MergingBranches.txt

This is an instruction file for merging changes now that we have multiple
branches. I'll be using the following branches as examples:

staging_alex : This was branched off of the 'staging' branch.
staging : This was branched off of the 'master' branch

The goal is to merge changes from staging_alex into staging. Ensure you have
committed all changes locally before you attempt a merge. These are the steps 
in raw git commands, which you can generalize:

git fetch
git checkout staging_alex
git pull
git checkout staging
git merge staging_alex --no-ff 

If merge issues occur, resolve them. use 'git status' to show which files have
issues.

git push

Now all changes should appear on github. If you wish to merge a branch into
master but master is not the immediate prent branch of your current branch,
then you must first merge into the parent branch. For example if I wanted to
merge my changes from staging_alex into master, I would first merge
staging_alex to staging, and then merge staging to master. Doing otherwise may
cause merge issues later.