Teams Using Slack

[MailmanDelivers]

Hello! My team has been looking into slack as a way to do team communication. I have a few questions:

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

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

3. How big is your team?

4. How has it worked out so far?

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

[ollien]

Originally Posted by MailmanDelivers

Hello! My team has been looking into slack as a way to do team communication. I have a few questions:

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

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

3. How big is your team?

4. How has it worked out so far?

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

We haven't used it formally during build season yet, but for the summer it's worked great.

1. General is used for most things, but I have created channels for other subteams. Other than general, only #offtopic and #marketing get used often, but I would guess that's because of our small size and that we aren't physically meeting right now.

2. No, but I would probably kick them out of the slack if they were being disruptive.

3. About 14 members.

4. Pretty well compared to our previous uses of Facebook and Google Classroom

5. It's really nice for planning things instead of having to contact each thing individually. The only problem is getting people to sign up for it.

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by ollien

4. Pretty well compared to our previous uses of Facebook and Google Classroom

Could you elaborate on your experience with Google Classroom? Our new lead mentor and our student leadership are currently deciding between that and Slack.

[ollien]

Originally Posted by frcguy

Could you elaborate on your experience with Google Classroom? Our new lead mentor and our student leadership are currently deciding between that and Slack.

While it can work, it results in so many "I didn't see it"s and you can't interact with people very personally.

It's basically just a stream of announcements. I think combining Slack and Classroom can work well, but not just Classroom. It's basically just a Facebook Group. It would work if people actually read their feeds.

[KohKohPuffs]

1. Each channel is a department, so you have one channel for CAD, another channel for programming, etc. For more general discussions, we have channels for those as well.

2. Rules? Ha! ... On a serious note, it's given that you use common sense. Spamming/talking out of context/interrupting the current discussion is frowned upon, although we have a #random channel for things like that.

3. 30+, according to Slack (we're a relatively new team)

4. Can't speak for my teammates, but it's been great for me. All discussion is organized by the way we formatted our channels, so you don't have confusion. And for me personally, this has been working out perfectly since I live away from my teammates and therefore cannot meet in-person frequently.

5. Can't really think of anything.

[tjf]

In addition to what the other have said, I'd highly suggest applying for Slack for Nonprofits if your team has a 501c3 booster club. That way, you can get discounted or free Slack premium for your team.

The important distinction is whether the nonprofit is attached to a school or not. If so, it's Slack for Educational pricing.

(From my own experiences with 1257.)

EDIT: Slack is 85% off for education. See my next comment in this thread.

[MailmanDelivers]

Originally Posted by tjf

In addition to what the other have said, I'd highly suggest applying for Slack for Nonprofits if your team has a 501c3 booster club. That way, you can get discounted or free Slack premium for your team.

The important distinction is whether the nonprofit is attached to a school or not. If so, it's Slack for Educational pricing.

(From my own experiences with 1257.)

Oh, we are related to our school. I guess that's why I missed that. Guessing they won't discount it further?

[tjf]

Originally Posted by MailmanDelivers

Oh, we are related to our school. I guess that's why I missed that. Guessing they won't discount it further?

From what I can tell, most schools are governmental nonprofits, something *very* different. However, at a 85% discount for Education, it's still more feasible than paying full price.

Slack "Trial" (Trial as in WinRAR): Free* (only allowed 10k messages a month.)
Annually for Slack Standard per person: $80.04 USD
Annually for Slack Plus per person: $150.00 USD

https://www.slack.com/pricing

Annually for Slack Standard on Education per person: $12.00 USD
Annually for Slack Plus on Education per person: $22.50

https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/arti...-for-Education

Slack for Nonprofits: Free (up to 250 people)

https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/arti...for-Nonprofits


Most teams would, unfortunately, fall under the Slack for Education category (as long as they're associated with a school.)

[Brian Maher]

Here's how we use Slack on 1257:

Originally Posted by MailmanDelivers

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

We have public channels for each of our subteams, other projects, and miscellaneous other topics that need a place to be talked about (for example, we used Slack channels to coordinate our trips to Champs and IRI this year).

