2025 Community Team Reps

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

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

🌟 Reflecting on Progress: Evolving the Role of Team Reps

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

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

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

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

💪 The 2025 Selection Process: A Community Effort

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

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

🌟 A Fond Farewell and New Beginnings

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

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

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


🎉 Welcoming the 2025 Team Reps


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


Pooja Derashri (@webtechpooja)

Pooja began her WordPress journey in 2013 as a developer. In 2015, she co-founded WPVibes, a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party development company. Her involvement with the WordPress community deepened in 2017 when she attended her first WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more., marking the start of her contribution journey.

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

She was part of the release squad for 6.3 & 6.4 as Test Lead. In 2024, she represented the Test Team and continues to serve as a General Translation EditorGeneral Translation Editor General Translation Editor – One of the polyglots team leads in a geographic region https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. Further information at https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#general-translation-editor. (GTEGeneral Translation Editor General Translation Editor – One of the polyglots team leads in a geographic region https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. Further information at https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#general-translation-editor.) for the Hindi locale. She is a member of the Plugin Review Team, and a co-organizer of the Ajmer WordPress MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.. She is one of the organizers of the WordCamp Asia.

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

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


Aditya Kane (@adityakane)

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

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

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

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


Kasirye Arthur (@thehopemonger)

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

Arthur Kasirye is a founding member of the WordPress community in Uganda, renowned for his leadership and mentorship roles. He has supported the global WordPress ecosystem as a community lead, mentorEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues., and program supporterProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook., guiding numerous WordCamp organizers worldwide.

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


Shusei Toda (@st810amaze)

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

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


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


🚀 Looking Ahead

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

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

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

Sincerely, Leo Gopal (@leogopal)

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

[Update] 2025 Community Team Rep’s Voting ends, Thoughts & farewell from a Rep, and more.

First, the current Team Reps of 2024 would like to thank each one of you for voting. Voting has ended.

You made your voices heard and participated in voting.

Your selection of the two new nominees means they will join the Team Reps in 2025.


What happens next?

  1. The Voting Process has ended, and we are counting the votes to ensure everything was done correctly and fairly.
  2. The next steps are contacting the nominees who have the highest votes. We will ask them again. We want to know if they are willing to accept the role. They would represent the WordPress Project’s Community Team in 2025.
  3. Once they accept, we will announce who they are to the entire community. We will arrange a series of Hand-offs and Onboardings for them. These steps will make their role official in January 2025.

In 2025, I, @leogopal, and our dear @nukaga will step down as Team Reps. We have had the honor of serving this amazing community for the last 2 years.

We are happy and confident. We are grateful to have served alongside @peiraisotta and @st810amaze. They will stay as they continue supporting and welcoming our two new chosen representatives. They will onboard them just as we did for them. As well as continuing in their support, advocacy, and representation of the Community Team.


The next are the words & thoughts of me, @leogopal, and is not from my role as existing Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. or any official capacity:


The Power of Community

Power in our Community

This is a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and fundamental distinction of a truly Community-lead, Community-driven, and Community-focused open-source project such as 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/.

Your voice matters.
Your votes matters.
Your nomination matters.
You, fellow community member, you matter!

– Leo Gopal, to the WordPress Community (and probably some politicians and philosophers before him)

You, the community, ultimately decide who will guide and represent you. You made the decision and participated in selecting our next 2 representatives of the community team. Just as you did for me 2 years ago. It was an honor. I am grateful to every one of you.

This exists in many other open-source projects. I have to admit that I am biased. I have spent over 15 years in the WordPress ecosystem (People of WordPress – Leo Gopal). Most of that time, I was a developer writing code or managing other developers. I spend all my volunteer hours in the community team. I came for the code, but I stayed for the community.

I have never met another community with so much heart, so much care, and so much genuine kindness and a inner strive to both do good and be good than I have within this global WordPress community.

