Rocio Valdivia 11:58 am on October 4, 2019
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How to contribute to the Global Community Team

These are some of the different options for getting involved with the WordPress Global Community Team 🙂

1) The best way to start is by organizing Meetups and/or WordCamps in your city. If you feel like you can represent WordPress, follow the code of conduct for WordPress events, and follow the five good-faith rules for WordPress 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/. 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. organizers, then you can apply to join the program: 

  1. a) Check if there is a WordPress Meetup group in your city – if there is one, join it, attend the events, and step up by either helping the organizers or becoming an organizer yourself!
  2. b) Check if there is a WordCamp in your area – you can attend, apply to speak, volunteer, sponsor and/or help organize your local 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.!
  3. c) If there is not an existing WordPress Meetup group (or if there is an inactive group) in your town/city and you want to start one, you can apply here – you’ll receive a reply within a couple of weeks.

2) If you already have experience organizing a successful WordCamp and have an availability of 2-3 hours a month, you can apply to become a WordCamp mentor here: – you’ll receive a reply within a couple of weeks.

3) If you have had at least 1 year of experience as a Meetup organizer and/or have been a WordCamp lead organizer, you are familiar with the WordPress Open Source project and philosophy, you have at least 2-3 hours a week available for contributing, and you accept our Code of Conduct, you can apply to become a Community Deputy. We are a team of community-minded people around the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at 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.. You can apply to join the Global Community Team as a deputy here – you’ll receive a reply within a couple of weeks.

Note: if you have any additional questions, join us in the #community-events channel of Make WordPress Slack, we’ll be happy to help you there!

#contributors

Aditya Kane 5:56 am on March 10, 2020
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2019 Incident Reports – Details and Results

The Community Team receives incident reports via the incident report form, dedicated email address, and sometimes through direct reports in person or on 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/..

The incident report response procedure is detailed here. This is the process that’s currently followed when a complaint is sent to report@wordcamp.org or via the incident report form.

In 2019, a total of 18 reports were received.

Here are descriptions of the type of reports received in 2019, the method of reporting, and the action taken after investigation into each report.

  1. A report was received on 1 January 2019, in which a 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/. 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. organizer reported a deputy for false accusations of requesting extra money for their meetup.

    Action Taken: A mediation between the two individuals took place with checks done on required funds. The organizer and deputy were both asked to respect the expectations around the meetup venue grants.
  2. An event organiser was reported for misappropriating global grant funds from 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. they organized. It was discovered while compiling the financial transparency reports for the event in January 2019.

    Method of Reporting:     Emailed reports and discussions from event co-organizers.

    Action Taken: The individual received a life-time ban from official involvement at all official WordPress community events. Additionally, they received a 1 year ban from attending any official events. Recovery of funds is expected to be done over 6 months by the end of February 2020, otherwise a report with the local financial fraud authority will be filed.

    Public Discussion: Incident report: Misappropriation of WordCamp funds
  3. A report that the organizer of an official event could be misappropriating global grant funds was received on 24 January 2019.

    Action Taken: Community deputies researched using the transparency report from the event, with additional information collected from social media. With the lack of transparency, the reported individual was asked to refrain from organizing WordCamps and Meetups in the future.
  4. A report was received on 18 February 2019, of an organizer asking an attendee to refrain from attending a local meetup for 3 events. The report came from the attendee who was asked to refrain from attending.

    Action Taken:     A community deputy researched the allegations and checked with both reported organizer and attendee who had complained. Research about the incidents and messages by reporter revealed that the pause to attending events was required. The reporter was asked to respect this pause for 3 months.
  5. A report was received on 23 February 2019, outlining verbal harassment and comments which were unwelcoming. These comments were reportedly made on several Facebook groups by a Polyglots translator.

    Action Taken: A deputy mediated discussions with the reporter and the reported person. The deputy also reached out to a Polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. rep, who then clarified to the reported person the expected behavior as part of the translation team.
  6. A report was received on 8 April 2019, describing verbal harassment and unwelcoming behaviour by an attendee at an event.

    Action taken:     A community deputy reached out for mediation and collected facts from all parties. The reported individual was asked to refrain from attending official events for a period of six months.
  7. On 22 May 2019 a report was received about possible misuse of WordPress brandname by an attendee at a local meetup group.

