Update: Global Meetup Reactivation Project

The 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. Reactivation Project is well underway. Read on for an update!

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

Background

Why meetup reactivation?

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 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and organizer burnout. Yet thriving meetups are crucial for the health of the global WordPress community!

How does meetup reactivation work?

In July, 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. published a Call for Supporters and launched the Meetup Reactivation Project. Since then, Meetup Reactivation Supporters started directly reaching 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 were more than 400 dormant WordPress meetups at the launch of this project — which means there is significant opportunity to reactivate our global community!

The numbers (so far)!

There are currently 764 WordPress chapter meetups in 112 countries, with 494,736 members. Yet at the start of the reactivation project, we identified that 416 of these groups were dormant.

The project currently has 39 meetup reactivation supporters globally. These amazing volunteers are reaching out directly to the organizers of each dormant meetup group. 

As a result of their efforts:

  • 117 meetup groups have reactivated or plan to reactivate in 2022 (🎉)!
  • 14 dormant meetups were removed from the WordPress meetup chapter program, because the previous organizers were not available to reactivate the group and no member came forward to serve as organizer.

Next Steps

In the months ahead, Supporters will continue to reach out to organizers of dormant groups, share resources to help them reactivate, and help find new organizers when needed. We will continue to share updates here on the Community Team blog.

Thank you to our wonderful meetup reactivation supporters, the hundreds of meetup organizers who are reactivating their groups, and the energetic new organizers who have come forward to lead meetups!

Want to reactivate your local meetup group or form a new meetup?

Contact the Community Team at support@wordcamp.org. We’re here to help!

Relevant posts:

#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

Help Improve the Make/Community Contributor Day Onboarding

Look familiar? You’re right; this is similar to the other post!

However, the goal of this one is to focus on onboarding experiences had at or around Contributor Days.

As we grow, it’s important to reflect on where we can make our processes smoother for everyone. So this post is gathering feedback specifically related to Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/..

  • Any blockers you’ve found to participating in a Contributor Day
  • Any blockers you’ve found to helping others participate in a Contributor Day
  • Anything you think it would be useful to share

That’s it. Short and sweet. Please leave feedback in the comments.

#feedback #ContributorDay #onboarding

Help Improve the Overall Make/Community Onboarding

Hello, all. In an effort to make our content more engaging and more useful for everyone, I have been working on updates to our Make/Community site and the pages within.

You may have noticed updates to the Welcome Box, the Team Projects page, the Community Team Handbook, and have recently started on the Meetup Organizers Handbook.

About the Project

The goal is to fill in any missing knowledge and make our information easier to find.

The project impacts two sets of people:

  1. organizers who are trying to find information to host an event
  2. new contributors to the community team, such as 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. and mentorsMentor Someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues.

My approach so far has been to update and simplify information while moving frequently used links to more accessible locations.

How you can help!

Please comment here with insights into:

  • frequently used information that you struggle to find
  • blockers you have hit that make it difficult to contribute, or to help others contribute
  • information that is confusing or outdated
  • processes that are confusing or outdated
  • frustrations you’ve faced when planning an event or assisting others to do so
  • anything else that could help improve the experience for event organizers and contributors

Thank you in advance for your help.

Hat tip to @juliarosia for editing assistance.

#feedback #onboarding

Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on September 28, 2022

Attending: @juliarosia, @katiejrichards, @kcrockett, @onealtr, @santanainniss

Attended by proxy: @jillbinder

Facilitator: @santanainniss

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1664384439597139

Summary

1 Attendance and check-ins (everyone)
2 First time here
3 Comments, questions, ideas (anyone)
4 Workshops (Speaker & Inclusion) (@jillbinder)

Great speaker workshop for women in India over the weekend. We had about 20 attend, and we are pretty certain that at least 3 are going to start speaking. 

Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events
Thursday, October 13 at 5pm-7:30pm UTC
Please share: https://twitter.com/jillbinder/status/1574899555455610880

Talked about the workshop’s call to action.

APAC WPDiversity Network Building (@onealtr)

We are already in discussions to bring a similar workshop as India’s to other countries and possibly other languages.

List of upcoming WordCamps in Asia.

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

The channel is doing well and continuing to grow.
Do folks have any feedback that would help improve your experience of the group and the value that it offers you and the community?
Additionally, if you have any suggestions for our weekly Fun Discussion Topics please send them to @kcrockett!

7 Marketing (@santanainniss)

We shared posts on September 15/16th and September 23 about the India Women’s speaker workshop to push last minute registrations.

Coming up next:

  • Promotion of the upcoming October training (diverse & inclusive WP events workshop)
  • Promotion of LATAM women’s speaker training (in-person)
  • Promotion of WP Diversity APAC meeting, celebrating its 10th meeting

Please help us promote the October 13 Inclusion workshop. Social going out on Thursday (today)!

