As volunteers, it’s important that we are able to communicate with each other efficiently.
We need to ensure that we:
- don’t miss things
- aren’t flooded with information
- aren’t wasting precious time
We can achieve these aims by keeping communications as simple as possible, but also by using technology which is available to us.
After asking around, we’ve agreed that this is the way we’ll keep in touch with each other…
- to send out information that shouldn’t be missed
- best for one way communication rather than discussions
Email is one of the main methods of communication for most of us but it does fall down when…
- you have so many unread/undealt with/spam emails that you can’t see the wood for the trees
- see below for how to solve this!
- you are emailing a group of people asking for views on something and people hit ‘reply’ rather than ‘reply all’ so the conversation breaks up
- best use Slack for group conversations
You’ve got mail!
Do you find yourself with 13,015 new emails? Here are some top email tips…
- If you do have hundreds of unread emails then decide that it’s got to end and make a clean start.
- Folders are your friend! Set up folders so you can categorize emails. Google “How to set up a folder in…gmail/outlook/mail/whatever” to find out how. Set up folders like ‘Orders’, ‘Passwords’, ‘Holiday’ and a generic ‘Keep’ for everything else you don’t want to delete.
- Set up a folder called “Old Emails” and move everything in your Inbox to this folder.
- Mark all these emails as read (again, Google how to do this if you’re unsure).
- From then on, whenever you get a new email…
- Leave it in your Inbox if it needs action or a reply
- Move it to a folder if you want to keep it
- Delete it if you don’t want it
- Forward it if it’s something someone else can deal with – then either delete it if you trust that they’re going to, move it if you want to keep a record, or leave it in your inbox if you don’t trust them!
- This way the only emails in your inbox will be stuff you need to do something about. This will remind you to do it! All other emails will either be filed away or binned – hooray!
- Set up a separate email account for Scouting if you hold a role such as Section Leader, Group Scout Leader or a District role. It’s easy to create a 100thWrexham@gmail.com email address. This way if you move on from the role you can hand over the account and people can carry on where you left off.
Email lots of people
People in roles such as Group Scout Leader and District role will often need to email large amounts of people.
It’s not a good idea to do this via your usual email because
- Lots of email providers will increase your spam score if you regularly send emails in bulk, so your emails are less likely to get through
- Using email lists risks them getting out of date when new Leaders are appointed without your knowledge
All members can use Compass to send emails which
- sends the email through the Scouts system so it won’t affect your email
- ensures your list is bang up to date
Click here to find out how to use Compass to send emails
Consider using Bcc
Due to GDPR data protection regulations, it’s not good practice to send your email to lots of people with all their addresses in the ‘To:’ or ‘Cc:’ which would share their personal info with everyone the email goes to. Instead put all the addresses in the ‘Bcc:’ box when sending to more than one person, unless you’re sure everyone is happy having their email address shared.
Website
- for information which is useful to know
- for information which needs to be easy to find and stays put
This is your website: the go-to place to find info about Wrexham Scouts and to help our volunteers in their roles.
Get involved!
We’re happy with anyone in Wrexham Scouts adding things to the website.
Things you can find
- For those who aren’t volunteers
- For our volunteers
- latest news & info (you can add to this yourselves!)
- programme ideas
- full list of District events including online booking
- how to take part in adventurous activities with your Section
- the latest adult training info
- who your training advisor is
- information for and about Young Leaders
- the form you need to fill in if you’re taking young people away from their homes for the night
- how to keep up up to date with the numbers in your Section
- about our campsite including how to book for a camp or evening visit
- how to book a room in our headquarters or use it’s climbing wall or borrow the kayaks stored there
- how to request a District Team join-in
- how to maintain healthy numbers in your Section
Slack
- for conversations & discussions
- for instant messaging
Slack is a communications hub where Members of Wrexham Scouts can work together to get things done. From project planning to budget discussions, and to everything in between.
It’s taken over from Facebook at District level for several reasons covered here, and seems to be quite popular. We’ve decided to give it a go until the end of the summer term, and if people would prefer a return to Facebook we’ll do that.
Here are some tips on how to get the best out of Slack…
Getting Started
Email us and we’ll send you a link which will set you up when you follow it.
Notifications
People are telling us that they’re not getting notifications about things that are happening on Slack. Here’s some ways to improve this…
- Add the app to your smart phone
- once you’ve done this make sure Slack notifications are turned on via your phone
- Check your Slack notifications
- the default is “Direct messages, mentions & keywords” – this won’t notify you of messages in the channels you’re signed up to unless they mention you – instead set it to “All new messages“
- add keywords about topics you’re interested in, such as ‘Module’ if you’re doing training or your name if you’re wondering who’s complaining about you!
- Set up email notifications
- you can get Slack to email you if it notices you’re not reading messages
Set to All new messages…
Have you got the message?
One feature that Slack doesn’t have is a way of automatically showing who or how many have read posts. Sometimes it can appear that nobody has seen your message.
