This is the home of the Make Community team for the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project!
Here is where we have policy debates, project announcements, and assist community members in organizing events.
Everyone is welcome to comment on posts and participate in the discussions regardless of skill level or experience.
Get Involved
If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
The Community Team chat takes place the first Thursday of every month in the #community-team channel on SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..
This 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!
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: @peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga. 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.
Call for meeting host If anyone is available to host this month’s or next month’s Community Team meetings, please reach out to one of the team reps: @peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga.
Check-ins: Program and Event Supporters / Contributors
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 to Note
Here are a few things everyone should be aware of.
Reactivating Inactive Meetup Groups – Help revitalizing inactive MeetupMeetupMeetup 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 within our community by joining this 1-month initiative!
Addressing Overlapping Initiatives and Improving Collaboration Across Teams – An in-person meeting during WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. Europe was convened to address the overlapping initiatives among various WordPress contributor groups and explore ways to enhance collaboration and streamline efforts.
This is your chance to discuss things that weren’t on the meeting agenda.
We invite you to use this opportunity to share anything that you want with the team. If you currently have a topic you’d like to discuss, add it to the comments of this post and we will try to update the agenda accordingly.
Hope to see you on Thursday, either in the Asia-Pacific / EMEA (12:00 UTC) or Americas-friendly version (21:00 UTC) of the meeting!
We celebrated wins from the mentorship program in the last chat, incluing the program being featured in the WP Briefing Podcast and the DooTheWoo podcast. Our program also made a splash at WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. Europe 2024, with the event generating a lot of excitement and energy. At the camp, there was a dedicated WordCamp Connect session titled “Introduction to the Mentorship Program” which was facilitated by group members @nao@peiraisotta and @josepmoran. This session provided detailed insights into various aspects of the program and generated significant excitement among attendees. Additionally, in the opening slide of Matt Mullenweg’s 2024 Summer Update, the mentorship program was featured with Q1 2024 mentees being celebrated. Additionally, the opening slide of Matt Mullenweg’s 2024 Summer Update celebrated the Q1 2024 mentees of the mentorship program. Here are some pictures from WCEUWCEUWordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event.:
Participants in the chat expressed their enthusiasm and positive experiences from WordCamp Europe 2024. According to in-person participants at the dedicated WordCamp Connect session, there was great engagement and valuable questions during the event. @josepmoran‘s proposal to bring the mentorship program to local teams in their own languages got a lot of attention. Seeing all the interest from WordCamp participants in mentorship, we opened up an early call for interest for the 2024 Q4 mentorship program at WCEU, which was also announced in the final presentation!
Mentorship Program Cohort #3 (Q4 2024) Updates
Preparations for the next mentorship program have begun with the early call for interest already out. In the last meeting, the group decided on a cohort size of about 40 mentees paired with 20 mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is 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.. The aim is to involve as many Make/Teams as possible, with each mentee working on dedicated projects contributing to the 6.7 release.
The program will be executed in four phases:
Planning (June to August 2024): The full call for mentees and mentors will open in August.
Cohort Selection and Program Building (August to September 2024): Selection of participants will take place, with announcements in early September.
Mentorship Program (late September to early November 2024): The program will run for 4-6 weeks leading up to the release week.
Graduation and Retrospective (November to December 2024): Focus on concluding activities and reflecting on the program.
Chat participants expressed great interest in the cohort and in joining the same in various capacities. We then opened up a discussion on the following important points:
On Ensuring Great Mentorship Participants emphasized the need for pre-introduction workshops to help mentees understand various teams and select the right one, preventing mismatches and dropouts. The importance of conducting interviews with potential mentees and mentors to ensure a clear understanding of stable and lasting contributions was highlighted. There was consensus on creating a clear schedule of workshops and introductory sessions. Additionally, the idea of multilingual mentorship programs was proposed to make contributions more accessible to non-English speakers, with suggestions for local language cohorts working on language-specific projects. Regular Zoom calls for mentees to share progress and experiences were also recommended.
Connecting Mentorship with 6.7 Release The group discussed integrating the mentorship program with the WordPress 6.7 release. It was suggested that mentees could work on high-priority projects or features related to the release, providing them with practical tasks. This approach aims to give mentees real-life experience and a sense of contribution to the coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. WordPress project.
