Staff channels and direct messages
Channels for the team, direct messages for a few people, and why every word of it is a workplace record.
Finding staff chat
Staff chat lives in the Messages tab, alongside your conversations with families. The filters under the search box narrow the inbox: All, Families, Channels or Staff DMs.
Below them are New channel, New DM and More tools, which opens Browse, Search staff and Saved, among others. If your center has staff chat turned off, those screens tell you so.
It's a workplace record
The first time you open Messages on a device, RoundUp shows a Staff messaging notice: staff channels and direct messages are retained under company policy and may be reviewed by HR or legal counsel. Tap I understand to carry on.
Take it literally. Edited messages keep their earlier wording, and directors have an Audit log of channels created, renamed, archived and restored, members added and removed, and messages edited and deleted.
#general and room channels
Every staff member is in # general, the center-wide channel pinned at the top of your inbox. If you see Join #general instead, tap it.
The chat icon in the room bar at the top of the Classroom tab opens a channel for that room. The first person to tap it creates the channel, public and named after the room, with themselves as its only member. If the channel already exists and you aren't in it yet, the icon takes you to Messages instead: open More tools → Browse and tap Join.
Creating a channel
- Start it Tap New channel.
- Name it Channel name takes up to 40 characters, without a
#, and must be unique in your center, ignoring capitals and spacing. Add a topic if it helps people find it. - Choose who can find it Public: anyone in the center can find and join it. Private: only people you add can find or join it.
- Add people Tap teammates under Add members, then Create Channel.
You're the new channel's admin. Announcement channels, which include every staff member automatically, can only be created by directors and admins.
Direct messages
Tap New DM, pick up to eight teammates, and tap Start DM, or Start group DM if you picked more than one. A DM suits a quick word. If a conversation keeps coming back, a private channel with a clear name is easier to find later.
Replying, editing and deleting
Press and hold a message to react to it or see what you can do: Reply, Reply in thread, Save, Pin, and on your own messages Edit and Delete.
- Edit is available for an hour after you send a message, and the earlier wording is kept.
- Delete works on your own message within an hour of sending it. After that, ask a director.
Browse, search and saved
- Browse lists the channels you can join, with their member counts. Tap Join, or Open if you're already in.
- Search staff searches staff chat messages.
- Saved collects messages you've saved, so the schedule change from three weeks ago is still findable.
What belongs where
- Answer families in their thread. Parents' messages are under Families. Reply there, and keep staff DMs for talking to colleagues.
- Keep sensitive details out of public channels. A child's health, a custody arrangement, a family's circumstances: take it to a private channel with only the people who need it, or to your director.
- Don't use chat for anything urgent. A ratio problem, an injury or a missing child is a phone call or a walk down the hall. Messages wait until someone looks.
- Write it as if a director will read it. One might.
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