UTC (1 hour earlier)
  2. Tuesdays & Thursdays at 9:00 UTC (1 hour later)

I’m leaning towards option #2 as #1 will be very early for Western Europe, but I’m not sure how this would affect those further East, so please use the quick poll here to vote and weigh in with your comments on this post if you have anything further to add.
#meetings #proposal

Agenda for Community Team Chat June 1st

Hello community team!

Let’s start an agenda for our meeting next week!

Agenda

Please post in the comments if you have some agenda items to add so we can update this post as we go.

#meetings #agenda

#meeting