do_action: Charity Hackathon

Topics

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most WordPress events are online. Please refer to our online events handbook.

For communities where COVID-19 has been more effectively contained or have easy access to COVID-19 vaccination and/or testing, returning to hosting an in-person 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. event is possible, with caution, using the resources provided. If you plan to move forward with an in-person meetup, you must use the provided checklist .

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. is a charity hackathon that uses WordPress to uplift local communities. The handbook pages for organising do_action events is in the meetup organiser handbook and you can read more about the events there.

This guide is here to give 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. the necessary knowledge to help organisers run their own do_action events.

To start you off, here’s a video explaining how do_action events work, so that you can better support them as a 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.:

And here’s that same video in audio form:

Vetting do_action applications Vetting do_action applications

Vetting do_action applications is exactly the same as vetting normal meetup applications – the only additional thing that you’re looking for is that the city already has an active meetup group that has been meeting regularly for at least 6 months immediately prior to the application coming in.

Top ↑

Why does do_action need special knowledge? Why does do_action need special knowledge?

While do_action is just another event that meetup organisers can put together, we have built some tools (hosted on doaction.org) that offer a huge amount of assistance for this specific event format. An event like do_action has a large amount of admin that goes along with it, and doaction.org is intended to assist organisers with most of the manual work that would otherwise be incredibly time-consuming.

Top ↑

What the do_action website offers What the do_action website offers

The do_action website offers a few important things to organisers:

  • A page to advertise the event
  • An automated way of receiving applications from non-profits for the event
  • An automated way of having participants sign up for the event
  • An easy way of displaying sponsor info
  • A back-end tool for email all non-profits and participants, with addressee filtering by role and organisation

These tools cover almost all of the tasks that would otherwise be very manual for anyone organising a do_action event, and the organiser handbook pages for do_action cover how the tools can be used by organisers.

Top ↑

Adding a new do_action organiser Adding a new do_action organiser

The first step in a do_action event is adding the organiser to doaction.org. In order to do this you need to be in the Deputy role on the site already (please pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” @hlashbrooke about getting added to the site as a deputy). Once you are, you simply need to add a new user (Users > Add New) in the Organiser role.

Add a username which can be the name of the city/locale along with the email address provided by the organizer and they will be able to login and manage things according to the organiser handbook pages,

Top ↑

Google Drive document templates Google Drive document templates

After the orientation call is done and you have created the user on doaction.org, you need to share some Google Drive document templates with them:

  1. Open the do_action Events folder in Google Drive.
  2. Create a new folder for the event using Year City as the folder name (e.g. “2017 Cape Town”).
  3. Open the Templates folder and them open each of the three files in there.
  4. Make a copy of each file in the event folder that you created.

Top ↑

Approving a new do_action event Approving a new do_action event

Organisers are able to create new events with all of their details, but they are not able to be publish them. For this we are using WordPress’ built-in ‘submit for review’ feature, so organisers can create events and submit them for review. After that, a Deputy can approve their event, which will automatically publish it on the site. The criteria for an event to be approved are:

  • The title matches a format like City Year (e.g. “Cape Town 2017”)
  • There is a description of the event in the post content
  • The organiser email address is saved
  • The event has a set date
  • The event has a set venue
  • There is a featured imageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. (must be landscape, but no specific dimensions required)

If all of that is true, then you can approve the event and then notify the organiser that you have done so.

Last updated: