Welcome to the official blog of the community/outreach team for the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen 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!
This team oversees official events, mentorship programs, diversity initiatives, contributor outreach, and other ways of growing our community.
If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
Getting Involved
We use this blog for policy debates, project announcements, and status reports. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to comment on posts and join the discussion.
You can learn about our current activities on the Team Projects page. These projects are suitable for everyone from newcomers to WordPress community elders.
You can use our contact form to volunteer for one of our projects.
We also have regular Community Team meetings on the first and third Thursdays of every month at 11:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC in #community-team on Slack (same agenda).
Events WidgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user.
With most of the Automattic sponsored staff members of the Global Community, who routinely handle WPCS banking, and many deputies offline to celebrate end of year holidays we’ll be pausing our payments programs Saturday December 21 through Sunday December 29.
During this time we’ll halt 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. and MeetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. vendor payments, reimbursements, sponsor invoicing, sponsor payment attribution, and contract review and approval. If you’ll need to pay for goods or services during that time please submit all requests no later than 9am Pacific Friday, December 20, 2019.
Payments submitted leading up to the payment intermission may have additional delays from year end postal, bank, and business closures so expect additional processing time.
Payment requests submitted after that time will not likely be processed until Monday, December 30, 2019. Sponsor invoices paid December 21-29 won’t be marked paid until after December 30. Contracts will not be reviewed and approved until the following week.
Some deputies, mentors, and community members will still be available by email at support@wordcamp.org or on 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 the #community-events channel but response times are expected to be slow.
Additional note: Our banking is done through US accounts and all US banks will be closed Wednesday, January 1, 2020. No payments will be processed that day.
Normal vendor payment and sponsorship attributions scheduled will resume Monday, December 30 2019 though it may take through the end of the week to get fully caught up.
If you have any concerns or question please let us know as soon as possible!
Thanks to all the WordPress meetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers who responded to our recent survey. We received 23 submissions from around North America and abroad.
Many of the responses were very detailed and thorough. They’re too long to include here verbatim, so we’ve curated some common themes.
We added a bit of commentary in this post, and we’ll discuss these topics in more depth during our Grow Your Meetup! workshop 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. US. You’ll find us in the Community Room, Room 274.
Tell us a bit about your group
Many Meetup groups are established vs new, at least a few years, some 10+ years
Covering a range of topics: beginners, advanced users, development
Active members are a small subset of overall membership
Comment: There’s an oft-cited model of community participation: 90/9/1. Out of your entire community group, 90% will be passive (lurkers); 9% will be active; and 1% will be very engaged regulars.
How big is your group?
Ranges from 100’s to 1000’s of total members
Average turnout ranges from 20-50 depending on the topic
Presentations attract more people than socials
Comment: 30 seems to be the sweet spot for a reasonably-sized meetup group, regardless of the total number of members registered in the meetup, nor those who RSVP for each event.
How often do you meet?
65% meet once a month
35% meet more than once a month
No respondents said less than once a month
Comment: Consistent, routine events are a must if you want to build a strong meetup group. An active meetup group should meet at least once a month. This consistency builds momentum that helps make future meetups more likely to happen.
How do you promote your group?
Meetup.com is the primary method
Social media (Facebook & Twitter) and word-of-mouth
WordPress Dashboard, if part of the Chapter program
Comment: In general, it seems like meetup organizers don’t do a lot of outreach or promotion — we rely on Meetup.com to bring members to us, as well as word-of-mouth referrals through existing group members. This could be a big opportunity for us to find new members.
What’s worked?
Consistency – same day of the month, every month
Mixing it up – different locations, times, appeals to different people
Involve the group – planning, choosing topics, online groups
Setting topics in advance; focusing on peer/user support
Comment: Two things here. First, consistency leads to routine which leads to habit. But what works for some people won’t work for others. That’s where options come into play: different days, different times, different formats, different topics, different locations.
Issues?
Finding locations/venues
Finding speakers/presenters
No-shows, low turnout vs RSVPs
Comment: Totally consistent with our experiences as organizers, and an ideal topic for our group brainstorming session on Friday morning.
Advice for new meetup organizers?
It takes time. Start small, persist, keep showing up
Don’t overthink/overcomplicate; have a structure/template
Plan in advance, get experts in as speakers
Have a team of committed co-organizers
Other advice?
