Happy New Year! WordCamp US 2019 preparations are underway! After much discussion at WCUS 2018 contributor day and the following weeks, we’ve decided to restructure our organizing team. One change will be to increase the number of volunteer organizers. In years past, we’ve averaged about 20 organizers. This year, our goal is to expand the team to include at least 50 organizers! Because we are adding so many more team members, we are also updating some of the roles and responsibilities of our teams to ensure maximum collaboration, transparency, and efficiency.
Leadership Team
Since the size of the team is increasing, we are also updating our core leadership structure to include three lead organizers. We’re referring to them as our “Leads Trio,” or LT for short. The LT will work together to keep WCUS planning on track and work with all organizers to ensure a smooth planning process.
Team Structure
Our team of organizers are being recategorized as well. Each team will be assigned a lead and co-lead. Our new teams are as follows:
- Venue/Catering (8 team members needed) – Responsible for convention center, A/V, volunteer party, after party, hotel, shipping, catering, and coordinating team-specific logistical needs.
- Communications/PR (8 team members needed) – Responsible for website content, writing blog posts, social media posting, coordinating programming, sponsor, volunteer, and attendee experience needs, and photography coordination. Public relations work will include wrangling media partnerships, writing press releases, and coordinating interviews with media partners at the event
- Programming (6 team members needed) – Formerly known as the speakers team, this team will be responsible for the speaker application process, day-of speaker support, setting the schedule, and community programming.
- Sponsors (5 team members needed) – Responsible for fundraising, communicating with sponsors, reviewing sponsor swag, and sponsor hall mobilization and coordination.
- Volunteers (5 team members needed) – Responsible for volunteer application process, scheduling volunteers, orienting volunteers, and managing volunteer staff.
- Design/Web Team (8 team members needed) – Responsible for website design, print material design, stage design, swag design, and coordination with related vendors.
- Attendee Experience (5 team members needed) – New to our team structure this year, the attendee experience team will be responsible for email correspondence with attendees, tourist trips, childcare, life-threatening allergy support, accessibility needs support, and visa letter production.
- Contributor Day (5 team members needed) – Responsible for coordination and facilitation of contributor day.
Should I Apply?
Absolutely! In addition to the requirements that all WordCamp organizers must follow, we’re looking for the following:
- WordCamp Planning Experience – Since this event builds on skills and knowledge that most WordCamp organizers possess, we’re looking for organizers that can join the team and jump in!
- Residence within the Americas – Since this event is held in the Americas, we require our team to reside within North, South, or Central America.
- Weekly Chats – All team members should expect to attend a Zoom chat at least once a week. Team leads will be expected to attend a weekly call with the LTs as well.
- Time Commitment – WordCamp US planning is different from regular WordCamp planning in one big way: the time commitment. WCUS organizers should expect to spend approximately one hour per day working on WCUS planning activities. Please also expect that the time commitment will increase as we get closer to WCUS 2019.
Timeline
As of right now, we’re still accepting organizer applications. If you’ve applied previously, anticipate receiving an email from the LT soon! This year, we’re experimenting with rolling admissions, meaning that we’re going to start onboarding some people into teams that are needed immediately, and bringing everyone else on as needed. We’re anticipating the following timeline:
- Monday, January 21st: This will be end of “round one.” Anyone who applies to organize during round one will receive some kind of notification from the LT by February 1st, with some notifications going out as early as this week. If you’re interested in being a team lead, please be sure to apply by this date. We are planning to fill all team lead roles during round one.
- Monday, February 25th: This will be the last day to apply to be a WCUS 2019 organizer. Anyone who applies by this date should receive notification of their status by March 1st.
Interested?
You can apply to join the organizing team on our Call for Organizers page.
Questions?
You can reach out to our team via the contact form on our website, or by emailing us at us@wordcamp.org.