    Action Taken:     A deputy reviewed the complaints and answered questions by the reporter about possible irregularities found. The reporter was then pointed in the right direction of reporting a trademark violation.
  8. A report was received on 27 May 2019 about an individual being removed from being a co-organizer of a chapter Meetup group. It was filed for mediation by a deputy.

    Action Taken:     The organizer who was removed did not want to move further with mediation as long notice was taken of it.
  9. A report was received on 29 July 2019 from a designer of Wappu art complaining that an event was using their artwork without permission.

    Action Taken:     A deputy checked in with both the designer and the event organizer. The artwork was licensed under 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. v2 and hence the event could use the artwork. After mediation, the organizer reached out to the designer and reporter agreed the issue was closed.
  10. A report was received on 20 August 2019 from a WordCamp organizer who reported an attendee for sending two volunteers repeated, unwanted messages. The two volunteers did not want to file a report themselves.

    Action Taken:     A co-organizer of the event approached the individual and asked them to refrain from such behaviour in future events. The reported individual agreed to follow the rules and be more mindful of their behaviour.
  11. An emailed incident report and complaints along with conversations with deputies about reporting a deputy for behaviour which was disrespectful, divisive while undermining the community team goals by gatekeeping.

    Result: The individual was asked to refrain from involving themselves as a Meetup and WordCamp organizer and from any other official role at official WordPress events for one year by a review board.

    Public Discussion: Incident report: Deputy asked to step away from official roles
  12. A report was received on 12 September 2018,  which reported the organizer of a meetup group for over charging for venue assistance with the meetup.

    Action Taken:     Community team deputies checked with the organizer and also emailed the venue about over-charging. After information was found that the charges were more than what were ordinarily needed to organize meetups at venues in the area, the funds request for the group was declined.
  13. During a conversation with a deputy, an attendee reported incidents from previous WordCamps they attended. The attendee was asked to file an incident report.
    As a follow up a report was received on 9 October that detailed verbal harassment at official events.

    Action Taken:     A deputy reached out to the reporter and discussed all the events in detail. A working group reached out to the reported person who did not confirm or deny the incidents. The reported individual has been asked to refrain from attending official events (chapter meetups and WordCamps) for a period of 24 months.
  14. A report was received on 1 November, which detailed an anonymously written violent threat to an individual at the local meetup group. The reported person has had a previous history of harassing this person at non-WordPress meetups.

    Action Taken:     A deputy reached out to the person reporting and requested the person being threatened to file a police report and follow up with the community team to share the police report. The reporter confirmed the individual being harassed has filed a police report and a restraining order has been filed against the reported individual.
  15. An attendee reported an individual of making them uncomfortable by getting too close to them and speaking to them aggressively, while being in an inebriated state at an after party. This was also witnessed by two event organizers.

    Action Taken:     The reported person was informed about their inappropriate behaviour. The deputy who was physically present during this interaction then filed a report on 3 November to keep a record of the incident.
  16. A deputy was informed in person at an event about verbal harassment by a deputy towards organizers of a WordCamp in November.

    Action Taken:     The deputy guided the organizers to go about filing an incident report.
  17. Another report about the same reported individual from Report 5 was received in December 2019, outlining verbal harassment and comments which were unwelcoming.

    Action Taken:     A deputy reached out to the reporter and collected information about the comments. The deputy has advised the reporter to collect more information including screenshots to facilitate a proper review or investigate the matter further.
  18. A report was received on 26 December 2019 about an attendee being reported for physical and verbal harassment to several attendees at a WordCamp. The reporters were deputies who were present at the event.

    Action Taken: Deputies and community members reached out to the reported individual to ask them to refrain from such actions in the future. The individual was also informed that if similar incidents were reported, they could be asked to refrain from attending official events.

#code-of-conduct, #report

Andrea Middleton 6:43 pm on March 9, 2020  

Discussion: Safe and welcoming events in the WordPress community

Recently there’s been some discussion about how inclusive spaces are affected when someone wears a hat featuring “MAGA,” an acronym for the US political slogan “Make America Great Again,” to 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.. Aaron Jorbin posted about this first, and it seems time to hold a courteous and respectful discussion on the topic inside our team.