Timeline to Open the Formal Call for Applications The group was in agreement with the suggested timeline.
Suggestions for Next Cohort Suggestions for the next cohort included setting clear expectations for mentors and mentees, involving them in practical tasks to build self-esteem and a sense of usefulness. The idea of having local language cohorts working on language-specific projects alongside the main program was discussed. Creating a dedicated landing page and providing recognition for mentors and mentees were suggested to enhance the program’s visibility and appeal. There were also proposals to include opportunities for mentees to work closely with release leads, providing valuable real-life experience. Direct outreach and scholarships for underrepresented groups were recommended to ensure a diverse group of participants. An early call for “Make/Team Projects” was also suggested for this cohort.
Creating a Plan for On-Demand Mentorship in 2025
We took some time to discuss implementation details for the On-Demand Mentorship Idea. Key points discussed in the last chat include creating a structured asynchronous mentorship approach, a pool of available mentors, clear processes, a dedicated onboarding Slack channel, mentorship content on Learn WordPress, Q&A sessions, and bridging cohorts with continuous mentorship.
We realize that it might be difficult to implement this idea in 2024, but we are considering implementing the same in 2025. Towards that, we discussed the following points:
Adopt Current Cohort-Based Mentorship Structure for On-Demand Mentorship We discussed the idea of leveraging the existing cohort-based mentorship structure for the on-demand program. The idea is to create a detailed process and documentation to guide mentors and mentees, ensuring consistency. This approach could bridge on-demand mentorship with the cohort-based model, providing ongoing guidance and support. It was suggested to document key learnings and progress on a platform like P2P2P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/., allowing mentees to showcase their achievements.
Creating a Process for 1:1 Mentorship The value of offering mentorship on demand was highlighted in this discussion. We all agreed that having a structured program where new contributors could onboard into the project with the help of a mentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is 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., could facilitate quality contributions. We shared the idea of creating a framework for mentors to support mentees asynchronously through a dedicated process and structure. The idea of having a pool of mentors was explored, with hopes of encouraging mentees to connect with other mentors, too, when needed, on an on-demand mentorship program.
Facilitating On-Demand Mentorship To facilitate on-demand mentorship, the group proposed creating a pool of available mentors who can be booked for sessions by mentees. This system would allow for flexible and immediate support. The idea of hosting sessions with multiple mentors for open questions was also discussed, with sessions conducted based on mentee interest. Creating a central repository of current mentor/mentee assignments was suggested to ensure coordination and awareness among mentors. We all agreed that to move ahead with on-demand mentorship, the process should be clear and documented, as well as possible.
How to Connect Mentors and Mentees Participants emphasized the need for a dedicated Slack channel for onboarding new contributors, serving as a general onboarding space with team-specific customizations. This channel would facilitate easy connections between mentors and mentees. Additionally, mentorship content on Learn WordPress, coupled with Q&A sessions, was proposed to provide flexible support. Collaborative documentation and clear guidelines would help mentors and mentees navigate the on-demand mentorship process effectively. We also explored the idea of setting up some Informal (unstructured) mentorship across the project. Also, we discussed setting up various criteria to match mentors and mentees, including their language preferences, region, personalities, etc.
In conclusion, the group decided to use preparation time towards Cohort #3 as a way to create documentation and structure as a first step towards launching on-demand mentorship in early 2025.
Our upcoming project aims at revitalizing inactive MeetupMeetupMeetup 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 within our community. With over 762 WordPress Meetup groups spanning 108 countries and hosting nearly 537,000 members, we recognize the importance of fostering active engagement across our global network.
Starting July 1, 2024, we embark on a focused one-month initiative to breathe new life into our Meetup groups. This project comes in response to recent data revealing that nearly half of our groups are currently inactive—a statistic that underscores the need for proactive measures.
Our Objectives:
Encouraging activities in the groups that have been inactive.
Optimizing our meetup group network by focusing on active and engaged groups.
Our Tasks:
Prepare the Q2 inactive groups list from Meetup.com.
Send a message to the co-organizers.
Gather the current status and interest of inactive groups and follow up with non-responsive groups.
Provide resources and support to groups willing to reactivate.
Send a message to group members.
Prepare the final list of groups to close and send the list to Meetup.com to be processed.
Get Involved!