Thoughts of most in the Community

During my tenure as Team Rep, it was @nukaga, @peiraisotta, @st810amaze, and last year @mysweetcate that helped drive the day to day of the Community Team, while I had the honor of working on projects such as the GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ and Attribution standardization and automation’s which we have adopted and so has many other teams behind the scenes (more on that in a separate post)



Advice for our new and future Reps

Advice To the future Team Reps

(or, things I wish I knew from the start):

  • Firstly, never ever lose the wide-eyed motivation, you start this role with.
  • and keep hold of the the innocence of believing you can accomplish anything (especially if at first you fail or encounter obstacles)
  • Importantly, Never forget that feedback is there to help you succeed. Even when it’s not always what you want to hear or easy to hear.
    • Those who give their feedback have spent their time. They provide it with the sole hope of helping you succeed. Never fail to to thank those who give you their time in this way.
    • Learn to appreciate feedback that contradicts your current perspective. Search out opposing opinions. This is how you nurture your ability to understand others perspectives & viewpoints and adapt accordingly.
  • You learn nothing if you always succeed. It’s also a sign that you are staying safe in your comfort zone.
    • Understand that you always have only two options. You will either succeed or you will learn. Failure only exists for those who quit.
    • Learn how to fail fast. Learn how to fail often. Learn how to quickly pivot when you fail. Learn how to minimize the impact and always have a plan to reverse or revert should something fail.
    • Getting great at dealing with failure is an invaluable skill. It helps you become someone who can succeed where others dare not travel.
  • Seek out others who have succeeded and learn from them.
    • Find individuals with skills you want to acquire. Do everything you can to learn from them. You can’t learn everything on your own. Gain knowledge from those who have already done the hard work.
  • And finally, you are not alone. You have both a team of reps and a whole community. They are there for you to support and who are more than willing to support you.
      • Get help when you need it. Our community is full of delightful people, always eager to lend a hand.

    I am stepping down as a Community Team Rep for 2023 to 2024. I want to thank everyone. This is also a farewell to all who have been a part of this great journey for me. As I step down, I am excited to see our new Team Reps. They will step up and accomplish great things.

    I do not know what my next adventure in the Community Team (or other teams) would be.
    Whatever it is, I know that whatever it is, I will be doing it alongside the best of people.

    +make.wordpress.org/updates/

    #community, #community-team, #farewell, #gratitude, #leogopal, #p2-xpost, #team-reps, #weekly-update

    Vote for our WP Community Team Reps for 2025

    Voting is now closed. New Team Reps for 2025 will be announced January 2025

    Thank you to everyone who participated in the nominations process for the 2025 team reps! It’s now time to cast your vote to decide who will take on this important role next year. (view @nukaga‘s nomination post here).

    What do Team Reps do?

    Team reps act as facilitators. They serve as communicators, helping the team stay organized and connected with other parts of the WordPress project. They guide discussions, support contributors, and make sure the team is aligned with overall project goals.

    How to vote?

    Voting is anonymous. Please use the form below to send your choice:

    In 2025, @leogopal and I (@nukaga) will leave the Reps, and @peiraisotta and @st810amaze will remain.

    When voting, you vote for up to 2 of the nominees.

    Voting period:

    Voting Begins:

    Voting Ends:

    Results

    We will announce our new team reps before the end of 2024! 

    Voting is now closed. New Team Reps for 2025 will be announced January 2025

    #community-management, #community-team, #team-reps, #team-updates, #vote

    Community Team Rep Nominations for 2025

    Hello, it’s November. It’s time to decide who will represent the new community team next year!

    Last year, we made the following proposals to adapt the structure of Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.’s which changed the term a Rep would serve to two (2) years, and to have 4 team reps, 2 that remain, 2 that will be elected, and in 2024, four people served as reps.

    Change the number of years in office from one to two years (step down is possible if desired), with one or two of the three remaining the following year to facilitate continuity

    In 2024, @leogopal and I (@nukaga) will leave the Reps, and @peiraisotta and @st810amaze will remain.

    Then, two new Reps for 2025 will be elected.

    Team Rep Role

    Each team has representatives in the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project, abbreviated as “reps”. 

    Team reps are responsible for communicating on behalf of the group to the other contributor groups via weekly updates, as well as occasional chats. 

    As a reminder, it is not called “team lead” for a reason. While the people elected as team reps will generally come from the pool of folks that people think of as experienced leaders, the team rep role is designed to change hands regularly.

