Call for Supporters: Reactivating WordPress Meetups Around the World!

Summary: The Community Team is embarking on a global 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. reactivation project! Are you available to support this project by reaching out to meetup organizers in your region? If so, please complete this form and comment below!

Is your meetup currently active? Tell the world by posting a photo on social media with the hashtag #WordPressMeetup

Many 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. around the world have been dormant the past two years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and organizer burnout. Yet thriving meetups are crucial for the health of the global WordPress community!

As such, the Community Team is embarking on an initiative to reactivate meetups around the world.

In the months ahead, the Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. will directly reach out to the organizers of every dormant WordPress meetup to:

  • Check on the status of the meetup
  • Encourage reactivation
  • Ask how we can best support the organizers
  • Identify whether new organizers are needed

We define a dormant meetup as one that has not held an event in the past six months (virtual or in-person). There are hundreds of dormant WordPress meetups, which means there is significant opportunity to reactivate our global community!

But to do so, we need your help!

The Community Team is seeking Supporters who are willing to conduct personal check-ins and follow-up with meetup organizers. Each Supporter will be assigned a defined set of meetups to reach out to, with the size of your set based on your availability.

Supporters will conduct this outreach via a shared meetup reactivation email account, and document their outreach efforts and organizer responses in a central tracking system.

Every contribution is valuable, no matter the size!

How to get involved: If you are interested in helping with the Meetup Reactivation project, please complete this interest form to apply. Then, comment below to let us know why you’re excited to be a Supporter! We’ll follow up within ten days of receiving your form.

Relevant posts:

Ready to help reactivate meetups? Complete this form to apply, and comment below!

#meetups, #outreach, #reactivation

Highlighted Posts

Categorize a post as Highlight to add it to this section.

How to contribute to the Global Community Team

These are some of the different options for getting involved with the WordPress Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. 🙂

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

  1. a) Check if there is a WordPress Meetup group in your city – if there is one, join it, attend the events, and step up by either helping the organizers or becoming an organizer yourself!
  2. b) Check if there is a WordCamp in your area – you can attend, apply to speak, volunteer, sponsor and/or help organize your local WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more.!
  3. c) If there is not an existing WordPress Meetup group (or if there is an inactive group) in your town/city and you want to start one, you can apply here – you’ll receive a reply within a couple of weeks.

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

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

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

#contributors

Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on July 27, 2022

Attending: @jillbinder, @juliarosia, @katiejrichards, @kcrockett, @onealtr, @santanainniss, @volkswagenchick, @wpfangirl

Facilitator: @onealtr

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1658941211613439

Summary

Agenda:

1 Check-ins (everyone)

2 First time here

3 Comments, questions, ideas (anyone)

  • @katiejrichards offered to help with meticulous, detailed tasks such as editing and reviewing copy, working on transcripts or captions for recorded workshops

4 Workshops (Speaker & Inclusion) (@jillbinder)

5 APAC WPDiversity Network Building (@onealtr)

  • @onealtr shared about upcoming events in Asia-Pacific
  • @santanainniss
  • shared the call for speakers for WC Asia with the campaign manager for WordCamps. The post is scheduled.

6 Diverse Speaker Support channel (@kcrockett, @juliarosia, @jillbinder)

  • We had 7 “wins” on the channel in June
  • @juliarosia invited everyone to have a sense of ownership in the channel

7 Marketing (@santanainniss)

  • @santanainniss posted a call to action for our training in India: Twitter, LinkedIn that has had a high level of performance!
  • The marketing team posted about and tested the post about the APAC WPDiversity meeting: Twitter, LinkedIn
  • More posts are scheduled for both of these
  • A new thing: posting testimonial cards with testimonials from our workshops!

8 Other Updates + Next week’s meeting facilitator (anyone)

  • @onealtr and @jillbinder were about to have our interviews for the WP Briefing podcast (which has now been released)
  • @volkswagenchick: We are giving the “Drupal” version of the workshop at our next SF Drupal User’s group in time for the Drupal D&I camp

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1658944749726039

#wpdiversity

Community Team Meeting Agenda 4 Aug 2022

The Community Team chat is taking place on the first week Thursday every month. 

