Angela Jin 10:25 am on January 26, 2021
Tags: #meetups ( 19 ), community-events ( 28 )

Proposal Update: Decision making checklist for safe, in-person meetups

Feb 4, 2021 Update: The date to give feedback on this post has been extended by one week! Please share your feedback by February 12.

Following the proposal earlier this month around a decision making checklist for safe, in-person meetups, there was additional conversation and questions about how an organizer would use the checklist. To help everyone better understand the process as currently envisioned, I’ve done my best to describe it below, incorporating some additional, excellent ideas that were shared. Before moving forward on this, I invite everyone to read through this process, and to share your feedback.

A quick note: until this process is implemented, all WordCamps and 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. are expected to be held online.The Community team knows that it is still very unsafe to meet in person in many areas. The goal of this process is to help 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 assess the risk of hosting an in-person event, in the hopes that some areas that have more effectively contained COVID (like New Zealand and Taiwan) can be supported in hosting in-person meetups.

The process as currently envisioned would look like this for a meetup organizer:

Review the resources. Meetup organizers would reference some new (to be created) handbook pages in the Meetup Organizer Handbook. These new pages will include:
- The checklist to determine whether organizers can proceed, with caution, in organizing an in-person event.
- Links to frequently referenced health authority data, to help organizers determine positivity rates, basic reproduction number, etc.
- Templates to help meetup organizers, such as language for requesting info for contract tracing, expected behavior and safety protocols, etc.
- Reporting mechanism that allows organizers and community members to report to Community 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. if they need support or see any safety concerns or broken protocols.
Use the checklist. The Meetup organizer uses the checklist (put together based off of feedback from the previous proposal), which is a CrowdSignal form embedded in the handbook page. The form will only recommend moving forward with an in-person meetup if organizers are able to answer yes to all questions. Organizers can use the handbook page with links to health authority data, or use local resources, to help fill in the checklist.
- The checklist recommends “no”. If the checklist says “no”, organizers are expected to follow this recommendation. At this point, they can close out the survey without submitting. If they would like to provide the Community team with feedback on the form, or share what health authority references they used, they do have that option.
- The checklist recommends “yes, proceed with caution”. If the organizer gets the recommendation that they can proceed with an in-person meetup, they will be required to submit the form, which also asks for:
  - Agreement to the recommendations and guidelines provided.
  - Organizer name, Meetup URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, health authority references

Although organizers do not need to wait for further approval from the Community team, submitting the form is mandatory for organizers who want to organize in-person meetups.

Organize the in-person meetup. If the organizers proceed with an in person event, they can use templates in the meetup description to explain safety protocols or measures to their meetup participants. Some examples might include expected behaviors (wearing a mask, agreeing to share contact information for contact tracing, etc), or that the meetup may move online or be cancelled if local situations change.
Reporting back to Community Deputies. If something unexpected happens, the Community team would like to know immediately. Organizers and meetup attendees can reach us in a number of ways: by pinging 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. in the #community-events channel, or emailing [email protected]. Community members can report concerns or ask questions, specifically around in-person meetups, using a new, dedicated handbook page.

Community Team deputies will be responsible for directing meetup organizers to these resources, answering questions as they come up, and broadly, to help all meetups follow these guidelines.

Feedback requested

Please share your thoughts on this proposal update by Friday, February 12, 2021. Specifically, it would be helpful to hear:

Are the steps or checks missing in this process?
Do you have any questions about the process?
What happens if organizers or attendees don’t follow these guidelines?

Thank you all for your patience and thoughtful feedback in creating this process. This is a hard, hard topic with no precedent we can refer to, so I am grateful that this considerate community is tackling this together.

Kudos to @sippis, @andreamiddleton, @evarlese, @jenniferswisher for helping to write this post!

#meetups

Angela Jin 10:29 am on January 26, 2021
Work has begun on these handbook pages and the form. These are not complete just yet, and will be updated based on the feedback on this post, but if you would like to preview or help me write these pages, you can do so here!
- Draft (emphasis on the word draft!) handbook pages.
- Checklist form – this will be embedded in the handbook page, but please feel free to click through and experiment with this survey, and let me know if something doesn’t work properly. I will erase all responses before we go live with the handbook pages.
If an organizer doesn’t follow these guidelines, I think they should receive a warning first. If they continue to ignore the guidelines, they should be asked to step away from the leadership role for a period of time. As for attendees, if they do not follow the safety measures outlined by the organizers, I think organizers are in full right to ask them to leave, and to report those attendees to Community 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..
- Timi Wahalahti 10:47 am on January 27, 2021
  
  If an organizer doesn’t follow these guidelines, I think they should receive a warning first. If they continue to ignore the guidelines, they should be asked to step away from the leadership role for a period of time.
  
