Courtney P.K. 8:00 am on September 21, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: Should I start a new meetup or join an existing one that is fairly close to me?

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!

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. groups are locally-organized groups that meet on a regular basis (at least once a month) to share their WordPress experiences and knowledge. Every WordPress meetup group is mostly* based in individual cities and towns all over the world. At the time of writing, there are 755 WordPress Meetup groups in 111 countries!

*Before the pandemic, meetup groups were meeting in person, but these days, most Meetup events are online. Since events have been largely online lately, we’ve been seeing topic based Meetup groups forming.

If you’re interested in joining a WordPress meetup group in your area, the best place to start is at the WordPress Meetup Pro page. You can browse the map, or search for your location under “Search WordPress”.

Frequently asked questions

Q1: There is a WordPress meetup group in my city, but I want to have a different kind of meetup, or meet at a different day/time. Can I start a new meetup group?

A: Reach out to the organizers of the WordPress chapter meetup group in your area! Organizers are encouraged to have a team of co-organizers, as this brings different perspectives to the group and builds community. The group should ideally host a variety of meetup types, hosted by different folks on a variety of days, in different parts of town! As stated in the Five Good Faith Rules of WordPress chapter meetups, WordPress meetup groups should allow events to be organized by any reliable and trusted member of their community.

Q2: There is a meetup group in my area, but they have not had an event in a long time, and the group seems inactive.

A: We can work together to revive the group! In some cases, the organizing team may intend on keeping the group active and continue organizing events. But that doesn’t mean that you cannot offer to organize events as well! Contact the local organizers to offer your help in organizing some upcoming events. In the case that the current organizers are no longer interested in organizing, you can still proceed with the process to become an organizer in the chapter group by submitting an application.

Q3: I cannot find any meetup groups located nearby — can I start a meetup group?

A: It depends! If the closest group is located in the city or town you live in, get in touch with the organizing team of that group to discuss joining their team so you can organize events in your neighborhood (see Q4 below). If there is not a meetup group that is based in your city or town, you can apply to start a new group (see Q5 and the “Apply to start a new meetup group” section below).

Q4: The meetup group in my city or town usually meets at a location that is too inconvenient for me to get to. What should I do?

A: The chapter program aims to have a single meetup group per local community, ideally with multiple organizers that work together as a team to foster their local WordPress community. A group does not have to always meet in the same location — as mentioned in Q1, a meetup group should ideally host a variety of meetup types, hosted by different folks on a variety of days, in different parts of town! Talk to the organizing team of the group in your city or town if you are interested in hosting an event in a location that is more convenient for you.

Q5: There is a meetup group that is located near me, but it is not in the city or town that I live in. Can I start a new meetup group where I live?

A: Yes — if there isn’t a meetup group where you live and you want to start a new group there, you may apply to organize one! See the “Apply to start a new meetup group” section below. You can of course continue to attend events with the group in the location near to you to keep involved in the WordPress community.

Q6: If my local meetup group is hosting events in person, does the group need to offer a live stream so people can join online? Also, can I join online meetup events that are not based in my area?

A: No, meetup groups are not obligated to offer a live stream of their events. However, it can be highly appreciated by the local community if organizers can provide a live stream or recording. As a bonus, you may meet more folks in your community that may usually not be able to attend in person! To answer the second question, you are welcome to attend online meetup events that are not based in your area.

Apply to start a new meetup group

If you are ready to apply to start a new meetup group, fill out the meetup interest form. 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. will review your application, and if your application is approved, we will help you set up a new group for your community and make you the first organizer.

If you already organize a meetup group, but are not using meetup.com and you’d like to, use the same form. But in this case, make sure to include the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org for your existing group’s online presence (e.g., Facebook, independent site, etc.).

More questions?

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

Thank you to @tacoverdo for contributing to this post!

#tuesdaytrainings

Hari Shanker R 1:00 pm on September 20, 2021
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Kicking off the Community Documentation/Translation Sprint from September 20 to 24

As announced previously, the Community Team is launching a week-long documentation sprint (focussed on translations), as part of the International WordPress Translation Day celebrations! From today (September 20) through September 24, community contributors 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. will work together to update Community team handbooks, with a focus on translating them (and related Community Team documentation pages) to local languages! The sprint is open to all, and we warmly welcome everyone to participate!

