Hari Shanker R 3:29 pm on August 12, 2021
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Meetup Organizer Newsletter: August 2021

Hello friends,

Welcome to the August 2021 edition of the 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. Organizer newsletter! We have some exciting updates for you in this edition of our newsletter – read on to find out more! 

Newsletter contents:

  • Returning to safe in-person WordCamps
  • Learn.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/ needs your feedback
  • Celebrate WordPress 5.8 with your Meetup Group
  • Online event updates
  • Tuesday Trainings
  • News from the WordPress world

🔙⛺️ Returning to safe in-person WordCamps

The Community Team has published a proposal to discuss how the WordPress community can return to in-person WordCamps. The proposal shares ideas on organizing small in-person events in areas that meet the in-person meetup safety checklist or with vaccination or testing freely available, following local safety guidelines with additional recommendations for organizing safe events. Please share your thoughts in the comments on that post. 

 👩‍🏫👩‍🎓Learn.WordPress.Org needs your feedback

The Training Team wishes to find what learners and potential learners would like to see in the learn.wordpress.org platform. To contribute, please fill out an anonymous survey (by August 13) OR join a short video call to share feedback.

❤️ Celebrate WordPress 5.8 with your Meetup Group

The latest and greatest WordPress release – WordPress 5.8, came out on July 20, 2021! This major releaseMajor Release A set of releases or versions having the same major version number may be collectively referred to as “X.Y” -- for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, and all other versions in the 5.2. (five dot two dot) branch of that software. Major Releases often are the introduction of new major features and functionality. offers features like 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.-based widgets, a host of new blocks and patterns, a template editor, a duotone feature to stylize images, theme.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML., and support for webP images, to name a few. Read more in the release post and the field guide. 

Celebrate the launch of this exciting release by organizing a local meetup for your meetup group or by generating buzz in social media. Check out this blog post on talking points for WordPress 5.8, along with the release field guide. You can also help by sharing release updates on social media using our social media pack. A slides template to adapt is also available on GitHub. 

Looking for inspiration? Several 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. are planning or have organized meetup events on WordPress 5.8. Check them out:

 🌍🎪 Online event updates

Reminder: You can organize in-person meetups for your group if your region meets guidelines in our safety checklist OR if your location has vaccinations or testing freely available – all you need to do is to fill out the safety checklist. You will find more details in our handbook. If it is not safe in your region or if you simply do not wish to organize in-person events, you can continue organizing online meetups for your group. You can make use of community Zoom accounts for your online meetups! Stay updated on online WordPress meetups worldwide by following the Marketing Team’s WordPress Meetup roundup every Monday.

Don’t miss 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 on October 1!
One of the most exciting WordPress events – WordCamp US, is back as a single-day online event on October 1, 2021. Organizers of the event have several exciting plans in the pipeline, including networking opportunities, speaker sessions, workshops, and more. Call for speaker nominations is already open – and calls for volunteers and sponsors will be out soon. Follow the Camp website to stay updated on the latest event news.

Gear up for WordPress Translation Day Celebrations in September 2021!
The 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/. is planning a month-long translation day celebration in September 2021, with two weeks of “coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. events” from September 17 to 30. The WordPress Translation Day team will announce more details on the event shortly, and you can follow all the latest updates on the Polyglots blog too. Want to participate? Join the celebrations by organizing a local Translation event for your meetup in September! 

Upcoming WordPress events 

The following WordCamps are already on the calendar. Don’t miss these events! 

Check out these WP Diversity speaker workshops for AMER/EMEA in August!
The Diverse Speaker Training group of the Community Team announced three new programs for Meetup and WordCamp organizers –  including a new Diverse Speaker Support program and an Allyship program. The team has some exciting workshops in the pipeline for August! Please share about these

🛠 Tuesday Trainings

Through Tuesday Trainings (#TuesdayTrainings), the Community Team publishes a different topic on the WordPress Community Blog to help organizers and interested community members learn various skills. Don’t forget to check out our other Tuesday Training posts this month:

🗞 News from the WordPress world

If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. are available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events 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. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community. Let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions! 

