Discussion: Refining the Mentor Program

To better serve the community and the Community Team, @devinmaeztri and I are working to improve our current MentorMentor 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. program. We believe this project will help get rid of gaps in our current roles and create a smoother functioning Community Team with room to grow.

An Overview

  • End date: 31 March
  • 4 Issues addressed in this post
    • update or create role information and tasks
    • add in new Mentor roles to help our growing community and team
    • retire the “DeputyDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook.” title
    • build for the future
  • 3 Discussion Posts planned starting with this one

The Main Elements

Craft More Accurate Role Information and Task Lists

The project will start by looking at where we are and end with clearer information about new and existing roles.

  1. Evaluate the current roles and their descriptions, qualifications, and expectations.
  2. Evaluate the current assigned tasks and see if they need better descriptions or adjustments to make them more manageable to accomplish.
  3. Create descriptions, qualifications, expectations, and clearly described tasks for any new mentor roles added.

For reference, find the current roles and expectations on the Community Team’s Team Projects page.

Add in 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. MentorsMentor 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 Mentor of Mentors

Meetup Mentors: We currently have a group of Meetup Reactivators that we would like to invite into the Community Team to continue their meetup outreach. If our 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 the heart of what we do, then having a group and system in place that provides regular check-ins should help keep them strong. It also provides a nice first level of activity for new members.

Mentors of Mentors: These would likely be our current Super DeputiesSuper deputy Super Deputies are Deputies who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. with opportunities to promote other veteran mentors as they qualify. 

Mentors of Mentors would continue to support our other mentors and have responsibilities within the Community Team around nurturing growth. They could also mentor WordCamps as they choose.

We would continue to have the existing roles of 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. Mentors and Community DeputiesDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook./Community Mentors with similar responsibilities to what they have now.

Current Contributor Roles
WordCamp Mentors
Community Deputies
Super Deputies
Future Contributor Roles
Meetup Mentors
WordCamp Mentors
Community Mentors
Mentors of Mentors

Change the Community DeputyDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. Title

The word “deputy” has two significant drawbacks.

  1. It’s difficult to translate in some languages while in others the word doesn’t even exist.
  2. In the US, it’s a term used to describe enforcement which does not represent the nature of the role well.

Our deputiesDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. are already mentors who are working to nurture the community, often in more technical ways, but still interacting with the community. 

Because of that and the reasons above, we suggest changing:

  • Community Deputy → Community Mentor
  • Super DeputySuper deputy Super Deputies are Deputies who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. → Mentors of Mentors

The responsibilities would be similar (with some refinement) to current duties, but we’d have names that fit a more global community and better reflect what the Community Team is trying to accomplish.

Build a Foundation for Future Growth

A Single Unified Application: Along with refining the names, descriptions, and tasks, we also plan to create a single unified application and onboarding process as well as a clear contribution ladder. We think this will provide a smoother introduction to the Community Team and give contributors goals to grow towards.

A Removal Process: With onboarding, we’ll also need to create a path for removing inactive contributors as well as people who end up in the wrong roles. Not everyone fits every role. Let’s create other opportunities where contributors can make the best use of the skills they have instead of being stuck in a role that doesn’t fit. Maintaining a healthy community requires attention to this aspect as well.

Overall, we’re hoping all of the changes mentioned in this post create one solid foundation for the future of all of our programs.

The Community Team’s Role

We want to work alongside the group as a whole to refine our Mentor Program to better benefit us all. In order to do that, we need your support and feedback. 

Please comment below your thoughts regarding the project, and particularly about some or all of the following:

  • Changing the name of Community Deputies and Super Deputies.
  • If it’s too confusing to have all roles under the Mentor heading.
  • What current tasks function effectively, and which don’t.
  • New tasks you think it could be useful to add.
  • Adding in a Meetup Mentor role.
  • Adding in a Mentors of Mentors, and if the name is a good fit.

This post will close March 3.

