Welcome to Virtual Coffee! đź‘‹
Permalink to “Welcome to Virtual Coffee! 👋”Onboarding processes can be confusing. This is just as true for software as it is for communities!
We get many questions such as "I have some questions or ideas; how and where should I ask this," "Do we have a channel for {something}'," "How do I find a channel in Slack," "I would like to help, how do I volunteer?" And many more!
To give you the best experience, and to get the most out of Virtual Coffee, we created the official "Virtual Coffee Guide"!
Table of Contents
Permalink to “Table of Contents”- Code of Conduct
- What To Expect In Virtual Coffee
- Virtual Coffee Events
- Giving Back To The Community
- Keeping Up With Virtual Coffee
This is the most important part of Virtual Coffee. We want this community to be a welcoming, inclusive, supportive, and safe place for all our members.
We pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
We take our Code of Conduct seriously. You can find a copy of it on our website.
I think someone has violated the Code of Conduct. How can I report it?
Permalink to “I think someone has violated the Code of Conduct. How can I report it?”You can report your experience to our Maintainers at hello@virtualcoffee.io or anonymously at virtualcoffee.io/report-coc-violation.
What To Expect In Virtual Coffee
Permalink to “What To Expect In Virtual Coffee”Coffees (Zoom Meetings)
Permalink to “Coffees (Zoom Meetings)”We have twice weekly Coffees (Zoom Meetings) on Tuesday at 9:00 AM ET and Thursday at 12:00 PM ET that last an hour.
This is a good place and time to meet and get to know other members, old and new, through casual conversations.
How it works
After some pre-coffee chatter, the Coffee MC will do an intro with some background and important announcements while people filter in. Then we'll break the crowd into breakout rooms for more relaxed and intimate conversations.
When we move to the small group conversations, there will be a room leader and notetaker for the room. They'll explain how we do introductions and how to participate. We value our members and the ways they're most comfortable participating.
If you're here to listen and chill? No problem! If you can't turn on your camera or aren't comfortable having your camera or even sound on? Feel free to turn them off! There is no obligation for you to have them on. We want you to be as comfortable as possible in our coffees.
Joining coffees
We drop the schedule and reminder in the #announcement channel on Slack. There will also be an announcement 10 minutes before the event start, along with the link to join. Click that button, and you will be directed to our Zoom.
Virtual Coffee On Slack
Permalink to “Virtual Coffee On Slack”Much of Virtual Coffee occurs on Slack. We have channels in our Slack to accommodate our members. We encourage you to participate in Slack to get the most out of Virtual Coffee.
Check our Virtual Coffee Slack Channel Guide for the complete list.
Find and add channels in Slack
On computer:
- Hover over to Channel tab on the left side
- Click the "+" button
- Click "Browse channels"
- Find a channel that you want to join
- Click "Join" button
On phone:
- Click the "+" button
- Search a channel by scrolling down
- Click on the channel
- Click "Join channel" button
Tips: You can scroll through a channel's conversation to understand what the channel is all about before clicking the "Join" button.
Leave a channel in Slack
If you decided to leave a channel:
On computer:
- Right click on the channel that you want to leave
- Click "Leave channel"
On phone:
- Click on the channel that you want to leave
- Click the "i" button at the top right corner
- Click "Leave"
Co-working with other members
Permalink to “Co-working with other members”Do you want to work or learn with people, need help and a pair program, or only want to hang out with other members? Thanks to Dan Ott, we have a #co-working-room channel linked to our Zoom, so our members can connect anytime they want! It's open 24/7!
Joining co-working session
- Head over to the
#co-working-roomchannel on Slack. - Click the green button to start a new session or join the ongoing session, and then you will be directed to our Zoom.
Our members voluntarily hold events from members to members! You can find the complete listing of the events on the Events page.
Joining events
Permalink to “Joining events”We drop the week and day events in the #announcement channel on Slack. There will be another announcement 10 minutes before the event start, along with the link to join. Click that button, and feel free to join!
Coffee Table Groups
Permalink to “Coffee Table Groups”Coffee tables are regular internal events for our members run by our volunteers. You are most welcome to join!
Tech Interview Study Group
Mondays at 4:00 PM ET
Weekly discussion of job search & interview-related topics. Mini mock-interviews, technical topic discussions, job search tips, occasional guest speakers, etc. We are always looking for ideas to help meet your needs! All stages of career & job search welcome.
