There were concerns that it was difficult to keep abreast the developments in the main chat channel. This was contributed to the frequent actions that would be initiated, mixed with lively banter and everyone leading incredibly busy work (and hopefully home) lives. It was too much to keep track of.

I have heard this concern and I believe I have an elegant solution. I have implemented a second channel. “But, wait! Isn’t that twice as much work for us to keep up?!?!” Well, no. The only extra work will be to get yourself on the second channel. The purpose of the second channel is to give a “once a day” update of where the group is, and where it is going (sometimes it might be twice a day). The cleverness of this approach is that you can customize your notifications to your current availability/stress tolerance levels.

How to change your notification settings?

• iphone/app: tap the group name at the top of the screen, scan down the page to find “Sounds & Notifications” and tap that. Here you can choose which sound your device plays when notifying, or mute the channel temporarily, and make exceptions for when someone directly speaks to you (with and “@”yourname in the chat).

• laptop/PC/Mac?: also tap the group name, scan down to find “Notifications” and make similar choices

• You can also access more notification options on either devices by moving up to the main screen (that shows a list of all your chats) and tapping either your profile picture in the upper left corner, or the options icon (“…”) in the same corner.

• Practically: This allows you to maintain access to all the action. But, it allows you to tailor the intrusion we have upon you. During a quiet work/family week where you want to raise hell, you can turn notifications to the main chat, and see all the angst and scheming occurring and jump right in. But, once a day you can calmly step into the “News” channel and see a synopsis of what important things have happened. Other times, you can shield yourself from the chaos of the main channel by turning off notifications, and yet still maintain awareness with a brief read of the “News”.

• The names of the two channels: Main- Alberta Family Doctors’ Labour, News - Newsletters: Ab Fam Doc Labour

• How to get to the second channel: There is an invite in the main group to the second group, at 8:05PM Nov 3rd by myself. Also, later Nov 4th I will send out personal invites to all others not yet in. And if that still doesn’t capture you, then ask me or other admin to pull you in.