Of the highest and most immediate impact, the 2021: Return to In-person meetups handbook section and the recent announcement on the return of in-person WordCamps and updated guidelines need attention. If you are looking for a document to start translating, we recommend that you prioritize these pages, due to the importance of these updates.

Want to find out more about the event and learn how to participate? Check out the announcement post for more context and details:

Announcing a WordPress Community Translation Sprint on September 20 – 24!

We also have an excellent Tuesday Training which will guide you on how to translate community team documents:

Tuesday Trainings: How to Translate Community Team Resources

How do I participate in the translation sprint?

Anyone can participate in this initiative! The team will keep track of edits in a Google Sheet. Please log all the changes you make in that sheet. The team will also coordinate together in the #community-team channel. You can also share your updates in the #polyglots-events channel to connect with fellow Polyglots.

If you are new to translating handbooks, check out this Tuesday Training that will answer all your questions. Anyhow, here is a suggested workflow for contributors:

  1. Find a documentation page from the Community Team handbook that you wish to translate.
  2. Check the tracking sheet if anyone else is working on it for your locale. If your locale has already translated handbook pages, check your locale’s Rosetta site to see if anyone has already translated the page – you might also want to check with other community members to see if anyone is working on the docs. If no one is working on the doc and it has not been translated, log it in the sheet. Don’t forget to add the handbook and page names, and your 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/ username!
  3. Copy the contents of the page over to a new Google doc. Ensure that its sharing permissions are set to: “Anyone with the link can comment”. If you already have access to your Rosetta site, you can copy the contents over to your locale’s handbook and make changes over there. Feel free to ask in #community-team if you have any questions about any contents in the documentation.
  4. Once you have finished translating the document, you can optionally pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” one or more of your team members to ask for review. Once the document is finalized, you can go ahead and publish the same in the handbook. If you prepared the translations in a Google Doc, don’t forget to share the same with your Locale Manager(s) or GTEGeneral Translation Editor General Translation Editor – One of the polyglots team leads in a geographic region https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. Further information at https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#general-translation-editor.(s) so that they can update the same on your behalf.
  5. Fill up the spreadsheet to record the changes that you have made and update the field if the translated page was merged.
  6. That’s it, you have successfully made your first contribution to the Docs translation sprint! You can now proceed to work on the next document!

Remember: Every contribution, however small, is valuable!

But… I’m not a Polyglot and I would like to participate! What do I do?

We are glad you asked! While the focus of this sprint is translation, we need your help in reviewing our existing documentation, suggesting changes, and even creating new documentation pages. Even though the tracking Google sheet is aimed at translations, you can use the same to track your documentation updates too.

Of the highest and most immediate impact, the recent announcement on the return of in-person WordCamps and updated guidelines needs attention. You can help us out by creating a handbook page out of the announcement and making the guidelines more visible.

Check out the announcement post of the original docs sprint to learn more about how to update Community Team documentation:

Join the Community Team for a Documentation Editing Sprint on May 25!

I warmly welcome you all once again to join us in this initiative and to help us update our documentation and translate it into as many languages as possible. It will go a long way in supporting the WordPress community!

#documentation-sprint #translation-sprint #sprint #wptranslationday

+make.wordpress.org/polyglots

WordCamp.org 4:00 am on September 20, 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!

Timi Wahalahti 7:46 am on September 16, 2021
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Community Team Meeting Agenda for 2021-09-16

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: 2021-09-16 12:00
Americas friendly meeting: 2021-09-16 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

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!

#agenda, #community-team, #meeting

Hari Shanker R 7:15 pm on September 15, 2021
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Meetup Organizer Newsletter: September 2021

Hello friends,

Welcome to the September 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! Read on to stay updated on the latest tidings from the WordPress Community this month. 

Newsletter contents:

  • Updated Guidelines for In-person WordCamps
  • Online event updates
  • Tuesday Trainings
  • News from the WordPress world

🔙⛺️ [Announcement] Guidelines for returning to In-person WordCamps

Flowchart representing updated guidelines to in-person WordCamps detailed above.