  +1
  
  report those attendees to Community 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.
  
  Not sure which, 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. or Incident response team is better for these reports. Yes, deputies oversee the event series, but attendees not following set guidelines are in a way breaking the CoCCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - Wikipedia which belongs a bit more for the incident response team.
  - Courtney P.K. 12:49 am on January 28, 2021
    
    I see that in the drafted handbook pages, that there’s 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. Report form”. I think this is a good idea to separate these reports from the regular incident report form!
Cami Kaos 4:23 pm on January 26, 2021

The missing piece for me is something that I know we discussed at some point but I don’t feel it is reflected here. There should be a reassessment shortly before the event is hosted to make sure all guidelines are still met. Things change quickly in these times. I don’t want someone to feel like they have to go ahead with an event they planned a month ago if elements of safety have changed in their area.
- JenniferSwisher 11:55 pm on January 27, 2021
  
  The missing piece for me is something that I know we discussed at some point but I don’t feel it is reflected here. There should be a reassessment shortly before the event is hosted to make sure all guidelines are still met.
  
  I recall something along these lines as well. From the original proposal:
  
  As such, it may be prudent for organizers to review the checklist up to three times: once before planning the event, before announcing the event, and once again the day before or day of the event. In addition to this system of double checking, all planned in-person events should have a simple backup plan should they need to pivot to an online event at the last minute.
  
  It’s not stated as an explicit requirement, but it does seem like it should be part of the process. I realize this adds an additional step for the organizer, but a final sanity check before the 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. seems like a wise choice.
- Angela Jin 11:13 am on January 28, 2021
  
  Thanks for pointing this out! Right now, as part of the organizer agreeing to the checklist, they are also asked to keep an eye on the local situation in case things change and to use the checklist as a guide. Any thoughts on how that could be better implemented?
Rocio Valdivia 12:44 pm on January 27, 2021

+1 to the process you’ve described, Angela. Thanks for putting all this together!
JenniferSwisher 12:20 am on January 28, 2021
Reporting back to Community 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.. If something unexpected happens, the Community team would like to know immediately.

Is there any reason we can’t proactively follow up with the 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. organizer? We could send a short survey with questions such as:
- What went well?
- Did you have any unexpected challenges?
- Is there any kind of support that would have been helpful from the community team?
If we don’t want to send a survey, even an email that lets them know again how to contact us if issues arise or if they have feedback.

I see a couple of benefits to this:
1. We’re trying this process out. It would be nice to have feedback from organizers about how the meetup and planning process went for them. That way we can continuously improve it for when more areas of the world are able to meet in person as well.
2. We’ve started a dialogue. There’s a possibility they may not respond. But we’ve opened the door ahead of time so that if something does go wrong, they have a conversation they can go back to and get in touch.
- Timi Wahalahti 2:37 pm on February 4, 2021
  
  +1
  
  Up to a certain point, proactive follow-ups do work and I think are a great idea. Feedback and answers to questions Jennifer listed do help us iterate the process.
  
  Thought, at some point there starts to be so many in-person 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. again that we just don’t have the capacity to contact every organiser. In that point, we hopefully have iterated the process if needed and have a much better understanding of returning to in-person meetups.
Sam Suresh 12:03 am on February 2, 2021

I understand the form will provide instant feedback based on their answers. Will the form also send a copy of the submission to [email protected]?
Since the community team is comprised of global members, at least we can have a look at the situation based on geographical area.

Perhaps it’s a good idea to mention this form must be submitted 7 days before the actual event?
This will give us time to assess the situation.
Of course, Im not talking about approval but acknowledgement.
jominney 5:08 am on February 4, 2021

My only feedback about the checklist would be to include something about a ‘backup plan’ if situations change unexpectedly – maybe something like “do you have a communication plan and strategy for converting the 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. to online if your situation changes before your meetup date?”

Perhaps below where it asks if the venue allows for rescheduling/refund if required?
- Timi Wahalahti 2:32 pm on February 4, 2021
  
  +1
Rocio Valdivia 12:44 pm on February 4, 2021

Although organizers do not need to wait for further approval from the Community team, submitting the form is mandatory for organizers who want to organize in-person 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..