Don’t try to do everything yourself; you’ll burn out
Recognize other leaders, invite others to step up
Diversity and inclusion takes effort, but it’s worth it
You’re growing a community, not just hosting a meetup
…
That’s just an overview of what we’ve heard through the survey. We’ll address all of these points, and much more, during the Grow Your Meetup! workshop at WordCamp US in the Community Room, Room 274.
Thanks again to everyone who participated in the survey!
Hello WordPress MeetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers!
Welcome to another meetup organizer newsletter full of news, information, and inspiration for your local meetup.
Newsletter contents:
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. US – Community Track
Watch the WordCamp US Live Stream with your Local Community
Meetup Kit released by WordCamp Asia
Tips on getting more speakers to your meetup
Reminders
WordCamp US – Community Track
This year WordCamp US is holding its first ever community track. This track will feature workshops and interactive presentations designed to include the audience.
Here is what is being covered on the community track:
“Grow Your Meetup” This workshop will cover some popular ideas around marketing tactics, meetup formats and ideas along with WordCamps to grow your meetup. Check out their Grow your meetup Survey!
“Organizing A WordCamp While Staying Sane” This workshop will explore tools, software and techniques to remove barriers and make running a WordPress meetup easier.
Watch the WordCamp US Live Stream with your Local Community
WordCamp US 2019 is happening on Nov 1-3 and, to allow people all over the world to enjoy the great content, the organising team is opening up a live stream of the event.
This live stream will available for free all over the world, making it a great opportunity to get your local community together to watch it. It is also a great way to watch “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/.” by Matt Mullenweg the founder of WordPress.
You can organize a “WordCamp US Live Stream Party” or a “State of the Word Live Stream Party” with your local meetup.
You can view the live stream by visiting the WCUS homepage.
WordCamp Asia 2020 Meetup Kit
The WordCamp Asia team in an effort to reach out to more meetups to learn about their first flagship WordCamp – have put together some useful resources as part of a meetup kit for organizers.
One would be to encourage live remote speakers using video conference to talk about a topic that your meetup group wants to know more about but do not have a local speaker.
The other tip, suggests watching a session from WordPress.TV and then to have a round-table discussion around content at the meetup. Maybe have the speaker from the video available to take questions via chat. You can read more about it here.
It’s about that time again, when we start preparing the September 2019 edition of the meetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers newsletter.
If there are any topics you’d recommend we include, or any interesting meetup event formats you think are worth highlighting, please comment/leave your ideas/suggestions in the comments on this post.
We’ll leave this post open for comments until the 20th of September 2019.
The newsletter typically spotlights:
an interesting event format that organizers might want to try out
news about global community team projects
news about the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen 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
The Automattic sponsored staff members of the Global Community Team, who routinely handle WPCS banking, will be at a company offsite September 10-17. During this time we’ll halt 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. and MeetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. vendor payments, reimbursements, and sponsor payment attribution. If you’ll need to pay for goods or services in mid-September, please submit all requests no later than 9am Pacific Friday, September 6, 2019. Payment requests submitted after that time will not likely be processed until Wednesday, September 18, 2019. Sponsor invoices paid September 10-17 won’t be marked paid until September 18.
If you have an urgent payment request that must be handled that week, but did not submit your request prior to September 6, please reach out to @kcristiano. He can be found on slackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. “kcristiano”.
Deputies, mentors, and community members will still be available by email at support@wordcamp.org or on Slack in the #community-events channel.
Normal vendor payment and sponsorship attributions scheduled will resume Wednesday, September 18, 2019 though it may take us a day or two to get fully caught up.
There have always been some casual recommendations for how the WordPress logo should be incorporated into logos for WordCamps and WordPress chapter meetups, but we’ve never really had an open discussion about it. Following, you’ll find a proposal from Mel Choyce, Kjell Reigstad, Sarah Semark, Mark Uraine, and Tammie Lister for how the WordPress logo should be used for official events of the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen 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. Please read through the guidelines, and share your feedback and concerns in a comment on this post.
The following pages provide some important context on the WordPress logo, logotype, and the WordPress trademarks
While you are free to include the WordPress logo, or reference the W, in your logo, you don’t need to do so.
Example:
The WordPress logo has two variants.
