A new experiment

Recent outreach and engagement with the STEM Women network highlighted an interest in exploring new ways to connect the community. The idea of a Slack channel was raised by several members, so we’ve decided to establish a channel and run an initial 3-month trial to the end of June to see whether this is a useful and engaging platform for collaboration, communication, and sharing.

The channel is for STEM Women members only - to join the trial channel, please send an email to hello@stemwomen.org.au and we will send you an invite. If you haven't yet joined STEM Women, you can create a free profile here: https://stemwomen.org.au/about.

What is Slack?

Slack is an online communication and collaboration platform that focuses on messaging. It’s designed to support the way people naturally work together, so you can collaborate with people online in similar ways as you do face-to-face.

How can you make the most of this platform?

This channel is a new forum for STEM Women and we want to make it a worthwhile experiment, so please jump in and ask questions, share ideas, propose events and engage with your colleagues.

The great thing about a Slack space is that it is shaped by everyone who participates. Feel free to ask us to set up new channels for specific topics you want to discuss. This is your space to connect.

Want to learn more before you join?

The Slack website has some good tutorials and this page is a good overview if you’ve never used it before.

Our guidelines for the new Slack channel: Honest words, kindly delivered

• Treat each other well: it’s easy to misconstrue someone’s intent (or to misrepresent your own intent). We all need to be mindful of this when using Slack or any other medium.
• Assume best intent. Sometimes tone and context are lost in text.
• Trust is fundamental to good communication and collaboration. To build and maintain that trust, we need to be careful about the words we use on Slack. It can be difficult to infer the tone of a written message—the best intent can produce a terrible outcome with just a little carelessness. Avoiding this pitfall requires two things:
  - Take care to re-read your messages before sending, especially when controversial or challenging.
  - When you are offended or confused by a message, assume best intent. Address the sender directly and seek to clarify.

We’re all responsible for making this a safe and productive space, so please:

• Re-read your message before you hit send.
• When you think someone has strayed a bit too far from these guidelines, respond and politely let them know how they can communicate better.

(with thanks to Mode for sharing their Slack guidelines)