Tag Archives: tuesdaytrainings

Cami Kaos 4:50 pm on June 8, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: How do I contribute to WordPress? Part 3

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email me at support@wordcamp.org with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

This week’s question: How do I contribute to WordPress?

This is a great question… and usually when someone asks how they contribute to WordPress we would jump right in and tell them all about the exciting opportunities to contribute no matter what your specialty or skill level. But sometimes it’s not how you CAN contribute to WordPress that people are asking… it’s actually wondering how DO I DO THIS?

Well this week my goal is to help you learn the HOW TO part of getting involved in WordPress contribution. Not just here on the community team, but across the program. How am I going to do that, you may ask? By sharing resources!

What are the teams?

Last week’s Tuesday Training post introduced Polyglots, Support, Documentation, and Themes. This week I’ll bring you four more amazing teams, tell you what they do, and share a link for you to start getting involved. 

Plugins

If you are 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 developer, subscribe to the Plugin review team blog to keep up with the latest updates, find resources, and learn about any issues around Plugin development.

Community – that’s us!

If you’re interested in organizing a meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. or a 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., the community blog is a great place to get started. There are groups working to support events, to create outreach and training programs, and generally support the community.

Meta

The MetaMeta Meta 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 makes 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/, provides support, and builds tools for use by all the contributor groups. If you want to help make WordPress.org better, sign up for updates from the Meta blog.

Training

The WordPress training team helps people learn to use, extend, and contribute to WordPress through synchronous and asynchronous learning as well as downloadable lesson plans for instructors to use in live environments, via learn.wordpress.org. If you enjoy teaching people how to use and build stuff for WordPress, immediately stop what you’re doing and join our team!

Questions?

If you’re interested in working on any of these teams, there’s no time like the present. Check them out and see if there’s a fit for you. Come back next week for another set of teams, and if you have any questions, as always, please ask in the comments!

#tuesdaytrainings

Cami Kaos 9:23 pm on June 1, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: How do I contribute to WordPress? Part 2

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email me at support@wordcamp.org with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

This week’s question: How do I contribute to WordPress?

This is a great question… and usually when someone asks how they contribute to WordPress we would jump right in and tell them all about the exciting opportunities to contribute no matter what your specialty or skill level. But sometimes it’s not how you CAN contribute to WordPress that people are asking… it’s actually wondering how DO I DO THIS?

Well this week my goal is to help you learn the HOW TO part of getting involved in WordPress contribution. Not just here on the community team, but across the program. How am I going to do that, you may ask? By sharing resources!

What are the teams?

Last week’s Tuesday Training post introduced Core, Design, Mobile, and Accessibility. This week I’ll bring you four more amazing teams, tell you what they do, and share a link for you to start getting involved. 

Polyglots

WordPress is used all over the world and in many different languages. If you’re a polyglot, help out by translating WordPress into your own language. You can also assist with creating the tools that make translations easier.

Support

Answering a question in the support forums or IRC is one of the easiest ways to start contributing. Everyone knows the answer to something! This blog is the place for discussion of issues around support.

Documentation

Good documentation lets people help themselves when they get stuck. The docs team is responsible for creating documentation and is always on the look-out for writers. The blog has discussion around the team’s current projects.

Themes

The Theme Review Team reviews and approves every Theme submitted to the WordPress Theme repository. Reviewing Themes sharpens your own Theme development skills. You can help out and join the discussion on the blog.

Questions?

If you’re interested in working on any of these teams, there’s no time like the present. Check them out and see if there’s a fit for you. Come back next week for another set of teams, and if you have any questions, as always, please ask in the comments!

#tuesdaytrainings

Cami Kaos 8:09 pm on May 25, 2021
Tags: tuesdaytrainings   

Tuesday Trainings: How do I contribute to WordPress?

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email me at support@wordcamp.org with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

This week’s question: How do I contribute to WordPress?

This is a great question… and usually when someone asks how they contribute to WordPress we would jump right in and tell them all about the exciting opportunities to contribute no matter what your specialty or skill level. But sometimes it’s not how you CAN contribute to WordPress that people are asking… it’s actually wondering how DO I DO THIS?

Well this week my goal is to help you learn the HOW TO part of getting involved in WordPress contribution. Not just here on the community team, but across the program. How am I going to do that, you may ask? By sharing resources!