The WordPress global community team asks community organizers to create events that are safe and welcoming for all attendees. We do this because WordCamps and meetups exist to connect WordPress enthusiasts and inspire people to do more with WordPress — and it’s difficult for people to connect or get inspired if they don’t feel safe. 

Our methods for creating welcoming events include:

  1. Setting clear behavioral expectations with participants, by sharing our code of conduct online, in the event registration flow and in opening remarks
  2. Addressing behavior that doesn’t meet expectations promptly, using a “calling in” approach
  3. Refraining from hosting events at religiously- or politically-affiliated venues.

Our program has very clear guidelines about what kind of behavior we expect but rarely sets expectations around what attendees might choose to wear to a WordPress event, or what iconography is allowed on belongings. For example, while we do not hold events in houses of worship, we do not ask attendees to refrain from wearing religious symbols or clothing to WordCamp. This line of reasoning falls apart when it comes to widely-recognized symbols of hate, like Nazi iconography. I think we definitely would ask someone to remove a Nazi icon from our event spaces if they brought one in, on their clothes or laptop.

That said, I think all event organizers would like to avoid attendees being surprised, either by a reaction to what they’re wearing/displaying on their belongings, or by what someone else is wearing or displaying on their belongings. 

Over the years, this program has had better results by defining what we would like to happen than by defining all the things we don’t want to happen. We have found that creating more rules tends to require us to make even more rules, to close loopholes and clarify. The fact that this is a global program, with events held in over 100 countries around the world, further complicates the creation of effective and prescriptive rules. 

Join the Discussion

WordPress community organizers, please help discuss this question: How can we keep the inclusive and collaborative nature of our events, without specifying what can and can’t be worn to WordCamps and meetups?

This may be a difficult issue to discuss with calm and courtesy. Please do your best to express yourself kindly and assume good intent among those who are sharing their perspectives on this sensitive topic. I’ll leave comments open until March 16, or until we need a cooling-down period.

Timi Wahalahti 3:19 pm on March 9, 2020  

WordCamp and Meetup application vetting sprints – March 2020

We currently have a backlog 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. and 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/. 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. applications. We would like to request the help of all deputies to help us stay responsive to community members, and to help keep our queues moving forward. To that end, we’ll be holding few vetting sprints 🙂

Each sprint will last for two hours, and we will collectively vet as many WordCamp and Meetup applications in that time as possible. If you are a deputy and would like to coordinate a sprint at another time, then please comment on this post and I’ll add it to the list.

All deputies are welcome and encouraged to join! Please comment on this post if you think you can take part.

What is a Vetting Sprint?

A vetting sprint for WordCamp or Meetup applications is a scheduled session where all available deputies meet together in the #community-team channel channel in the WordPress 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/. group. Over the course of the sprint, we will all work on vetting applications and use the Slack channel as a central place to discuss what we’re working on and support each other.

Who can take part?

Any deputies who have access to the 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. listings and/or the Meetup central listings can take part. That means people who have completed the deputy training, signed the deputy agreement and been given access to the dashboard.

If you are a deputy who has been active in the last year, then you should have access to this. If you don’t have access and still want to take part, please comment here or ask in #community-team channel and we’ll sort out your access.

How Does it Work?

We will be going through the open WordCamp and Meetup applications that still need vetting – you can find WordCamp listings here and Meetup listings here. We also have some handy notes to help you with the vetting process.

As always, deputies can work on these things at any time that suits them, but these dedicated sprints help to provide some direct, focused time for it.

#vetting-sprint

Angela Jin 3:01 pm on March 9, 2020  

Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship for WordCamp US 2020

The WordPress Foundation will once again offer the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship. Kim was a valued and committed contributor to 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, and this is the WordPress Foundation’s way of honoring her memory. This scholarship will be awarded to one woman-identifying WordPress contributor who has never attended 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. US before, and requires financial assistance to attend.

The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship provides travel assistance so that the recipient can attend WordCamp US, including travel from the recipient’s home city, hotel stay for the duration of the event, and a ticket to WordCamp US.

To be considered, please apply no later than Friday, May 29, 2020 at 12 am Pacific.

For more details, please visit the WordPress Foundation’s About the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship page.

Click here to apply for the scholarship.