As you know, 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: 2022/08/04 12:00 UTC

Americas friendly meeting: Thursday, 2022/08/04 21:00 UTC

You will find a preliminary agenda for the meeting below. If you wish to add points to discuss, comment on this post or reach out to one of the team reps: @samsuresh or @megabyterose. 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 did you accomplish after the last meeting? Are there any blockers? Can other team members help you in some way?

Highlights

Deputy Feedback Wanted: Streamlining WordCamp Phases

Clarify and optimize the current 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. application process to help the organizers 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..

Call for Supporters: Reactivating WordPress Meetups Around the World!

The Community Team is embarking on a global 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. reactivation project! Are you available to support this project by reaching out to meetup organizers in your region? If so, please complete this form and comment below!

Posts

Covid Prevention Stickers

WPCSWPCS The collection of PHP_CodeSniffer rules (sniffs) used to format and validate PHP code developed for WordPress according to the WordPress Coding Standards. May also be an acronym referring to the Accessibility, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, etc. coding standards as published in the WordPress Coding Standards Handbook. will provide masks and communication stickers as part of the swag packs.

Announcements / Newsletters

Open floor

Here is your chance to bring things into discussions that weren’t on the meeting agenda. You can also use this opportunity to share anything that you want with the team. If you have a topic in mind before the meeting, please add it to the comments of this post, we will update the agenda accordingly.

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

#meeting-agenda, #team-meeting

#team-chat

Announcing the 2021-2022 Annual Meetup Survey!

Hello 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. members!

The annual meetup survey is here! If you are a meetup group member, please complete the Annual Meetup Program Survey – even if you haven’t participated in a meetup recently! If you are a meetup organizer, please complete the Annual Meetup Organizer Survey. For the first time in WordPress history, the 2021-2022 Annual Meetup surveys are available in 14 different languages, listed below.

Help spread the word! If you are a Meetup Organizer, please share the Meetup Program Survey with your group via discussion boards, email, social media, and announce it at your next Meetup event.

Please take a moment to respond to the survey. This survey is an important opportunity to share your feedback on 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. in 2021 and 2022 (thus far). Even if you did not attend meetup events in 2021-2022, your input is valuable! The survey takes less than 5 minutes to fill out, and the results will help strengthen WordPress meetups in the years to come. Our goal is to achieve a 100% response rate among meetup organizers around the world, and as high a response rate as possible among members.

Surveys

What’s Next?

Take the survey!

Share the Annual Meetup Program Survey with your local meetup community, in whichever languages are relevant to your region.

Then comment here to let us know!

Kudos to @nikicad @josearcos @kharisblank @sabbir16 @asifjamil @chaion07 @anantamishra, @swissky @peiraisotta @pedromendonca @nao @devinmaeztri and @nielslange for creating the many survey translations, and thanks to all who provided feedback on this year’s survey questions. Thanks to @mysweetcate for editing this post.

#annual-survey, #meetup, #meetup-organizers, #survey

Report: Inclusion and Diverse Speaker Workshops June 2022

In June, we held one “Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events” discussion.

June 2022

Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events – coaching, accountability and discussion

Facilitator: @jillbinder

As a follow-up to our May 2022 workshop discussions, we held a coaching, accountability and discussion session on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. on June 14th, 2022.

Number who attended: 10

From number of cities: 10

From number of countries: 5 (Bangladesh, Luxembourg, Philippines, Spain, United States)

diverse-speaker-support channel

We have a Slack channel (#diverse-speaker-support) in the Make WordPress Slack for:

  • workshopping talks with each other and with 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.
  • finding out about WordPress speaking opportunities from 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
  • getting to know other WordPress speakers and organizers

Wins this month: 7

  • 2 spoke at a WordPress event
  • 2 spoke at a different tech event
  • 1 applied and got accepted for a WordPress event (2 wins)
  • 1 got a talk accepted at another tech event

Thank you

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

Upcoming: September and October 2022

September 24, 2022 and September 25, 2022 @ 9am-11:30am IST: Speaker Workshop for Indian Women in the WordPress Community

October 29, 2022 @ 10am-6pm CST: WordPress #WPDiversity Speaker Workshop for Women Voices in Latin America 

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

#diversespeakerworkshopsreports, #wpdiversity

July Meetup Organizer newsletter

Hello, organizers!

