Effective collaboration is the foundation of any successful project, especially within a globally distributed team. The following best practices can help ensure all contributors have a meaningful opportunity to participate.
Keeping Slack Channels Organized
When using active Slack channels, be mindful of how new messages impact ongoing conversations. Long messages can take up a lot of space and push important discussions out of view.
To help keep our channels clean and easy to follow, please keep these best practices in mind:
Use threads: If an active conversation about your topic already exists, post your message in that thread instead of starting a new one.
Start with a summary: For a new topic, start with a short, clear summary of your request or topic in the main channel. Add all the details and context in a thread.
Remove link previews: If you share a link, consider removing the large preview that automatically generates, especially if it’s not necessary for context. This saves screen space and keeps the channel tidy.
This approach ensures multiple conversations remain easy to find and follow for everyone.
Async Communication
Establishing a thoughtful approach to asynchronous communication is essential for enabling participation across time zones. It allows contributors to engage at their own pace, which can be especially beneficial for introverts and those who need additional time to reflect. While tools like Slack are excellent for quick exchanges, they are less effective for long-form discussions. This Async Communication Proposal (WIP) attempts to provide some guidelines.
Be transparent about your availability
If you're an active contributor and need to step away from a project for a while, please communicate directly with your team and leads, and update your Slack status to reflect your absence (see below).
Because we are all volunteers relying on each other, a sudden and unannounced departure can be demotivating. We don't expect you to contribute more time than you have, but we do appreciate clear communication and transparency if you've committed to a project. Ultimately, it is about respecting your peers' time.
As a reminder, our Roles and Responsibilities guide states that members who are uncontactable or inactive for an extended period without notice will be removed from their roles.
Keeping Your Slack Status Updated
For active contributors, maintaining an up-to-date Slack status helps peers manage expectations and improves overall communication. Use the following status indicators to let others know your availability:
🌴 – I'm off.
⛔ – I'm working but unavailable for an extended period.
To provide additional transparency, include dates in your status (e.g., “OOO until April 1”)
By following these practices, contributors can foster a collaborative and inclusive environment, enabling the team to work efficiently and effectively across geographical and time boundaries.
Using Huddles for Project Meetings
We encourage you to use Slack Huddles for ad hoc project meetings. This practice increases visibility for the entire community. Anyone can see that a huddle is in progress and easily join the conversation. After the meeting, the chat history remains visible, which allows those who couldn't attend to see what was discussed.
This transparency makes our community more active and welcoming, which helps us attract new contributors.
How to Use Huddles
Check out the Use huddles in Slack page (or this video) to learn how huddles work.
Start a huddle and add the topic you're discussing so others know what the huddle is about (e.g., "Mentorship Program").
To encourage participation, add a friendly invitation to the title, such as "Mentorship Program: Join the Conversation!"
We value the convenience huddles provide and want to encourage active participation. We also prioritize accessibility and encourage teams to understand the various needs of their members to ensure equitable access.
Meetings with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Peers
When a deaf or hard of hearing community member is in a meeting, if possible, turn on your camera when you speak. Unable to hear your voice (well), your face is how they can make a personal connection. Otherwise, all they have are the captions.
For those who do not rely on interpreters or when no interpreter is available, seeing you offers essential visual context, such as facial expressions and body language, which tone and voice convey, but captions cannot. If you are unable to use your camera, that's ok. We understand that it may not always be feasible.
Agenda, Proposals, Projects, and Teams
Merge Forward projects often originate from group members. These ideas must be in alignment with MF goals and be of interest and importance to the community.
This section explains how we transform ideas from our community into projects with a defined set of deliverables or a team to focus on a larger stream of work that may involve one or more projects and activities.
Getting on the agenda
To better plan and facilitate meetings, Merge Forward groups have three ways to add a topic to the agenda for scheduled meetings.
To best manage the group's time, consider your topic and the audience and select accordingly. If you are unsure, reach out to the chairs in the respective Slack channel.
Topics and updates
We expect members working on projects and group members to provide updates periodically during the monthly meetings. If you are currently working on a project, your updates are already embedded in the format. If they are not, please add it to the group's agenda, put your name next to it, and let the chairs know by dropping a note in the Slack channel. They will provide feedback if necessary.