#WaterCoolerChat

Here at NAF, we spend a lot of time using Microsoft Teams messaging to communicate with our colleagues. In addition to our day-to-day business, we also try to have a little fun on Teams, by conversing and bantering with our colleagues on topics that may seem unrelated to our day-to-day work but help us to build community, share resources, raise awareness, have a laugh, and engage in dialogues about important issues. Some of these channels include:

• Question of the Week (Example post: What is the best gift you received over the holidays?)
  Equity (Example post: Check out Chuck Cantrell's "Dying to Stay Here" video, shedding light on the staggering disparities that push African Americans to the margins in Silicon Valley.)

• Tech This Out! (Example post: Gemini demo, Google's multi-modal AI solution Hands-on with Gemini: Interacting with multimodal AI)

• Music to Work By (Example post: Love Actually - Christmas Is All Around)

• Wellness Channel (Example post: Wellness Reminder Seven Dimensions of Wellness)

• Celebrating Diversity (Example post: we just saw the new Pixar animated film “Elemental”. Amazing! It’s a story about immigrants and diversity! highly recommend checking it out.)
  
  Your Task:
  At your new job or internship, you’ve been assigned the task of managing a Teams or Slack Channel that will bring people together.

1. Come up with a name for the channel. You are welcome to use one of the examples above or better yet, create your own.

2. Add 5 postings to the channel, in the text box, to get it started. Be sure to consider the purpose of the channel and how you can help build community in an inclusive and fun way.

3. Share with your peers!