We invite all Community Team Supporters and Meetup Organizers to join us in strengthening our meetup group network. Your participation is crucial for revitalizing inactive groups in your country and neighboring regions. You can assist by providing resources, sharing ideas, offering support to groups interested in reactivating, encouraging them to plan and schedule their initial events, and monitoring their progress.
Whether you’re a co-organizer, member, or simply passionate about WordPress, your involvement can make a significant difference. Let’s make July a month of reconnection and revitalization for our Meetup groups worldwide!
Thank you, @courtneypk and @nao, for contributing to this post.
As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance communication and collaboration among our local WordPress communities, we propose that WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation, created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program. considers adopting our local communities, currently on free SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. plans, into a consolidated Enterprise Grid plan. More information: An introduction to Slack Enterprise Grid and Guide to the Enterprise Grid admin dashboard.
In alignment with @Matt Mullenweg’s proposal at the State of the WordState of the WordThis is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/. 2023, where he suggested adopting a few polyglot channels by saying about free Slack spaces for local communities: “you shouldn’t need to do that”, this initiative to transition to an Enterprise Grid could be seen as an extension of that vision. By consolidating our Slack workspaces, we not only enhance our ability to support multilingual communication but also significantly broaden the scope for cross-community interactions. This proactive step would further integrate diverse voices and expertise into our global WordPress community, supporting our collective growth.
It’s important to note that many of our local WordPress communities currently operate on free Slack plans. The list of known communication platforms for local communication can be seen here: Local Slack Teams.
These communities, which are pivotal in promoting WordPress and offering support at a local level, are indeed especially important for Polyglots but not only: Support, Community event organization and many more conversations happen in those Slack workspaces. Local communities face significant limitations in terms of message history and integration capabilities under the free plan model, with access to the conversations limited to 90 days. As Slack moves towards deleting older than 1 year historical data for free accounts, our community’s valuable discussions and resources risk being lost. Transitioning to an Enterprise Grid plan would safeguard our archives and enhance our operational capacities, ensuring that every local community has the tools they need to thrive.
Key Benefits of Moving to Slack Enterprise Grid:
Data Continuity and Access: By migrating to Enterprise Grid, we can ensure that all historical data — including messages, files, and customizations — is preserved. This is critical as Slack’s upcoming policy change will delete older than 1-year history for free workspaces starting 26 August 2024.
Enhanced Security and Compliance: Enterprise Grid offers advanced security features, compliance settings, and administrative capabilities that are not available in free Slack plans. These include SAML-based single sign-on, and comprehensive user and channel management.
Improved Collaboration Across Workspaces: Enterprise Grid allows for better integration across different workspaces. This is especially beneficial for communities that are segmented by region or interest group, facilitating smoother communication and resource sharing across the entire network.
Implementation Considerations:
Timeline: The transition should ideally be completed before 25 August 2024 to avoid any disruption caused by the deletion of message history for free plans. However, we understand that this deadline is short and even if it is not feasible in that timeframe, this proposal is still valid, with the workspaces recovery of 1 year of historical conversations.
Community Feedback and Support: It is crucial to involve community leaders and members, as well as free local Slack “owners”, in this transition process to ensure their needs and concerns are addressed.
User accounts: Address the concern of user accounts as people might already have accounts in several of those Slack workspaces. See with Slack if some sort of consolidation and merging user accounts are possible without losing user history in all the workspaces they belong to.
This change would hugely benefit the communication within the community, but it doesn’t solve all problems. For example, Slack refuses users and domains linked to certain locations, like Iran, Russia, etc.
Slack being a third-party proprietary application, we need to take into consideration these concerns, and talk with them about data ownership: Slack’s use of traditional machine learning models. If we move to an open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. solution at a later date, with this proposal we will at least have consolidated the existing Slack workspaces.
Call to Action:
Let’s consider this proposal and provide feedback on the feasibility of this transition, and if this is possible before 25 August 2024, in the comments below before July 12, 2024 for collaborative decision-making.
Welcome to the June edition of the WordPress MeetupMeetupMeetup 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! As we launch into a new season, we’re excited to bring you a range of engaging activities, inspiring stories, and useful tips to help you make the most of your meetup events. Whether you’re a seasoned organizer or just starting out, there’s something here for everyone. Let’s continue to grow, share knowledge, and strengthen our vibrant WordPress community together!
