The Community Team warmly welcomes any new contributors interested in helping to build a stronger community!
To learn more about what this team is working on and how to get involved, talk to us in the #community-team Slack 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, leave a comment on a relevant post, or use the Community Team contact form. Not in the Make WordPress Slack channel? Here’s how to join.
Community Team Projects are broken down into five categories: WordPress Events, Community Deputy Program, WordCamp Mentor Program, and Community Working Groups.
The projects listed here are ongoing and need volunteers. The skills required vary greatly, so there really is a project for everyone. Take a look and find yours!
WordPress Events
The goal of WordPress community events is to
- Connect WordPress enthusiasts to each other
- Inspire everyone to do more with WordPress
- Encourage people to contribute back to the WordPress Open 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
Along with these, we also gain the opportunity to learn together. Community events are great places to learn new skills from others, and to discover the latest updates in WordPress.
Find out for yourself with these tried-and-true event formats that can be organized by anyone!
Events include: Local WordPress Meetups, Introduction to Open Source Workshops, do_action charity hackathons, and WordCamps.
Local WordPress Meetups 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.
Meetups power year-round, local WordPress communities. Being part of the WordPress Chapter Program with Meetup.com provides centralized account management for official WordPress meetup 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. groups.
Organize a local group. Organize an event series within a group. Host a co-working session. Or simply gather for coffee. All of these bring together WordPress enthusiasts in your area. The goal is to meet at least once a month, but organizers and attendees can plan as many activities within the group as they’d like.
Experience Required:
- Familiarity with and a love of WordPress
- Desire to meet other people who love WordPress
- Effective communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Reliable
Time Commitment: Varies based on role. Anywhere from 2 hours up to 10+ hours per month, depending on what you want to do.
Steps to Get Involved:
Introduction to Open Source Workshops
This workshop series was created to highlight the potential of open source software (OSS) in regions where there is less participation in OSS projects.
Introduction to Open Source workshops spread knowledge and understanding of the open web and open source through two-hour training events, staffed and organized by local communities, and are financially supported by the WordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org..
The workshop series is available on Learn WordPress along with a lesson plan for people to use in their local communities.
Experience Required:
- Familiarity with and a love of WordPress and Open Source
- Involvement in your local WordPress meetup group
- Desire to spread information about open source
- Effective communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Reliability
Time Commitment: Varies based on role. Anywhere from 1 to 10 hours per month, depending on how you use the workshop.
Steps to Get Involved: Check out the WordPress Foundation blog to learn more.
do_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. charity hackathons
do_action hackathons are community-organized events focused on using WordPress to give or improve deserving charitable organizations online presence. Each do_action event includes participants from the local WordPress community coming together to plan and build brand new websites for a number of local organizations.
Experience Required:
- Familiarity with and a love of WordPress
- Desire to help non-profit organizations meet their goals using WordPress
- Effective communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Reliable
Time Commitment: Varies based on role.
Steps to Get Involved:
WordCamps
WordCamps are the annual WordPress events organized by local communities. In order to host a WordCamp 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., communities are expected to have a strong local Meetup group that has been active for at least six months.
The WordCamp program is supported by the Community Team, and its Deputies 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 Mentors 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.. These events are organized by the local community.
Experience Required:
- Familiarity with and a love of WordPress
- Desire to meet other people who love WordPress
- Effective communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Reliability
Time Commitment: Varies based on role. Anywhere from 2 hours up to 10+ hours per month, depending on what you want to do.
Steps to Get Involved:
Never been to a WordCamp, find and participate in an upcoming WordCamp on the WordCamp Central schedule page.
Community deputies 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. are volunteers from all over the world who respond to incoming requests to join the meetup chapter program. This includes vetting meetup applications, interviewing applicants, running organizer orientations, checking for existing groups, and chapter setup on meetup.com if approved.
Deputies perform similar duties for WordCamp applications, as well as handling swag shipments for organizers.
Additional Deputy 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. tasks include supporting and advising sponsors, supporting and responding to organizer questions in the #community-team Slack channel (join the Making WordPress Slack instance), and generally help keep things moving at WordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each..
Go here to see the list of currently active deputies.
Experience Required:
- All deputies are expected to have been a part of organizing a local WordCamp or Meetup
- Familiarity with the WordPress community
- Search skills (to check for poorly indexed groups not on meetup.com, as well as to vet applicants)
- Effective communication skills
- Friendly and welcoming attitude.
The WordPress community primarily communicates in English, but we enthusiastically welcome Deputies who can help in other languages.
Time Commitment: Flexible, about an hour or two per week.
Get Involved: Learn all about being a Community Deputy in the Community Deputy handbook, and apply to be a Community Deputy.
WordCamp Mentor 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. Program
WordCamp mentors are volunteers who have experience organizing WordCamps and want to help other organizers have a great time planning a WordCamp.
As a mentor, your job is the same as every deputy job at WordCamp Central: to help make WordCamps easier to organize and better for attendees. Mentors meet regularly with their assigned WordCamp organizing teams where they offer advice on procedure and share knowledge based on past experience organizing WordCamps.
Experience Required: All WordCamp Mentors must have been a successful lead organizer of their local WordCamp. Additionally:
- Familiarity with and/or a love of WordPress
- Desire to meet other people who love WordPress
- Effective communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Reliability
Most WordCamps are in English, but if you are able to mentor in other languages, that would be a huge help!
Time Commitment: Flexible, anywhere from 2 hours up to 10+ hours per month, depending on how many WordCamps you would like to mentor.
Get Involved: Learn more about Mentoring WordCamps and how to apply to become a WordCamp Mentor.
Diverse Speaker Training Working Group
The Diverse Speaker Training Working Group (#WPDiversity) is led by @jillbinder. This group promotes diversity in WordPress Meetups and WordCamps. One of our focuses is particularly around increasing the number of speaker applications from people from marginalized and underrepresented groups.
The group helps Meetups and WordCamps run workshops on “Organizing Inclusive and Diverse WordPress events” as well as “Diverse Speaker Workshop: Own Your Expertise.” They also hold the workshops monthly for the community as well as for training Meetups and WordCamps to run them.
Types of Volunteers Needed: Check out the Diverse Speaker Training Working Group Call for Volunteers for the latest details. Additionally, this 30-minute video describes the group’s history, current programs, and contribution opportunities.
Experience Required: No prior experience is required, but volunteers should be willing to:
- Share ideas
- Collaborate
- Define and tackle tasks
- Use effective communication skills
- Help reliably
Time Commitment: Flexible, anywhere from 1 hour up to 5+ hours per month, depending on the role.
Get Involved: Reply to the post, reach out to Jill Binder in Slack (@jillbinder), or join a meeting on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 5-6pm UTC or 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month at 3am-4am UTC on the #community-team channel on the WordPress Slack.
Youth Event Working Group
NOTE: This group is on pause until the COVID-19 pandemic clears more and it is once again safe to plan group events for children.
The Youth Event Working Group is led by @sunsand187 and works together to provide resources to event organizers of kids based events. The group has created and updates the handbook as well as providing guidance to new organizers via written documentation.
Experience Required: None
Time Commitment: 1-2 hours weekly
Get Involved: Reach out to Sandy Edwards in Slack or ask in the #community-team channel.
#wpdiversity
#community-events