Rocio Valdivia 9:56 am on September 13, 2021  

Announcement: Updated guidelines for In-Person WordCamps

Kudos to the following 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. for helping with this post: @_dorsvenabili, @angelasjin, @courtneypk, @kcristiano, @rmarks, @afshanadiya, @monchomad, @nao, @sippis, @kdrewien, @megabyterose 

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the proposal on how to return to in-person WordCamps. There were many excellent thoughts on that post, as well as new concerns and questions raised. The conclusion of that post, however, is that the WordPress community should be getting prepared to restart the in-person 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. program.

Tl;dr: At this time, the Community team will start accepting applications for in-person WordCamps. For your application to be approved, you will need to follow the guidelines listed below.

Guidelines for In-Person WordCamps

The WordPress community team is not expecting or requiring local organizers to organize in-person WordCamps for only fully-vaccinated people — we’re simply removing the barrier to doing so under one these two sets of conditions:

If:

  1. local public health authorities say people can gather in person, AND
  2. your region passes the in-person safety checklist, THEN
  3. go ahead and hold in-person WordCamps, following local health guidelines!

OR… If:

  1. local public health authorities say people can gather in person, AND
  2. your region doesn’t pass the in-person safety checklist, BUT
  3. vaccines or COVID tests are available for anyone who wants one in your region, 

THEN, local community organizers can (if they want to) plan in-person WordCamps!

Who could attend the in-person WordCamp?

If an in-person WordCamp is happening, the Community team expects that attendees (including organizers, sponsors, and volunteers) participate only if they:

  • are fully vaccinated,
  • OR recently tested negative,
  • OR recently recovered (in the last 3 months)

Additional Guidelines for In-Person WordCamps

  1. Pre-pandemic 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. communities can organize a WordCamp without the requirement of organizing several events the previous months.
    Note: This new guideline would only apply to a local community’s first WordCamp post-pandemic.
    Note 2: Brand new communities would be asked to organize meetups instead of a WordCamp right away.
  1. WordCamps need to be prepared to raise 100% of the expenses for their WordCamp. 

Note: Global Sponsorship Program for 2021 does not currently include WordCamps. However, the conversation for Global Sponsorships for 2022 has begun, and funding for WordCamps will be considered. Having communities apply for a WordCamp (whether online or in person) will help add to those conversations. 

  1. Venues should be fully refundable in case of anycancellation.
    Note: if organizers can’t find any venue that offers fully refundable deposits, 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. will evaluate venues on a case by case basis to avoid as much financial risk as possible.
  1. Ticket costs should be low and refundable (maximum of 25 USD per person/day)
  1. In all cases, always follow local health guidelines!

Recommendations

  1. Experiment with format ideas (both at online and in-person events), and share with the community what you learn in the comments of this post!
  2. Avoid high expenses where possible: try to get together in a free or low cost (+ refundable) venue, encourage organizers not to provide food, and be financially responsible.
  3. Half-day WordCamps with snacks/refreshments and not a full lunch might also be a good offering and a cost-effective way to organize an in-person event.

Next Steps and Feedback

The Community Team will add the new guidance to all the appropriate places in the WordCamp organizer handbook, and write a summarized version of this decision for the next meetup organizer newsletter. If you have questions, concerns, or feedback… Please share them in a comment on this post!

Do you want to apply to organize an in-person WordCamp following the guidelines described above? You can do it by submitting this form now!

Hugh Lashbrooke 10:24 am on December 1, 2020  

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WordCamp.org 4:00 am on September 13, 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!

Courtney P.K. 4:47 pm on September 10, 2021
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2022 Global Sponsorship Working Group

The WordPress Global Sponsorship Program (born in 2013 as the Multi-Event Sponsorship Program), provides financial support to WordPress community events around the world. It’s time to analyze the program yet again and come up with a proposal for the 2022 edition!