June 25 – Join the first Training Team Thumbnail-a-thon: Make graphics together for the new Learn.WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/!
We’re happy to share a great WordPress contributor opportunity for your meetup group: Participate in a group activity to make Learn WordPress Thumbnails(What’s a “Thumbnail-a-thon”? It’s simply a fun name for an event that brings people together to create Learn WordPress thumbnails – like a marathon, but for making Thumbnails!).
Now is your chance to contribute to the new Learn.WordPress.org redesign! The official WordPress education site is launching soon with a fresh look and Learning Pathways geared to users, designers, developers, and contributors. The WordPress Training Team needs help creating small thumbnail graphics for lessons and tutorials on the new site. You can see examples of what the graphics look like in the “Featured Courses and Courses” sections on the new site, which you can preview here. No previous graphics experience is required, since there’s a handy tool that makes the process of creating thumbnails simple!
Join the WordPress Training Team on Tuesday, June 25 for a free online workshop to learn how to use the tool, help make graphics for the new site, and have some fun along the way. You’ll get recognition for your contribution and get a foot in the door with the WordPress.org Training team. A recording of the workshop will be available afterwards.
Inspire Your Community with a “Success Stories” Session
As a WordPress Meetup Organizer, you have a unique opportunity to inspire and empower your community. One effective way to do this is by hosting a “Success Stories” session at your next meetup. This type of event can showcase the incredible achievements of WordPress users within your community, fostering a sense of pride and motivation among your attendees.
Here’s how to organize a “Success Stories” session:
Invite Speakers: Reach out to members of your community who have compelling success stories to share. These could be stories about launching a successful blog, building a thriving e-commerce site, or creating impactful nonprofit websites using WordPress.
Select Diverse Stories: Ensure a variety of stories by including different types of projects and experiences. This diversity will show the wide range of possibilities with WordPress and resonate with a broader audience.
Prepare Questions: Help your speakers prepare by providing them with a list of questions or topics to cover, such as the challenges they faced, how they overcame them, and the specific WordPress tools or plugins they used.
Interactive Q&A: After each story, allow time for a Q&A session. This interaction can provide valuable insights and practical advice to your attendees.
Share Online: Record the session and share it on your Meetup group’s page and social media channels such as LinkedIn. This can inspire even more people and showcase the strength of your community to a wider audience.
Hosting a “Success Stories” session can build confidence among your attendees by showing them real-life examples of what they can achieve with WordPress. It also fosters a supportive and inspiring community atmosphere, encouraging members to pursue their own WordPress projects with enthusiasm.
Host a WordPress Showcase for Your Meetup Group
The WordPress Showcase highlights the incredible versatility and power of WordPress, featuring a wide array of use cases such as personal blogs, small businesses, enterprise companies, and national governments.
Consider organizing a Meetup event to explore Showcase sites! This engaging activity will allow your Meetup members to discover the diverse brands and websites built with WordPress, and the most unique and innovative uses of WordPress.
Begin by introducing the WordPress Showcase to your attendees. Review some of the most impressive and innovative sites featured in the Showcase to inspire your group. Encourage group discussion about which designs and features most stand out to them. This interaction can spark new ideas and encourage community members to innovate in their own projects.
You can also invite local developers and agencies to present their most interesting WordPress projects. Ask them to participate in your Meetup event, share their experiences, and showcase their most innovative websites. Encourage presenters to discuss the challenges they faced, the solutions they implemented, and the WordPress tools and plugins they used. This can provide valuable insights and learning opportunities for your attendees.
Then motivate your presenters and attendees to submit their projects to be included in the WordPress Showcase. The WordPress Showcase is accepting submissions of innovative, modern, and/or enterprise sites and case studies.
WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program Q4 2024: Call for Interest
We are excited to announce an early interest form for the Q4 2024 WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program Cohort! This program connects seasoned WordPress experts with newcomers, offering a fantastic opportunity for mentees to gain hands-on experience contributing to WordPress, while mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is 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. share their expertise and improve their leadership skills. Learn more and indicate your interest in joining the Q4 Cohort as a Mentee or MentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is 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..
Announcing the New Handbook for Sustainable WordPress Events
MeetupsMeetupMeetup 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. of the Month
Vancouver WordPress Meetup (Vancouver, Canada)East Bay WordPress Meetup (Oakland, California, USA)
Meetup Organizers, we want to feature you!
