Microsoft Teams is a great tool for Scouts to use to help us communicate, store and share information.  The Teams component of Teams uses channels to give you the option of different places to communicate and store information.

There are 3 types of channels available in teams, each functions a little differently and has some different use cases.

The three types of channels available are:

Standard Channel

Private Channel

Shared Channel

Step 1: Creating your new channel:

The Create channel screen will show:

The name is what will show in the channel list in teams.

The description allows you to provide more detail around the purpose or use for the channel.

The Privacy is where you will select the type of channel you want to create – Standard, Private or Shared.

Step 2: Select the type of channel you want.

Type 1: Standard Channel

Standard channels are exactly that – standard, they are accessible and visible to everyone that is a member of the Team and have no special functionality. The default General channel that is created for every Team is a standard channel.

It can be used as an area to discuss items or information that is visible and accessible to everyone in the team.

Type 2: Private Channel

A private channel is denoted by the small padlock symbol next to the name in the channels list.

A private channel allows you to create a communications and information storage area that is only accessible to the people you select from your team.  The trick to this is, they need to be a member of your Team itself to join the Private channel.

For example at the Group Level you could opt to create a private channel for the Committee – the committee members would be member so the ‘Group’ team and could see everything that is listed in the standard channels like General, but only the people who are members of the new private Committee channel would be able to see and interact with the private channel.

Type 3: Shared Channel

A shared channel is similar to a private channel in that only the people selected as members of the shared channel can see and access the information and messages.  The major different between a private and shared channel is that members of a shared channel DO NOT need to be a member of the base team.

And example where this might be used is for a District Event or Activity.  At the District Team level a new shared channel could be created for the District Event and the Leaders added to the channel to communicate and collaborate in the planning for the Event.  The leaders would not need to members of the District team itself so Team remains visible to all members of the District team, but they now have a shared workspace for the event.

Step 3: Adding members to your new channel

For a standard channel, this step will not appear.

For a private channel you will be able to add members from the Team to your new Private channel

Type the name of the member you wish to add, then click Add

You will then be able to add them as a member or owner of the Private channel using the drop down option

For a shared channel

On the channel creation screen a slightly different option appears at the bottom when you select Shared Channel:

The checkbox at the bottom will allow you to share the new shared channel with everyone who is a member of the base team – using the District example, this would share the new channel with everyone who is a member of the District team – if you wanted to limit who has access, untick this box and add the members individually on the next screen.

This is where the Shared Channel differs from the Private channel you can add anyone from Scouts QLD with a Scouts QLD 365 account to your new shared channel even if they are not a member of the base team you have created this channel in.

Managing Members of a Private or Shared Channel

If you want to check who has access to your Shared or Private channel, you can use the Manage Channel option to do this

For a private channel you will see the following:

Clicking the Add member option at the top will allow you add new people to the channel

To remove someone click on the X shown on the right to remove them

For a Shared Channel you will see:

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Shared channels allow you to add individual members or an entire team to your shared channel.

If you click on With people at the top you will see the options:

To add a single person – click With people

The two bottom options allow you to invite a whole team to join your shared channel

Removing a member or team from you shared channel is done in the same manner using the X in line with the member or team name