Proposal: Restructure the Community Team Handbooks  🔗 **Source:** [Proposal: Restructure the Community Team Handbooks](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2026/07/03/proposal-restructure-the-community-team-handbooks/) > [!note]+ Document Notes > --- > tags: [wordpress-community-team, documentation, handbooks, information-architecture, contributor-onboarding, single-source-of-truth] > author: [MISSING] > source: Make WordPress Community blog > reference: https://make.wordpress.org/community/2026/07/03/proposal-restructure-the-community-team-handbooks/ > date created: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}} {{time:HH:mm}} > --- > # 🏷️ Title: Proposal: Restructure the Community Team handbooks > ## 🧭 Table of Contents > - [📝 Summary](#-summary) > - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) > - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) > - [📚 References](#-references) > - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) > - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) > - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) > - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) > - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) > - [❓ Questions](#-questions) > - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) > - [💡 Implications](#-implications) > - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) > - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) > - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) > - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) > - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) > - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) > ### 🔗 References > - [Proposal post — Make WordPress Community](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2026/07/03/proposal-restructure-the-community-team-handbooks/) > - [Community Team Handbook landing page](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/) > - [WordCamp Organizer Handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/) > - [learn.wordpress.org — self-training courses](https://learn.wordpress.org/) > - [WordPress Meta Trac (for a "handbook MCP" ticket)](https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/) > ## 📝 Summary > - **What happened.** A Community Team contributor posted a two-part proposal on the Make WordPress Community blog to restructure the team's handbooks. Part 1 regroups today's flat list of nine handbooks into three audience-based sections and spins out standalone Sponsor, Speaker, and Volunteer handbooks. Part 2 restructures the chapters of the most-used Community Team Handbook. The author asks for ~3 Event Supporters to form a working group; the call for volunteers closes **17 July 2026**. > - **Why it matters.** The handbooks landing page is one of the most-linked-to pages the team has — Slack and email conversations constantly point at it. A flat nine-item list with a missing Education handbook and mismatched chapter names is hard to navigate, especially for new contributors. This is a documentation-as-product and contributor-onboarding problem, squarely in DevRel/Community territory. > - **Key stakeholders.** Community Team leads, Event Supporters / Program Supports / Program Managers, meetup and WordCamp organizers, the Training team (learn.wordpress.org tie-ins), the Documentation team (docs practice), the Meta team (a possible "handbook MCP" Trac ticket), and — per the comments — first-time event attendees, an audience currently served by nobody. > - **Risks and tradeoffs.** Ship-fast-then-iterate can leave broken links and half-migrated content mid-flight. Restructuring URLs risks SEO and inbound-link decay for a heavily-linked page. Audience-based grouping can fossilize duplication if the team stops at regrouping instead of deduplicating to a single source of truth (the sharpest comment). Timeline is 6–8 weeks, 12 as a hard ceiling. > - **Bottom line.** Solid, actionable proposal with an unusually strong comment thread. The two ideas worth Courtney weighing in on before 17 July: (1) collapse near-duplicate event handbooks into one source-of-truth event handbook with per-subject exceptions, and (2) add a first-time-attendee handbook — plus a low-cost win: get the page structure right for accessibility, SEO, and AI while everything's being rewritten anyway. > ## 📖 Main Content > - **The core problem is navigation, not content quality.