As the rise of in-person events continues, this month’s newsletter is focused around engaging and growing your community. Read on to find tips and tools that can help you with the process!

Help Other 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. in Your Region

Do you want to work with us to reactivate 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 in your region? We’re looking for experienced Meetup organizers to join us in the global Meetup reactivation project!

Around WordPress

Make WordPress Design: The team has a call out for feedback as they kick off a redesign of the 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/ homepage and download page, which haven’t had substantial updates since 2016. They’d like to hear your thoughts specifically on:

  • How do you envision the WordPress.org homepage looking?
  • What content would you like to see included on these pages?

Comment on the post to leave your feedback.

Make WordPress Marketing: The team has been discussing how best to promote WordCamps with the WordPress.org social media accounts. Take a look at the guidelines they’re laying out and the feedback they’re looking for.

WCUS 2022: Tickets are sold out, but plans can change at any time. If you’re still hoping to go, check the Ticket page to see if any have been returned. And as in past years, the event will be livestreamed.

WCEU 2023: If you’re in Europe and would like to help organize this flagship 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., here’s your chance! The call for organizers is now open. Be a part of creating the best event possible.

News From the Learn WordPress Team

Naming changes: LearnWP is adapting and growing all the time to best serve the WordPress community. They recently directed those efforts toward updating their terminology.

Workshops have become Tutorials. Social Learning Spaces have become Online Workshops.

July Roundup: New topics you can use with your Meetup groups include Creating a Front Page for a Block Theme, Using Schema with WordPress theme.json, and Submitting Block Patterns to the Directory.

Excited to see what else the LearnWP team is up to? Check out their blog to find updates and more. While there, subscribe in the right column to stay up-to-date between newsletters!

Tips to Engage and Grow Your Local Community

A lot has happened in the last few years. Your local WordPress community may need to be reminded of the fun reasons we meet together in person. Here are a few tips that could help you reconnect to your community as your meetup returns to in-person events.

Activating Your Current Members

Inspire participation: In case you missed it, the June Meetup Organizers newsletter has several ideas that can help in this area.

Grow community skills: Many people come to meetups to grow their skills. LearnWP can be a great asset here. Check out their simple to use resources (like the lesson plans) that are designed for groups to learn together.

Encourage new co-organizers: Want help organizing? The path to co-organizers often begins with including your members in planning the meetup and encouraging them to host events on their own. 

Reaching Out to New Members

Some meetups grow well organically. Others need a little help. A comfortable place to look for new members can be at other meetups and locations where your community hangs out.

  • Collaborate with other meetups or tech communities on a topic for an upcoming meetup.
  • Make your meetup known by introducing yourself at events as the local WordPress meetup organizer.
  • Post flyers about your meetup at coffee shops, libraries, and university campuses.

Often a little creative effort can go a long way to engaging members and growing your meetup. Whatever your community’s needs are, we hope these tips will help!


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 here to help. Please email us at 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 and support the WordPress community—let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!

See you online soon!

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @bjmcsherry @eidolonnight @mysweetcate @peiraisotta @devinmaeztri @juliarosia @_dorsvenabili @nao

#community-team, #meetup-organizer-newsletter, #newsletter

Deputy Feedback Wanted: Streamlining WordCamp Phases

Objective: Clarify and optimize the current 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. application process to help the organizers 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..

As we welcomed several new deputies since the beginning of 2022, some of us started noticing vague or outdated steps in the WordCamp application phases.

To smoothly onboard new organizers and deputies, it’s worth taking our time to clarify the current phases. As the first step, I created a flow chart of the current process works. 

To view the details and read comments, visit the Google Slides version.

