What happens if you get hit by a bus? We established the Webmaster Backup Alliance to solve this problem.
The Webmaster Backup Alliance exists to help independent developers connect with like-minded peers to provide backup for one another. What follows is our method for making this happen.
When you join the WBA, we'll help you get placed in a group of approximately 20 other developers. These groups meet quarterly to check in, discuss work, life, etc. This is where you'll start establishing relationships with other developers.
Once you've gotten your feet wet in a Group, you'll want to create a Pod with one or two other developers. This becomes your backup team. Pods meet more frequently, perhaps every other week (or whatever cadence you desire), in order to provide true backup to one another in the event of vacations or other out-of-office events.
You'll share information about your server configuration, website builds, and client specifics with your Pod (you'll probably also share the coolest new thing you just learned). Your Pod will become an extension of you, and will feel like a fellow employee or business partner.
This came to life when Nic Scott posted a thread on the SpinupWP Developer’s Forum asking if there were any other developers in the same boat as himself. As fate would have it, there were. He replied to the first person who happened to be Michael Wender and the two of them got this little idea off the ground.
After some early discussions on how this group should operate or structure, it became clear that:
We want to provide each other with support when absolutely necessary
We only want to give each other the bare minimum to provide this support/backup/next-of-kin type of support