** The current landing page is a flat list of nine handbooks with no grouping and no per-item description, so readers can't tell which handbook applies to them before clicking. The Education handbook is missing from the list entirely. New contributors bear the worst of this — they don't yet have the mental model to map a task to the right handbook. > - **Part 1 — regroup the landing page into three audience sections**, each with a short "are you in the right place?" description: > - *Make Community Team* (people who run/support the team itself): Community Team Handbook; Incident Response Team Handbook; Education Program Team Handbook. > - *Local Events Organizers* (anyone planning a WordPress event): Meetup Organizer; WordCamp Organizer; WordPress Campus Connect; Online Events; KidsCamp. > - *Resource Handbooks* (reference for people supporting events): Sponsor; Speaker; Volunteer. > - **The Sponsor and Speaker handbooks don't exist as standalone documents today** — that content is buried inside the WordCamp Organizer Handbook. Extracting them is itself an act of deduplication, because that content would otherwise be copied into every event type. A one-page Volunteer handbook is proposed so any organizer can hand it to accepted volunteers. > - **Part 2 — restructure the Community Team Handbook chapters**, because the current chapter list is flat and the names don't always match the contents. Proposed outline: Event Vetting; Event Orientations; Setting Up Meetups; Setting Up Events; Team Chats; Team Goals; Community Team Dir; Tools (Google Apps Email, HelpScout, Finance Tools/QuickBooks); Trademark FAQs. Each handbook's first page would invite readers to take the relevant learn.wordpress.org course for self-training. > - **The ask and the plan.** ~3 Event Supporters join as a working group. Work splits into four chunks: **Audit** (what's outdated, missing, duplicated, and what should move) → **Restructure** (finalize outline, migrate content) → **Publish** (write and ship the missing Sponsor/Speaker handbooks) → **Maintain** (lightweight review process, possibly a rotating Docs Working Group with a quarterly cycle). Timeline: Weeks 1–2 Audit, 3–5 Restructure, 6–7 Publish, Week 8 Launch, Week 9+ Docs Working Group. Explicit ethos: ship solid and iterate rather than perfect-in-one-go. > - **The comment thread carries the sharpest thinking** (treat as first-class): > - **Naming (contested):** rename "Local Events Organizers" → **"Event organizers"** — dropping "local" — because online meetups and some regional WordCamps are events but not local. Also: don't single out meetups; a meetup is a type of event, so fold "Setting Up Meetups" into "Setting Up Events." > - **Deduplication / single source of truth (the big idea):** go further than extracting three resource handbooks. Investigate collapsing the separate per-event-type handbooks into **one event handbook that lists special cases/exceptions per subject.** Worked example: the Meetup Handbook's *Event Formats* section overlaps with good WordCamp content — instead of duplicating, have a single *Event Formats* page noting which formats suit which event type. > - **The unserved audience:** add a **first-time-attendee** handbook/section so newcomers know what to expect at an event — which would also cut duplicate onboarding copy scattered across individual WordCamp websites. > - **Tooling:** a NotebookLM-style assistant to help organizers get into the info fast; and a **"handbook MCP"** — flagged as beyond this proposal's scope, but worth a Meta Trac ticket if none exists. Same commenter: while rewriting, spend the few extra minutes to get page structure right for accessibility, SEO, and AI. > - **Uncertainties / contested claims.** The three-vs-two-section framing is stated inconsistently in the source ("two-section grouping" appears in the open questions though three sections are proposed). The "Innovative WordPress Events Handbook (temporary)" from 2023 is still live and may become a one-page "Other types of WP events" handbook (Do_Action, WP Women Days, etc.). Whether prior Sponsor/Speaker handbook work exists to pick up is an open question. > ### 🗒️ Notes > - Landing page is one of the most-linked-to pages the team owns; Slack/email routinely point at it → any URL change has real link-equity and SEO cost. > - Current list = nine handbooks, flat, no descriptions, Education handb The [handbooks landing page](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/) is one of the most-linked-to pages we have. A lot of our conversations on Slack and email are pointing to handbook pages. The current list is a flat list and nine headings or sections. The [education handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/education/) is missing. It is difficult to learn which handbook is relevant where, especially for new contributors to the community team. #### **Current state** The landing page today: * Community Team Handbook * Community Team Supporter and Manager Handbook * Meetup Organizer Handbook * WordCamp Organizer Handbook * Innovative WordPress Events Handbook (temporary) * Contributor Events Organizer Handbook * KidsCamp Organizer Handbook * Online Events Handbook * Incident Response Team Handbook I am suggesting a revamp of the way we structure our handbooks and also help community members work better to navigate with tools and