Slack: Add Members of an MCommunity Group to a Channel

Environment

U-M Slack

Issue

  • Can I sync a Slack channel's membership with an MCommunity group?
  • Can I invite an MCommunity group to my Slack channel?

Resolution

Slack channel membership cannot be synced with an MCommunity group in the same way a Slack workspace's membership can. Below are a few possible paths to accomplish your goal:

Option 1: Create an MCommunity Group Workspace

If a) it is critical that membership is managed by the MCommunity group in an ongoing manner, b) this channel is likely to be long-lived, and/or c) there are a lot of members, you may find it beneficial to create your own Slack workspace synced to an MCommunity group. Learn more about workspaces vs. channels and creating an MCommunity workspace.

Option 2: Copy/Paste Membership from MCommunity into Slack Channel

If a) it is not critical that membership is managed by the MCommunity group in an ongoing manner, b) the channel is likely to be short-lived, and/or c) there are not a lot of members, the path that may be the best for you is to copy and paste a list of members from MCommunity into the Slack channel's invitation flow. Note that this is a one-time paste of members from MCommunity, and the list will not be updated from MCommunity after this.

Limitations: You must be an OWNER of the MCommunity group to perform these steps. Only direct members of the MCommunity group will be added, and anyone who is a member via a subgroup will have to be added by completing this process over again with the subgroup membership. All people in the MCommunity group must already be members of the workspace (unless the workspace is Maize & Blue), the workspace must allow members to invite other members, and/or you must be a Workspace Admin. For anyone who isn't already a member of U-M Slack and has been invited, only people eligible for U-M Slack will be able to log in once you invite them, even if the invitation sends correctly.

The instructions below assume you are adding members to an existing channel. (If you are creating a new channel, skip to step #6 below once you have reached the "Add people to [CHANNEL NAME]" step in the channel creation flow.)

  1. Open the channel to which you want to add people
  2. Click the name of the channel at the top of the screen
  3. Click the Members tab in the dialog box that opens
  4. Click Add people
  5. Ensure Add to [CHANNEL NAME] is selected and click Continue
  6. Open a new browser window or tab and navigate to the MCommunity group
  7. Click Export Membership in the top right of the list of Members and Owners
  8. Open the .CSV file with Microsoft Excel. (You may use another spreadsheet program (like Google Sheets), but the following instructions are written for Microsoft Excel and may not work exactly the same with other programs)
  9. Ensure you are only copying people, not subgroups. Filter the data to only those with the Type "uniqname":
    1. Click the Data tab
    2. Click Filter
    3. Click the drop-down arrow next to Type
    4. Click Select All to remove all checks. (Note: If the only option below "Select All" is "uniqname," you can stop here and proceed to step 10)
    5. Select uniqname. (If there is no "uniqname" option, there are no direct members of this group, and all members are through subgroups)
    6. Click Apply Filter
  10. Select the cells containing email addresses, omitting the header row (i.e., select cells D2 until the end of the data), and copy the data
  11. Paste the data into the "Add people to [CHANNEL NAME]" field and click Add
  12. If prompted to select whether someone is "From another organization" or "Your coworker," ensure "Your coworker" is selected and click Next. (You may need to click Next or Send Invitations again to confirm)

You will be presented with a list of the outcome for each person added:

  • Anyone already a member of both the channel AND the workspace will show Couldn't invite in red with an information "i" icon. If you hover over the text, it will show: "This person is already in your workspace." (This text is slightly misleading. The reason it failed is that the person is already in the channel. I.e., it didn't fail, there just wasn't anything to do)
  • Anyone who was already a member of the workspace but wasn't a member of the channel will show Added in green with a checkmark
  • Anyone who was not already a member of U-M Slack will show Invited as a coworker in white with an information "i" icon. 

Note: Sometimes, Slack shows this option even when someone is already a member of U-M Slack or the workspace. You may ignore this inconsistency if you check the channel membership and notice them on the list. If they are not on the list, try to add them again. If it still fails, contact the ITS Service Center for assistance.

Additional Information

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.

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Related Articles (2)

Slack: Create a Channel in a Workspace
This article explains how to create a channel in a U-M Slack workspace.
Slack: Inviting Members to a Workspace
This article links to ITS Documentation explaining how to invite members to a U-M Slack Workspace