We will see you online soon!

The following people contributed to August’s Meetup newsletter: @evarlese @eidolonnight @meher and @webcommsat

#meetup-organizer-newsletter

#newsletter

jillbinder 7:42 pm on August 11, 2021
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Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) on August 11, 2021

Attending: @jillbinder @ashiquzzaman @evarlese @onealtr @katiejrichards @danitto @wpfangirl @nalininonstopnewsuk @webcommsat

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1628701305151200

Today we talked about:

  1. How are you doing with items you are working on for us?

2. Upcoming workshop: Allyship for WordPress event organizers.

3. Upcoming workshop: How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events AMER/EMEA with @onealtr and @volkswagenchick

4. Translations update

5. Marketing has asked if folks can help us please retweet & share:

https://twitter.com/wordcamp/status/1425449729593384963

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/make-wordpress-marketing-team_allyship-for-wordpress-event-organizers-amer-activity-6830971097387700225-CyZt

https://www.facebook.com/WordCamp/posts/302599118322870

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1628704998225400

More details under the cut:

Continue reading →

#wpdiversity

WordCamp.org 4:00 am on August 9, 2021
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Weekly Updates

Hello to all our DeputiesDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook., 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 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. 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!

Kevin Cristiano 12:01 am on August 5, 2021
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Community Team Meeting Agenda for 2021-08-05

The Community Team bi-weekly meeting is happening this week. The meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team!

Asia-Pacific / EMEA friendly meeting: 2021-08-05 12:00
Americas friendly meeting: 2021-08-05 21:00

Below is a preliminary agenda for the meeting. If you wish to add things you’d like bring to into discussion, comment below or reach out to team reps @sippis or @kcristiano. It does not need to be a blog post yet, the topic can be discussed during the meeting nevertheless. We use the same agenda for both meetings.

DeputyDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. / MentorMentor 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. / Contributor check-ins

What have you been doing and how is it going? What you got accomplished after the last meeting? Are there any blockers? Can other team members help you in some way

Tuesday Trainings:

Announcement, Invite, and Document Sprint

Diversity WG Updates

Proposals:

Open floor

Opportunity to bring things into discussions that weren’t on the meeting agenda and if anyone has something they would like to share with the team. If you have a topic in mind before the meeting, please add it into the comments of this post.

Hope to see you on Thursday, either on Asia-Pacific / EMEA or Americas friendly version of the meeting!

#team-meeting
Cami Kaos 10:00 am on August 3, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: If you deviate, communicate!

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 support@wordcamp.org with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

This week’s question: What if I can’t follow through as expected?

I was talking with a colleague the other day about experiences we’ve had with people who couldn’t get done what they said they’d be able to get done in the amount of time they gave themself to do it. Not quite failing to do the thing, but certainly not doing a task in the timeline or manner that was expressed. Sometimes I can’t get something done when I say I will. Sometimes I just can’t get something done. And if my life experience has taught me anything, I’m not the only one.

And of course that can be frustrating for all involved, but there is a way to make it better. I just never had a catchy little phrase for it until I was talking with this colleague who is also a softball umpire. She said something in our conversation that I will never forget. One phrase that rang so true with me that I’m adding it to “I don’t know, but let’s find out” in its level of importance, simplicity, and usefulness. Today, I share her wisdom with you.

If you deviate, communicate.

It’s a simple statement. It’s an even simpler plan. If something isn’t going as expected, let someone involved  know. If you can’t get something done, let the stakeholders know. If you’re going to complete the project but it’s going to be late, let someone know. If something goes off track let someone know. 

We all get it. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned. There is nothing wrong with failure. There is something wrong with not communicating in the face of failure or change. Some folks are afraid to over communicate. I get that. Sometimes far too many words will just stream right out of me and before I know it I’ve said too much. That’s why this phrase resonated so much with me. Maybe it will with you too. 

