Reviewing Facilitator Applications

When someone applies to be an Online Workshop facilitator they do so from the form on learn.wordpress.org/online-workshops and their application goes into Help Scout. When reviewing online workshop facilitator applications, you need to review the content they would like to facilitate, as well as the person who is applying.

For the vetting process of the individual, first check whether the applicant has been vetted and approved by the Training Team in the past year for any other purpose. If so, you can refer to the previous vetting notes to approve them.

If the applicant has not yet been vetted, follow these steps:

1. Check the applicant’s WordPress.org profile: Look for activity in the support forums, any contributor badges, and how long the applicant has been a member. This will give you an indication of their experience with the WordPress community. Applicants to facilitate an Online Workshop do not need to have a Training Contributor Badge.
2. Check the applicant’s presence online: Look for how long they have worked with WordPress, what their knowledge of the workshop topic appears to be, and if they have any trademark or GPL violations. Check all social media that you are able to access publicly including LinkedIn, Meetup, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, About.me, and personal blogs (you don’t need to send friend or connection requests – just look for what is available to you already). Especially be on the lookout for anything that indicates bigoted or discriminatory behaviour.

   The Community team has provided some useful information on how the GPL works, as well as this vetting checklist. When recording this information, only use the private notes in Help Scout and do not share any of it elsewhere. This is to ensure the privacy of applicants.

3. Check any background you can in Help Scout:
   • Look for unusual email conversations, lack of response, and anything else that might indicate that they could be unreliable. Feel free to ask in the #training channel if there’s any history you should be aware of.
   • In addition, check if they had previously applied for another Training Team role (e.g., Facilitator, Tutorial, etc.) — if they have been vetted by the Training Team in the past year, you can refer to the previous vetting notes, which should save you some time!
4. Check if they have existing content on Learn WordPress: If they have existing content on Learn WordPress then there’s a good chance they have already been vetted in the past – have a look at their past workshops to see any vetting notes left behind.

Here is an Online Workshop recording explaining what GPL is, and why it’s important to the WordPress project. You’ll also see a demonstration of how to vet applications from 31:30.

Leave all vetting notes as a private note in the Help Scout thread where you are communicating with the applicant. If you are unsure of the outcome of a review, then please ask in the #training channel for more input.

For vetting the topic, the only real criteria are:

1. The content is about WordPress
2. It is facilitated online

If an application requires more information, reply to them using the “Online Workshop: Request more information” saved reply and modify it to be as specific as you need for the situation. Tag the Help Scout ticket with more-info-requested.

If an application must be declined, reply to them using the “Online Workshop: Declined” saved reply and edit it to explain the reason. Tag the Help Scout ticket with ow-declined.

If an application is successful:

• Tag the Help Scout ticket with ow-accepted.
• Add a note to the Help Scout ticket with your vetting notes.
• Add the approved applicant to the Learn WordPress Meetup Group as an Event Organizer.
• Add their information to the Vetted Content Creators spreadsheet.
• Reply using the “Online Workshop: Accepted” saved reply and provide more information about aspects you particularly liked in their application.

Identifying spam applications

Spam applications typically include text that does not appropriately answer the given questions, lack a valid WordPress.org profile, and/or an invalid email address. When an application vetter comes across a spam application, we recommend tagging the message as spam and closing it out. Also, go to the Feedback page on the Learn WordPress site and mark the response as Spam. If the vetter is unsure of whether or not it is a spam application, don’t hesitate to reach out to a Training Team Representative or ping @tt-admins for guidance.