WordCamp.org 4:00 am on March 9, 2020
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Weekly Updates

Hello to all our Deputies, 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, 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/. 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. wranglers, and WordPress Community builders! You were probably hard at work this weekend. Tell us what you got accomplished in our #weekly-update!

Have you run into a roadblock with the stuff you’re working on? Head over to #community-events or #community-team 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/. and ask for help!

Sandy Edwards 12:48 am on March 9, 2020
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Youth Event Working Group (Formerly Kids) Chat Agenda | Thursday 12 March 2020

Our next Kids Events Working Group chat is happening Thursday, 12 March 2020 at 2100 UTC/ 5pm EST. This chat will occur in the Make WordPress Community-Team 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.

This chat occurs every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. Asynchronous chat will be noted in the minutes up to 12 hours after the chat occurs so feel free to chat when it is convenient for you.

Agenda

  1. Updates from the month
  2. Goals for next month
  3. Open Floor Discussion

Come and discuss how you can be involved. We need people to:

  • Research – laws surrounding minors at events globally
  • Writing – arts and crafts documentation, WordPress basics documentation, Parental Resources Documents
  • Editing – grammar, spell check, and general flow proof readers/editors

Everyone is welcome. Please attend even if you are not sure how to participate.

If for any reason you can not attend the meeting live but still want to be involved please comment on the post to introduce yourself. Share a bit about your WP background and what area you want to help with.

Please leave a comment below of anything else that should be added to the agenda for discussion.

#kids-events, #youth-events

Sandy Edwards 12:43 am on March 9, 2020
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Recap of the Kids Event Working Group Chat | Thursday 27 February 2019

Attending: @sunsand187 @camikaos

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1582833629068400

We Covered

  1. Updates from the month
  2. Goals for next month
  3. Open Floor Discussion

Updates from the month

@sunsand187 has been working through WCMIA, WCORL and WCJAX to make sure everything is good to go for those events. As well as processing new camp requests and swag orders.

Goals for next month

@sunsand187 will be working with the team on creating a webinar type call that will allow us to train individuals that want to learn how to be part of this working group, hold a youth event, or start a youth based 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/. 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. in their area. I am going to open discussion on the logistics of this during the open floor in a bit.

It was also mentioned:

We are still in need of individuals who love to write, research and edit. If this is you let us know. You do not have to work directly with youth to help further the mission at hand.

Feel free to comment below any additional information you would like to add.

Open Discussion

The first thing I wanted to bring up was the “webinar”/“meeting” not sure what to call it yet. The idea is to have a video call that can be an opportunity for anyone wanting to learn what this corner of the project is about. It can be for people wanting to hold youth events or people wanting to help us research and document. Really it is for anyone even remotely curious.

The goal would be to have this sometime in the first 2 weeks of April.

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1582835047080200

Next Actions

  1. @sunsand187 Will work with the team to come up with a webinar schedule and who all can participate.
  2. Team, Look over TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. and this post to stay up to date and provide feedback. https://trello.com/invite/b/GryYJ7P9/0a44a78f320c0eb04013fa193b0663ce/wordpress-kids-events-planning

Next Meeting is Thursday, 12 March 2020, 2100 UTC/ 5pm EST. This chat will occur in the Make WordPress Community-Team 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.

#kids-events, #youth-events

Andrea Middleton 12:27 am on March 5, 2020  

New organizer recommendations due to epidemic-based uncertainty

As you probably all know by now, the COVID-19 epidemic has resulted in multiple event cancellations and will likely continue to affect WordPress community events for the months to come. 

While it still seems appropriate to continue to organize local WordCamps and events in areas unaffected by the outbreak, it’s also prudent for us to plan our events with the possibility of cancellation in mind. 

Therefore, I’d like to announce some new, hopefully temporary, recommendations for 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:

  1. When reviewing vendor contracts (venue, catering, swag, etc), please pay special attention to cancellation terms and cut-off dates. Share those dates with the entire organizing team so that if it becomes necessary to consider cancelling or postponing an event, money-related deadlines are front and center.
  2. For vendor contracts with scheduled deposits/payments, I’d like us to simply pay venue deposits on the schedule outlined by the contract. In the past we’ve paid these in one lump sum to decrease the number of transactions, but reducing the financial risk associated with cancelling or postponing an event should come first right now.
  3. Publish a page on your WordCamp website, with up-to-date information about any special measures the organizing team will take to ensure attendee health, and what sources of information the team is monitoring to assess risk.
  4. If your team is struggling with making a decision about whether to continue with a planned event, please reach out to community team deputies via support@wordcamp.org for advice and support. You’re not alone!

