Title: Summary for the October 15th support meetup
Author: Jan Dembowski
Published: October 16, 2015

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdembowski/) [Jan Dembowski](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdembowski/)
5:03 pm _on_ October 16, 2015     
Tags: [weekly chat ( 221 )](https://make.wordpress.org/support/tag/weekly-chat/)

# Summary for the October 15th support meetup

Items discussed at yesterday’s Support Team meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings
that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized
through [https://www.meetup.com/](https://www.meetup.com/). A meetup is typically
a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek 
help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find
options in your area..

### Volunteer wrangling

I missed the meetup but what was discussed was how to encourage people to volunteer
for support.

The difference between support and other teams is that we’re a responsive team. 
All other teams have goals like “Make translating easier” or “review more things”.
The support team is the team that responds to forum topics or helps via IRC.

Saying “make more members of the team” is vague. If you replied to a topic in the
forums, helped in IRC or provide support at 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).
or meeting then you’re in. You’re part of the support team even if you are not aware
of it.

Encouragement is the thing. If you see someone helping over time then let them know.
Invite them to the [#forums](https://make.wordpress.org/support/tag/forums/) SlackSlack
Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/).
The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/)
channel. Let’s get to know them and show them we’re welcoming them to the team.

This is where the terminology became fun. What defines team membership for support?

Forum moderators are a _part_ of the support team, being a moderator _is not_ a 
requirement to be a member. What is needed is to create more of a sense of community
between people who help with support, whether they’re a moderator or not. That role
or responsibility started to discuss a person or role to have that responsibility.

A volunteer wrangler is tentatively defined as someone who

 * Spots people in the forums or IRC who should be invited to Slack
 * Recommends people get badges
 * Encourages people for their good replies in the forums or IRC
 * Recommends people for… becoming a forum moderator?

This lead to a discussion about process and [@bethannon1](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bethannon1/)
and [@kenshino](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kenshino/) offered to bounce ideas
together for a process for a volunteer wrangler. The idea of encouraging more people
into support will continue at the next week meetup.

Check out the transcript, it was a good conversation.

[Read the meetup transcript in the Slack archives](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/forums/p1444924817000103).(
[A Slack account is required](https://make.wordpress.org/chat))

[#weekly-chat](https://make.wordpress.org/support/tag/weekly-chat/)

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# Post navigation

[← Agenda for the October 15th meetup](https://make.wordpress.org/support/2015/10/agenda-for-the-october-15th-meetup/)

[Agenda for October 22nd Support Team meetup →](https://make.wordpress.org/support/2015/10/agenda-for-october-22nd-support-team-meetup/)