Aaron Jorbin recently posted Random Thoughts on⦠Travel and WordCamps. Iād like to add a few.
āItās important for people who can be considered āNamesā to make space for the next group of contributors and this includes not speaking all the time.ā
Exactly. Responsible leaders lead towards their own obsolescence. The tricky part can be to notice when youāve become a leader, or ānameā within your community. If youāre too busy rejecting your own popularity (on whatever scale) because being regarded a key contributor, a great organiser, or an inspiring public speaker makes you feel uncomfortable, you might wind up missing a chance to support the very people who are looking to you as a role model for taking their own next steps in the project.
āI was chatting with another core committer recently and we noted āWe are not the future of WordPressā. I donāt intend to go anywhere, but I also recognize that my strength for the project today isnāt to be the loudest voice.ā
Iām counting myself roughly into the same generation in WordPress as Aaron, and OMG, am I not the future of it. It actually feels like Iām less and less part of its present. I feel I just canāt keep up, and frankly, in many regards I donāt want to. If thereās anything I can give WordPress today, itās probably to move out of the way, mind my own business, and nurture and enjoy the friendships Iāve made through the project. And hack the heck out of wp-admin, for as long as itās still around.
āIām not at all convinced that āNamesā sell tickets for local WordCamps. I am convinced that developing and nurturing a quality community sells tickets to WordCamps.ā
So much this. And when Iām hearing from friends who are a long-time organisers in their local communities that theyāre struggling to put together a diverse speaker list because applications have dropped dramatically, I canāt help but wonder: did we miss anything?
Donāt forget to read Aaronās full article.