What is Slack? Slack is the primary tool we use for communication. You will still receive emails for important Torchbearers information, such as your leadership and development pre-work, but Slack is where 90% of our conversations happen. It’s important to get to know this tool. We recommend installing the application on your phone for the best experience, especially while you build the habit of checking it. You’ll learn more about Slack during our Membership Retreat in January, but in the meantime we would love to meet you on Slack!

You’ll automatically be added to a few channels, but we have dozens available. We talk about a wide range of things, and channels are our way of silo’ing specific conversations to keep our #general from being overburdened. Browse our channels and join the ones that interest you.

Learn more about our main channels:

Note for the Class of 2025: We are working on renaming a few of the channels listed above prior to the 2025 Membership Retreat. A notification will be sent to #announcements prior to this change and this page will be updated to reflect the update.

Please join us for the New Member Mixer on Thursday, December 12th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at The Knight Stage at the Akron Civic Theatre. This event is nothing formal but simply an opportunity to meet your fellow classmates and officially welcome you to the organization! The 2025 Board and Committee Chairs will also be in attendance.  

Around the time of the New Member Mixer, be on the lookout for an email with a subject Your account at Torchbearers Akron is now active. The email will go to the address you specified in the acceptance form. Once you are logged in, you will appear in our membership directory and you can start RSVP’ing to events!

We recommend that you attend as many committee meetings as you can in January, so that you can get a feel for what they do and determine which committee you’d like to join. Check the list of upcoming committee meetings and RSVP for the ones you’re interested in attending (committee meetings for next year will be posted by the end of November).

Our January Membership Retreat is an important event for our organization. We have team building exercises, new member orientation, and lots of opportunities to get to know one another. You’ll need to RSVP for both the Friday, Jan 17th evening and Saturday, Jan 18th half-day sessions.

Committees keep our organization moving forward. Every active member is required to join and participate in a committee. We ask that you please select a committee by February 1 so you can sign up for the tasks that your committee needs. Once you choose a committee, be sure to join the applicable Slack channel.

Subcommittees are special interest groups within Torchbearers. We currently have three subcommittees, Sustainability and Mental Health & Addiction, and Capstone. Subcommittees offer events and learning opportunities for the entire organization. You are not required to join a subcommittee, but can do so in addition to joining a committee (if you have the capacity) by joining the Slack channel associated with that subcommittee.

Torchbearers is a lot sometimes. That’s part of the fun! Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to keep it all in your head. That’s why we have the resources section of our site. You have to be logged in to see it. It contains our by-laws, policies, and board meeting minutes (we post them monthly). It has our brand guidelines and various branded templates. It also has links to useful and frequent tasks you might need to revisit like paying your dues, buying TB merch, or even a link to this checklist so you can come back periodically and make sure you’re on track! Make sure to take a look so you know what’s there for when you need it.