If you’re reading this post on the site (rather than in email) you’re on the Make WordPress Community site. The Community page is just part of an entire network of sites built and connected to keep contributors in the know and welcome new contributors. So let’s start off with a link to the homepage of Make WordPress – this is the gateway to everything. You’ll find a listing of all the teams within the WordPress project with a link to their page, a description of what they do, and the date and time of their next scheduled meeting. Interested in contributing to AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility)? CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.? Marketing? TV? Click the link and you’re transported to a site made to help bring you up to date and ready to contribute. If you click on a few of those and take a look you’ll start to notice something. 

On each site up in the right corner you’ll see ways you can get involved or learn more. They vary from team to team but the one thing you’ll find in each place is the team’s handbook. This documentation has been created by each team and is what you need to know so that you can start contributing. 

What are the teams?

With 19 teams listed on that site there is no way I’m able to tell you about all of them. At least not today. But for the next few weeks I will feature several teams here on Tuesday Trainings to give you a little more information and the teams a little more visibility!

Core

The core team makes WordPress. Whether you’re a seasoned PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php., HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites., JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. or CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. developer or are just learning to code, we’d love to have you on board. You can write code, fix bugs, debate decisions, and help with development. 

Design

The design group is focused on the designing and developing the user interface. It’s a home for designers and UXers alike. There are regular discussions about mockups, design, and user testing.

Mobile

The mobile team builds the iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads. and Android apps. Lend them your Java, Objective-C, or Swift skills. The team also needs designers, UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. experts, and testers to give users a smooth experience on every device.

Accessibility

The a11yAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) group provides accessibility expertise across the project. They make sure that WordPress core and all of WordPress’ resources are accessible.

Questions?

If you’re interested in working on any of these teams, there’s no time like the present. Check them out and see if there’s a fit for you. Come back next week for another set of teams, and if you have any questions, as always, please ask in comments!

#tuesdaytrainings

Cami Kaos 10:43 pm on May 18, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: How can I keep up to date with what’s happening in the WordPress world?

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email me at support@wordcamp.org with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

This week’s question: How can I keep up to date with what’s happening in the WordPress world? 

There are so many ways!

  • Once a month we send a curated newsletter full of content relevant to meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. organizers and others in the WordPress community. If you’re an organizer for a WordPress Meetup under the chapter account, you should already be receiving this newsletter. If you’re not seeing it show up, check your meetup.com settings or 
  • Subscribe to this 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/. so you get updates on the posts you might be looking for. Including, but not limited to a public posting of the Monthly Meetup Organizer newsletter. From that link you will see all the back issues.
  • From the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. team all the way through to the TV team here’s a listing of P2s for every WordPress contributor team! You can subscribe to any that interest you so you always know what’s going on in every corner of the project
  • Looking for WordCamp news? There aren’t as many WordCamps right now, but that makes it even more important to stay on top of what events are happening. You can subscribe to 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. News on 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. to hear what’s happening from WordCamp organizers around the world!
  • WordPress Events and News can also be found in your WordPress.org dashboard where you will find blog posts from 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/, online WordPress events like 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., WordCamps, contributor days, etc, and WordPress events near you when we return to in person events. 
  • Is it less event information and just WordPress news you’re looking for? Subscribe to WordPress news!

#tuesdaytrainings

Cami Kaos 6:44 pm on May 11, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: What do you want to know?

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

And this week, well this week what you all want to know is exactly what I would like to focus on. It’s been a while since we’ve received a topic request. I very much want this series to be of benefit to community members like you. Yes YOU!

Rather than having the same few people come up with ideas or answer questions that came in ages ago I wanted to take this week as an opportunity to truly open the Tuesday Training doors up for questions.

What kind of questions?

Well that’s up to you. I want to know what you all want to know. But I also don’t want to leave it all on you. If there’s anything you’re wondering about in WordPress community right now please share it in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer it, or find a person more appropriate to answer it. You can leave it as a comment on this post or send the question in to support@wordcamp.org with the subject: Tuesday Trainings.

Still don’t have a question?

Sometimes coming up with ideas out of nowhere is challenging. And we don’t know what we don’t know so I also thought I would share a list of ideas we have waiting in the wings. If there’s one you would particularly like to see answered please let me know in the comments.