    This role does have a time commitment attached to it, at least one hour a week. The main tasks include:

    • Writing the agenda for the Community Team meetings
    • Coordinating the facilitator of the meeting and the posting of summaries
    • Discuss the community team’s annual goals
    • Keep an eye on the moving parts of the team and provide reports for quarterly updates

    How Community Team Rep Elections Work

    Following our election process last year, the Community team is planning on these key steps: 

    Nominations

    Anyone can nominate a Community team rep! Self-nominations are welcome too. To nominate someone or yourself, please comment in this post. If you would like to nominate someone in private, please reach out to @peiraisotta, @st810amaze or @nukaga.

    Nomination Open: 1 November 2024

    Nomination Closes: 15 November 2024

    We will only add people who respond positively to a nomination to the poll, so feel free to decline a nomination if you don’t feel like this is the right fit for any reason.

    Voting

    We will open voting with a new blog post as soon as nominations are closed. Community members can vote to select new Community Team Reps. 

    Voting Open: 25 November 2024

    Voting Closes: 10 December 2024

    Results

    We will then be able to announce our new team reps before the end of 2025! 

    Nominate now

    Please nominate people for Community team rep in the comments of this post or via private message by 15 November 2024.

    Finally, if you have any questions, please also feel free to ask in the comments.

    Nominations are closed. Thank you for all the comments!

    #community-team, #team-reps

    Vote for Community Team Rep 2024

    The nomination for WordPress Community Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. has been closed on 13th November 2023. 

    We got some great names nominated to be the next Community Team Reps. Once nominations closed, we contacted all nominees and listed those who responded positively.

    Nominees

    A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, makes sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. 

    The following new community team Reps are nominated for 2024.

    Voting

    Community team members are requested to vote to select 2 new community team reps by online poll using the following link: https://forms.gle/h43XbR4JtqEuHfbb6

    The voting is open until 15th December 2023.

    Results

    Once voting is concluded, we will announce the results before the end of 2023.

    How Team Reps will be Structured in 2024

    To recap: in the post receiving this candidate, we had made a suggestion as to the duration and number of community Reps. Based on the input there, we are planning to operate with 4 people next year with 2 remaining from the 2023 Reps and 2 new Reps.

    This is with the understanding that it will be okay if someone gets stuck for a period of time.

    And the two new reps in 2024 will overlap into 2025 if possible. 

    This can be reconsidered after a year of activity.


    The two Team Reps who will remain from 2023 and be active in 2024 will be decided by discussion among the current three Reps ( @mysweetcate , @nukaga , @leogopal ) . The reason it is not a vote is that who remains will be determined based on an internal discussion of activity, history, and personal circumstances.

    Request to Candidates

    If you are a new Team Reps nominee, please share some information about yourself including why you would like to represent the Community Team in the comments. It will be helpful for the 2024 community team members to make their selection!

    #community-management, #community-team, #team-reps

    2024 Community Team Reps Nominations and Proposal for Reps Structure

    It is time to begin the process of selecting a new community team representative for 2024.

    Along with the recommendation for Community Team Reps for 2024, there is a proposal for the composition of Community Team Reps.

    The Role

    In the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project, each team has one or two (or more!) representatives. On the Community team, there were two reps until last year, and three this year, who committed to their roles for a full calendar year.

    Team reps are responsible for communicating on behalf of the group to the other contributor groups via weekly updates, as well as occasional chats. 

    As a reminder, it is not called “team lead” for a reason. While the people elected as team reps will generally come from the pool of folks that people think of as experienced leaders, the team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. role is designed to change hands regularly.

    This role does have a time commitment attached to it, at least one hour a week. The main tasks include:

    • Writing the agenda for the Community Team meetings
    • Run the chat
    • Write the recap and post it in
    • Keep an eye on the moving parts of the team and provide reports for quarterly updates.

    Proposal for Community Team Reps Structure

    The mechanics of Team Reps vary from team to team at Make WordPress. The process of appointment, the number of years of service, etc.