Our Global Sponsors have been flexible and gracious through the various changes that the program has seen throughout the pandemic, and the upcoming year is no exception. Given the complexity of the ever-changing situation, this year’s working group will include 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. with history and experience with the Global Sponsorship program. That said, the group will have the following members: @kcristiano, @sippis, @angelasjin, @harmonyromo, @_dorsvenabili, and @courtneypk.

The group would like to share a proposal for the 2022 Global Sponsorship Program no later than 7 October 2021, with the hopes of finalizing and sharing the program with sponsors by 28 October. The timeline would look like this: 

  • 15–30 September: 2–4 hours of independent program analysis and two 1-hour Working Group meetings
  • 7 October: Share program proposal
  • 8–15 October: 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./open meetings for input
  • 16–23 October: Evaluate feedback
  • 28 October: Share finalized program

#global-sponsorship

jillbinder 3:08 am on September 9, 2021
Tags:   

Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) on September 8, 2021

Attendance: @jillbinder @evarlese @onealtr @tantienhime @devinmaeztri @katiejrichards @yogesh

Starting: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1631120449123100

We talked about:

Ending: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1631124101181900

#wpdiversity

Courtney P.K. 8:00 am on September 7, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: How can I recruit organizers for my Meetup or WordCamp?

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!

Organizing a WordPress 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. group 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. can be a lot of work! If you want to grow and develop your local WordPress community, you will need others around you to help. But how do you find the right people to join your organizing team?

Meetup Organizers

As stated in the Five Good Faith Rules, WordPress chapter meetup groups allow events to be organized by any reliable and trusted member of their community. Reliable and trusted community members:

  • Actively participate in meetup events
  • Help without being asked
  • Are team players — they are constantly around and dependable
  • May be the first to arrive and the last to leave an event
  • May be interested in organizing meetup events around their area of interest and/or expertise in WordPress

Potential quality team members may not always be the loudest, most outgoing person. Keep an eye out for the quiet achievers who are loyal and regular attendees of your meetup events — they could be quietly encouraged to take on an organizing role!

It is expected that all Meetup co-organizers agree with the principles in the same Five Good Faith Rules that you also agreed to when you became an organizer.

WordCamp Organizers

Your WordCamp organizing team should consist of people from your immediate area who want to promote WordPress and help grow the local community. Members of a WordCamp organizing team can come from:

  • Your meetup group’s co-organizers
  • Active members of your local meetup group
  • Businesses that are built on working with WordPress
  • Local bloggers using WordPress

But of course, it is not limited to the above! The most important things to remember while forming your organizing team: Recruit from your local community, and distribute the organizing responsibilities. Too few people handling too many things leads to things getting missed, and/or people getting burned out!

It is expected that all WordCamp organizing team members and volunteers agree with the principles in the Agreement among WordCamp Organizers, Speakers, Sponsors, and Volunteers.

Representing WordPress

Remember that organizers are representing WordPress in an official capacity. When representing WordPress, one is expected to uphold the principles of 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, including the GPL. This helps protect the user/attendee, who might not realize that by using a non-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. pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party or theme, they are giving away the rights that WordPress provides them.

Want to learn more?

Here is some recommended reading:

Questions?

Contact the Community Team, or come join the conversation in the #community-events channel in the Making WP Slack!

Are you a Meetup or WordCamp organizer and have more tips for recruiting an organizing team? Please share your ideas in the comments!

#community-team, #tuesdaytrainings

WordCamp.org 4:00 am on September 6, 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!

jillbinder 12:19 am on September 2, 2021
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Report: Allyship and Diverse Speaker Workshops August 2021

This month we launched our inaugural Allyship workshop from the new Allyship program, and we offered our monthly-ish Diverse Speaker workshop.

August 2021

Allyship for WordPress event organizers AMER/EMEA, August 19, 2021

Facilitator: @jillbinder

We are running the new Allyship program in quarterly cohorts. This was the first workshop for the first cohort.

It was an interactive watch party of the “Creating a Welcoming and Diverse Space Part 1” and Part 2 on Learn WordPress. We paused the video for doing exercises in the workbook and having discussions.