We’d love to publish pictures from Meetups all around the world in each newsletter. Do you want your Meetup to be featured? Share 1 picture with the Community team! Rename your picture as “Meetup-name_event-date” and upload it to this folder. The formats supported are JPG and PNG. Please remember, always ask for permission from your group members before taking the picture and sharing it with us!
Do you have content ideas for future editions of the Meetup Organizer Newsletter? Please let us know by submitting a GitHub issue!
If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram SupporterCommunity Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. are here to help. Please email us at support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-eventsSlack 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!
Notes: This recap is a summary of the Community Team monthly meeting. It will cover the discussion points, ideas, and decisions that came up during the meeting. The aim of this recap is to provide a quick overview for those who were unable to attend as well as an overview for everyone. These meetings were based on the Agenda for Jun and are held in our #community-teamSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel on Make WordPress. You can find the meeting chat log here:
Please leave your comments if you have any feedback. Additionally, each agenda item discussed may have its own Make post related to its topic with more information and you can add to the discussion directly to that post.
Chat Summary Check-ins: Program and Event Supporters / Contributors
What have you been working on recently and how is it going?
Anything you’ve accomplished since the last meeting?
Are there any blockers?
Can other team members help you in some way?
@peiraisotta: WC Europe has been taking a good part of my focus lately. I have been mentoring WC Kraków and the Somos event. Next week it’s WCEUWCEUWordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. already!!
@adityakane: He had been working a bit on and off with the new Vetting Team and transitioned to GithubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ along with some mediation threads. Also mentoring WC Bengaluru and unofficially a bit to WC Kolkata.
@sumitsingh : He is leading the training table at WCEU next week and published a post for that too.
@nukaga : Preparations are underway for WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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 2025. He has some vetting. He going to WordCamp EU. He is on the move today and this is from his mobile.
@patricia70: WCEU organiser, almost full time in the last weeks (not easy as a non-sponsored who needs to work on her business).
@aion11: Vetting meetupMeetupMeetup 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. applications. He have vetted 6 applications in the last few weeks. Will be vetting more.Also, working in the WCAsia Comms team.
@mpcdigital : He is preparing a few events in my area and doing a lot of meetup orientation meetings and WordCamps.
@nhrro : Currently he is working as a WordPress 6.6 Triage Co-Lead.6.6 BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 is released this Tuesday. Beta 2 will be released next week.
@unintended8: A little late, but time… Currently spending most of my life on WCEU. Can’t wait to meet many of you in a few days!!!
@kafleg : Mentoring WC Kolkata and WC Delhi, Chennai Meetup at the moment.Getting ready for WCEU and will be leading the themes table. Also vetting meetup applications.
@devmuhib : I will lead the WordCamp Training Table at WordCamp Europe (Online Version) and getting prepare for that. Set an Online Workshop for Learn WordPress on next 9th of June. Triaging Issues on GitHub for the Training Team
Comments have closed and a summary is underway. Thank you to those who commented. Feel free to comment under this thread if you have other ideas for WCEU Contributor Day. Proposal to Update Our Event Venue Policy
Comments have closed and a summary is underway. Thank you to those who commented.
Events program has seen significant challenges in bringing new users and new attendees in recent years due to many factors. To that end, this conversation aims to examine the events program’s current state and explore what changes could attract fresh users to the WordPress Project. Read carefully and share feedback before June 28, 2024.
Project Health Dashboards. Following the discussion about the contribution recognition challenge, the whole community is invited to share ideas and feedback about what tools we can use to create dashboards for the contribution teams. Please join the conversation and leave feedback before June 17.
In case you missed them, here are the latest announcements and newsletters. Take your time to read them now, or save them for later. Make sure you catch up whenever you can!
@peiraisotta would love to hear from @patriciabt@kafleg and @chaion07 how were today’s supporter hours? I’ve never attended one: what do you do in these sessions? @patricia70 talked about visa processes in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, to come to Europe. @chaion07 shared some points about organizing WCEU 2024 as a program supporterProgram SupporterCommunity Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook.. @nhrro shared his experience with visa complexity.
Call for Meeting Facilitators The Community Team Monthly Meetings happen on the first Thursday of every month. These meetings can be facilitated and run by any member of the community team and are a great opportunity to engage with the rest of the community and team. If you are interested in facilitating any of these meetings in the future, please feel free to comment or get in touch with any of the Community Team Reps.
