Many moons ago, we had a group that drafted this WordCamp Mentorship proposal. It didn’t garner a negative reaction from anyone, but it also didn’t give much guidance for would-be WordCamp mentors on what they should be discussing with new organizers.
I’d like to explore whether a mentorship period of one month might be more successful than a period of 3 months or longer, so here is my outline for what WordCamp mentors should/could cover with new organizers in a one-month period or a three-month period.
One month WordCamp mentorship checklist:
Mentor will be introduced when the team has been approved for pre-planning. The mentor checks in with the new organizer once a week, for the period of a month, and the pair talk over a different block of WordCamp practices and guidelines in each meeting. These topics might take as long as an hour for each conversation.
Week 1: Recruiting organizing team / Finding a venue / Drawing up a prelim budget
- what you want in an organizing team
- what you want in a venue and how to get it for free or cheap
- budget setup: fixed vs variable expenses, “must haves” vs “nice to haves”
- event revenue: ticket pricing, multi-event sponsorship, local sponsorship packages, in-kind sponsorship
Week 2: Website setup / Recruiting & selecting speakers/sponsors
- how to use WordCamp.org tools for fun and winning
- WordCamp website content management
- what kind of schedule do you want
- how to recruit local, diverse speakers.
- timing: length of sessions and breaks.
- how to make a call for speakers and review applications
- wrangling speakers.
Week 3: Registration / Food and parties / Recruiting & scheduling volunteers
- setting up registration with Camptix, coupon codes, managing sell-outs
- planning lunch, coffee, snack for the event
- planning (speaker and after-) parties/events
- how to make a call for volunteers that attracts reliable people & how to set a volunteer schedule
- tips for wrangling volunteers
Week 4: Designing swag & badges / Day Of: best practices and back-up plans
- badge design best practices
- swag design best practices
- before-event emails to attendees, speakers, sponsors
- back-up plans
Three month WordCamp mentorship checklist:
Mentor will be introduced when the team has been approved for pre-planning. The mentor checks in with the new organizer once a week, for the period of three months, and the pair discusses the new organizer’s weekly progress in organizing the WordCamp. These weekly conversations might last 15-30 minutes.
- Week 1: recruiting the organizing team
- Week 2: finding a venue: what you want and how to get it for free or cheap
- Week 3: budget setup: fixed vs variable expenses, “must haves” vs “nice to haves”
- Week 4: setting up your revenue: ticket pricing, multi-event sponsorship, local sponsorship packages, in-kind sponsorship
- Week 5: setting up your WordCamp site: how to use WordCamp.org tools for fun and winning, content management
- Week 6: programming: what kind of schedule do you want, how to recruit local, diverse speakers, length of sessions & breaks, how to make a call for speakers and review applications, wrangling speakers.
- Week 7: fundraising: fielding sponsorship inquiries, wrangling sponsors
- Week 8: setting up registration with Camptix, coupon codes, managing sell-outs
- Week 9: designing swag and badges, planning lunch, planning (speaker and after-) parties/events
- Week 10: how to make a call for volunteers that attracts reliable people & how to set a volunteer schedule, tips for wrangling volunteers
- Week 11: working with WordCamp Central to get your vendors paid
- Week 12: before-event emails to attendees, speakers, sponsors, day-of best practices and backup plans
I’ll echo @andymci‘s invitation for beating up. 
I think some of the infrastructure included in the proposal might not be necessary, but please weigh in on that and everything else. 
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