What are the best ways to keep up to date on happenings in the WordPress world, that I can share with my members?
Best practices in community building
Recruiting volunteers/organizers for my 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.
Different online meetup formats
What topics are popular in WordPress meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.? (maybe try to glean this from meetup.com reports? or a survey?)
How do DEI efforts help my local community and WordPress?
How can I recruit new organizers in my local community?
What do community deputiesProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. do?
Financial updates and how to put together a 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. budget
Marketing my meetup

#tuesdaytrainings

Angela Jin 4:55 pm on May 4, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: All About Community Deputies

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email me at support@wordcamp.org with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

The WordPress Community Team is well known for hosting WordPress events around the world. Whether in-person or online, since 2006, volunteer organizers have hosted incredible events that connect WordPress enthusiasts to each other, inspire them to do more with WordPress, and encourage people to contribute back to the project.

Community organizing, however, is a multi-faceted world of wonders. Beyond the logistics of organizing an event, community organization involves excellent leadership skills, as well as knowledge of marketing, project and program management, and much, much more. 

So how is it possible that the WordPress Community team regularly welcomes new event organizers, many who may not have any previous experience?

It’s in large, large part thanks to the amazing people we call Community DeputiesProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook.: 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. and/or 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. organizers who enjoyed organizing so much, they wanted to help others around the world! 

Who are the Community Deputies?

Community deputies are organizers themselves, and many continue to be very active in their local communities. They participate in extra training around best 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. community building practices, and how the Community Team brings that to WordPress. This training, combined with their familiarity with the WordCamp and/or meetup chapter program, allows them to become experts in how to bring WordPress enthusiasts together.

Community deputies are, unsurprisingly, people-oriented. From everyday decisions to complex situations, deputiesProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. are guided by what is in the best interests of the WordPress community. Deputies frequently reflect on what would make things easier for contributors, and how to better support them.

Ok, but what exactly do Community Deputies do?

Community Deputies Deputies are charged with three areas of responsibility:

  1. Tackling an ongoing, regular list of tasks.
  2. Training, guiding, and mentoring WordPress communities and organizers
  3. Advising on direction and future of the Community team

The Community Team has a range of routine tasks that help keep everything moving slowly. This includes things like vetting applications for meetup groups and WordCamps, or sending Zoom accounts to meetup organizers. There are a number of queues that deputies maintain daily. For a full list of tasks, check out our deputy handbook.

In addition to welcoming and orienting Meetup and WordCamp organizers, Deputies are also around to help answer any and all questions from organizers around the world. There are a number of common questions (check out other Tuesday Trainings to see some of those questions and answers), and deputies leverage their training and experience to give the best answers! Deputies routinely help with topics like how to sustainably expand an organizing team, how to diversify a speaker line up, or simply how to start a local community.

Sometimes, those questions can get pretty tricky, for example, questions around how help a potential sponsor change their licence to be GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples.-friendly. In many of these cases, deputies will work together to discuss and to provide the strongest community-driven responses. 

Supporting a global community allows deputies to have a broader view of the Community team and how programs are functioning. When deputies see areas for improvement, they’ll suggest them! Deputies will also bring up, discuss, and help decide bigger, whole program decisions. A great example of this is our work with exploring how to move back to in-person events. 

Of course, deputies rely on lots of collaboration and feedback organizers, WordCamp 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., event sponsors, volunteers, and attendees to do all of this incredible work! Across discussions and projects, deputies regularly invite participation from any WordPress community member. 

Can I be a Community 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.? 

Any WordPress organizer with experience and who is in good standing with the program can be a Community Deputy. To learn more about being a Community Deputy, check out the handbook. When you’re ready, submit an application! We’ll get back to you as soon as possible. 

Want to learn more? Come join us in the #community-events or #community-team channels in the Making WP 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/.! We’re super friendly people, so come say hi.  

Thank you @hlashbrooke, @sippis, @kcristiano for helping to write this week’s Tuesday Training.

#tuesdaytrainings

Cami Kaos 12:36 am on April 28, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: How can I keep my meetups interesting and fun?

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email me at support@wordcamp.org with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

How can I keep my 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. interesting and fun?

Well that is the question, isn’t it. Even when things were “normal” and we were able to meet in-person organizers were already asking this question. Now that most of us are entering a second year of pandemic prompted online meetups this question is more relevant than ever.