    The three members of this year’s Team Reps ( @mysweetcate, @leogopal and @nukaga ) propose the following modifications with reference to the structure of other teams.

    1. Fix Team Reps to 3 instead of 2
    2. Change the number of years in office from one to two years (step down is possible if desired), with one or two of the three remaining the following year to facilitate continuity

    What we realized when we took office was that a year goes by very quickly and there comes a time when you get used to it and then it is time to change.

    We also felt that having three Reps made it easier for someone to fill in if someone was not available.

    We would like to move forward with this agenda item along with recommendations for the upcoming Reps.

    How Community Team Rep elections work

    Following our election process last year, the Community team is planning on these key steps: 

    1. Call for Nominations: Anyone can nominate a Community team rep! The deadline is 2023-11-13.
    2. Voting for Team Reps: We will open a poll for voting on 2023-11-20. The poll will stay open for three weeks, and close on 2023-12-15. We will then be able to announce our new team reps before the end of 2023! 

    I would also be happy to receive comments on the proposal by November 6, which is the time frame for 1.

    Call for Community Team Rep nominations and Comments on the proposal

    Please nominate people for Community team rep in the comments of this post by 2023-11-6. Self-nominations are welcome.

    1. What do you think of the number of Team Reps?
    2. What do you think about the term of office of Team Reps?
    3. Please give the name of the person you would like to recommend to Team Reps.

    You do not have to answer all of the questions 1 through 3. Just comment on the areas you are interested in.

    If you get nominated, you do not have to say yes! We will only add people who respond positively to a nomination to the poll, so feel free to decline a nomination if you don’t feel like this is the right fit for any reason.

    Finally, if you have any questions, please also feel free to ask in the comments.

    #community-team, #team-reps

    Recap of the Contributor Working Group’s Mentorship Chat on June 15, 2023

    Welcome to the recap post of the contributor working group’s mentorship chat that was held on June 15th, 2023. In this chat, we finalized the dates for our pilot mentorship cohort (July 12th to August 9th), and kicked off project management in preparation for the same.

    In attendance: @adityakane @oglekler @yoga1103  @st810amaze @onealtr @tobifjellner @javiercasares @courane01 @sereedmedia @juliarosia  @harishanker  @leonnugraha  @patricia70 @webtechpooja @casiepa @realloc @peiraisotta @coachbirgit @angelasjin @chaion07 @ronakganatra @fitehal @sumitsingh @siddhantwadhwani @carl-alberto @kafleg @hapiucrobert @devinmaeztri @zunaid321 @christopheramirian

    Notes: @harishanker

    Agenda: https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/06/14/contributor-working-group-mentorship-chat-agenda-june-15th-0700-utc-apac-emea-and-1600-utc-amer/

    Meeting Start

    EMEA: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1686812403775139
    AMER: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1686844802822219

    Project Updates

    We kicked off the chat by sharing our project updates thus far:

    • Thanks to @leogopal, we now have a fully-fledged GitHub project board for our project. Our group will be working on adding tasks and content to the board. Group members also shared their 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/ and GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ profiles to be added to the board. 
    • We also have a draft of the call for mentees post which is ready for publishing. 

    Updates from 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. Europe 2023

    The Contributor Working Group had an informal tribe meeting at WordCamp Europe 2023 with nearly twelve participants. We did an informal discussion of the program, introduced the pilot, and brainstormed different aspects of our program. In the discussion, we arrived at two important updates:

    • Our pilot cohort will kick off on the second week of July (July 12th) and will run for four weeks until August 4th. We discussed this at the cohort and group members approved the same. 
    • Continuing from our last chat, we finalized the following teams were finalized for our pilot. 
      • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.
      • Community
      • Docs
      • Photos
      • Polyglots
      • Support
      • Test
      • Training

    Wins from the past month

    Our group did not forget to celebrate some wins from the last month! 

    • Our contributor mentorship program was featured on the June Edition (Episode 57) of The Official WordPress Podcast – WP Briefing. Support from @chanthaboune – our executive director, was a great encouragement for our group and for our work!
    • At WordCamp Europe 2023, our group and our work got a lot of attention with several folks expressing interest in being a 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., mentee, or a facilitator. Our mentorship program also found a prominent mention in the event’s keynote session with Matt Mullenweg, Josepha Haden, and Matias Ventura. Check out the Q&A video of WordCamp Europe 2023 to catch the moment!