The Community Team published new guidelines for returning to in-person WordCamps in regions where in-person events are allowed by the local public health authority. You can now organize in-person WordCamps for fully vaccinated, recently tested negative, or recently recovered folks (in the last 3 months) — provided your region passes the in-person safety checklist OR if vaccines and/or COVID testing are accessible to all. If your region does not meet these criteria, please continue to organize online events.

Does your region meet the updated 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. guidelines, and do you want to apply to organize an in-person WordCamp following the guidelines described above? You can do it by submitting the WordCamp application form right away!

 🌍🎪 Online event updates

Get excited for WordCamp US 2021!
Get your free tickets for the biggest WordCamp in North America – WordCamp US 2021 before they run out! The organizing team has opened up calls for contributor stories and chat directors. If you are interested, you can organize a watch party for WCUS in the form of an “attendee pod” too! Check out the event website and follow the event on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to stay updated on all that #WCUS news.

Join the WordPress Translation Day Celebrations throughout September 2021
The month-long International WordPress Translation Day celebration is happening this month! Be a part of the celebrations by organizing a local translation day sprint for your meetup, joining the global events from September 17 to 30, or by nominating your local polyglots leaders. Don’t forget to sign up for the Polyglots newsletter to stay updated on the latest news!

Upcoming WordPress events 

Sign up fo the upcoming workshop: Empower women speakers for your WordPress events in India 🇮🇳 (September 24-25 2021 9am-11am IST)! The #WPDiversity team is also planning a preview workshop to see how this is run this week. (September 18 7pm-8:30pm IST)

🛠 Tuesday Trainings

Check out our Tuesday Trainings (#TuesdayTrainings) where the Community Team publishes a different topic on our blog each week to help organizers and interested community members:

Is there a question you’d like to see answered, or a topic you’d like to see discussed? Send an email support@wordcamp.org with the subject line “Tuesday Trainings”!

🗞 News from the WordPress world

  • WordPress 5.8.1 is out! The CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Team is actively working on WordPress 5.9: Don’t miss the roadmap and planning posts. The team aims to ship the release by December 14.
  • We launched GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ Version 11.3 and Version 11.4 this month
  • Help the Test Team explore 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. Theme switching by sharing feedback on the process.

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: @courtneypk @evarlese @eidolonnight @jillbinder

#meetup-organizer-newsletter

#newsletter

Milana Cap 2:34 pm on September 15, 2021
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X-post: [Announcement] New workflow for reporting documentation issues

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/docs: Comment on [Announcement] New workflow for reporting documentation issues

jillbinder 3:50 am on September 15, 2021
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#WPDiversity Events in September (attention India!)

Thursday, September 16, 2021 @ 5pm-6pm UTC

Allyship for WordPress event organizers AMER/EMEA Coaching and Accountability

The cohort of the first Allyship program is meeting on 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 for the first Coaching and Accountability chat about the actions they are taking after the first Allyship for event organizers workshop. The guest coach will be @alliennimmons.

Saturday, September 18, 2021 @ 7pm-8:30pm IST

How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events IST

Does the thought of speaking at one of our 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. or WordCamps intrigue you? Do you identify as a person from a marginalized and underrepresented group (in terms of gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, age, etc.) who is thinking about speaking at a 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. 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. in India or a nearby timezone? Do you think you don’t know or have anything worth speaking about?

Or are you a meetup or WordCamp event organizer or other person signing up for the “Empower Women Speakers For Your WordPress Events in India (Sept 24&Sept 25),” and want to improve the diversity of your speaker lineups?

This workshop is for you!

Register now

Friday, September 24 to Saturday, September 25, 2021 @ 9am-11am IST

Empower Women Speakers For Your WordPress Events in India

Have you ever had trouble getting women to speak at your WordPress meetups or WordCamps in India?

We will teach you how to run the 4-5 -hour workshop that has been proven to increase the number of Women speakers in WordPress Communities all over the world. You will learn to:

  • Understand some of the reasons why women aren’t submitting talks
  • Help the women in your communities overcome their personal barriers to public speaking at your WordPress events
  • Help them create a talk title, pitch, outline, bio, and slide deck
  • Give the new women speakers motivation and confidence to start speaking
  • Increase how many women are giving talks in your community

Register now

Please help us spread the word about the India events!