Here’s how we’re going to get round this…
Just tap on (or click if you’re accessing via a computer) the eyes ? emoji under each post you’ve read. If there are no eyes there, you can add them via the ‘add reaction’ button and search ‘eyes’.
Threads
Lots of people are just typing in this box…
…to reply to a message above. It appears at the bottom of every channel and appears to be where replies should go – but this isn’t the correct place to reply!
Instead please use Start a thread – or Reply to thread once someone else has replied.
This is the desktop view
On mobile just tap on the message you want to reply to and Start/Reply to a thread will be an option as shown above.
Using threads is for two reasons…
1. It makes it more obvious which message you’re replying to…
- If we just use the Message #channel box…
- “Should we buy new tents? They’re £200 each!”
- “Yes, that’s OK by me!”
- “Can I spend £1,000 on crayons?”
- “Yes, that’s OK!”
- “God no! We don’t need that many!”
Did the person who said yes under the crayons message mean the tents or the crayons?
- If we start a thread…
- “Should we buy new tents? They’re £200 each!”
- 2 replies
- “Can I spend £1,000 on crayons?”
- 1 reply
- “Should we buy new tents? They’re £200 each!”
It’s now obvious which is which!
2. It keeps subjects together, so if you’re not interested in the new tents, you don’t need to trawl through all the replies!
Channels
Conversations in Slack are separated into different themed channels.
When you join Slack, you will automatically be joined to just three channels.
- #general – information for everyone
- #welcome – a channel with some info for newbies
- #safety – important for all of us
There are lots more channels that you can join, leave, and rejoin as many times as you like. You can even preview channels to have a sneaky peak before you actually join. Join as many or as few as you like, but if you’re a Leader with a Section, we’d recommend you to join #events_all, #events_yoursection, #ideas_all and #ideas_yoursection
- activities
- atlas-esu
- awards
- beavers_team*
- campcoxwood
- campsites
- cox_wood_crew*
- cox_wood_friends
- cubs_team*
- dc_diary
- district_team*
- events_all
- events_beavers
- events_cubs
- events_scouts
- events_xplorers
- exec*
- exec_gsls_team*
- exec_public
- explorers*
- general
- grants_funding
- gsls*
- hq
- ideas_all
- ideas_beavers
- ideas_cubs
- ideas_scouts
- ideas_xplorers
- need_adult_leaders
- need_young_leaders
- photo-of-the-month
- promise_day_planning*
- safety
- share_your_story
- sword-fencing
- training
- training_team*
- welcome
- young-leaders-team*
- youth_team*
- youthshaped
*private channels
Phone
- sometimes it’s good to talk!
For project management we will use…
Meetings
- For when face to face is important
While the need for meetings is less than it was, sometimes they are the best way to communicate
Meetings have pros
- You know that everyone present is likely to be fully engaged
- It’s less likely to take something the wrong way in person – sometimes things come across badly via text when you can’t see someones face or hear the intonation in their voice
- It’s much easier and quicker to make important decisions face to face
Meetings also have cons
- They are time consuming – by the time you’ve travelled there and back, opened up buildings, had a bit of chit-chat, you’ve added an hour on
- It’s tricky to get everyone together at the same time
- Someone has to record what went on and distribute
Meeting do’s and don’ts
- Avoid using meetings to tell people information – you can do that via email – the exception is if it’s likely to be something that people will have questions about that everyone will be interested in
- Meetings are best used to make decisions
- Make sure people know what’s going to be discussed in good time
- then if they can’t make it they can still send their input to be included
- they can also decide not to attend if it’s not for them – for example, don’t just say it’s a Scout Leaders’ meeting if you’re only discussing Frost Camp which would be a waste of time for a Leader if their Troop isn’t attending
- Make a record of action points and share these soon after the meeting
Trello
- For keeping track of projects in between meetings
You’ve seen those big boards they have on police drama where they stick photos up and pieces of evidence under different headings. Well Trello is a bit like an online version of that! It’s made up of…
- Boards
- Lists
- Cards
If you think of one of those police boards, it’s headed Operation Scout Camp at the top – that’s our board.
The board has three lines of black insulation tape running from top to bottom dividing the board into 4 columns, headed ‘Not allocated’, ‘Not started’, ‘In progress’, ‘Done’ – these are our lists.
Each column has post-it notes, with various scribbled information on each, some have to do lists, some a date on, others have bills attached with a paper clip – these are our cards.
The post-it notes each tally with some aspect of the planning of the Scout Camp. As that aspect goes from not allocated, to not started, to in progress, to done, everyone who has access to the board can see where it is, and what’s been done. It’s a great way of collaborative working and planning.
Trello is like this, just online!
For getting our message across to people who aren’t Scouts we will use:
Social Media
- FacebookWe know that Groups & Units will still use Facebook to communicate with parents & Explorer Scouts
- We will use our Facebook Page to promote what we do to a wide audience, but won’t have a District Facebook Group (Slack has replaced this)
Print & Online Media
- for information which is useful to know
- for information which needs to be easy to find and stays put
