Call To Order

Roll Call / Introductions

• BoD attendees: Trevor Peterson, Ronica Roth, Christen McLemore, Jen Krieger, Richard Dolman
• Community attendees: Aaron Adams

Connect to Our Craft

10 minutes to go around the room and share something we learned or did in the last month.

• Ronica – Eric Willeke did a SAFe Product Agile Management training. Really great material – best Product Management training – lots of good stuff. When I wasn’t helping, I was applying some of the tools to my own company. He’s now bought into shortening days for remote training
• Richard – in Chaos, you need novel approaches. Traditional Agile thinking does not help in the Chaotic domain. Coaching some coaches to tap into emergent thinking. Trying to virtualize trainings with being so anchored to in-person experiential learning. I’ve become a good user of Mural. Taking this time to tap into these things. Serenity prayer is important.
• Jen – Trying to help folks transition to a more virtual environment. It has been a struggle even with the previous WFH experience in the company. The beauty of an entirely negative moment- they get to the bottom of the drain, but then there is a recovery moment where they start fixing and move forward. The fact that they had shared the negativity was very heartening. One of those moments where I’m happy to be in the job I’m in.
• Christen – We’ve all had that moment where we’re tired and you want to take a break. Very tricky with all the work-life changes. I’ve struggled with not being on my computer from 9-5 for the past year. Now in this consulting space, it’s different. Give yourself that moment to get off the computer – we beat ourselves up with the need to be always available. 
• Trevor – We switched ourselves to a five week planning cycle. 300-500 people agree on a new process, train them on it remote, run the planning remote. GVP level, even! Agreed to do less.
• Adam – not much agile related—other than a project management discussion and jira tutorial… I just started a new role and am trying to bridge a few gaps.

Agenda

1. 1. Community Forum (30 minutes max)

      • Nothing to discuss.