8 Daylight savings — changing the meeting time in November? (@jillbinder)

Thinking about making our meetings 5pm UTC during Daylight savings and 6pm UTC when Daylight savings ends. This would keep it at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern all of the time. Everyone in the meeting agreed.

9 Other Updates + Next meeting facilitator (anyone)

@juliarosia will facilitate the next meeting.

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1664387534721449

#wpdiversity

By 15 October – Please complete the Annual Meetup Survey and share widely!

The annual 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. survey will remain open until 15 October.

If you already completed and shared the survey, thank you! If you haven’t, read on!

Meetup group members: Please complete the Annual Meetup Program Survey, even if you haven’t participated in a meetup recently.

Meetup organizers: Please complete the Annual Meetup Organizer Survey. Then, share the Meetup Program Survey with your group via discussion boards, email, social media, and announce it at your next Meetup event.

The surveys are available in 14 different languages, listed below.

Surveys

Why complete the survey?

This 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, 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.

What’s Next?

Complete the survey by 15 October!

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

#meetups, #annual-survey

Celebrating APAC WPDiversity Network Building: Update on Our 10th Meeting

#WPDiversity team

Since 2017, the #WPDiversity team has been encouraging people from underrepresented and marginalized groups in WordPress to participate and speak at WordCamps and WP 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 their local community and the ever-expanding global WP community. 

Most of the activities of the #WPDiversity team have been scheduled in the North American (AMER) time zones, sometimes in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) as well. While there have been a few workshops held in India, Indonesia, Africa, and the Philippines, the regular meeting makes it difficult for those in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region to participate. 

Demand for WordPress Group Activities Grows Steadily in the APAC Region

WordPress has been present in the APAC region for many years now. Over the last two years alone, there has been a sharp increase in the demand for WordPress events. For example, in 2019, there were already 127 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 with 73,000 members in 23 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. During the pandemic that started in 2020, this number has only gone up.

In 2022, the number of Meetup groups in APAC has grown to 141, an 11% increase. What’s more, total Meetup membership and countries represented also increased to 120,000 members across 25 countries– an increase of 64% and 8% respectively. This is a significant increase even if most of their activities in the past 2 years have been primarily online, these meetup groups are now starting to hold face-to-face activities like meetups and even WordCamps.

This is timely, as the flagship event WordPress in Asia, 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. Asia 2023 is fast approaching.

APAC #WPDiversity Network Building

To help meet the growing demand for in-person and online WordPress events in APAC, the APAC #WPDiversity Network Building meeting was started. Volunteers around the Asia-Pacific region voted on the most convenient schedule and we have held 9 meetings since May.

The main intention of this meeting for APAC is that we want to walk the talk. We want to make the WordPress community as diverse and inclusive as possible and we need you to be part of the journey!

The APAC region is host to some of the most diverse selection of WordPress users in the world, with differences in culture, language, life experiences, and knowledge. By encouraging more underrepresented individuals who are usually not as engaged in the tech community to participate in our meetings, we can help foster growth and collaboration among groups of people, who would not normally have the opportunity to work with one another if not for the global WordPress community. 

During these meetings, we report on activities that are relevant to the APAC region and encourage discussion about other concerns affecting the WordPress community. We also promote events like WordCamps in the region. Especially Call-for-Speakers, Call-for-Sponsors, and when tickets go on sale. This is another way for you to get people to see what is happening in your WordPress community and help get more people to participate. 

We also need your help to spread the word so more community members can join the meeting and so we can learn from each other about making the WordPress community in our region more diverse and inclusive.

Ideas on how to grow our APAC WPDiversity Network?

We would be honored if you would join us. 

This is for you if:

  1. You are based in Asia-Pacific
  2. You care about diversity and inclusion in WordPress, particularly in Asia-Pacific
  3. You are able to join most of the meetings (2 hours a month – 1 hour each meeting)

If you would like to participate in the activities held by the #WPDiversity team, please comment on this post with your 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/. name to indicate that you are interested in joining the meetings with us. 

Meeting Schedule

This meeting happens on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at 0300H-0400H UTC. We have a related meeting for AMER with a different agenda on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at 0500H-0600H UTC. 

Changes in the schedule are posted on the Community-team P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. blog and in the Slack channel. 

If you don’t have a WordPress Slack account yet, here is how to get set up: https://bit.ly/setupwp2slack

Thank you to @devinmaeztri, @onealtr, @jillbinder

#WPDiversity

#community-management, #community-team

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: September 2022

Hello, organizers!

This month… What a month! September kicked off the new season of WordCamps with four spectacular in-person WordCamps: WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event., 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. Kathmandu, WordCamp Jinja, and WordCamp Netherlands!