Wrapping up

I said it before, but let me say it one more time, if you deviate, communicate. If you have tried and true suggestions for the best way to communicate when things go awry I’d love to see them in the comments.

And as always if you have any questions or topics you’d like to see addressed in this space let me know in the comments or by emailing support@wordcamp.org

#tuesdaytrainings

Timi Wahalahti 8:49 am on August 3, 2021
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Proposal: Updating Community Team meetings

Few weeks ago, @kcristiano, @angelasjin and I began discussing our Community Team meetings, and how they could improve to foster more discussions and connections.

The Current Challenge

In short, we believe that there are too many meetings taking place at the moment and the format of those meetings are not catering to the Community Team as well as they could. To give you a hint where the problem lies, here’s a list of current Community Team meetings (not including working groups):

  • Community Team meeting every first and third Thursdays of month. Repeated twice on the same day to cater different time zones. Takes place in #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. Meeting agenda consists mostly of going through published blog posts about current matters and important discussion.
  • Community Office HoursOffice Hours Defined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time. every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Takes place in #community-events Slack channel. Opportunity for community members and event organisers to ask everything from community deputiesDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook..
  • DeputyDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. Office Hours every other week on Thursdays and Fridays. Repeated twice on the same day to cater different time zones. Takes place in Zoom. No agenda, more a space for deputiesDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. to talk about their work and related challenges face to face. This is a new thing that started in 2021.

The basic problem appears to be hat there are many meetings, but attendance and engagement is low. These meetings are mostly targeted for community deputies that are deeply involved with the team, and not for event organisers. That feels a bit skewed, as the Community team’s ultimate objective is to work to benefit the greater community.

The Proposal

To make Community Team meetings more interesting, helpful, easier to approach and attend, Angela, Kevin and I would like to propose updating our meetings! Instead of the meetings listed above, the Community Team would move to the following ones:

Community Team meeting

Once a month for anyone currently involved or who wants to get involved in the Community Team. Still repeated twice on the same day to cater time zones and taking place in #community-team Slack channel.

Shorter agenda, more open floor discussion and personal updates from community members. Highlighted blog posts at the end of the meeting instead of being in limelight and taking most of the time. We will encourage discussion in these meetings and link to the discussions on the agenda posts for those who cannot attend to review.

We are also hoping to record minutes for these meetings and post that to the 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/. as well. A volunteer is needed to take the minutes.  This role can rotate, one need to make a long term commitment (but we’d love it if you did).

Community Local Organiser meeting

Once a month 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. and 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. Repeated twice on the same day to cater time zones. Taking place in #community-events Slack channel.

No formal agenda. The purpose would be to become a place where local community organisers can share how their community is doing, successes and challenges, and learn from each other. Ambition is to bring local community organisers closer to each other as well as the community team, strengthening the connections.

Deputy and MentorMentor 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. Chats

Once a month for all active Deputies and MentorsMentor 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.. Repeated twice on the same day to cater time zones. Taking place in Zoom. No formal agenda. Place for deputies and mentors to share their knowledge with each other and to talk about challenges encountered in our weekly work.

What do you think, would these new meetings make sense? Is there something that should be included in these meetings? Are some meeting types missing from the list?

Please share your thoughts and ideas by 2021-08-23 at latest.

#meetings, #team-chat, #team-meeting

WordCamp.org 4:00 am on August 2, 2021
Tags:   

Weekly Updates

Hello to all our DeputiesDeputy Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook., 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 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. 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!

Andrea Middleton 5:25 pm on July 30, 2021
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Invitation: help me test an idea for organizer skills development?

I apologize in advance for the short notice here! I am taking a vacation in August, but didn’t want to lose momentum on this idea.

I’m going to schedule a few times to try out this idea for an Organizer’s D&D / practice scenarios session. 

If you are interested, whether you are an experienced organizer, or someone considering trying to organize a group for the first time… please comment on this post with the time/day they could join!