And to this question, for once, I have a simple answer! I believe the saying goes something like, “Variety is the spice of life.”

Try a new format!

There’s practically an endless list of possible formats to choose from. Some tried and true, some never before thought of. I obviously can’t share ones no one has yet thought of, but if you haven’t already, try these alternate 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. formats. They work in-person as well as online!

Update Parties
Interviews
Blog-a-longs
Forums Friday (answer questions in the forums)
Help Desks
Social Hours
Discussion Groups
Contributor Events

Those are just a few. I’d love for you to share in comments what other formats have worked for your community!

But wait, there’s more.

Try a new time

Many meetups are pretty set in their ways when it comes to when they meet. There are two ways to look at that. The consistency can provide an easy way for Meetup members to know when and where they’re meeting and avoid other scheduling conflicts. But I guarantee you that the time you’re meeting doesn’t work for everyone who would like to attend. Try changing up the time, the day of the week, and when we’re back to in-person meetups where you host the event. Whether it’s because of their work, their family, or other life priorities sometimes people aren’t able to make your schedule their schedule.

Make it accessible

If you’re meeting online, make sure you’re using a platform that is accessible and don’t be afraid to welcome would-be attendees to let you know what accommodations you can make so they can attend and get the most out of the event.

When you’re looking at venues, make sure that they are accessible to everyone. If there are separate entrances, elevators, or bathrooms for people in mobility devices or unable to use stairs let people know in advance how to access those areas. 

Be open to feedback

Ask your community members what they would like to experience in your meetups. Who knows, they might have a great idea to share or even be your next co-organizer.

What else is there?

I’m sure you all have some great tips and tricks to make Meetups interesting and fun. I’d love to read them, and I’m sure others would too. Please share in the comments!

#tuesdaytrainings

Erica Varlese 2:00 pm on April 20, 2021
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Tuesday Training: Compassionate Communication Online

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email me at support@wordcamp.org with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

Contributors to the WordPress project are no strangers to communicating online. From weekly contributor team meetings in 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/. to hallway hangouts 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. in Zoom, remote communication has become second nature. So much so that it’s easy to forget that communicating effectively and compassionately online is a skill in and of itself.

The past year has put our online communication skills to the test more than any other. For all it empowers us to do, relying solely on text-based communication – especially without the regular cadence of in-person Meetups or WordCamps – can introduce challenges or gaps in understanding each other. This can be especially true at times when emotions are running high or when communication styles differ deeply.

As community organizers and contributors, it’s important to fill our toolboxes up with trusty, reliable methods to navigate difficult or sensitive conversations, or times when your usual communication style isn’t working. I’ve gathered a few of my tried-and-true methods in this post, and would love to gather more tips and tricks that have worked for you in the comments. 

Try using different methods of communication.

Something that can contribute to frustrations or misunderstanding is using only one form of communication. Slack is home to most of our direct communication, but it also doesn’t provide a lot of context. If I’m having a hard time bridging the gap between myself and someone else, I like to suggest some alternatives.

For example:

  • Writing things down and collaborating in a Google doc (with comments) as a way to process asynchronously.
  • Using Zoom or other voice calls. This allows the other person to process out loud, while I take on the task of sorting through concerns or blockers, and vice versa.
  • Creating a collaborative mind map or another visual tool to list out related issues, priorities, and solutions in a more visual way.

Take notes on the conversation.

When there’s a lot of information being shared, I like to literally take notes – by hand, even! This helps me process what is being shared and reformat it into something that resonates more clearly for me. It also forces me to get out of my head and take stock of what’s actually being communicated instead of the feelings behind the communication. It takes time, but I find it invaluable for creating space and clarity.

Slow down.

When navigating communication challenges, the speed in which you communicate can have a big impact on the tone of the conversation. Rapid-fire communication can come across as urgent and tense, especially if the topic itself is a sensitive one. 

Responding to something non-urgent from an excited or anxious place can make the whole conversation take on a more hectic tone. To counter this, I force myself to pause. After confirming it isn’t actually urgent, I’ll set aside a specific time to come back to the conversation. This gives me more mental space to process and highlight the important parts of what the person shared.

Prioritize what you respond to.