Interested? Join the #tech-interview-study-group Slack channel!
Accountabilibuddies
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM ET, Thursdays at 9:00 AM ET, and every other Sunday at 1:00 PM ET
You want to learn that new tool/finish up that blog post/send that job application, but you’re so busy that the day is over before you know it. Join us and add some fun and friendly accountability to your schedule!
Drop into our sessions whenever and for however long your schedule allows. No matter the goal, you’ll find encouragement and support alongside your accountabilibuddies!
Indie-startup hackers
Every other Wednesday at 12:00 PM ET
Running a company? Thinking of starting? We support each other and discuss the issues that can make us better at the business of technology. Hack commerce!
Interested? Join the #indie-startup-hackers Slack channel!
Frontend Friday Folks
Every Friday at 5:00 PM ET
Every Friday we're working on a puzzle at CSSBattle. We're taking over the #co-working-room during this time. Feel free to join us and learn more about CSS!
Virtual Coffee Book Club
Read, study, and discuss 2-3 books each year with fellow VC readers. Use the questions in the GitHub discussions to go at your own pace for any past books. Feel free to gather a group of friends and start your own read through for a book.
Just join the #book-club Slack channel!
Feelings Friday
Every Friday at 10:00 AM ET
Feelings Friday was started at the Flatiron School coding boot camp by its founders, Avi Flombaum & Adam Enbar, after they noticed burnout among their first cohorts. Join a safe space to share what's that's on your mind and hold space for others. It's a great way to unwind at the end of the week!
Note: These are the currently scheduled times for these events at the time of this publication. Please check the official VC #announcements Slack channel, or other noted channels, for any updates and links to event rooms.
Every month we hold a monthly challenge which we encourage our members to participate in!
At the end of the month there would be an announcement on what we will do for the upcoming monthly challenge. Starting at the beginning of the month, members can update their progress in a Slack’s channel that is provided special for monthly challenges.
Lunch & Learns are hour-long events lead by our members. They can be traditional conference-style talk, panel discussion, question and answer, or a combination.
If you have a topic that you want to present as a Lunch & Learn, you can do so by filling out the Lunch & Learn Idea form. A coordinator will reach out, get the talk scheduled, and put on the events calendar.
Lightning Talks
Permalink to “Lightning Talks”Occasionally we hold Lightning Talk sessions. Virtual Coffee's Lightning Talk is a great way to try your hand at public speaking in a supportive and safe place!
In Lightning Talk, a group of members takes turns presenting their talk in a 5-20 minute time range. Our maintainers will share a Call for Proposals in Virtual Coffee Slack about one month before the event. And we always provide mentorship for those who want it. So we got your back!
Do check the playlist on youtube from our latest sessions!
Yes! We do participate in Digital Ocean's HacktoberFest! Virtual Coffee is also open source. Every October, we help our members to contribute to and/or maintain open sources.
Giving Back To The Community
Permalink to “Giving Back To The Community”As you can see, Virtual Coffee has Coffees (Zoom Meetings), events, even office hours! And these are all becoming possible thanks to our members who run these voluntarily.
If you're interested in joining the volunteer team, check out our open roles! And if you are interested in starting a new Coffee Table group, you can find more information on the Leading a Coffee Table Group page.
If you have questions, drop them in the #community-questions channel, or you can contact one of our community maintainers.
Contributing To Virtual Coffee
Permalink to “Contributing To Virtual Coffee”Open Source
Virtual Coffee’s website is open source and we love contributions! Please read our Contributing Guide for some guidance on contributing to virtualcoffee.io.
Sponsorship
Our members volunteer their time and support for Virtual Coffee to run. Sponsorships help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community, and to support all of the things you see on this page!
Keeping Up With Virtual Coffee
Permalink to “Keeping Up With Virtual Coffee”We interview members of the community to learn more about their stories, who they are, how they found Virtual Coffee, and how that influences their lives as developers.
You can subscribe and listen to our backlog of episodes on the Virtual Coffee Podcast page.
Every month we publish a newsletter for our members to keep up with Virtual Coffee. Our newsletter includes upcoming Virtual Coffee events, interesting things our members are doing, and lots more.
You can subscribe to or read the newsletter on the Virtual Coffee Newsletter page.
Come chat on Twitter!
We post event recordings and other resources on our YouTube Channel.