After the discussion in the Community Team bi-weekly chat today, I wonder if it’s necessary for the form to be mandatorily submitted.

But what if they forget to do it? or if they don’t know about the form? What would we do if they don’t submit it?

Just sharing these ideas here in case I’m not the only one with these doubts 🙂
- Angela Jin 2:26 pm on February 4, 2021
  
  I think we do need the form to be submitted as we are asking organizers to agree to following the checklist/new guidelines.
- Timi Wahalahti 2:31 pm on February 4, 2021
  
  After the discussion in the Community Team bi-weekly chat today, I wonder if it’s necessary for the form to be mandatorily submitted.
  
  I agree with Angela here. We ask organisers to follow new guidelines so it’s important for us to know that the organisers have acknowledged those guidelines. Submission of the form should be in my opinion considered as an acknowledgement.
  
  It’s also important to know which organiser from the group acknowledged the guidelines. What if some group has multiple organisers but only a few of them are willing to organise in-person events? If we don’t know who completed the form, we can end up in a situation where something happens and we’re not sure who of the organisers agreed to follow guidelines and are in a way somewhat responsible.
  
  if they don’t know about the form?
  
  I’d assume that if they don’t know about the form, they don’t know about the possibility about having in-person events again neither. We just need to be very VERY clear on all communications about the form and that it’s mandatory to complete it.
  
  What if they forget to do it? What would we do if they don’t submit it?
  
  If we spot that before the event, ask them to complete the form. If it’s noticed after the 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., then I guess we would need to assess the situation. I’d say in that case we ask organisers to complete the form nevertheless – if the result is a go for the in-person meetup, then just strongly remind that they need to complete the form before next meetup. If it’s a negative result, we’d be discussing possible consequences for the organiser.
  - Taco Verdonschot 8:27 pm on February 4, 2021
    
    I’m not so sure we do need the name of the person submitting the form.
    
    In the end, a few people are ‘in charge’ of a 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. group. They’re not too hard to find, because either they’ve have a leadership role on meetup.com, or they are assigned host for that specific meetup. And given that all the official chapters are under our umbrella, it shouldn’t be too hard to check who is/was responsible for a specific meetup without that person submitting their name, right?
    
    The benefit of not asking for personal information is that we then don’t have to have a well-documented, clear GDPR-compliant way of handling that information.
Angela Jin 2:40 pm on February 4, 2021
Following lively conversation in our #community-team channel, I am going to extend the deadline for feedback on this post by another week 🙂

I’d also like to suggest the following.

Before 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. can move forward with meeting in person, I do think it is very important that the Community team have some baseline process in place, as this supports 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. better support organizers. And, this also helps to set up some precedent for the future, as hopefully more areas become safer to meet in person. This checklist is just a starting point for the Community team.

It seems like deputies have reached consensus on having a checklist, but we have outstanding questions to discuss, such as:
- Where we need more touch points with organizers
- How we can spread the word about this new process
- What happens if an organizer doesn’t follow the process
In the interest of helping Meetups in areas that have more effectively contained COVID, such as New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, I think deputies can continue discussing these questions, but also focus on writing out the handbook pages and iterating through feedback from those 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.

What do people think about this suggestion? If I proposed some Handbook writing sprints, would you join me in that?
- JenniferSwisher 2:45 pm on February 4, 2021
  So this doesn’t get lost to the backscroll 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/., porting my thoughts over here:
  
  Where we need more touch points with organizers
  
  I really think the follow up is key here. Both for iterating on the process and ensuring that we’re providing support in the event something does go wrong. We want our 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. to have autonomy, but also know that if the process is broken or something does go wrong that we have their back. Follow up should happen when:
  - We receive a survey submission
  - A week or so after the 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.
  How we can spread the word about this new process
  
  Let’s work with marketing to come up with a communication plan! Thinking about some places where this info might get some good visibility:
  - Social media
  - WP-related media sources
  - Monthly meetup org newsletter
  What consequences happen if an organizer doesn’t follow the process
  
  I think we need to be careful with the term “consequences.” We expect our meetup organizers to be adults and comport themselves in that way. However, putting the health/safety of members of our community at risk isn’t acceptable either.
  