WordCamp application phases flowchart
Current WordCamp application processing process

Feedback Wanted

Please leave comments on the flow chart itself OR this post about:

  • Any difference in your understanding of a step or timing
  • Any clarification required
  • Any improvement/change to suggest

Examples of suggestions

These are actual suggestions already added as comments to the flow chart.

  • Remove “Needs Crowdsignal account” – No WordCamp is actually using it.
  • Combine “Needs E-mail” and “Needs Site” and call it “Needs E-mail and Site” – These steps are in one documentation, and the same person often takes care of both.
  • Remove the “Needs 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.” status and follow a different process – finding a mentor can happen concurrently with other steps, and it can take a while. No need to 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. the organizer while deputies are reaching out to potential 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.. Instead, have a clear process to follow up with the “No mentor” emails sent to Help Scout.
  • Clarify who can pre-review or approve the budget. I learned the correct assignment is supposed to be 1) mentors and deputies can pre-review then 2) only super deputiesSuper deputy Super Deputies are Deputies who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. can approve. This should be clarified in doc and/or tracker status.
  • Remove “Needs to be Added to Pre-Planning Schedule” status – After this and “In Pre-Planning”, no action is needed. So we don’t need both of these statuses.
  • Automate the process between “In Pre-Planning” to “Needs Budget Review”

Example of question

  • Do we need “Interview/Orientation Scheduled” and “Budget Review Scheduled” now that we have alerts in 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. channel?
    • My issue with the “scheduled” statuses is that they are rarely used. So I don’t feel they are a good indication of the current status. Instead, “Needs orientation | budget review” can serve the same purpose (if a WordCamp is stuck here, deputies will still go and find out if a meeting is scheduled and follow up).

Next Steps

After collecting feedback for 3 weeks (until August 15), I can gather them up and propose updated versions of the phase visualization. Also, accompanying documentation for deputies (perhaps built on this existing doc?) will be useful.

Thanks, @devinmaeztri, @_dorsvenabili, and @sippis, for feedback on the flow chart and this post!

Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on July 13, 2022

Attending: @jilbinder, @juliarosia, @onealtr, @santanainniss

Facilitator: @jillbinder

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1657731601090839

Summary

1 Check-ins (everyone)

2 First time here

3 Comments, questions, ideas (anyone)

4 India Outreach Sprint (@jillbinder)

5 APAC WPDiversity Network Building (@onealtr)

  • @onealtr kept us posted on upcoming APAC events and WordCamps

6 Diverse Speaker Support channel (@kcrockett, @juliarosia, @jillbinder)

7 Marketing (@santanainniss)

8 Translations (@jillbinder, @devinmaeztri)

  • Our speaker workshop has been translated into Italian! Thank you, translators!

9 Other Updates + Next week’s meeting facilitator (anyone)

  • We talked about what to do when the AMER/EMEA meeting on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, and the APAC meeting on the 2nd Thursday of the month, are not actually in the same week.

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1657735180271159

#wpdiversity

Deputy / Organizer Training: Meetup/WordCamp Application Vetting

The Deputy / Organizer training is taking place every 3rd Thursday of the month via a live Zoom Call. The July training session will take place on 21st July 2022  2022/07/21 12:00 UTC.

The July 2022 session will focus on how to vet 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./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. applications. As face-to-face events are back, we expect more and more WordCamps to go in person. Knowing how to vet those applications will help any 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. to process fresh applications and move them to the next stage.

The following handbook pages can be handy to reference when you attend this session:

Meetup Application Review

Community Deputy Handbook: Reviewing WordCamp Application

Tracker: WordCamp Application Status

About 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.: Rocio Valdivia (@_dorsvenabili)

Rocio is a Community Deputy of the Global WordPress Community Team since 2015. She’s sponsored by Automattic to work full-time supporting all official WordPress events around the globe. She’s been involved with the WordPress community since 2009, WordCamp Europe and Sevilla, WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. 2020 global lead, WCEU 2022, and WC Asia mentor and mentor of dozens of WordCamps and 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. around the globe in the last seven years.

#agenda, #community-management, #community-team, #meeting

X-post: What’s new on LearnWP in July 2022

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/updates: Comment on What’s new on LearnWP in July 2022