Originally Posted by MailmanDelivers

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

We warn students that is a place that must be kept school-appropriate and that all robotics-unrelated discussion must be limited to the Random channel. We haven't had very many issues with this one.

Originally Posted by MailmanDelivers

3. How big is your team?

Our team has around 40 members.

Originally Posted by MailmanDelivers

4. How has it worked out so far?

4. Slack has worked incredibly well for us to keep all team discussions in one place and expand team-wide discussion beyond in-person meetings. This is immensely helpful during the heat of build or competitions season, when everyone's constantly thinking of ideas for the robot or team, even outside of meetings. It has the advantage of not being social media such as Facebook, which some students are not on, and where student-teacher interactions may be frowned upon

Originally Posted by MailmanDelivers

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

Slack has fantastic mobile apps so students can get push notifications and send messages from their phones.

[Ali Ahmed]

Originally Posted by MailmanDelivers

Hello! My team has been looking into slack as a way to do team communication. I have a few questions:

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

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

3. How big is your team?

4. How has it worked out so far?

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

1. We have a General channel (of course) plus channels for programming, manufacturing, design, public relations, electronics, announcements, and a social channel for chit-chat. We also have a private mentor channel and team lead channel. We also create temporary channels for build season and each competition.

2. No Slack during school hours. At all. Also, usernames must be firstname.lastname

3. We have a big team. 50+

4. It's worked out really great. We've been using it for about a year and I love it. We used to use a combination of Google Hangouts/texts/emails. Slack has been great for keeping all information in one place, but still organized. Information can be disseminated in the appropriate channel so there's less confusion. For example, a designer can ask for help with a certain problem with Solidworks without disturbing PR, who may be talking about new sponsor acquisition. The only issue we really have is making sure everybody checks it regularly.

5. Use the integrations. We have ours integrated with Google Drive, Github, GrabCAD, and a few others. It's a lifesaver for file sharing.

[bhsrobotics1671]

Originally Posted by Ali Ahmed

1. We have a General channel (of course) plus channels for programming, manufacturing, design, public relations, electronics, announcements, and a social channel for chit-chat. We also have a private mentor channel and team lead channel. We also create temporary channels for build season and each competition.

2. No Slack during school hours. At all. Also, usernames must be firstname.lastname

3. We have a big team. 50+

4. It's worked out really great. We've been using it for about a year and I love it. We used to use a combination of Google Hangouts/texts/emails. Slack has been great for keeping all information in one place, but still organized. Information can be disseminated in the appropriate channel so there's less confusion. For example, a designer can ask for help with a certain problem with Solidworks without disturbing PR, who may be talking about new sponsor acquisition. The only issue we really have is making sure everybody checks it regularly.

5. Use the integrations. We have ours integrated with Google Drive, Github, GrabCAD, and a few others. It's a lifesaver for file sharing.

What are you using for GrabCAD integration?

[guniv]

I envy all of you getting Slack for free. The education pricing is dirt cheap but still it's another hoop to jump through. We don't know if some members will stick around but we end up paying for them anyways.

Originally Posted by Ali Ahmed

5. Use the integrations. We have ours integrated with Google Drive, Github, GrabCAD, and a few others. It's a lifesaver for file sharing.

I also would love to know how you got GrabCAD integrated.

[Ali Ahmed]

Originally Posted by guniv

I also would love to know how you got GrabCAD integrated.

Originally Posted by bhsrobotics1671

What are you using for GrabCAD integration?

My mistake. I thought we did have something (I'm not the owner of the account). It must've been wishful thinking. I think we did look into using some kind of bot as a work-around but haven't had any success yet.

[guniv]

Originally Posted by Ali Ahmed

My mistake. I thought we did have something (I'm not the owner of the account). It must've been wishful thinking. I think we did look into using some kind of bot as a work-around but haven't had any success yet.

I've also thought about that too but GrabCAD has no API and seems to be pivoting to 3D printing now. The last thing they said about a Slack integration was in December and they said it was not a priority for them. Man, I would LOVE to have a GrabCAD integration.

[Monochron]

If anyone cares to, could they explain how using Slack is better than "long email chains"? I have seen that said a couple of times but don't know what differences would give Slack an advantage.