In conversations with a lot of information, I often need to fight against my desire to respond to every single point. This is especially true when I know the person I’m talking with is feeling frustrated, disappointed, or even angry – whether with me, or in general. 

As much as it’s driven by a desire to help, it’s often not realistic nor helpful to address every single point and can sometimes make things worse by getting lost in the details. To help combat this, I like to give each issue a priority – and may sometimes even share that with the other person. When I share my interpretation of the priorities, two things happen:

  • I’m able to make progress on what I think is important and model that for the other person.
  • I learn if our priorities are in alignment and, if not, we can adjust that going forward.

Redirect unrelated conversations to a sustainable location.

It’s not uncommon to deal with more sensitive conversations via direct messages. This can help increase the feeling of safety between the two (or more) folks working on an issue, but DMs frequently grow in scope. To keep these conversations sustainable, it helps to move non-sensitive issues to public forums – like Make team blogs or public Slack channels – whenever possible through gentle reminders. 

It helps break the habit of sharing things in private, but also ensures that folks mediating a sensitive conversation can enforce boundaries around what they are poised to talk about, and what others can help with. The more these boundaries are enforced, the more I find I have time and mental energy to devote to the challenging components of a discussion.

Many of these things sound simple when I write them down, but I find it helpful to identify them as potential tools in my toolkit when a tense or complex situation arises. 

Do any of these communication strategies resonate for you? Are there any that don’t? What tools would you suggest to fellow community organizers navigating difficult conversations, or plain ol’ Zoom fatigue?

#tuesdaytrainings

Hari Shanker R 12:00 am on April 13, 2021
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Tuesday Training: How to organize an online do_action charity hackathon?

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our Community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed please share it in the comments or email me at support@wordcamp.org with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

As announced last week, we have a live panel discussion on the topic: “How to organize an online do_actiondo_action do_action hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Learn more on doaction.org. charity hackathon?” for this week’s Tuesday Training!

The live panel discussion is being streamed live on YouTube today – April 13, 2021, 02:00 UTC on the WordCamp Central YouTube channel. Watch it live on YouTube!

This live discussion has concluded, and you will find a recording of the video below (check it out on WordPress.tv). Captions and a full transcript of the video will be available shortly.

Participants: @hlashbrooke, @nao, and @yoga1103 – who are all experience do_action organizers. The discussion will be moderated by me (@harishanker).

The discussion tries to find answers the following questions that we’ve heard frequently from our Community organizers so far:

  • What are do_action charity hackathons?
  • Why should you organize a do_action event? 
  • How do you organize an online do_action event? 
  • How do you find non-profits and volunteers for your event?
  • Can you share a story about the impact that you’ve had based on the do_action event?
  • How do you collaborate for an online do_action event? 
  • Can you share some Project management tips for online do_action organizers? 

Want to know more about do_action events? Visit https://doaction.org to learn more or email us at support@wordcamp.org. If you wish to organize an online do_action charity hackathon for your local meetup, send in an application through the do_action organizer form!

#tuesdaytrainings #do_action

Hari Shanker R 3:46 pm on April 9, 2021
Tags: , tuesdaytrainings   

Tuesday Training announcement: How to organize an online do_action charity hackathon?

As mentioned in the last Tuesday Training post from @camikaos, we have a live Tuesday Training session on do_action charity hackathons, scheduled on April 13, 2021, 02:00 UTC!

In this discussion, I will be joined by @hlashbrooke, @nao, and @yoga1103 – who are all experienced do_actiondo_action do_action hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Learn more on doaction.org. hackathon organizers. The discussion will be held in YouTube live on the WordCamp Central YouTube channel, and will be open to all! Community members can also participate in the discussion by asking questions in YouTube live chat, which will be answered by the panelists live, in our call!

do_action hackathons are community-organized events that are focused on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organizations their own online presence. Each do_action event includes participants from the local WordPress community coming together to plan and build brand new websites for a number of local organizations in one day. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, do_action hackathons have moved online. In this session, we talk about do_action events, and their importance in this post-pandemic world, and on how to effectively organize an online do_action hackathon.

Join the discussion

Date and time: April 13, 2021, 02:00 UTC
You can sign up for notifications on the YouTube live link below!

Come, join us to learn how you can support the global community by organizing an online do_action event!

#tuesdaytrainings #do_action