Update, request, and question for the Speaker Training [& Diversity Outreach] Modules

I wrote this in today’s Training team meeting, and Beth asked me to make it a blog post so that everyone can read, digest, and comment.

  1. First I wanted to let you know what’s happening with the Speaker Training [& Diversity Outreach] modules:

    It works. We’ve had more women speak at meetups and WordCamps as a result of it in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and Montreal. Partly because I hadn’t finished the modules and partly because we weren’t putting in good promotion, most folk haven’t known about it. So I’m:

    • committing to finishing them asap, and
    • @andreamiddleton and I have created a “Diversity Outreach Speaker Team” working group

    The group was announced on Community yesterday. (https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/13/call-for-volunteers-diversity-outreach-speaker-training/) We’re going to create an “army of Jills.” ;D I’m going to train people to run it, train them to train others, get promotion going, and make it a self-perpetuating system so that I can walk away in about half a year and it will live on.

  2. As part of this working group, I wanted to let you know I will be doing some live training on WCUS 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/.. If you’re interested in participating or could send along others who would be, that would be great!
  3. Quick update on where the modules are at:
    • I have this week finished merging the refinements that the Vancouver team made with the changes that new contributors have added
    • I have reviewed all the new contributions

    To do:

    • Create the Agendas for each module and update the descriptions
    • Figure out a format for the Workbook so that it’s 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. for changes (or editable by the gatekeeper(s))
    • Revise the workbooks with all the new content changes
    • Reconsider the current format of how the modules are broken down. Cities have reported to me that it’s confusing.
  4. Lastly, I also wanted to revisit an idea we had previously: having a gatekeeper (was that the word?) for changes to the workshop. @bethsoderberg said this was something that was implemented successfully previously.

    I think it’s important to do because:

    1. Being a highly interactive and thus also could easily be a tiring workshop, right now there’s a really good pacing to it that keeps people energized, and I want to make sure the new info keeps the pacing.
    2. Changes need to be coordinated with the workbooks.
    3. Someone offered to do translations of the material, and that will need to be coordinated too.

    I’d like to volunteer to be the first person to do this. Right now I’m the one who knows the project the best. (It is more my strength and passion rather than this other work I’ve been dawdling on for a long time. 😉 )

    I’d like to propose that I also train the working group to take on this role so that we will always have folk to do it. Plus I’ll have people to go implement the changes if I get busy or sick again.

    How does that sound?

    If good, let’s discuss the logistics of how this happens another time.