    While our wins were humbling, we reminded ourselves that we still have miles to go! 

    Implementation and Project Management for our Pilot

    With dates finalized, we started working on steps to implement our pilot program. We’ll be using our GitHub Project Board to coordinate everything. The action items are divided into high and medium priority, and we sought group members’ help in proceeding with it.

    High Priority Action items

    • Call for Mentees announcement
      We already have a draft post going which we aim to publish by early next week. Make/Marketing has also offered to review and amplify the same
    • Finalizing our 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.
      Many group members have offered to become mentors for our program, we hope to finalize at least 5-10 mentors. For our cohort. 
    • Recruit Make/Team Representatives and support their involvement in our pilot.

    As shared earlier, we have the following teams in our pilot program. Core, Community, Docs, Photos, Polyglots, Support, Test, and Training. Group members offered to reach out to these teams to get support for our program. 

    Medium Priority Action Items

    Group members can note down changes or suggestions in this Google Doc: Suggested Changes to Learn WordPress Contributor Courses

    • Prepare mentor script or playbook 📜
      We’re working on a detailed step-by-step guide that mentors can use to adequately support mentees as they go through the contributor mentorship program. We’re collaborating together in this task using this boilerplate script document.
    • Facilitating the program ⚓
      We also asked cohort members to support by facilitating the program (keeping the cohort active and overseeing program progress). While all group members will be engaged in this, anyone who has more bandwidth to support was encouraged to join. 

    Making Progress Towards the Pilot Program

    With less than a month remaining until the pilot program, we decided to meet more frequently. Our idea is to: 

    • Try a weekly sync on our task, synchronously or asynchronously in the #community-team channel. 
    • Do at least one synchronous audio/video chat before our event.
    • Start a dedicated channel for the working group discussions, but default to public in #community-team as much as possible. 

    Discussions

    • We discussed the possibility of a multilingual cohort. While the mentorship cohort will be in English, we’ll try to make it as local as possible by assigning mentors based on language preferences. @javiercasares is also attempting to translate our cohort’s content to Spanish for Spanish language speaking mentees. He has already kickstarted work on the same and is looking for collaborators! @coachbirgit has offered to support German mentees, while @leonnugraha has kindly offered to support mentees from Indonesia. 
    • @angelasjin suggested that we amplify our program in the #team-reps channel to get broad support from team representatives. 
    • Our group members felt strongly about the need for a dedicated channel to discuss the program. So while we will attempt to work in public as much as possible, we will also create and use a dedicated 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 for focussed discussions. 
    • @pascalcasier offered to do an onboarding for group members to the TV team!
    • @milana_cap offered to onboard new contributors to the Docs team.
    • We’re attempting to do yet another contributor working group at WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. (around 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/.). @s810amaze has offered to help broadcast it live.

    #contributor-working-group #mentorship-program #wpcontributors #meeting-notes

    #mentorship-chat, #mentorship-chat-recap

    Community Team Reps for 2023

    We are excited to announce the Community Team Reps for 2023. For 2023, we have selected 3 team reps compare to 2 team reps in the past. All 3 nominees are now accepted as new team reps.

    Junko Nukaga

    Junko Nukaga lives on a small island in Japan called Ogijima with a population of 150. She works as a freelance web designer and is the director of a non-profit library.
    Her contributions to the WordPress community began as co-lead organizer 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. Osaka 2012, lead organizer of WordCamp Kansai 2014 and WordCamp Ogijima 2020, and a member of the organizing team for WordCamp Japan and WordCamp Asia, and a member of the organizing team at WordCamp Japan and WordCamp Asia.
    She currently contributes to the WordPress project as Community Team 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..
    She is interested in diversifying and revitalizing the WordPress community. She has been leading diversity speaker training in Japan since 2018.

