[dardeshna]

Team 8 has been using slack since Fall 2014 and it has been tremendously useful! I'll add a few things here but most has been covered.

1. How did you have your slack channel set up? (i.e subgroups, build groups, etc)

We have a lot of channels (probably more than we should). #announcements and #communication for team-wide discussion. #subteam for each subteam (build, design, software, business, art, web). 3-4 #random type channels (mentors avoid these 😉 ). Private channels are created for all sorts of things - team leadership, demos around the community, other projects, chemistry study groups, etc.

2. Does your team have any guidelines to follow, such as rules that people have to follow?

No cursing, and keep discussion relevant to the purpose of the channel. Slack can sometimes be distracting while trying to work on homework, but it's nowhere near something like Facebook.

Moderation is actually done by a few unofficial student moderators (myself included). Adults rarely step in (I cannot recall the last time an adult has had to step in because of a major issue regarding inappropriate slack usage).

3. How big is your team?

Currently fluctuates around 100 members including adults (~80 team members). We expect that to increase slightly this coming year.

4. How has it worked out so far?

Slack is so much better than email - although this is probably in part due to the fact that many students do not use email properly and forget to CC or reply all, which makes things messy. Kids of the 21st century are used to instant messaging, which slack more closely resembles. Adults tended to be slower to adopt slack as the main form of communication, as it was something driven by the students (as you may be able to already tell).

The productivity of the team has increased so much as slack allows things to be coordinated outside of lab time and with relative ease. Integrations such as google calendar and asana make slack even more useful and aid with scheduling and project management.

5. Anything we should know about Slack before we use it?

Make sure that as soon as members join the team they are pushed to use slack and check fairly frequently, so you don't have to continually remind them to stay active later in the year.

Slack standard is super awesome if you decide you like the platform, but definitely give it a try first.

Feel free to message me if you have any questions about slack usage, as our team does have a fair amount of experience with it and loves using it.