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Timi Wahalahti 8:44 am on May 10, 2021
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Call for ideas: WordCamp Europe 2021 Community Team content

WordCamp Europe Online 2021 is coming soon! The event takes place 7-9 June and all Make teams have the opportunity to host some content during the event if we’d like to.

Workshops
We can apply to host a workshop or two in one of the main tracks during the event. There’s no automatically guaranteed spot in the schedule for us, all workshop applications are vetted by the content team but given a slightly higher priority.

The workshop(s) can be almost anything our team would like to host, the only restraint is that the topic needs to be related somehow to the things our team does. This can be for example traditional onboarding for new meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers, thought it would be nice to come up with something that targets a larger audience.

Please share your ideas, thoughts and short preliminary workshop descriptions in the comments! Also mention if you would be willing to be one of the co-hosts in the workshop(s)

Unformal networking sessions
Another way how we can be part of the WCEU program is by hosting one or two unformal video chat sessions (in Zoom or a similar platform provided by WCEU). These will be during the main event days and can be almost anything we would like to do. For example, hosting a live Community office hours to answer all questions related to WordPress events or discussion about do_action events.

Please share your ideas and thoughts in the comments!

The deadline for workshop submissions is Friday 14 May, so please share your ideas on Thursday latest! Sorry for the short notice and time to reactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/..

#wceu, #wceu-contributorday

WordCamp.org 4:00 am on May 10, 2021
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Weekly Updates

Hello to all our Deputies, WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers, MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. wranglers, and WordPress Community builders! You were probably hard at work this weekend. Tell us what you got accomplished in our #weekly-update!

Have you run into a roadblock with the stuff you’re working on? Head over to #community-events or #community-team in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. and ask for help!

Timi Wahalahti 8:09 am on May 6, 2021
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Community Team Meeting agenda for 2021-05-06

The Community Team bi-weekly meeting is happening today. The meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team!

Asia-Pacific / EMEA friendly meeting: 2021-05-06 12:00
Americas friendly meeting: 2021-05-06 21:00

Below is a preliminary agenda for the meeting. If you wish to add things you’d like bring to into discussion, comment below or reach out to team reps @sippis or @kcristiano. It does not need to be a blog post yet, the topic can be discussed during the meeting nevertheless. We use the same agenda for both meetings.

Preliminary agenda

Deputy / Mentor / Contributor check-ins

What have you been doing and how is it going? What you got accomplished after the last meeting? Are there any blockers? Can other team members help you in some way?

Highlights

Youth Working Group
Youth Working Group works together to provide resources to event organizers of kids based events. They are always welcoming new contributors! Join the group in their next meeting on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, at 1400 UTC in #community-team channel.

Contributor Working Group
This group is working towards creating a comprehensive, centralized location for all Contributor information that will help encourage all Contributors and Contributor Event Planners. This group also welcomes all new contributors who want to help! Follow #wpcontributors tag in our blog to hear about upcoming meetings.

Diverse Speaker Training Working Group
This group supports meetups and WordPress events to run a workshop that will help increase the number of speaker applications from people from marginalized and underrepresented groups. This group as well is welcoming new contributors. Follow #wpdiversity tag in our blog to hear about upcoming meetings.

New and ongoing discussions

Discussing the path to in-person WordCamps
Throughout the pandemic, the team has maintained the safety and health of the community as the highest priority, and this has not changed. To that end, and knowing that this is a complex discussion, the Community team invites you to share your thoughts on how the WordPress community can safely move back to in-person WordCamps.

Discussion: Companies who run competitive ads against WordPress and apply to sponsor WordCamps
Recently, a 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. organizing team raised a question to Community Deputies about a potential sponsor’s product, a WordPress derivative, being promoted in competition with WordPress and putting WordPress in an unflattering light. This question naturally prompted some discussion around where our expectations could be clarified to address WordPress derivatives and how they are promoted by sponsors, speakers, and organizers.

Feedback time in this discussion has ended, but we can discuss it in brief if someone has something in mind.