Purpose: This proposal aims to enhance support for WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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 by forming a task force focused on streamlining sponsorship efforts, ensuring sustainability, and improving the overall sponsor experience. This is not intended to diminish the autonomy of WordCamp organizers but to offer them additional resources and support.
Flagship WordCamps have become an essential item in all our calendars throughout the year. They are the largest gathering of WordPress folks in the community and attract a lot of attention from the Media and our partners/sponsors. One of the biggest issues with becoming bigger is the need for more money and therefore more sponsoring activity, while still relying on the work of volunteers to organize this. Selling all the required sponsor spots gets harder and harder from year to year due to inflation and corporate consolidation in the WordPress ecosystem.
Those volunteers are facing the same discussions and questions from year to year when it comes to approaching sponsors:
What companies to approach for sponsorship?
How can we reach them? Is the list shared?
What are the sponsorship packages, what are the benefits to sponsors and what are some rules around them?
How can we make sure that sponsorship is sustainable for the community and the sponsor?
Why is [ACTION] allowed on WordCamp [Flagship Location] but not in WordCamp [Flagship Location]
How to approach this topic?
How to handle global sponsors for the flagship even if the rules are written down?
Each flagship is organized by those who apply to be an organizer and therefore follow the call. In the worst case, the whole team is different from the previous year’s and needs to rely solely on the documents of the previous year.
This proposal is to create an initial small task force inside the community that supports sponsorship teams; for now, this would focus on the three flagships (WC Asia, WCEUWCEUWordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event., and WCUSWCUSWordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event.) but have relevance to WordCamps and WordPress events, to help streamline the sponsor experience for everyone involved. The proposal is to open a call for volunteers for this task force as well as directly approach community members who might be a great fit. I’ve structured the possible tasks for a task force to work on it:
Sponsoring itself
Harmonize sponsoring benefits across the Flagships with fine adjustments to local e.g.: pricing, booth size, local things, …
Successful benefit ideas like tweets, social events, booths,…
Unsuccessful benefit ideas should be centrally listed.
Common & best practice
Establish clear rules for sponsorship
Booth regulations
Handling larger companies with multiple brands
Designing Sponsorship packages for small businesses while ensuring availability
Support for Sponsors and WordCamps Global Lead
Crafting wording around “Partner” or “Sponsoring” not “Exhibitor” packages
Sponsor Lifecycle
CRM of up-to-date sponsoring companies incl. contacts besides the Global sponsors
Guidance for first-time sponsors
Crafting detailed onboarding and sponsoring documents
Support for “frustrated” sponsoring questioning value
Example: More visibility by attending than sponsoring
Active outreach for potential sponsors outside the current sponsors but benefit from WordPress
Crafting detailed onboarding and sponsoring documents
Support for Sponsor Teams
Mentorship for Sponsoring Teams, also available as sparring Partners – a global sponsor mentorship team.
Focused on Flagships
Available for all WordCamps
Trainings on learn.wordpress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/?
Handbooks on how to approach local companies best
Collecting testimonials and ambassadors for the flagships
Bring them to the Media Partners
Work with PR Team ahead of Call for Sponsor
Support the sponsor team in the reflection of a WordCamp and centralize their feedback.
Tooling & Processes
Align contract and tooling with Sponsoring benefits
Streamlined processes and define the same tools to use for all flagship events, or at least for each one of them
Include in the process a survey/inquiry for sponsors that didn’t come back to better understand why
Goals: By implementing this initiative, we aim to:
Foster better relationships with sponsors.
Attract new sponsors and grow the ecosystem.
Provide a consistent, improved experience across all flagship events.
Ensure financial support for the growth of the WordPress community, facilitating impactful, inclusive, and rewarding WordCamps.
TODOs:
Better Mentoring for New Sponsors: Provide guidance and community insights.
Engage Sponsors: Encourage sponsor participation beyond sponsoring as speakers and media partners.
Feedback LoopLoopThe Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop.: Implement clear communication and feedback mechanisms for sponsor teams.
Sponsor Communication: Emphasize the importance of sponsors sharing their work through their booth, recaps and active engagement.
Next Steps
Feedback Deadline: Please provide your feedback on this proposal by July 10th, 2024.