    Leo Gopal

    Leo Gopal is a WordPress Enthusiast from Cape Town, South Africa. He has been in the WordPress Ecosystem for over 14 years. Leo has been passionate about contributing to various community team efforts and projects since 2015 and has recently been more dedicated to contributing. When not contributing to WordPress, he works on the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. team at Codeable, a hub for highly vetted WordPress devs, helping the community of experts and clients reach success. Leo is also a passionate writer and published poet. Leo is honoured to represent the Community team in 2023 and will give his best efforts to a community that has given him so much. Learn more about Leo with a simple Google search.

    Cate DeRosia

    Cate DeRosia began volunteering in the WordPress community in 2012 and has worked on the teams of both local and flagship WordCamps as well as helping Big Orange Heart with marketing and communications for the first two WordFests. In 2021, she became a sponsored contributor to the Make WordPress Community team and was part of the lead trio for WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event.. Alongside her other work, she also continues to contribute to her family’s project, the HeroPress Network.

    She currently lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan USA.

    The 2022 team reps myself @samsuresh, @megabyterose and @harishanker are confident that with @nukaga, @leogopal, and @mysweetcate at the helm, our team is in good hands and we are excited to see all that we will accomplish in the coming year. Thank you for your leadership and dedication to our team. Here’s to a successful 2023!

    #team-reps

    Vote for Community Team Rep 2023

    The nomination for WordPress Community Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. has been closed on 23rd November 2022. We got some great names nominated to be the next Community Team Rep to replace the outgoing team reps @megabyterose and @samsuresh.

    Once nomination has been closed, we have contacted all nominees and accepted nominations of those responded positively.

    Nominees

    A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. The following community team members are nominated for 2023.

    LEO GOPAL

    Profile: https://profiles.wordpress.org/leogopal/

    JUNKO NUKAGA

    Profile: https://profiles.wordpress.org/nukaga/

    CATE DEROSIA

    Profile: https://profiles.wordpress.org/mysweetcate/

    Voting

    Community team members are requested to vote to select 2 community team reps by online poll in the following link:

    The voting is open until 16th December 2022.

    Results

    Once voting is concluded, we will announce the result before end of 2022.

    #team-reps

    Community Team Rep Nominations for 2023

    A lot of time has gone by – we’re in November now! That means the community team representative for 2022 @megabyterose  and myself @samsuresh will soon be leaving the post, and we need to find an amazing new representative to take charge for 2023.

    Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. Role

    In the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project, each team has one or two (or more!) representatives, abbreviated as “reps”. On the Community team, we have historically had two reps who are asked to commit to the role for a full calendar year.

    Team reps are responsible for communicating on behalf of the group to the other contributor groups via weekly updates, as well as occasional chats. 

    As a reminder, it is not called “team lead” for a reason. While the people elected as team reps will generally come from the pool of folks that people think of as experienced leaders, the team rep role is designed to change hands regularly.

    This role does have a time commitment attached to it, at least one hour a week. The main tasks include:

    • Writing the agenda for the Community Team meetings
    • Run the chat
    • Write the recap and post it in
    • Keep an eye on the moving parts of the team and provide reports for quarterly updates.

    Over the year, the team can decide to add one or two people to help, depending on how much work there is. For now, let’s get us two new reps!

    How Community Team Rep elections work

    Following our election process last year, the Community team is planning on these key steps: 

    Nominations

    Anyone can nominate a Community team rep! Self-nominations are welcome too. To nominate someone or yourself, please comment in this post. If you would like to nominate someone in private, please reach out to @samsuresh , @megabyterose or @_dorsvenabili.

    Nomination Open: 10 November 2022

    Nomination Closes: 23 November 2022

    We will only add people who respond positively to a nomination to the poll, so feel free to decline a nomination if you don’t feel like this is the right fit for any reason.

    Voting

    As soon as nominations are closed, we will open voting by a new blog post. Community members can vote to select new Community Team Reps. 

    Voting Open: 30 November 2022

    Voting Closes: 16 December 2022

    Results

    We will then be able to announce our new team reps before the end of 2022! 

    Nominate now

    Please nominate people for Community team rep in the comments of this post or via private message by 23 Nov 2022.

    Finally, if you have any questions, please also feel free to ask in the comments.

    #team-reps