How to Write Meeting Agenda or Meeting Recap Posts

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Thank you so much for your interest in taking notes for the Training Team! This is one of the first and easiest ways to get started contributing; this can help you orient yourself to what we’re working currently working on, find the things you’d like to do that interest you the most, and keep the greater WordPress community in-the-know.

You are welcome to volunteer to take notes in Slack during or after either of our weekly meeting.

Publishing Training Team Meeting Recap Posts

  1. Create a new post on the Training Team’s blog.
    • To do this, go to https://make.wordpress.org/training/wp-admin and login with your WordPress.org account. If you do not have access, please request a Faculty Administrator or Training Team Representative to grant you Author access. You can get the attention of all Faculty Administrators by adding the @faculty-admin call word to a message in the #training channel 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/.
      • Example Slack message: Hi @faculty-admin. I am the note taker for this week's meeting, but I don't have access to the Team Blog. Please grant me Author access to https://make.wordpress.org/training/. Thanks!
    • Once logged in, select Post > Add New from the left sidebarSidebar A 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..
  2. Select the Recap for Training Team Meeting Reusable BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. to use the training team’s easy-to-follow template

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Using the Recap for Training Team Meeting reusable block

  1. Once inside the newly created post type /recap and select Recap for Training Team Meeting reusable block

IMPORTANT! Before you begin, make sure to convert the reusable block into regular blocks:

Screenshot pointing at the "convert to regular blocks" icon above a reusable block added to a post draft.
  1. Replace the link this meeting agenda post to the link of the meeting agenda post published on https://make.wordpress.org/training/.
  2. Replace the link Slack log to the first Slack message of that week’s meeting.
Screenshot pointing out the two links needing replacing in meeting notes: "this meeting agenda post" and "Slack log".
  1. Add a list of attendees. We always ask “Who is joining us?” in each meeting. Make sure to find each attendee’s 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/ usernames in this thread. Do not use their Slack usernames.
The Slack meeting message where a team rep asks "Who is with us today? And asks users to include their WordPress.org details. A user writing her DotOrg Handle (@arasae) is highlighted.
  1. Welcome the newcomers! If a newcomer has a WordPress.org username, prefer to list that so that the published 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/. links to their correct profile page. If you find someone hasn’t created a WordPress.org profile yet, then it’s okay to mention their Slack username instead.

Don’t know what the WordPress.org username is for someone in Slack? No problem! Follow these three steps to find the WordPress.org username for anyone in the Make WordPress Slack:

  1. Open a person’s Slack profile. From the three-dot menu, select Copy member ID.
  2. Then, open the WordPress.org profile for that Slack ID. The URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org will look like this: https://profiles.wordpress.org/SLACK_USER_ID/
  3. That will then redirect to that person’s WordPress.org profile page, so you can find their username in the URL.
  1. Summarize the points discussed in the meeting. The idea is to condense the information to the most important parts so that it’s easy to read and get the most important points quickly.
  2. Add Categories and Tags. Make sure to select categories of whatever was spoken about, and assign respective tags:
The 'categories' section of the WordPress dashboard, showing selections: sprint, contributor day, event recap, highlight, idea, meeting agenda.
The 'Tags' section of the WordPress dashboard, including most used tags: training, learn-wordpress, Training-team, p2-xpost, slides, contribuor dates, procedures, marketing, agenda

IMPORTANT: If you use any images, make sure to add alt tags!

If there are any images used in the recap notes, make sure to include an ‘alt’ tag in the image settings to describe the image. This ensures that anyone who uses a screen reader or has a slow internet connection can access the information that image contains. See the example below:

The site editor showing an image block selected. 'Alt Text' appears on the screen, and an example of alternative text describing the image appears.
  1. Notify a faculty member to confirm and publish the notes for you. Save your notes, and pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” a faculty administrator in the #training Slack channel with a link to your post draft. Once confirmed, they’ll be able to publish the post for you.
    • Example Slack message: Hi @faculty-admin. I am the note taker for this week's meeting. Please confirm my draft below and publish this once it is ready. Thanks! https://make.wordpress.org/training/wp-admin/post.php?post=12345&action=edit.

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Publishing Training Team Agenda Posts

Currently, team reps publish the meeting agenda each week. The post is published at least 24 hours before the meeting starts.

  1. Create a new post on the Training Team’s blog.
    • To do this, go to https://make.wordpress.org/training/wp-admin and login with your WordPress.org account. If you do not have access, please request a Faculty Administrator or Training Team Representative to grant you Author access. You can get the attention of all Faculty Administrators by adding the @faculty-admin call word to a message in the #training channel in Slack
      • Example Slack message: Hi @faculty-admin. I will be prapring this week's meeting meeting agenda and need access to the Team Blog. Please grant me Author access to https://make.wordpress.org/training/. Thanks!
    • Once logged in, select Post > Add New from the left sidebar.
  2. Select the Training Team Meeting Agenda Block to use the training team’s easy-to-follow template

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Using the Training Team Meeting Agenda Block reusable block

Once inside the newly created post type /agenda and select Training Team Meeting Agenda Block reusable block

screenshot of block editor after having added the "Training Team Meeting Agenda Block"
  1. IMPORTANT! Before you begin, make sure to convert the Reusable Block into regular blocks:
screenshot pointing out the "Convert to regular blocks" button above a reusable block
  1. Update each section with the relevant information in the title section
    • Intro/Welcome: Look through Slack and copy-paste the name of folks who joined the channel since the last meeting.
    • News: Any relevant new information for the Training team. (News items are mentioned for two weeks, to cover both time zones.)
    • Content published in the last week: The most recent published content on Learn WordPress. You can find these by scrolling through #training-notifications and picking out Tutorials, Lesson Plans and Courses published since the last meeting.
    • Open requests for review: List GitHub issues ready for review by their content type.
    • Projects update: List current projects and their most recent updates.
    • Open discussions: This is where the meeting is open for any attendee to bring up a topic they’d like to discuss.
  2. Check with the Training Team Reps for final review before posting.
  3. Schedule the post to go out 24 hours ahead of the next Training Team Meeting.

As an example, see the Meeting Agenda for March 21, 2023.

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Points to Remember: Recap Notes & Meeting Agenda

When taking notes or writing a meeting agenda, please:

  • Examine former recap notes or meeting agendas, which you can find on the Training Team’s blog. Former notes and agendas are great resources!
  • Update the links for the Slack log and the agenda.
  • Do not copy and paste the whole Slack conversation. The meeting recap is a summary of the meeting, not a duplication of Slack.
  • Please make sure you use WordPress.org IDs in the recap for attendees, acknowledgements, and notes. Only use Slack usernames for announcing new team members. All attendees are asked to provide their WordPress.org ID’s at the beginning of the meeting. If in doubt you can ask the attendee.
  • Do not include any links to Google documents or other similar areas of organization that have been referenced in the meeting as this can get hijacked when in the public domain. Instead, reference the Slack link where the document has been mentioned.
  • If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask in the #training channel. We are happy to help, and your questions make our entire team better!

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