  I think the best way forward is to assume positive intent until we know otherwise. If we find out a community that doesn’t meet the standards to hold a meetup has one, we contact the organizer to have a conversation. If during the course of that conversation we find out that they knew about the standards and proceeded anyway, then we handle this the same way we handle other CoCCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - Wikipedia violations.
  - Taco Verdonschot 9:27 pm on February 4, 2021
    
    How we can spread the word about this new process
    
    Let’s work with marketing to come up with a communication plan! Thinking about some places where this info might get some good visibility:
    
    Social media
    WP-related media sources
    Monthly 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. org newsletter
    
    Meetup.com uses a checkbox to indicate an event is an online event, and it’s checked by default. Can we easily see which scheduled 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. have unchecked that box, so that we can directly reach out to those organizers/hosts? And if so, does meetup.com allow us to automate that process for our meetups?
    
    What consequences happen if an organizer doesn’t follow the process
    
    I think we need to be careful with the term “consequences.” We expect our meetup organizers to be adults and comport themselves in that way. However, putting the health/safety of members of our community at risk isn’t acceptable either.
    
    The first of our Five Good Faith Rules is “[…] All actions taken as an event organizer are with the best interest of the community in mind.”
    
    So what do we do when an organizer doesn’t follow the Five Good Faith Rules? Why would we treat this any different?
- Rocio Valdivia 2:50 pm on February 4, 2021
  
  +1 to start working on the handbook pages and doing a couple of sprints for that! 🙂
- Hari Shanker R 2:54 pm on February 4, 2021
  
  In the interest of helping 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 areas that have more effectively contained COVID, such as New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, I think 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. can continue discussing these questions, but also focus on writing out the handbook pages and iterating through feedback from those 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. Nice work wrangling this proposal, @angelasjin!
  
  Completely agree with this approach. 💯 I think that’s the best way forward for now, and will help us come up with a successful path to in-person events in future.
  
  Just a quick suggestion on this point:
  
  What consequences happen if an organizer doesn’t follow the process
  
  As @jenniferswisher and @sippis have stated – I too agree that we can handle these situations the same way CoCCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - Wikipedia violations are handled.
  
  Currently, CoC violations have a process that is lengthy; perhaps we could all brainstorm and come up with action items to follow in such situations. In any case, they should be treated with the same magnitude as CoC violations (as, such actions put community members at risk).
  
  In short, we can assume the positive intent of our organizers, and hold events, but we must mandatorily follow-up with attendees (either manually or through some sort of automated process requesting attendees to fill up a post event survey) and monitor for any violations of safety practices. Communicating these things with organizers in advance – I think, will help us all realize the magnitude of what we are doing, and will help us get back to safe, in-person experiences, with very little-to-low risk, I feel.
  - Timi Wahalahti 3:01 pm on February 4, 2021
    
    Currently, CoCCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - Wikipedia violations have a process that is lengthy; perhaps we could all brainstorm and come up with action items to follow in such situations. In any case, they should be treated with the same magnitude as CoC violations (as, such actions put community members at risk).
    
    +1
    
    To some extent handling like normal CoC violation is possible, but playing the devils advocate here – what if multiple organisers do not follow the guidelines? Like Hari said, current CoC violation handling process is labour intensive and there are not too many 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. at the moment that can wrangle such process.
    
    If we decide to handle the situations where organisers do not follow guidelines like other CoC violations, we don’t need to worry about the consequences right now and keeping that preventing some communities organising events. We would still have the process already outlined in case someone does not follow the guidelines. First cases would take longer to be handled. Later on, we can just use consequences from previous similar CoC processes to ease the workload.
  - Timi Wahalahti 3:05 pm on February 4, 2021
    
    What consequences happen if an organizer doesn’t follow the process
    
    Honestly, we’ve always discussed consequences after something has happened not before. I don’t see why this should be necessarily treated in some other way.
    - Andrea Middleton 11:13 pm on February 11, 2021
      
      I agree. If we know of a plan that doesn’t match expectations, we should try to intervene. If we learn that something happened in the past, we call the organizer in and ask them not to do it again, with a clear warning of what will happen if the process is ignored again. We’ll have unexpected edge cases, of course, but I think this is a workable plan.
Andrea Middleton 11:15 pm on February 11, 2021

Just noting for the record that I think the process is solid, and I agree with Angela’s comment about what to do if an organizer or attendee doesn’t follow it:

If an organizer doesn’t follow these guidelines, I think they should receive a warning first. If they continue to ignore the guidelines, they should be asked to step away from the leadership role for a period of time.

If an organizer has trouble setting expectations with local attendees, we’ll be there to help!