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Here is where we have policy debates, project announcements, and assist community members in organizing events.
Everyone is welcome to comment on posts and participate in the discussions regardless of skill level or experience.
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If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
The WordPress annual meetupMeetupMeetup 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:
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.
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
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
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 MeetupsMeetupMeetup 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 MetaMetaMeta 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 RepA 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.
Hello WordPress MeetupMeetupMeetup 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. members,
The annual meetup survey is here! This year, we propose a unified survey for all Meetup members and organizers.
Please complete the Annual Meetup Survey – even if you haven’t participated in a meetup recently!
Help spread the word! If you are a Meetup Organizer, please share the Annual Meetup Survey with your group via discussion boards, email, social media, and announce it at your next Meetup event.
Please take a moment to respond to the survey. This survey is an important opportunity to share your feedback on WordPress meetupsMeetupMeetup 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 2023 and how we can improve the program in the future. Even if you did not attend meetup events in 2023, your input is valuable! The survey takes less than 5 minutes to fill out, and the results will help strengthen WordPress meetups in the years to come.
We hope to achieve a 100% response rate among Meetup organizers and members around the world, and get actionable insights about two challenges that the WordPress ecosystem is facing right now:
How can we increase the number of WordPress events?
How can we increase the number of WordPress users worldwide?
What’s Next?
Take the survey, you have until January 14, 2024!
To open the survey in a new tab, please use the following link: https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/2023-meetup-annual-survey
In the past months, we’ve asked to the Program Supporters and Managers of the Global Community TeamGlobal Community TeamA group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. how they feel about their contribution to the team. By raising awareness among the team about the challenges that we are currently facing, we hoped to identify possible solutions to increase satisfaction, engagement and contribution.
Goal of the Analysis
Identify recurrent challenges that prevent Program Supporters and Managers from proactively performing team’s tasks to empower contributors and improve team members’ experience.
The Process
The survey was directed only to the Program Supporters and Managers
The questions focused on the most recurrent tasks performed by the Community Team: HelpScout triage, event application vetting, and event orientation
To analyze the open-ended questions, I experimented using Chat GPT first to find most recurrent trends, and then double checking myself
The findings
Time availability is the biggest challenge
A poor onboarding experience translates into lack of confidence and challenges to proactive contribution
Most of the team would benefit from working in smaller task-oriented groups
Many team members want to improve their leadership and project management skills
Possible Solutions
→ Define a more structured and complete onboarding process
→ Create working groups/task-oriented teams with veteran and new supporters
→ Implement a clear task assignment & tracking system
→ Increase the number of internal trainings & create new learning opportunities
Next Steps
I asked the Program ManagerProgram ManagerProgram 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. to have a sync meeting before mid-October, so we can discuss and decide together actions and improvements to propose to the team for 2024.
Presentation
We’d love to give everyone the chance to go through the presentation whenever they prefer, so here below you can find a 5 minute video to follow along.
Community Team Engagement Program SupporterProgram SupporterCommunity 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. Survey 2023 – Video Presentation
If the video presentation doesn’t suit you, below is the pdf file:
Please feel free to share any feedback or thoughts related to this analysis in the comments to this post. I want to thank the whole Community Team and each one of its contributors for the passion and caring of their contributions: this has a huge and positive impact on our community.
A special thank you to @mysweetcate for her patience and support while I was working on this analysis.
Hello WordPress MeetupMeetupMeetup 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. members!
The annual meetup survey is here! If you are a meetup group member, please complete the Annual Meetup Program Survey – even if you haven’t participated in a meetup recently! If you are a meetup organizer, please complete the Annual Meetup Organizer Survey. For the first time in WordPress history, the 2021-2022 Annual Meetup surveys are available in 14 different languages, listed below.
Help spread the word! If you are a Meetup Organizer, please share the Meetup Program Survey with your group via discussion boards, email, social media, and announce it at your next Meetup event.
Please take a moment to respond to the survey. This survey is an important opportunity to share your feedback on WordPress meetupsMeetupMeetup 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 2021 and 2022 (thus far). Even if you did not attend meetup events in 2021-2022, your input is valuable! The survey takes less than 5 minutes to fill out, and the results will help strengthen WordPress meetups in the years to come. Our goal is to achieve a 100% response rate among meetup organizers around the world, and as high a response rate as possible among members.
Call for Translators: 2021-2022 Annual MeetupMeetupMeetup 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. Surveys
As announced previously, for the first time in WordPress history the 2021-2022 Annual Meetup Surveys will be distributed in a variety of languages! This will enable more WordPress meetup organizers and attendees around the world to respond to the survey, which is of particular importance as the Community team seeks to reactive the meetup program.
How You Can Help
Are you available to help translate the surveys from English to another language? In particular, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and German are languages spoken by many in the WordPress community and to which the surveys are not yet translated.
We recently published the 2020 Meetup survey results, which shared several insights and statistics about our meetupMeetupMeetup 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. group members. It’s time to analyze the results of the 2020 Meetup Organizer survey. This year’s survey is unique because it is tailored for online meetups in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have removed some questions on in-person events and added some questions about online events.
2020 Meetup Organizer Survey Participation
Total organizer respondents: 65
Total countries participated: 26
Key Insights from the survey
Most of our meetup organizers are experienced folks. Most respondents have been an organizer of the group for the past 2-4 years (37%). While 22% of respondents have been involved for 4-6 years, only 13% have been a part of their local group for the past 1-2 years. Additionally, a whopping 49% of respondents had been using WordPress for over 10 years!
Most meetup groups have pivoted online during the pandemic. 82% of respondents had organized at least one online event for their group in 2020, with 42% of folks organizing at least one event per month. 26% of the respondents stopped organizing events due to COVID-19. 85% of organizers intend to continue organizing online meetupsMeetupMeetup 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 2021 and beyond.
Zoom is the favored online meetup platform amongst organizers. Like the meetup member survey results, Zoom emerged as the most preferred tool amongst meetup organizers, with 55% voting for the service. Google Meet achieved a close second, with 23% of respondents choosing that tool. StreamYard, YouTube Live, Facebook Live, and Jitsi were also the top contenders.
Learn WordPress and Meetups: 66% of organizers expressed interest in contributing to learn.wordpress.org, and 71% of organizers expressed interest in organizing discussion groups based on Learn WordPress for their meetup. This shows that given enough support and encouragement, meetup organizers can offer support for Learn WordPress by organizing workshops and discussion groups!
Online event fatigue seems to be one of the top blockers faced by organizers while planning WordPress events. Many organizers cited a general lack of interest and high cost of online tools and captioning services as blockers faced by their meetup group.
Want to explore the results of the 2020 Meetup Organizer survey in detail? Read on!
The 2020 WordPress Meetup survey wrapped up on April 30th, 2021. This year’s survey was unique since we made quite a few changes, primarily to reflect our pivot to online events. This post contains some statistics about 2020 meetupsMeetupMeetup 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 some interesting findings based on feedback from our meetupMeetupMeetup 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. group members.
Overall, most people seem to be satisfied with the meetup program in 2020, with 50% of folks reporting that they were 100% satisfied. 92% of respondents mentioned that they are likely to recommend WordPress meetups to others.
People are attending online meetups outside their local group. More than half of the respondents had attended at least one online meetup in 2020. Additionally, more than half of the respondents attended online meetups outside of their local meetup group.
Zoom is the most popular tool for online meetups. With 69% votes, Zoom is the number one choice of platform for meetup attendees. Google Meet is a close second and YouTube comes third. You can now request a Community Zoom Pro account for your online meetup if you don’t have one.
Most people seem to like online meetups. 48% responded that they want online meetups a lot, with 31% saying they are okay. 13% of folks mentioned that they prefer in-person meetups over online meetups. 8% are tired of online meetups. An overwhelming majority (88%) wanted in-person events to be streamed online when they are back.
Reasons for attending online meetups: Folks seem to be divided about their reasons for attending meetups. The time/date of the event, their availability, and the location of the venue – are significant factors that govern members’ attendance in a meetup event.
Popular event formats: Online events, in-person events, workshops, and formal presentations were the most popular event formats for WordPress Meetups.
Read on to take a deep dive into the Annual Meetup Survey results for 2020!
A similar message to this post was sent to all WordPress Chapter MeetupMeetupMeetup 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 via meetup.com, but we are also sharing below.
If you are a Meetup Organizer, please feel free to share the survey link with your co-organizers.
Hello Meetup Organizers!
It’s time for the annual meetup organizer survey, and we have a bunch of other stuff to tell you about, too!
Organizer Survey
The annual survey is how we track progress in the meetup program. Because of the pivot to largely online events in 2020, this year’s survey is a little different from previous years, so be sure to share your thoughts in the survey!
Here’s your organizer survey:
If your meetup group has multiple organizers, each organizer should fill in the survey, but please decide among your group who will be the main point of contact with WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community SupportWordPress 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. in 2021 — we ask for that information in the survey.
In order for your feedback to be included in the results, please complete the survey by 30 April, 2021.
Meetup Program Survey
We’ve recently shared the annual meetup program survey with all members. We’ve revised the questions due to the pivot to mostly online events in 2020, and the survey takes less than 5 minutes to complete. It would be great if you could mention it at your next event and encourage people to respond! In the email to members, we’ve reminded them that all meetup group members are encouraged to plan events that interest them so that there are more things happening in each group without the primary organizers having to do more work. If members of your group offer to organize events, we hope you will encourage them and make sure they feel welcome on the organizing team!