Number who attended: 13
Out of how many who had registered: 68%! (19 registered)
From number of cities: 13
From number of countries: 6 (Canada, Nigeria, Philippines, Serbia, UK, USA)
Self-reported increase in preparedness to help create more inclusive WordPress event after taking the workshop: 52%!

Testimonials

“I love how actionable the workshop is.”

– Anonymous

“I loved being with other organizers and hearing what they’ve done. The checklists in the workbook are helpful in terms of tracking what I have done and what I can still improve. I’d love to see ALL THE ORGANIZERS go through this. This felt like a great complement to other material that WordPress has about not disparaging people; the focus of the Allyship workshop was on how to be actively welcoming.”

– Sallie Goetsch, organizer, East Bay WordPress 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.

“I learned a lot from the discussions amongst the attendees. I can’t wait for the next one!”

– Oneal Rosero, Community Contributor, The Philippines

“I thought I was holding inclusive events already, and this workshop showed me ways to make things even more inclusive that I hadn’t thought of before. I especially liked learning that changing just a few words can make my 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 even more welcoming to more people.”

– Shanta R. Nathwani, President & CEO, Namara Technologies Inc., Canada

“This is an important issue for me. I’m glad to have solid steps to take and ongoing support to keep improving. Thank you for holding these workshops.”

– Susan Smylie, 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. Organizer, Web Developer, San Antonio, TX

“The content was great and I really loved the workbook!”

– Megan Rose, WordPress Community 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., USA

Diverse Speaker Workshop AMER/EMEA, August 27, 2021

“How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events”

Facilitator: @onealtr

The only people in attendance were Oneal, myself, and a volunteer from our working group, @danitto. No participants attended.

Thank you

A lot of people contribute to making these workshops successful. Thank you to each and every one!

Upcoming

Love this? Come attend a workshop!

Watch https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversityworkshops/ for our next workshop announcement.

If you are holding a WordCamp this year, we would like to help you get more great speakers. Please get in touch with @jillbinder 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/. and we will arrange a #WPDiversity speakers workshop for you.

#diversespeakerworkshopsreports, #wpdiversity

Kevin Cristiano 2:00 pm on September 1, 2021
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Community Team Agenda for 2021-09-02

The Community Team bi-weekly meeting is happening today. 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: 2021-09-02 12:00
Americas friendly meeting: 2021-09-02 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:

Announcements, Invites, and Workshops

Proposals

The below are closed for comments, but should be updated soon

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!

#meeting-agenda, #team-chat, #team-meeting

Hari Shanker R 11:47 am on September 1, 2021
Tags: , do_action_online,   

Proposal: Centralized global do_action charity hackathons

Earlier this year, I proposed an update to do_action charity hackathons. My proposal was to expand the program, leveraging the WordPress FoundationWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org.’s mission (“to make sure we can continue to serve the public good through freely accessible software.”), in order to better support non-profits during the COVID-19 pandemic.  So far, three applications for do_actiondo_action do_action hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Learn more on doaction.org. events have come in this year, out of which, one event has been completed (do_action Karnataka 2021), and yet another one is already on the schedule (do_action Nigeria 2021). 

do_action charity hackathons are a great way to make a lasting positive impact on regional local communities, because of how they empower non-profits with an online presence. I strongly feel that we can make even more of a more lasting impact on the global community by expanding this program. Towards this goal, I propose an idea (that was originally suggested by @andreamiddleton): How about organizing centralized, global do_action charity hackathons several times throughout the year, where volunteers build websites for non-profits from all corners of the world? 

The idea in brief

I’ll be clear — I do not mean to suggest that we close down local/regional do_action events. Local/regional events are quite effective and I vote for keeping them going in the current format! What I propose is that, in addition to local events, the Community Team and the WordPress Foundation could organize centralized online global hackathons that are held several times throughout the year on a regular frequency (cadence TBD).