WordCamp Europe plans
WordCamp Europe Online is coming in a month and the team has the opportunity to host some content during the event if we’d like to. Timi will put a more detailed post out there tomorrow, but here are the basics so everyone can start to think of possible ideas for the content.

We can host a workshop or two during the event days if we’d like to, to showcase or help related to our team. We can submit the workshop applications until Friday next week. Another opportunity we’ll have during the WCEU days is to have a few zoom session, which can be more unformal. For example to help onboard new contributors, have kind of office hours hosted by deputies to answer all questions related to events… we can do anything really if we’d like to!

Open floor

Opportunity to bring things into discussions that weren’t on the meeting agenda and if anyone has something they would like to share with the team. If you have a topic in mind before the meeting, please add it into the comments of this post.

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

#meeting-agenda, #team-chat, #team-meeting

Angela Jin 4:55 pm on May 4, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: All About Community Deputies

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email me at [email protected] with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

The WordPress Community Team is well known for hosting WordPress events around the world. Whether in-person or online, since 2006, volunteer organizers have hosted incredible events that connect WordPress enthusiasts to each other, inspire them to do more with WordPress, and encourage people to contribute back to the project.

Community organizing, however, is a multi-faceted world of wonders. Beyond the logistics of organizing an event, community organization involves excellent leadership skills, as well as knowledge of marketing, project and program management, and much, much more. 

So how is it possible that the WordPress Community team regularly welcomes new event organizers, many who may not have any previous experience?

It’s in large, large part thanks to the amazing people we call Community Deputies: WordPress meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. and/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. organizers who enjoyed organizing so much, they wanted to help others around the world! 

Who are the Community Deputies?

Community deputies are organizers themselves, and many continue to be very active in their local communities. They participate in extra training around best 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. community building practices, and how the Community Team brings that to WordPress. This training, combined with their familiarity with the WordCamp and/or meetup chapter program, allows them to become experts in how to bring WordPress enthusiasts together.

Community deputies are, unsurprisingly, people-oriented. From everyday decisions to complex situations, deputies are guided by what is in the best interests of the WordPress community. Deputies frequently reflect on what would make things easier for contributors, and how to better support them.

Ok, but what exactly do Community Deputies do?

Community Deputies Deputies are charged with three areas of responsibility:

  1. Tackling an ongoing, regular list of tasks.
  2. Training, guiding, and mentoring WordPress communities and organizers
  3. Advising on direction and future of the Community team

The Community Team has a range of routine tasks that help keep everything moving slowly. This includes things like vetting applications for meetup groups and WordCamps, or sending Zoom accounts to meetup organizers. There are a number of queues that deputies maintain daily. For a full list of tasks, check out our deputy handbook.

In addition to welcoming and orienting Meetup and WordCamp organizers, Deputies are also around to help answer any and all questions from organizers around the world. There are a number of common questions (check out other Tuesday Trainings to see some of those questions and answers), and deputies leverage their training and experience to give the best answers! Deputies routinely help with topics like how to sustainably expand an organizing team, how to diversify a speaker line up, or simply how to start a local community.

Sometimes, those questions can get pretty tricky, for example, questions around how help a potential sponsor change their licence to be GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples.-friendly. In many of these cases, deputies will work together to discuss and to provide the strongest community-driven responses. 

Supporting a global community allows deputies to have a broader view of the Community team and how programs are functioning. When deputies see areas for improvement, they’ll suggest them! Deputies will also bring up, discuss, and help decide bigger, whole program decisions. A great example of this is our work with exploring how to move back to in-person events. 

Of course, deputies rely on lots of collaboration and feedback organizers, WordCamp mentors, event sponsors, volunteers, and attendees to do all of this incredible work! Across discussions and projects, deputies regularly invite participation from any WordPress community member. 

Can I be a Community Deputy? 

Any WordPress organizer with experience and who is in good standing with the program can be a Community Deputy. To learn more about being a Community Deputy, check out the handbook. When you’re ready, submit an application! We’ll get back to you as soon as possible. 

Want to learn more? Come join us in the #community-events or #community-team channels in the Making WP 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/.! We’re super friendly people, so come say hi.  

