Overview

We are a close knit community of Latinx in Tech, elevating each other as we grow into leaders within the tech industry.

Whether you’re already a Latinx professional in tech or are interested in becoming one, you’ll be joining a fast-growing community. We help each other out with problems/questions, share positive, support one another’s concerns over compensation and workplace challenges and network through both offline and online initiatives.

Within our Slack, you will find:

• career advice (anonymous option provided)
• community moderators who make sure the Code of Conduct is being enforced
• compensation advice (anonymous option provided)
• free conference tickets or discounts
• job opportunities
• local events
• member highlights
• mentors and mentees
• org wide updates from Techqueria
• platform discounts
• resources
• scholarship opportunities
• specific channels that cater to you – affinities, cities, passions, hobbies, etc
• and so much more

Allies 💛

Techqueria is committed to bringing together and elevating Latinx professionals in the tech industry through a vibrant and supportive community. 🌮

However, it is not a requirement to identify as Latinx to be in this community which is why allies get access to 4 channels

1. #announcements to stay updated on latest updates from Techqueria leads
2. #allies to share resources and have discussions around allyship
3. #events to share events with the community
4. #jobs to share job opportunities with the community

The purpose of the #allies channel is for allies to share resources, events, etc with our community and to ask us any questions on how to partner up together or become a better ally. 🧠

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, let us know in #allies and a lead will get back to you.

With your support, Techqueria can become a stronger & more valuable community for Latinx in Tech. 💛

Still want to join other channels?

We value you being a part of the community and your interest in being an ally!

To facilitate allyship, we are implementing best practices from other orgs that have been doing this type of work for a long time and adapting them to our organizational structure.

This organization exists as a space for Latinx folks to feel included in the Tech industry.

Generally allyship in underrepresented communities is there to support the community, not the other way around.

And so, while this structure is new for us as the community matures, we are firm in this policy.

We understand allyship is difficult (for everyone!), and we appreciate all the work you are putting in.

Best Practices 🧠

Creating casual hangouts

Using Polly and Eventbot, you can make it easy to coordinate casual hangouts in different channels.

We recommend first using Polly or Doodle to decide on a time that will work for most people.

Then use Eventbot to create an event so that folks can RSVP and can also get reminded when the event starts through Slack.

Use threads

This convo in the #random channel could have been a bunch of separate messages! 🤯

Instead, with threads – it turned into a more rich and focused discussion. 😀

Please do not use the feature “Also send to channel” as this causes the channel to become more noisy.

Refer to pinned posts

A lot of useful info is pinned to channels.

Make sure to check those out when joining a new channel. 📌

Useful Reacjis

Notice someone posting in the wrong channel?

The :switch-to-a-different-channel: will be used to indicate that someone is posting to the wrong channel in a friendly way and should probably switch to a different channel.

Notice someone not using threads effectively?

Use :please-use-threads: to encourage people to use threads instead of posting in channel with a bunch of related messages

Notice someone who hasn’t uploaded a profile picture?

Use :please-upload-a-profile-picture: to encourage people to fill out their profile and upload a profile picture

HeyTaco

The HeyTaco! bot sparks conversations and builds stronger relationships with its fun and unique kindness currency… tacos! 🌮

You can use @heytaco to give someone a 🌮 when you’d like to show praise, appreciation, or to add a little happiness to their day.

1. Every person in our Slack Workspace has 5 tacos to give out per day 5️⃣ 🌮
2. To give someone a taco, add a taco emoji after their username Like this: @username your positive attitude was a real help today!

3. You can give tacos to anyone on your team as long as the bot has been invited to the channel You can invite the bot to channels using /invite @heytaco
4. There is a leaderboard to see who is getting the most tacos Anyone in our Slack Workspace can sign in and see the leaderboard using https://www.heytaco.chat/leaderboard
5. Need help? If you need help, you can just DM @heytaco the word help and it will assist you

Customization 🆒

All these customization suggestions are completely optional and solely meant to improve your experience using Techqueria’s Slack.

Sidebar Theme

Copy and paste these values to your settings Sidebar Theme section to get Techqueria theming.

Light Mode

#FFFFFF,#FFFFFF,#FBAE52,#000000,#FBAE52,#000000,#FF551F,#FF551F

Dark Mode

#1A1D21,#FABF67,#FABF67,#1A1D21,#000000,#FFFFFF,#FF551F,#FF551F

Custom Status

Something fun we do in Techqueria’s Slack is setting a custom status with a flag representing our Latinx heritage/background.

If you want to put multiple flags, you can do that too!

Emojis

When you click on the emoji icon in the conversation or to add a reaction, you can see a ton of custom ones we’ve added. 🎉

You can find images for things like arepa, empanada, baseball teams, avocado, etc.

Take a look at them and feel free to add more custom emoji yourself.

Channels 💬

Default Channels

These are the default channels everyone automatically gets added to upon joining.

Core

• #announcements
  • only admins can post
  • this is where admins/organizers will post news and information about the community at large
• #introductions
  • new members introducing themselves
• #cafecito
  • facilitates 1:1 meetings for members to get to know each other
• #meta-request-channel
  • request a new channel
• #positive-vibes
  • Give someone kudos using 🌮 or just share what you accomplished this week ✨
• #random
  • conversations that don’t fit in any topic channel but could be relevant for everyone
  • not location specific

Career Related

• #career-advice
  • to share or ask for career advice
• #compensation
  • ask questions about compensation anonymously
• #job-seeking
  • if you are looking for a job
• #jobs
  • sharing job opportunities
• #resources
  • sharing helpful resources
• #workplace-challenges
  • getting advice on common workplace challenges

Misc

• #action
  • “Trataron de enterrarnos. No sabían que éramos semillas.”
• #allies
  • for allies to share resources

Public Channels

We have created different channels to keep conversations relevant, for example:

• #comida
• #front-end
• #futbol
• #javascript
• #memes
• #mentoring
• #musica
• #open-source
• #politica

By default, you do not join those channels but you can click on CHANNELS to see a list of all the channels and join the ones that seem the most interesting.

We monitor most activity in those channels to make sure content is relevant so if something off-topic is posted there, we might move it to a more appropriate channel.

Location Based Channels

We have a variety of location channels that are prefixed with #locals-, for example:

• #locals-atl
• #locals-boston
• #locals-la

You can use these channels to communicate with folks in those locations, whether you live there or are visiting it can be a great resource.

#Cafecito

Pairs up Techqueria members every 2 weeks through a Slack app called Donut so they can get to know others in the Techqueria community.

Identity

These channels represent different affinity groups and countries of origin that you can join if they are of interest to you.

• #afrolatinxs
• #argentinxs
• #asian-latinx
• #belizeans
• #boricuas
• #brasileirxs
• #centroamericanxs
• #chilenx
• #colombianxs
• #cubanxs
• #dominicanxs
• #ecuatorianxs
• #guatemalans
• #haitians
• #indígena
• #lgbtqai
• #mena-latinx
• #mexicans
• #panamanians
• #paraguayans
• #peruanxs
• #salvadoreñxs
• #uruguayans
• #venezolanxs
• #xicanx

Code of Conduct 🌻

You can find our code of conduct at https://techqueria.org/code-of-conduct.

In short, this is a professional community so be respectful of everyone and their identity.

Unprofessional behavior is not acceptable so if you feel that someone is breaking the code of conduct, make sure to report a violation to our Trust & Safety team.

Questions, comments, or concerns?

If you’d like to participate in the conversation about the future of the community, event planning, suggest speakers and be more involved, please consider attending a Town Hall session or email us at support@techqueria.org