#meetups, #community-team, #mentors, #mentorship-programs, #wordcamps

#q1, #refining-mentor-program, #updates

Notes from Community Team Chat | July 7, 2016

We held the monthly Community Team Chat yesterday (July 7, 2016) at 19:00 UTC in #outreach on the Making 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/.. You can view the full Slack logs here (Slack account required to view).

Mentorship Programme

@brandondove gave a report on the current status of the 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. mentorship programme (Slack logs):

  • 29 total mentorsMentor 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. (17 active, 4 maxed out, 8 inactive)
  • 37 camps actively being mentored
  • 9 camps that need mentors

In general the mentorship programme is working well and being very effective. Given that the number of active WordCamps fluctuates over the course of the year, there are times of the year when we do not have enough mentors and times when we do. Right now we do not have enough to cover all of the camps that need them.

WordCamps

@camikaos reported on the status of WordCamps at the moment (Slack logs):

  • 5 camps needing vetting
  • 2 camps needing orientation
  • 34 camps in the pre-planning stage
  • 49 camps scheduled
  • 37 camps closed in 2016 so far

Given that some of those camps are for 2017, we’ll be looking at around 115 camps in total for 2016.

WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.

@miss_jwo gave some feedback about what the Community achieved at the WordCamp Europe Contributor Day on July 26, 2016 (Slack logs):

  • @camikaos and @chanthaboune lead a workshop on WordCamps and 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.
  • @kcristiano and @camikaos led a Q&A session
  • Testing sessions were held for new WordCamp organisers using WordCamp.org
  • A number of people worked on improving the handbooks

Meetups

@chanthaboune gave an update on Meetups (Slack logs):

  • We have 305 total 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. groups (97,130 members)
  • 21 new groups created in the last month
  • 28 applications received in the last month
  • 0 groups closed in the last month
  • 63.2% groups are outside the US
  • 36.7% groups in the US
  • We average ~350 events a month

She noted that we have not been sending out the monthly emails to meetup groups around the world and some discussion was had about possibly making those email quarterly instead of attempting to do them monthly.

Miscellaneous

@chanthaboune had a few miscellaneous items at the end of the meeting (Slack logs):

  • We are in the process of moving our 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/. to an O2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. (much like the Meta blog has already). Everything will continues to work as it should, but it’s worth mentioning.
  • The team at WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. has grown with the addition of @courtneypk and @hlashbrooke – this means we have more effective coverage across most time zones.

Remember that these monthly Community team chats are on The first Thursday of every month at 19:00 UTC in #outreach on Slack. Have a look at 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. of this P2 for other meeting & 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. times.

#agenda, #debriefs, #events-2, #meeting, #meetups-2, #mentorship-programs, #report, #team-chat

GSoC OPW ends soon pencils down 9 16…

GSoC/OPW ends soon (pencils down 9/16, complete stop 9/23, evaluations due 9/27). I’m reaching out to all mentorsMentor 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 students today to make sure everyone is on track for an on-time finish. Will be asking each student to spend the week between pencils down and hard stop creating a screencasted demo of their project like we’ve done in past years to share with the community, and to clean up their documentation if they let it slide during the coding period.

To keep track of who has sent back their check-in responses, here’s the list.

  • Ryan McCue, JSONJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML.-based REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/.
  • Bryan Petty
  • Eric Mann
  • Kat Hagan, Post by Email
  • Justin Shreve
  • George Stephanis
  • Siobhan Bamber, support (forums, training, documentation)
  • Mika Epstein
  • Hanni Ross
  • Frederick Ding, improving portability
  • Andrew Nacin
  • Mike Schroder
  • Sayak Sakar, Firefox OS
  • Eric Johnson
  • Alex Höreth, editor revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision.
  • Dominik Schilling
  • Aaron Campbell
  • Mert Yazicioglu, profiles
  • Scott Reilly
  • Boone Gorges
  • Daniele Maio, Blackberry 10 (@jenmylo)
  • Danilo Ercoli

#gsoc, #mentorship-programs, #opw