Global hackathons can be small events held completely online and will be open to a global audience. Anyone – companies, local communities, or distributed groups of individuals can participate in this program. Similar to do_action charity hackathons, charities can apply to participate in this initiative. Based on the number of applications we receive, 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. will pick a charity to work on and match them with a group of volunteers who will work to build the charity’s new website over the course of a month or so.

Like all other do_action hackathons, this will be a WordPress Foundation event but organized by Community Team volunteers and 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..

Where the Community Team and Deputies come in

Community Team members and Deputies can help facilitate the program. While they need not be involved directly in building non profit websites, they can volunteer to do so if they wish to. In other words: 

  • We (Community Team members and/or Deputies) select NPOs and volunteers and match them (we will vet them just like what we do with WordCamps).
  • We oversee the project progress and periodically check in with the team to see how they are doing.
  • We do communications and outreach for the initiative and publish blog posts about each website project.
  • We arrange ongoing tech support for the non-profit by working with volunteers or sponsors.

If this sounds like a good idea, I propose that we test this out as a pilot program later this year. If the pilot turns out to be successful, perhaps we can expand the program and continue organizing regular global hackathons in 2022 and beyond.

Request for feedback

This is just an idea and is not set in stone. I would love to hear from you to see if this is feasible in the first place!

  • What do you think about this idea? Do you think this is feasible? Does the Community Team have the bandwidth to execute this?
  • What would be the best way to execute a global event like this? 
  • What guidelines should we have in place for an event like this? I know we can reuse a lot of the do_action guidelines – but how do we best match NPOs and volunteers/companies?
  • How do we handle sponsorships for a centralized event like this? Should we take a page out of our global sponsorship program? (Sponsorships for do_action are in-kind)

I know that there are a lot of questions – I just wanted to put it out there for us to brainstorm. Please share your feedback in the comments by September 24 2021 (Friday).

The following people contributed to this post: @andreamiddleton @courtneypk @evarlese @hlashbrooke @nao and @yoga1103

#do_action #proposal #do_action_online

Courtney P.K. 8:00 am on August 31, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: What is the WordCamp Mentorship program and how does it work?

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!

Previously, we learned all about Community Deputies and what they do, which includes mentoring WordCamps. But what exactly is the 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. mentorship program, and how does it work?

What is the WordCamp mentorship program?

The WordCamp mentorship program helps make WordCamps easier to plan for organizers, and better for attendees! This is done by providing peer support to folks actively organizing a WordCamp.

Who are the WordCamp 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.?

WordCamp mentors are 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. who are also experienced WordCamp organizers. You can see the current roster of mentors on the Community Deputies page.

What do WordCamp Mentors do?

WordCamp mentors support other organizers as they plan their WordCamp! Their involvement should be advising on procedure and sharing of knowledge based on the 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.’s history organizing WordCamps. Note that mentors are not on the WordCamp’s organizing team, so they shouldn’t be doing any actual organizing tasks.

Mentors help a lead organizer keep their team on schedule by checking in every month during the pre-planning process, and typically every 2 weeks during active planning to make sure everything is going as planned.

Mentors are hopefully able to help organizers avoid problems before they become problems. They are expected to check in frequently with their WordCamp(s), and also keep up to date on new tools, developments, and decisions made by the Community Team that impact WordCamp organizers.

How do I get involved with the WordCamp mentorship program?

Any WordCamp organizer with experience and who is in good standing with the WordPress events program can be a WordCamp mentor. To learn more about being a WordCamp Mentor, you can check out the deputy handbook and take the WordCamp mentor self-training course. When you’re ready, go ahead and submit an application!

If you are currently a WordCamp organizer and feel like you would benefit from mentorship, check out the handbook page on mentors, and submit a request for a mentor.

Want to Learn More?

Want to learn even more? Come join our conversations in the #community-events or #community-team channels in the Making WP Slack.

#community-team, #mentors, #mentorship, #tuesdaytrainings