Thank you @hlashbrooke, @sippis, @kcristiano for helping to write this week’s Tuesday Training.

#tuesdaytrainings

klipari 7:24 pm on May 3, 2021  

Recap of Youth Working Group | Tuesday, April 27, 2021.

Attending: @klipari, @chaion07, @ashiquzzaman, @oneal

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1619539724199100

Agenda

  1. Updates from the year
  2. Goals for this year
  3. Needs of the Group
  4. Open Floor Discussion

You can see the Agenda post we referenced here. It had not changed from our previous meeting.

Summary

We are still in need of volunteers to participate in helping create content for educators and adults who want to hold Kids Camps. We have all of the documentation, we just need ready and able individuals capable of turning those into a lesson plan or slideshow for narration.

No experience needed for this or the other activities we need assistance with:

  • Research – laws surrounding minors at events globally
  • Writing – arts and crafts documentation, WordPress basics documentation, Parental Resources Documents
  • Video Creation – how-to videos for parents to get involved with their kids, Encouraging Videos for organizers, and videos for educators
  • Editing – grammar, spell check, and general flow proofreaders/editors

We also need anyone who has experience with a Kids Camp to help evaluate our Handbook and offer improvements and edits.

Volunteer Update

We had three volunteers during the meeting and one committed to evaluating the documentation and working on a Google Doc to start the process of organizing the “How to prepare for a Kids Camp” information into a teachable format.

Please feel free to reach out directly if you feel called to assist in expanding the youth education content.

Next Meeting

Next Meeting is Tuesday May 11, 2021, 1400 UTC/ 10am EST. This chat will occur in the Make WordPress Community-Team 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.

#kids-events, #youth-events

WordCamp.org 4:00 am on May 3, 2021
Tags:   

Weekly Updates

Hello to all our Deputies, WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers, MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. wranglers, and WordPress Community builders! You were probably hard at work this weekend. Tell us what you got accomplished in our #weekly-update!

Have you run into a roadblock with the stuff you’re working on? Head over to #community-events or #community-team in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. and ask for help!

jillbinder 11:46 pm on April 30, 2021
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Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) on April 28, 2021

Lead by: @onealtr

Attending: @onealtr @angelasjin @drewgarcia @wpfangirl @nalininonstopnewsuk

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1619629202227100

  • We reviewed the status of the team’s current projects.
  • The first APAC region Diverse Speaker workshop for 2021 will be held in the Philippines, on May 15 1500H GMT+8. The team talked about what is needed on it, especially talking about getting the word out (marketing / promotions).

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1619632744256000

#wpdiversity

Cami Kaos 12:36 am on April 28, 2021
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Tuesday Trainings: How can I keep my meetups interesting and fun?

This year we’ve changed the format of Tuesday Trainings to better get directly at the issues that seem to be on the minds of folks in our community. How are we doing that? Great question. We’re either seeking to answer commonly asked questions or address commonly heard complaints, concerns, and confusions.

If there’s a question you’d like to see answered or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email me at [email protected] with the subject line Tuesday Trainings. Now onto this week’s topic.

How can I keep my meetups interesting and fun?

Well that is the question, isn’t it. Even when things were “normal” and we were able to meet in-person organizers were already asking this question. Now that most of us are entering a second year of pandemic prompted online meetups this question is more relevant than ever.

And to this question, for once, I have a simple answer! I believe the saying goes something like, “Variety is the spice of life.”

Try a new format!

There’s practically an endless list of possible formats to choose from. Some tried and true, some never before thought of. I obviously can’t share ones no one has yet thought of, but if you haven’t already, try these alternate meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. formats. They work in-person as well as online!

Update Parties
Interviews
Blog-a-longs
Forums Friday (answer questions in the forums)
Help Desks
Social Hours
Discussion Groups
Contributor Events

Those are just a few. I’d love for you to share in comments what other formats have worked for your community!

But wait, there’s more.