If you do use the WordPress logo, know that it comes in two variants: W Mark and Simplified
W MarkSimplified
Here are some examples of the variants in use:
Say “No!” to the Fauxgo.
If you are using the WordPress logo in your 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. logo, please make sure you are using the correct WordPress logo.
The correct logo has a higher cap height, and rounded serifs:
Don’t change the logo.
Do not:
Remove the ring around the logo.
Cut or splice the logo.
Skew, distort, or add 3d effects to the logo.
Don’t use the Dashicons logo icon.
The Dashicons logo icon is specifically designed for use at smaller sizes; do not use it for your WordCamp logo. Instead, use the official logo files.
Color
Ensure that the logo has sufficient contrast.
Your logo should have sufficient color contrast to pass AA guidelines for text. You can check your design using a tool like Stark (for Sketch) or Logo Rank.
Design your logo in black & white first.
Designing your logo first in black & white is a good way to ensure that your logo will communicate effectively without color. We recommend designing your logo first in black and white, and then adding color near the end of the process.
RGB vs. CMYK
When designing your logo for digital devices, it’s good practice to use the RGB (red, green, blue) color model. When preparing your logo for print, use CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Screens differ from tangible paper products by emitting light instead of absorbing light. For this reason, RGB values work as additive colors for the screen and CMYK values work as subtractive colors for print.
Typography
Typography should be easily readable.
Your WordCamp name is one of the most important pieces of information, so make sure people can read it! Generally speaking, it’s best to use a relatively simple typeface without a lot of flourishes. This ensures that text is readable even at very small sizes, or when printed on a badge of which attendees may only catch a brief glimpse.
Avoid using Mrs Eaves.
Mrs Eaves is the WordPress brand typeface. It’s best to avoid using it for your WordCamp to avoid confusion with the WordPress brand.
Inclusion
Consider a range of users when designing.
When designing your logo, think about users who may have trouble reading or parsing your logo. Ensure your text is readable and color contrast is sufficient. It’s good practice to design your logo first in black and white, to ensure that those with color blindness are still able to understand your logo. (See also the color and typography sections.)
Ensure your logo is appropriate for all audiences.
A WordCamp is welcoming to everyone. Part of ensuring a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment is ensuring that your logo (and other materials) are family-friendly. This means that logos should contain:
no sexually suggestive imagery
no profanity
nothing that would constitute implied or explicit exclusion of a group
no characterizations of a minority group in your area
Context and Formats
Ensure that your logo is recognizable in a wide range of contexts.
WordCamp logos typically appear in many different places: on top of websites, on shirts and merchandise, stickers, in social media, signage, etc. Ensure that your logo is adaptable enough to be recognizable and readable in all of these contexts. Your logo should be flexible enough to work when it appears on a giant presentation screen, but also when it appears in a tiny social media icon.
Provide the final logo in a variety of file formats for different uses.
The logo should be in a scalable vector format (Sketch, Figma, and Illustrator all produce vector graphics). The final file should also be available in the following formats:
.svg (preferred) or other open scalable graphics format (.eps)
.png (with a transparent background)
Provide the final logo in a variety of color formats.
To ensure maximum compatibility with different usage contexts, the recommended color formats for the logo are:
black & white
RGB (screen)
CMYK (print)
Pantone (print, optional)
Feedback?
Please share your thoughts on the proposed guidelines and how best to share them moving forward.
Hello WordPress MeetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers!
Welcome to another meetup organizer newsletter full of news, information, and inspiration for your local meetup.
Newsletter contents:
Diverse Speaker Training Workshops
Call for volunteers: Handbook Working Group
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. for Publishers: Viewing Party
Reminders
Diverse Speaker Training Workshops
“I found the workshop incredibly helpful. I was feeling quite unsure about my upcoming WordPress meetup talk. I have honed in the topic and brainstormed a dozen other topics for the future!”
– Vancouver workshop participant
As organizers, have you ever had challenges getting women and people from other underrepresented groups in tech to speak at your meetups and WordCamps? Check out the Diversity Outreach Speaker Training workshop (#wpdiversity): https://make.wordpress.org/training/speaker-training
– Wednesday, July 24 at 9pm-11pm UTC – Thursday, Aug 8 at 9am-11am UTC – Wednesday, Aug 21 at 9pm-11pm UTC
Diverse Speaker Training Workshops
“I found the workshop incredibly helpful. I was feeling quite unsure about my upcoming WordPress meetup talk. I have honed in the topic and brainstormed a dozen other topics for the future!”