  1. 2300 UTC on 2 August
  2. 2300 UTC on 3 August
  3. 1600 UTC on 4 August
  4. 1600 UTC on 6 August

This will be a video call, in which I will give the group challenging scenarios, and ask you to come up with ideas for solutions you would try.

My goal for these meetings will be to test whether this idea might help WordPress organizers feel more confident when organizing events or communities — anyone, no matter what experience level you have in organizing, is welcome to join.

I’ll follow up as soon as possible with those who requested to join at the most popular times, and share a video link. If you can’t make it next week, don’t worry! This is just a quick “test of concept,” and if it’s successful, I’ll invite more people to help plan out a way to make this available to more people with more time to plan. 🙂

#experiment, #meetups-2

jillbinder 3:00 pm on July 30, 2021
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Workshop August 19, 2021: Allyship for WordPress event organizers AMER/EMEA

Our inaugural Allyship workshop for the new Allyship program!
Thursday, August 19, 2021
5 PM – 7PM UTC / 1 PM – 3pm ET / 10 AM – 12 PM PDT

A 2-hour interactive watch party online to learn how to create welcoming and diverse 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. and WordCamps for your WordPress community.

This is not just for organizers, but anyone who wants to champion this kind of environment, now or in the future.

Do you run or attend WordPress events and notice only one type of person is attending? You’d love to see more diversity represented, but people are either not showing up — or they attend once and don’t come back. What can you do to be a good ally to foster, promote, and support diversity and an inclusive space?

We know that you have good intentions and really want to do things “right”, and therefore need a supportive space to talk through sensitive real-life challenges, so this watch party workshop will NOT be recorded.

This workshop was created by Allie Nimmons, Aurooba Ahmed, David Wolfpaw, and Jill Binder 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. US 2019.

Read more and sign up now

Testimonials:

Continue reading →

#wpdiversity, #wpdiversityworkshops

jillbinder 7:35 pm on July 28, 2021
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Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) on July 28, 2021

Attending: @jillbinder @evarlese @onealtr @katiejrichards @danitto

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1627491665326200

Summary and next actions:

We talked about:

  1. The new #WPDiversity programs that we launched this week

  2. Having everyone on the team join our 2 channels on 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/. for our 2 new programs:

    – Diverse Speaker Support program: #diverse-speaker-support
    – Allyship program: #community-events

  3. Our two workshops coming up:

    – Allyship on Thurs, Aug 19th
    – Diverse Speakers a week later either on Fri, Aug. 27, run by @onealtr with help from @volkswagenchick. I will help out in the background.

    All on our team are asked to have attended each workshop at least once, please!

    Next actions:
    @jillbinder is creating the eventbrites and the community post for both workshops
    @evarlese and @angelasjin are inviting 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. to invite their communities to the Diverse Speakers workshop

  4. Small volunteer ask: Help with on-boarding August Diverse Speaker workshop participants onto #diverse-speaker-support:

    – An easy way to communicate how to join the WordPress Slack this on a workshop slide -> We could use help with this, still!
    – Be available to help people troubleshoot getting in -> @danitto volunteered

    Next action: Find someone to help with the first item, and help @danitto get onto Helpscout for the second item

  5. Small volunteer ask: Reach out to a list of people on our team who have qualified for the Community badge -> @katiejrichards volunteered

    Next action: Jill will send her the list of people and the message template

  6. Small volunteer ask: Reviewing and editing our new Handbook doc describing our new programs -> @evarlese and @katiejrichards volunteered. We could use more help, please!

    Next action: @evarlese and @katiejrichards get started looking at the doc. Jill reaches out to ask more people.

  7. Note on translations status:

    – Video captions: Spanish – the first video is complete. Ericka is starting the next video, and looking for 1-2 more people to help out. There are about 2 hours of video content left.
    – Video captions: Portuguese – we are looking for 2-3 people to help with this. There is 4 hours of video content.

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1627495261381000

#wpdiversity