Try a new time

Many meetups are pretty set in their ways when it comes to when they meet. There are two ways to look at that. The consistency can provide an easy way for Meetup members to know when and where they’re meeting and avoid other scheduling conflicts. But I guarantee you that the time you’re meeting doesn’t work for everyone who would like to attend. Try changing up the time, the day of the week, and when we’re back to in-person meetups where you host the event. Whether it’s because of their work, their family, or other life priorities sometimes people aren’t able to make your schedule their schedule.

Make it accessible

If you’re meeting online, make sure you’re using a platform that is accessible and don’t be afraid to welcome would-be attendees to let you know what accommodations you can make so they can attend and get the most out of the event.

When you’re looking at venues, make sure that they are accessible to everyone. If there are separate entrances, elevators, or bathrooms for people in mobility devices or unable to use stairs let people know in advance how to access those areas. 

Be open to feedback

Ask your community members what they would like to experience in your meetups. Who knows, they might have a great idea to share or even be your next co-organizer.

What else is there?

I’m sure you all have some great tips and tricks to make Meetups interesting and fun. I’d love to read them, and I’m sure others would too. Please share in the comments!

#tuesdaytrainings

Angela Jin 7:20 am on April 26, 2021  

Discussing the path to in-person WordCamps

NOTE: At this time, all WordPress events are online, with the exception of MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. communities that meet the requirements of the checklist. This is a discussion only, so that the Community Team can be informed in making future proposals around WordCamps.  

Earlier this year, the Community Team created guidelines to help meetups move back to in-person events. Since then, in-person WordPress meetups have been held in Taiwan, New Zealand, and Australia. 

Community deputies have received a few inquiries about moving back to in-person WordCamps. Throughout the pandemic, the team has maintained the safety and health of the community as the highest priority, and this has not changed. To that end, and knowing that this is a complex discussion, the Community team invites you to share your thoughts on how the WordPress community can safely move back to in-person WordCamps. 

Recalling our December 2020 conversation on how to return to safe in-person events, a few ideas still seem applicable to start:

  • Mandatory masks
  • Restrictions on the length of events
  • Limits on number of attendees
  • Recommending a lower percentage for venue capacity (for example, suggesting a cap of 50% of a venue’s total capacity)
  • Maintaining advanced or additional safety guidelines around food or drink (for example, avoiding anything communal and asking that all food be consumed in certain areas)
  • Mandatory registration, so attendees can be contacted in case of exposure 

Some new ideas or suggestions could include:

  • Only allowing for WordCamps in communities that also pass the in-person meetup decision checklist
  • Limiting to local attendees only
  • Limiting to local speakers only
  • Recommending that only vaccinated attendees attend
  • Accommodating hybrid events (in-person and livestreamed)

Please share your thoughts

Please respond in the comments with your thoughts by Monday, May 10, 2021, keeping in mind that the team is exploring what a first possible in-person WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. would look like, and that as vaccines are more broadly distributed and case counts reduce, the team will continue to reexamine safety measures. 

  1. As an attendee, what measures would help you feel safe at a WordCamp?
  2. If you are an organizer, how can the Community Team support you in the return to in-person events?

A final note

I’m going to get a little more personal here: returning to in-person WordCamps is going to be an emotional experience that is going to affect everyone differently. The WordPress community has a big range of introverts to extroverts, and we’ve gone through major changes to how we interact with each other. For all that I want to hug everyone, it also is strange and a bit frightening to think about all that human contact after a year-and-then-some of this pandemic. Supporting organizers in bringing back WordCamps in a way that acknowledges and accommodates all our excitement and fears, as well as our love of WordPress, is a worthy goal.  

Kudos to @tacoverdo, @sunsand187, @jenniferswisher, @_dorsvenabili, @andreamiddleton, @kcristiano, @rmarks, @sippis, @adityakane, @kdrewien, @harishanker, @hlashbrooke for helping to write this post!

WordCamp.org 4:00 am on April 26, 2021
Tags:   

Weekly Updates

Hello to all our Deputies, WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers, MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. wranglers, and WordPress Community builders! You were probably hard at work this weekend. Tell us what you got accomplished in our #weekly-update!

Have you run into a roadblock with the stuff you’re working on? Head over to #community-events or #community-team in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. and ask for help!