Want to check out the next WordCamps? Have a look at the schedule! If there are no WordCamps near you, here are a couple of suggestions for you:

Talking about new ideas for Meetup events, have you ever thought about organizing a 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. charity hackathon? This month’s newsletter is focused around do_action events: what they are, and why your community might want to host one.

Around WordPress

Polyglots: join Polyglot teams on September 28th to celebrate the WordPress Translation Day 2022!

Code references in DevHub (WordPress Developer Docs) are now easier to use, understand and navigate.

Gutenberg 14.0 was released on August 31, 2022, and brings with it enhancements, extra 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. support in the UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing., a revamped List block, and more.

Want to support the Test Team? They are looking for Testing Facilitators.

Photo team: get inspired from the photo challenge organized to celebrate World Photography Day!

Community: check out the new proposal for integrating CamPix to Google Sheets, and join the discussion.

The Diverse Speaker Training group met on Sept 14, and talked about the Speaker Workshop for Indian Women in the WordPress Community that will take place on Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and 25, 2022, from 9:00am to 11:30am (IST).

Curious to know what happened during WordCamp US Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.? Read the recap here! In the WordPress Briefing, you can hear contributors at WordCamp US share stories about their why for using WordPress and attending WordCamps.

Don’t miss the latest news from The Month in WordPress – August edition.

News From the Learn WordPress Team

Exciting news from Learn WordPress this month! First of the list, the Lesson Plans part of Learn has a brand new landing page!

And for all polyglots out there, everyone is welcomed to join and spread the word about the Content Localization project. By doing it, you will help increase and expand availability of content on Learn WordPress to a variety of non-English locales.

Last but not least, there are new tutorials available on Learn WordPress!

The latest video are:

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!

do_action events: WordPress Community Charity Hackathons

do_action hackathons are community-organized events that use WordPress to give deserving charitable organizations an online presence. Each do_action event includes participants from the local WordPress community coming together to plan and build brand new websites for one or more local organizations in one day or a few hours.

With do_action events, the WordPress community has helped more than 9500 NGOs around the world!

Are you interested in learning more about WordPress charity hackathons? Visit the do_action official page here! If your Meetup group can’t gather together in person yet, here you can find a video about how to organize an online do_action.

Use this form to apply if you want your Meetup group to be the next to host a do_action charity hackathon!


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: @evarlese @peiraisotta @bjmcsherry

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

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

X-post: Project Proposal: Content Localization

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/training: Comment on Project Proposal: Content Localization

[Action requested] Vote for “Organizing Diverse & Inclusive Events workshop” date and time

I am planning for our next quarterly #WPDiversity’s “Organizing an Inclusive and Diverse WordPress event” workshop.

This is a 2.5-hour workshop to learn how to create a welcoming and diverse 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. 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.

Do you want to attend? By Sunday, September 25, 2022 please vote on the time that would work best for you at this link on #community-events:

  • [1] Thursday, October 13, 2022 @ 5pm – 7:30pm UTC (1pm ET / 10am PT)
  • [2]Thursday, October 13, 2022 @ 3am-5:30am UTC (8:30am IST / 11am PHST / 2pm AET)
  • [3] Friday, October 14, 2022 @ 3am-5:30am UTC (8:30am IST / 11am PHST / 2pm AET)

VOTE NOW

We are thinking specifically about how to make the timing work for WordCamps that are in their planning stages (roughly 50% of which are in AMER/EMEA and 50% in APAC). Whichever time we select, we will definitely hold the workshop for other timezones in future quarters.

The workshop will be in English with a live transcript / captions.

Any and all WordCamp and meetup organizers are especially encouraged to attend this workshop!

VOTE NOW

#wpdiversityworkshops

WordPress Events Organizer Training (Americas Timezones Version)

As part of WordPress Deputy / Organizer training series, we are excited to invite all 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. and 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 around the world to attend our upcoming Zoom Session for WordPress Organizer Training.

@samsuresh hosted this training earlier this month on the 15th at 8am ET, but it was requested that we also host one that is Americas timezone-friendly. We will go over the same topics as last time, just with different participants. 🙂 If you attended the previous session, you are still welcome to attend this one, as the questions and tips shared may differ.

Date & TimeThursday, September 29, 2022 at 5:00 PM EDT
LocationZoom Video Conference
RSVPZoom RSVP

WordPress Meetup organizers and WordCamp organizers from all over the world are invited to this chat. This is also a wonderful opportunity to meet other people involved in the WordPress community and exchange advice and ideas with other event organizers!

Agenda

TimeAgenda
Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 5:00 PM EDTMeet and Greet
Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 5:15 PM EDTWordPress In-Person Events Briefing
Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 5:30 PM EDTWordPress Meetup Reactivation Project
Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 5:45 PM EDTQ&A by Community organizers
Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 6:15 PM EDTClosing

Please RSVP to receive an invitation via email with the Zoom link! If you have any questions, feel free to email support@wordcamp.org.

#meetups, #community-team, #wordcamps