If you have any concerns about these new recommendations, please comment on this post — if you have any suggestions for additional recommendations, please share those as well! 

Hugh Lashbrooke 8:23 pm on March 4, 2020  

Researching livestream infrastructure and support

In light of the COVID-19 epidemic, several WordCamps have decided to either cancel or postpone. As mentioned in Josepha’s recent post:

We should do our part, as members of a highly connected global community, to limit the spread of the virus while there are still so many unknowns.

For those organisers who are considering canceling or postponing their upcoming 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/. 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. 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., deputies are currently researching how to provide infrastructure and support for livestream alternatives, available for all WordPress community organising teams.

While a livestream can’t replace the way a meetup or WordCamp helps create in-person connections, online events will allow WordPress enthusiasts to continue sharing their knowledge and bringing people together in that way.

This research will be much more efficient if organisers can share some feedback on the following questions:

  1. What training or documentation do you think your organising team would need, to effectively plan and/or convert to an online conference?
  2. What ideas do you have about how we can help attendees of an online conference connect in a meaningful way?

Please share your thoughts, concerns, and ideas in a comment on this post!

Is your WordCamp already trying to make this difficult decision? Reach out to your mentor or a member of the global community team via support@wordcamp.org with any questions you have.

Angela Jin 10:32 am on March 4, 2020
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Proposal: Financial support for venues for Meetups that run the Diverse Speaker Training Workshop

A common challenge that faces WordCamps around the world is the lack of diversity in speakers, specifically speakers who identify as women or from other underrepresented groups. To address this, the Diverse Speaker Training working group (#wpdiversity) has worked hard to refine and promote a series of hands-on, effective lesson plans, and to train 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/. 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. organziers to run the comprehensive workshop in their local WordPress meetup. These workshops are geared towards empowering women and underrepresented groups in tech to speak at WordCamps by:

  • Addressing impostor syndrome and common deterrents to speaking
  • Helping individuals find and refine a topic
  • Helping future speakers create their title, pitch, bio and talk outline
  • Discussing tips to becoming a better speaker
  • Offering participants a chance to practice public speaking
  • Helping to build confidence

The Diverse Speaker Training working group is happy to share that this workshop has made a difference in increasing the diversity in speakers at WordCamps. Since the program began, over 20 workshops have been run around the world in 9 countries. Their 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. speaker lineups typically go from 10% or fewer speakers from underrepresented groups to 50% or more!

For more information about the Diversity Speaker Training Workshop, please visit this link. 

One of the obstacles that meetups have shared with us in trying to run the workshop is the issue of finding a venue that they can afford. In order to make this Workshop even more accessible to all meetups, we propose that each meetup receives up to $250 USD to help support costs associated with running this workshop, which can be used for covering the cost of the venue as well as some light snacks and refreshments. Similar to the Meetup Venue Approval Request, the meetup group must also meet the following conditions: 

  • Your group is on the WordPress chapter account at meetup.com.
  • Your group is currently following the 5 good-faith rules.
  • You are unable to find a donated venue.
  • Your proposed new venue meets minimum requirements for safety, adequate seating, and 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).

Similar to regular meetup venues, please also avoid venues with religious or political affiliations. Since one of our jobs as community organizers is to create a 100% welcoming space for everyone, we avoid holding events in venues where someone might feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. This is particularly important for the Diverse Speaker Training workshop.

In receiving this financial support, the meetup community would also need to do the following:

  • Complete the training for running the workshop with the Diverse Speaker Training group
  • Share a link to the scheduled workshop
  • Provide invoices or receipts showing the requested amount
  • Complete the post-workshop questionnaire
  • If a WordCamp is planned or held later on, report back on speaker diversity after the WordCamp. This can be done in the post-WordCamp questionnaire

Next Steps

We would like to hear your feedback on this proposal! Do you feel like helping WordPress groups increase the diversity of their meetup and WordCamp speaker lineups would be a good use of WPCS funds? Do you think the suggested amount is appropriate? Please share any thoughts you may have by Wednesday, March 18, 2020.