Organizing Team
Speaking of the organizing team, it’s time for a round of clean-up on your meetup.com leadership team. If there are any organizers on your team who haven’t planned an event in 2020, please communicate with them about changing their role to Member so that people can see who is active and can help answer questions.
Their generous support keeps the meetup program free for the whole community and helps to make sure ticket prices for WordCamps (when in-person events return) stay affordable.
The 2021 Global Community Sponsorship program was recently announced, and is offered on a quarterly basis to keep the program nimble, if our path to global in-person events accelerates in ways we don’t currently expect.
Meetup Sponsorship
If a company is donating an online event tool or a venue to your meetup group, it is appropriate to list them as a sponsor.
It is not appropriate to list any company as contributing to the meetup.com dues, since WordPress Community Support pays for those through the central account.
Companies providing financial support to cover the cost of a Meetup group’s expenses are appropriate to thank, but should be recognized on an even level with their support. Paying for snacks all year? SidebarSidebarA 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. recognition is great. One-time sponsor? Leaving them listed as a sponsor all year doesn’t quite match; it’s better to thank them in the event listing for the event they are sponsoring.
Organizers of the meetup group and its events are volunteers, and should not be listing their businesses as sponsors unless they are providing a venue or financial support/refreshments like an outside company.
Event Host Designation
This is a small thing, but sometimes meetup organizers set the “WordPress” user as the event host for their meetup events. Please set the actual event organizer as the event host — when the user named “WordPress” is designated as the event host, people send the Community Team DeputiesProgram SupporterCommunity 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. questions about the event that we cannot answer.
Meetup organizers are considered part of the Community Team at WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/. If you haven’t stopped by the community team’s blog in a while, check that out! In addition, if you haven’t joined the WordPress Slack instance, you can do so at https://chat.wordpress.org. The #community-events channel in Slack is where Meetup and 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. organizers can chat with each other, ask questions of Community Team Deputies, ask for community feedback, etc.
Thank you for your efforts in 2020, and your continued contributions to the WordPress Community in 2021!
–The WordPress Global Community TeamGlobal Community TeamA group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps.
A similar message to this post was sent to all WordPress Chapter MeetupMeetupMeetup 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. members via meetup.com, but we are also sharing below.
If you are a Meetup Organizer, please feel free to share the survey link via discussion boards, email, social media, or even announce at a Meetup event!
Hello WordPress meetup members!
As we’ve reached a full year of online Meetup events, we would like to get your feedback on WordPress meetupsMeetupMeetup 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 2020. Even if you did not attend meetup events this past year, your opinion would be valuable! The survey takes less than 5 minutes to fill out, and the results will be shared by the Global Community TeamGlobal Community TeamA group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. to help all WordPress meetups improve.
Here is a link to the survey:
This survey contains general questions relevant to the global WordPress Meetup program, and closes on 30 April, 2021.
Their generous support keeps the meetup program free for the whole community and helps to make sure ticket prices for WordCamps (when in-person events return) stay affordable.
The 2021 Global Community Sponsorship program was recently announced, and is offered on a quarterly basis to keep the program nimble, if our path to global in-person events accelerates in ways we don’t currently expect.
Become an Event Organizer
WordPress is an 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, open to anyone who wants to join. That is true for event organizers, too! Many groups still have one event per month, often a presentation or lecture followed by Q&A or a social hour. These regular events are great, but it means that people who cannot make that time each month are left out, as are people who are interested in different topics.
All meetup groups on the WordPress chapter account allow any trusted, reliable member of the group to organize an event. If you’ve been wishing for a particular kind of WordPress event in your town, this is a great time to become a WordPress organizer.
The possibilities are endless, and if it relates to WordPress, you can organize within your meetup group! Start a conversation on your group’s discussion board or contact the local organizing team with your ideas!
Contribute to the WordPress Project
One of the things we have heard from people is a desire for their meetup group to be more connected to the overall WordPress open source project. If you haven’t stopped by the community team’s blog in a while check that out! There may be a few new projects you might be interested in.
Thank you for being a part of our community, and as always, thanks for using WordPress!
We’re coming upon the time to send out the Annual MeetupMeetupMeetup 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. Surveys! As of the previous survey, we started sending it out by the end of Q1 (first quarter of the year), so we’re just about due to distribute the 2020 survey.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WordPress Chapter Meetup program pivoted to online events partway through 2020. With that in mind, the usual questions for the annual surveys will largely not apply, as they were mainly focused on in-person events. This is where I would love your help!
To start, below are the working documents for each survey, which includes the survey questions from last year:
Please comment on this post or make suggestions on the above documents if:
Any questions could be revised
Any questions should be removed
There any additional questions we can ask
The working documents and comments on this post will remain open until 23 February 2021, in order to have adequate time to prepare the 2020 survey and ready to send out by the end of March 2021.