– Vancouver workshop participant
As organizers, have you ever had challenges getting women and people from other underrepresented groups in tech to speak at your meetups and WordCamps? Check out the Diversity Outreach Speaker Training workshop (#wpdiversity): https://make.wordpress.org/training/speaker-training
As a meetup organizer, you might be aware of our helpful handbooks which provide a lot of information about the meetup program. There is currently a call for volunteers for the handbook working group.
The goal of the group is to facilitate an audit and rework part of the content/information architecture to make them more useful than ever, and plan for future growth.
As meetup organizers if you are interested in volunteering for this project, go ahead and read up more info at this link.
WordCamp for Publishers: Viewing Party
Many WordCamps stream their content live all over the world, making it a great opportunity to get your local community together to watch it.
If you can’t travel to a WordCamp, then the live stream is a great way to share in the content of the event along with other local WordPress enthusiasts.
WordCamp for Publishers: Columbus is a community-organized event bringing together folks who use WordPress to manage publications, big or small.
This event will empower participants by coaching them on best practices, and encourage collaboration in building open sourceOpen SourceOpen 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. tools for publishers.
Hello WordPress MeetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers!
Welcome to another meetup organizer newsletter full of news, information, and inspiration for your local meetup.
Newsletter contents:
Organizer Best Practices: Photographing your events!
The 4 Gets in WordPress Community Organizing
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. US: Call for WordCamp Communities
Diverse Speaker Training Workshops
Reminders
Organizer best practices: Photographing your events
As community organizers and leaders, one of the few things we tend to overlook is using photography to promote our meetup groups.
For example, a group photo of the meetup is often one of the best ways to personalize your WordPress meetup.com group page. It is also a great way to drive interaction on social media channels towards making more people aware of your meetup group.
The community organizer handbooks have lots of public information about how to organize events, but they do not outline very clearly what volunteers like you can reasonably expect in return for your work.
In this post about the 4 Gets in WordPress Community Organizing, on the community blog, read about what volunteers can expect to get from their work like impact, growth, protection, and training/support.
Also listed are some of the things that community organizers do not get right away.
WordCamp US: Call for WordCamp Communities
What once was called the Community Bazaar is now Community Spotlight! WordCamp US will post highlights of your WordPress communities in a blog post, and on Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram. Community Spotlight is an online showcase of local WordPress communities in order to inspire other communities. Big or small, near or far, WordPress communities are stronger than ever!
Have you ever had challenges getting women and people from other groups underrepresented in tech to speak at your meetups and WordCamps? Check out the Diversity Outreach Speaker Training workshop: https://make.wordpress.org/training/speaker-training
Write to us to sign up for this or find out about future training sessions here: http://tiny.cc/wpdiversity
To sign up and get more details, either fill out our form and let us know which date you’d would like to attend a training or email the working group at speaker-training@wordcamp.org
To organize an “Introduction to Open SourceOpen SourceOpen 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.” workshop at your meetup, please read this announcement and fill in the form.
It’s time to start preparing the the June 2019 edition of the meetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers newsletter.
If there are any topics you’d recommend we include, or any interesting meetup event formats you think are worth highlighting, please comment/leave your ideas/suggestions in the comments on this post.
We’ll gather comments here for one week until the 17th of June 2019.
The newsletter typically spotlights:
an interesting event format that organizers might want to try out
news about global community team projects
news about the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen 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
Hello WordPress MeetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers!
Welcome to another meetup organizer newsletter full of news, information, and inspiration for your local meetup.
Newsletter contents:
Organizer Best Practices: Make the most of your feedback!
Call for Organizers: Introduction to Open SourceOpen SourceOpen 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. Workshops for 2019
Diversity Outreach Speaker Training Workshops
Reminders
Organizer best practices: Make the most of your feedback
On the Make Community blog, there is a discussion that has been kickstarted about some best practices as organizers, around collecting and acting on feedback that we receive.
The discussion includes answering the following questions
Write to us to sign up for this or find out about future training sessions here: http://tiny.cc/wpwomenspeak
To sign up and get more details, either fill out our form and comment with which date you’d would like to attend a training email the working group at speaker-training@wordcamp.org