   2. New Focus for the Year, Given pandemic-land

      • We have our mission – Steward a vibrant community in the Front Range
        • In the last month, Slack is quieter than ever. Less traffic there.
        • Agile Denver North – Ronica offered to help people get into the Slack, and 25 people wanted to be added
        • New people are joining the Meetups at higher frequency
        • Haven’t heard much from the SIG leaders – Kanban took a month off and did a core group only. Allen and Renee were having trouble with making a co-host for a Zoom – lots of gratitude about getting one
        • Coaching SIG – they had Erika Lenz as just the Zoom facilitator/technology role. Interesting to see Lennie adapt his experiential style to the new format
        • We recreated the social time a little bit – no hurry to get started, but not awkward. People just wanted some time in the Zoom for chatting. Cool energy.
        • Work has been busier with being remote. It’s a struggle to keep up with everything at work. Missing out on social time/family time
        • Some people are finding they need to work different schedules to split childcare. Less work, but more stress.
      • Interpretations
        • I think more people want to connect now and are trying to find people to connect with, not sure what they are looking for. And this is fluid and/or shifting. Our own ability to interact with all of this goes up and down.
        • I’ve seen online events that were amazing, I’ve been to some that created a larger sense of absence when they finished.
        • How people are dealing with/not dealing with the uncertainty and lack of control – seeing lots of discomfort with uncertainty – the need to fix something or solve something. WFH not new, but different when it is not your choice.
        • Slack is quieter, but more joining – could we do more to intentionally nurture that space – concerted effort
        • People are looking for connection, but may not be looking to do even more “work” stuff. Looking for something that isn’t sales, more stuff. Brainstorm idea: post to do once a day a suggestion that is not just about Agile. Many newsletters are starting new newsletters to offer advice to be happy now.
        • Since consulting is lighter now, I’ve enjoyed going to Meetups more and I’m not overworking.
        • What could we offer to the community that is lightweight/light touch?
        • MHA had a social media schedule, should we be doing that year round with Agile Denver? Some that are Agile, some around being human. What is the right channel since not everyone prefers Slack?
        • I want to nurture a community that transcends our tools. How do we send the invitation, the place is somewhere.
        • Help train and educate people in Agile Denver that you may need to get comfortable with Slack, etc. Understand these methods of communication.
        • AMA chats, casual game night? Disconnect and not be work related. I feel the need and urge to do something even if we are struggling with all of the churn around WFH.
        • Feels a little overwhelming that the board could solve this problem. SIG leaders have enough on their plate that we don’t want to overload them. Maybe a call to get volunteers from the community to help us connect the community? Give other people a chance to step up. Asking the community what they need from us since we have such a diverse workgroup. Pockets of different needs.
        • Is there anything we can offer to the SIG leaders to help support them? Letting them know we’re here and ready to support. You don’t know unless you ask. Offer some positive feedback and ask what they are feeling/thinking? Are there ways you’re feeling inspired by the removal of some of the traditional constraints?
        • Could we blur the lines to combine some meetings with other states/counties/areas? Could we share our community spirit with other areas? Maybe even our non-local MHA speakers sharing? Take it further and get a group of speakers – panel, lean coffees, “coffee with a coach” – global community. Presented during the day and recorded and added to our Youtube channel.
        • We have said we were going to do workshop things to help people become speakers – get MHA speakers or people that understand building talks to help. Another thing we could take action on now.
      • Actions
        • I would love to reach out to our community on all of these communication paths (twitter, meetup, slack, etc) – dot vote or forum – to validate what we are thinking – longer thought needed here, create placeholder card – start asynch? Christen and Ronica to start – Card in Trello https://trello.com/c/tnCuPZRq 
        • Reaching out to the SIG leaders – how are they doing? Feeling? Energy? – card in Trello https://trello.com/c/17LCB0Xz 
        • Something to generate energy in Slack – once a week Q & A/quiz? Board has to respond! No Sad Pandas!! Not just Agile! – let’s do it! – Jen to start it (Trello card https://trello.com/c/Zj7jTocS)
   3. New AD SIG request
      • Agile Boulder Meetup – Request https://drive.google.com/open?id=1romWk62b16x0nlMx08YzTM9z0LTfFBxm  (Used new form https://trello.com/c/YvpFjWAL for submission)
        • What set this apart from Agile Denver North – just geography?
        • Used to be Barry Kardon and Nancy Fallia
        • Boulder has people that won’t leave – already well attended and established ~10-25
        • Add to form – what’s current/expected attendance? (updated the form – done)
        • As long as it doesn’t create a conflict with Agile Denver North – Nancy is running both
        • Unanimously approved by the board – Christen will let Nancy know this week (Slack done)
        • Open Q: How do we know to remove a SIG?
   4. Zoom for SIGs
      • What we bought so far
        • one core (currently in RR name, but we can change that)
        • One for Denver South (but they wish for co-host capability…)
        • One for Laurie/Coaching SIG
      • Any issues related to Zoom per the security issues that are in the news? Some people are against using it and their companies may have also banned use of it. What is the impact to our community? 
      • What next?
        • Ronica to continue working on Zoom
        • Ronica to reach out to Frank about a Zoom for Kanban CoP
   5. Treasurer Update
      1. 1. 1. Been focusing on MHA refunds.
            2. Talking to 2 accountants for assistance w/ QB reconciliation and tax filing support.
            3. Mailbox paperwork ready to go, on back burner with everything else
   6. Bylaws review and updates
      • We’ll push another month
   7. Website update
      • Agile-denver.org for now. The majority of what we want to do is done. Next struggle will be getting SIG information. CSS is not working quite right for the SIG list. We want to give them something to respond to.
      • Connect button goes to the Slack sign-up; Learn is the SIG page; Volunteer button offers ways to work with Agile Denver
      • BoD Meeting minutes are available. BoD bios are available as well – you can edit them.
      • We’ll likely need to buy plug-ins to do user management and other tools. There is also a calendaring function that can create events in Meetup. Could eventually move away from Meetup.
      • Need to finish SIG information and do an announcement.
        • Jen to reach out to SIG
        • Ronica to reach out to Steve Ropa about RM Software Craftsmanship
   8. Trello Board: Review board right to left

COMMUNICATION PLAN

1. What coordinated announcements will we deliver at the SIGs?
   • We’re still here and we still care!
2. Other needed communications?

Next Meeting: Tuesday May 19th, 2020

As of now, who plans to be in-person vs remote vs absent?  [Note: In-person v remote depends on external factors. –RR]

1. YES – all remote