An in-person meeting during 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. Europe was convened to address the overlapping initiatives among various WordPress contributor groups and explore ways to enhance collaboration and streamline efforts. The primary goal was to avoid duplication of work and ensure that all teams were aligned and working efficiently towards shared objectives.

Meeting Subject: Addressing Overlapping Initiatives and Improving Collaboration Across Teams
Teams/Groups Involved: Sustainability Team, DEIB Working Group, Five for the Future Working Group, Contributor Mentorship Working Group, Community Team, MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. Team, Dashboards Working Group
Facilitator: Angela Jin – Head of Programs & Contributor Experience
Attendees:

• Josepha Haden Chomphosy @chanthaboune – Executive Director of the WordPress project
• Chloe Brinkmann @cbringmann – Operations/Communication
• Naoko Takano @nao– Open SourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. Project Manager / Five for the Future initiative
• Patricia Brun Torre @patricia70 – Facilitator of the Contributor Mentorship Group
• Courtney Robertson @courane01 – Meta Team and Project Health Working Group
• Isotta Peira @peiraisotta – Community Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.
• Nora Ferreirós @noradriana, Nahuai Badiola @nahuai, Thijs Buijs @yellowlime – Sustainability Team
• Birgit Olzem @coachbirgit – DEIB Working Group

The meeting took place in person during WordCamp Europe on June 14th, 2024.

Key Discussions

Introduction and Purpose

Angela Jin opened the meeting by expressing excitement about the gathering and emphasizing the importance of understanding each group’s focus areas to prevent duplication of efforts and improve collaboration.

Team Introductions and Project Overviews

Sustainability Team

The Sustainability Team, represented by Nora Ferreirós, Nahuai Badiola, and Thijs Buijs, has focused primarily on environmental projects like the WP Sustainability Plugin, and the Sustainable Events Handbook due to time constraints. They aim to expand their work to include socio-economic and environmental pillars, with ongoing projects like making WordPress events more sustainable and developing a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party to measure website environmental impact.

Project Health Dashboard

Courtney Robertson discussed the Project Health Working Group’s involvement in exploring dashboard options to gather better statistics and metrics for contributors and the need for better documentation to support team reps during turnover. They are considering whether to build their systems or use SaaS solutions.

DEIB Working Group

Birgit Olzem highlighted the DEIB Working Group’s focus for 2024 on extending the contributor handbook to be more inclusive and accessible. They are conducting surveys to assess DEIB status within the WordPress community at both local and international levels. The intended purpose of the DEIB working group is to be a shared resource for all contributor teams on how to apply the DEIB principles into their daily routines.

Contributor Mentorship Program

Patricia Brun Torre explained the mentorship program’s evolution from earlier contributor working groups. The program aims to improve onboarding and create closer connections with initiatives like Five for the Future.

Overlapping Projects and Communication

The attendees recognized significant overlaps in their projects, especially concerning contributor onboarding and sustainability. Discussions highlighted the need for better coordination and communication among teams. There was a consensus on the value of regular cross-team check-ins and hangouts to share current projects and focus areas.

Challenges and Solutions

Several challenges were identified, including the perception of the sustainability team’s role and the need for clear documentation processes within Meta. The group discussed potential solutions like forming a central team for culture and sustainability, while maintaining specific focus areas under this umbrella. Concerns were raised because of the community’s perception of the term “Sustainability.” This term is often perceived as focusing only on environmental sustainability.

Proposed next steps

Forming a Singular Team

The attendees agreed on the potential benefits of forming a singular team to address contributor culture, sustainability, and onboarding comprehensively. This new team would focus on integrating efforts and providing clear resources for new and existing contributors.

Enhanced Communication

To improve communication and avoid duplication, the group proposed regular cross-team hangouts and using existing channels like the Team Reps channel and P2s for updates and collaboration.

Documentation and Awareness

Emphasizing the importance of documentation, the group suggested creating detailed guides and resources to help team reps and contributors navigate their roles and projects effectively. Additionally, raising awareness about each team’s efforts within the community was seen as crucial for fostering a cohesive and informed contributor base.

Conclusion

The meeting concluded with a commitment to continue discussions and refine the proposed collaboration structure. A follow-up meeting will be scheduled to finalize details and ensure all teams are aligned on the next steps.

Rough dates to follow-up with next steps:

• Follow-up meeting via Zoom Call: mid-July
• Singular team decision (structure, collaboration protocol, and name/identity): early August

Please leave your thoughts and feedback to this discussion here as a comment before July 12, 2024

Props

Thanks to @nao, @courane01, @cbringmann, @peiraisotta for reviewing and leaving feedback on this post. Thanks also to @patricia70, @noradriana, @nahuai for giving your blessing after reviewing. A special thanks to @courane01 for recording (with consent of all participants) and providing the transcription of the meeting.