diff --git a/doc/example-plugins/canary.py b/doc/example-plugins/canary.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2c76784
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/example-plugins/canary.py
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+import time
+outputs = []
+
+def canary():
+    #NOTE: you must add a real channel ID for this to work
+    outputs.append(["D12345678", "bot started: " + str(time.time())])
+
+canary()
diff --git a/rtmbot.py b/rtmbot.py
index 56be9c4..27ab179 100755
--- a/rtmbot.py
+++ b/rtmbot.py
@@ -44,7 +44,10 @@ class RtmBot(object):
         for plugin in self.bot_plugins:
             for output in plugin.do_output():
                 channel = self.slack_client.server.channels.find(output[0])
-                channel.send_message("%s" % output[1])
+                if channel != None:
+                    channel.send_message("%s" % output[1])
+                else:
+                    raise UnknownChannel
     def crons(self):
         for plugin in self.bot_plugins:
             plugin.do_jobs()
@@ -52,7 +55,8 @@ class RtmBot(object):
         path = os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])
         for plugin in glob.glob(path+'/plugins/*'):
             sys.path.insert(0, plugin)
-        for plugin in glob.glob(path+'/plugins/*/*.py'):
+            sys.path.insert(0, path+'/plugins/')
+        for plugin in glob.glob(path+'/plugins/*.py') + glob.glob(path+'/plugins/*/*.py'):
             print plugin
             name = plugin.split('/')[-1][:-2]
 #            try:
@@ -115,6 +119,9 @@ class Job(object):
             self.lastrun = time.time()
             pass
 
+class UnknownChannel(Exception):
+    pass
+
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     config = yaml.load(file('rtmbot.conf', 'r'))