Specific Feedback Needed: Is this initiative worth pursuing? How should the task force be staffed? What are your expectations from this task force?
Post-Feedback Actions: Based on the feedback, if there is general support, we will ask the community team for nominees and open a call for volunteers to form the task force. We aim to establish initial actions before the next sponsorship teams for WordCamp Europe and US begin their work.
It is time to host the next Monthly chat of the WordPress Contributor Working Group. We’re meeting on the Next Thursday (June 20th) to continue our work on improving the contribution experience of WordPress and to continue our work on mentorship programs. For more information on the working group and its plans, check out our launch post and past chats.
Meeting times
We will hold these chats in multiple time zones to accommodate as many participants all over the world as possible. These chats will continue to be held on the Third Thursday of every month.
The chat will be held on the #community-team channel of the Make/WordPress Slack. Here’s the link to a handy `.ics` file containing calendar entries for our upcoming chat so you won’t miss it. These chats have also been added to the Make/Meetings calendar. Everyone interested in improving the contributor experience in WordPress and building future mentorship programs is welcome to attend!
1. Welcome, introductions, and check-ins How is everyone doing? New members joining the group can also introduce themselves. Do we also have any volunteers for notetaking, next agenda drafting, or next meeting host?
2. Wins and Updates from WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. Europe 2024 WordCamp Europe 2024 is over, and our program was a big hit at the event, so much that it was the opening slide on Matt Mullenweg’s 2024 Summer Update where our mentees from the Q1 2024 cohort was featured! The excitement was so much that we even opened up an early interest form for the Q4 cohort! Let’s do a quick debrief of updates and learnings from the event and to celebrate our wins!
3. Mentorship Program Cohort #3 (Q4 2024) In our past chats we have been discussing extensively on how our next cohort should look like. Based on all the ideas shared, let’s discuss and finalize a plan for our next cohort and start working on planning the same. We will be sharing the plan in this chat and will seek feedback from our group members. We also hope to assign tasks and start working as per plan.
4. Creating a plan for On-Demand Mentorship in 2025 We have received a lot of interest in the “On Demand Mentorship” idea that was discussed extensively in the last chat. Let’s start thinking of how a first version of the same would look like, how it could co-exist with our cohorts, and how do we trial this in 2025.
5. Questions, thoughts, and open floor! If we still have time after all that intense discussion, we’ll open up the floor to discuss WordPress Contribution broadly and our program!
Looking forward to seeing many of you in the chat!
We are excited to announce an early interest form for the Q4 2024 WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program Cohort! This program connects seasoned WordPress experts with newcomers, offering a fantastic opportunity for mentees to gain hands-on experience contributing to WordPress, while mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is 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. share their expertise and improve their leadership skills. Learn more about our July 2023 Pilot, and our February 2024 cohort.
Following the success of our last cohort, we have received significant interest from community members worldwide about the program at WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. Europe 2024. Therefore, we are opening an early call for interest for participants in our next cohort, planned for October-November 2024. Interested participants can pre-register now.
Join as a Mentee
Whether you are new to WordPress or looking to enhance your skills, this program offers a unique opportunity to learn from experienced contributors. Receive personalized guidance, develop your skills, and network within the WordPress community. Never contributed before? You’re STRONGLY invited to apply!
Join as a MentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is 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.
If you have experience in WordPress development, design, community engagement, or any other WordPress-related area and wish to guide new contributors, this is your chance to make a significant impact. Through mentoring, give back to the community, enhance your leadership skills, and connect with emerging contributors.
Please note: This is not the official mentor/mentee call form. The formal mentor/mentee selection process will open in August 2024. We typically receive many applications for our mentorship program, and by pre-registering now, you increase your chances of being selected.
Like the February 2024 cohort, this cohort will also focus on project-based mentorship. Mentees will have the chance to work on projects related to their area of contribution. The cohort will work closely with the WordPress 6.7 release, giving participants an insider view of the process.
Application Process & Cohort Timeline
June 2024: Mentee Interest Form opens
June – July 2024: Next cohort structure finalized, and program announced
August – September 2024: Mentees/mentors are selected and announced
October-November 2024: Mentorship Program.
I hope many of you participate in this exciting journey of learning and collaboration! Please comment on this post if you have any questions.
+make.wordpress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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//project/ +make.wordpress.org/updates/