processes. Also it would be easier to onboard people contextually. **Part 1: Proposal to restructure the landing page** Group the nine handbooks into three sections by audience and purpose. Each section gets a short description so people know whether they’re in the right place before clicking. ##### **Make Community Team** For the people who run and support the Community Team itself. * Community Team Handbook *(overview of Meetups, Events, WordCamps, WPCC and Credits and supporter roles like Event Supporters, Program Supports, Program Managers )* * Incident Response Team Handbook * Education Program Team Handbook ##### **Local Events Organizers** For anyone planning or running a WordPress event in their community. * Meetup Organizer Handbook * WordCamp Organizer Handbook * WordPress Campus Connect Handbook * Online Events Handbook * KidsCamp Organizer Handbook ##### **Resource Handbooks** Reference material for people supporting events. The Sponsor and Speaker handbooks don’t currently exist as standalone documents. This content lives buried inside the WordCamp Organizer Handbook. It would be good to have them as proper standalone handbooks. Also should we add a one-page handbook for volunteers? so all WP event organizers can send it to their volunteers when they’ve been accepted? Here is a mockup I created using some AI tools for representational purposes. *(it is missing the Education program parts as it was based of current layout)* [](https://make.wordpress.org/community/files/2026/07/image.png) #### **Part 2: Restructure the Community Team Handbook chapters** The Community Team Handbook is the most-used. The current chapter list is a bit flat and the names don’t always match what’s inside. I’d propose this outline: * Event Vetting * Event Orientations * Setting Up Meetups * Setting Up Events * Team Chats * Team Goals * Community Team Dir * Trademark FAQs Can we add an invitation on the first page of each handbook to take the relevant *learn.wordpress.org* course for self training? For example, invite new contributors to take the training, etc. #### **What I’m asking for** I’d like around **three Event Supporters** to join me as a working group to ship parts 1 and 2. The work breaks down into four chunks: * **Audit.** Go through each handbook and list what’s outdated, what’s missing, what’s duplicated across handbooks, and what should move where. This is the foundation everything else builds on. * **Restructure.** Finalize the chapter outline above (open to changes — the version in this post is a starting point) and migrate existing content into the new structure. * **Publish.** Fill the gaps. The Sponsor and Speaker handbooks need to be written and published as standalone documents. Any other gaps the audit surfaces get filled here. * **Maintain.** Define a lightweight review process and maybe have a rotating Docs Working Group. #### **Timeline** Six to eight weeks of work, with twelve as a hard ceiling. I’d rather we ship something solid than let this drag through a long unstructured stretch. * **Weeks 1–2 — Audit.** The working group meets, divides handbooks, and produces the audit document. * **Weeks 3–5 — Restructure.** Finalize the outline, migrate content, build the landing page. * **Weeks 6–7 — Publish.** Sponsor and Speaker handbooks drafted and published. Final review. * **Week 8 — Launch.** New landing page goes live. * **Week 9 onward — Docs Working Group takes over** with a quarterly review cycle. #### **Open questions for the team** A few things I’d specifically like input on before kicking off: * Is the two-section grouping the right cut, or are there handbooks I’ve put in the wrong section? * The “Innovative WordPress Events Handbook (temporary)” from 2023 is still active? Maybe we could turn it into a one-page handbook for “Other types of WP events”, and to add there the info about other types of events: Do\_Action, WP Women Days, etc.. * Is there prior work on a Sponsor or Speaker handbook I should pick up from rather than starting fresh? * Anyone already working on related cleanup I should coordinate with? If you’re an **Event Supporter, Program Supporter or Program Manager** who’d like to join the working group, drop a comment below or ping me in [#community-team](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X) on Slack or send me a DM on slack if you want to know more. We will be focusing on being agile and quick to make changes, we rather ship these changes and then make regular updates – instead of trying to get everything right in one go. I’ll close the call for volunteers by **17th July, 2026** and we’ll kick off the week after. Props to [@\_dorsvenabili](https://profiles.wordpress.org/_dorsvenabili/) [@unintended8](https://profiles.wordpress.org/unintended8/) for peer review and adding suggestions., Proposal: Restructure the Community Team Handbooks, make.wordpress.org, 01kwpx5tfse6xg9gv80h19fc4j.