#wpdiversity, #wpdiversityworkshops

Courtney P.K. 8:00 am on September 14, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: What are profile badges, and how do I get one?

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!

What is a profile badge?

If you look at any contributor’s profile page on 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/, you’ll notice that they have colorful badges on their profile, as seen in the image below. These badges represent their contributions to WordPress.

Image of Courtney P.K.'s profile on WordPress.org, showing her various contributor badges.

You can view your own profile by following this link (requires login to WordPress.org)!

What do the different Community Team badges mean?

I’m glad you asked. 🙂 The Community Team has many ways to contribute, and there are badges to indicate those contributions.

Community Team profile badge. It is a blue icon of a group of people, surrounded by a circle. The inside of the circle is filled with a light blue tint.

The Community Team badge will be manually assigned to all 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. who have been active for at least 6 months (active 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 listed on this page). You can find out more about the 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. program (and how to get involved) in the Community Deputy handbook.

Community Contributor profile badge. It is a blue icon of a group of people, surrounded by a circle.

The Community Contributor badge will be manually assigned to all 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. 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., as well as those who provide valuable contributions to the Community Team. Mentors are all listed as “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.” on the Community Deputies list. In the future, mentors will be auto-assigned this badge when they begin mentoring their first WordCamp (removing the manual administration side of things). You can find out more about the WordCamp Mentorship program in this previous Tuesday Trainings post, or in the Deputy handbook.

Meetup Organizer profile badge. It is a yellow icon of a name tag, surrounded by a circle.

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 badge is auto-assigned to all members of Meetup organizing teams for meetup groups in the official chapter program. The list of WordPress.org usernames for each meetup group is manually updated by Community Deputies.

WordCamp Organizer profile badge. It is a yellow icon of a pair of tickets, surrounded by a circle.

The WordCamp Organizer badge is auto-assigned to all members of WordCamp organizing teams, provided their WordPress.org username is added to their ‘Organizer’ post on any WordCamp.org website.

WordCamp Speaker profile badge. It is a yellow icon of a megaphone surrounded by a circle.

The WordCamp Speaker badge is auto-assigned to all WordCamp speakers, provided their WordPress.org username is added to their ‘Speaker’ post on any WordCamp.org website.

What about badges for other teams?

All the other contributor teams have badges specific to them, and there are two types of badges: Contributor and Team. What’s the difference between the two?

Contributor badges are assigned to anyone who has contributed to a particular team. Team badges are assigned to contributors that are currently active on that team. You can view the descriptions and criteria for each badge over on Meta.

I think my profile is missing a Community badge, what do I do?

Community Team or Community Contributor badges are manually assigned to contributors and usually need to be requested, as the system doesn’t allow us to add the badge to your profile until a request is submitted. To make a request, please go to the Community Team or Community Contributor pages and request membership for the group. Community Deputies will then review/approve the request. Since this process is manual, the change may take a short time to complete.

WordCamp Organizer, WordCamp Speaker, and Meetup Organizer badges are automatically assigned based on contributor status. As long as you have your WordPress.org username in your WordCamp Organizer or Speaker profile, or the Meetup Tracker, the badge should appear automatically.

Note that there is a known bug that has caused WordCamp Organizer and Speaker badges to mysteriously disappear from profiles (this bug can be tracked on Meta). If this has happened to you, try the following if you have the ability to edit the Speaker (or Organizer) profile on the WordCamp’s site:

  1. Remove your WordPress.org username from the Speaker (or Organizer) profile, then save.
  2. Add your username back in and save again.
  3. Refresh your profile page—your badge should re-appear like magic!

If you do not have the ability to try the above steps for WordCamp Speaker and Organizer badges, or they did not work, please contact the Community Team so a deputy can assist you further. Please be sure to include your WordPress.org username, as well as the WordCamp city and year that you organized for.

If you are listed as Meetup organizer on your chapter meetup group, and your profile page does not have the Meetup Organizer badge, contact the Community Team. Please include the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org of your meetup group and your WordPress.org username.

For both of these cases, Community Team deputies can be reached at support@wordcamp.org, and please include “Profile badges” in the subject line.

Display your profile badges with pride, and thank you for all your great contributions!

#tuesdaytrainings

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!

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!