XTC-BOSTON - March 6th, 2008

In February, five of us met at An Tain and had some quite good conversations, but changed venue half way through because the bar was quite load. We're going to try the bar we switched to again.

We'll keep trying out different locations in hopes of finding one more conducive to discussion.

The next meeting will be:

* Thursday, March 6th from 6:30pm
* The Place, 2 Broad St., Boston, MA 02110

Mary Poppendeick in Worcester Jan 31

Appraisals and Compensation: The Elephant in the Room

Appraisals, bonuses, and compensation in general have a dramatic impact on individual and team performance, and yet these subjects tend to be avoided as if they were taboo. This talk will take a look the underlying conflict between individual rewards and teamwork. It will examine the history and literature of reward systems, particularly those in environments which require collaboration.

The location is a bit afield from Boston, but it is also possible to participate remotely.

This event is sponsored by another local Agile group - The New England Agile Bazaar. See the website for directions, schedule, and instructions for remote connection.

XTC-BOSTON - February 7th, 2008

Last week at Coogan's five eXtreme Thursday members - Heather Kanzer, Jason Wadsworth, J.L. Holup, Moss Collum and Don Roby (yours truly) - met and had some quite good conversations in spite of having to converse over a rather loudly miked trivia question game.

We'll keep trying out different locations in hopes of finding one more conducive to discussion. The decision to meet on Thursdays may continue to make this difficult, so we might at some point going back to Tuesdays. But not just yet...

The next meeting will be:

• Thursday, February 7th from 6:30pm
• An Tain, 31 India St, Boston, MA 02110
  

I don't know this place, but it was recommended as a nearby possibility. It may of course have similar problems on a Thursday night. It definitely has entertainment that would interfere on the weekends.

XTC-BOSTON - January 3, 2008

The December meeting ended up being only a couple of us regulars from Cyrus, but it was a pleasant evening nonetheless. Probably everyone else was busy shopping...

Kinsale's was convenient for those of us that did make it, so we may continue with downtown pubs for a bit.

The next meeting will be:

• Thursday, January 3rd from 6:30pm
• Coogan's, 171 Milk St, Boston
  

Coogan's is at the corner of Milk and India, across the street from the custom house. The Cyrus team has been there once and liked it, but it wasn't a Thursday evening, so we'll see what that's like.

Join us to continue the over-indulgence of the season while talking about agile software development.

XTC Boston is now a MeetUp group

We've formed a MeetUp Group and announced the December meeting there.

This group is being formed to help us get the word out to others interested in joining.

We'll continue putting meeting notices here of course, but registering with meetup and joining the group there may have advantages. For example, meetup.com includes an email list associated with the group. If event notices don't automatically go to this list, we could certainly start posting notices there as well.

XTC-BOSTON - December 6, 2007

eXtreme Tuesday Becomes eXtreme Thursday

Our last get-together was a lively discussion about bringing agile methods to non-agile teams. At the end of the evening we also discussed the day we meet, the frequency, and the venue:

• Tuesdays seem to compete with too many other gatherings.
  
• Twice a month seems to be too often.
  
• The Cambridge Brewing Co. is getting noisier and is having more trouble accommodating us. It's also full of people who look like they may be us, making it more difficult for new people to find us.
  

So we're going to try some changes:

• The eXtreme Tuesday Club is becoming the eXtreme Thursday Club. (This has the added advantage that we don't have to change our URL.)
• We're going to try meeting once a month, on the first Thursday of the month.
  
• We're looking for alternative places to meet. In December we're going to try Kinsale in central Boston.

That means that there will be no meeting the third week of November. The next meeting will be:

• Thursday, December 6th from 6:30pm
• The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston

In other news, I will be headed back to New York at the beginning of December, so I won't be attending this or most subsequent meetings. I'll be thinking of you while I'm having beers at XTC-NYC though. Enjoy yourselves!

--Paul

XTC-BOSTON - November 6, 2007

Join us at the Cambridge Brewing Company for another eXtreme Tuesday this coming Tuesday evening at 6:30pm. If you don't know anyone yet, have a look at the sidebar on this page; you're sure to recognize at least one of us there on Tuesday night.

• Nov 6 2007 from 6.30pm
• Cambridge Brewing Company, 1 Kendall Sq, Bldg. 100, Cambridge