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Joining Overflow

Joining Overflow should be a simple process for our members. Usually, we've observed that people tend to join through these channels:

  • When the year starts through SIG and CCA Fiesta: This is when most of our members join officially. We're offered a booth at both Fiestas to share more about what we do and showcase some fun projects to attract new members. We will usually prepare a sign-up sheet for people to leave their details behind and then follow-up with them after the event.
  • Throughout the year through word-of-mouth and workshops: As the year goes on, we might notice people who aren't in our member database attending our workshops or events. We'd usually catch them at the end of each semester, when we tally up the attendance and match the names recorded with our member database. If we find someone who isn't in our database, we'd usually reach out to them separately to ask if they'd like to join officially.
  • Throughout the year through lecturers: Sometimes, the lecturers may talk to us about students who are interested in joining Overflow and have reached out to the lecturers for more information. We'd usually reach out to these students separately to ask if they'd like to join officially.

Process

From the 2023 batch

We're still doing this process manually because of the low volume of members joining at once, so we can afford to do this. However, we'd advise that we automate this process in the future to make it easier for us to manage our member database. For more details, read the "Automate member onboarding" proposal.

For both of these methods, the start of each are somewhat different but the process that follows is the same.

  1. Adding to the member database
  2. Joining our communication channels

Adding to the member database

We would usually invite the prospective member to provide their details for saving in our member database. These details include their:

  • student ID (including both letters capitalised);
  • full name (as saved in NPal);
  • course of study (in initials, determinable from their school account succeeding the /);
  • school email address;
  • personal email address (optional); and
  • phone number.

Joining our communication channels

We would then invite the member to join our communication channels. This includes our:

  • Discord server: the main platform for communication and announcements. We usually mandate that all members join at least this platform compared to the rest.
  • Telegram batch group chats: a secondary platform for communication and announcements. Because each batch of EXCO determines which platform to use, there may be batch group chats in Telegram.
  • WhatsApp batch group chats: a secondary platform for communication and announcements. Because each batch of EXCO determines which platform to use, there may be batch group chats in WhatsApp.
  • Instagram: the platform we use for public announcements and updates.

Tip

For more information about the communication channels we have, have a look at the Resources page.

Last update: August 23, 2024
Created: August 23, 2024

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