Think globally, meet locally

I like being together with people I like.

I like to have discussions.

I like to think about the "right" way to do business.

And I like the agile way of getting things done.

These are some of the reasons why I spend my time reading about Agile and Lean, why I'm helping companies to become more agile, and why I have started a Scrum User Group in the Rhine-Neckar region of Germany about two years ago.

Our Scrum User Group tries to meet every one to three months for a so-called "Scrumtisch", discuss all agile topics, play games and have a nice time. We are between three and 15 people coming together each time. A year ago (or so) an other group was founded in our region: "The Agile Round Table Heidelberg". We started to join the other group's meetings and they joined our "Scrumtisch".

During the last months we realized, that it takes a lot of effort to keep the momentum of such an event. You have to find the dates for the meetings, you have to invite the group, you have to attend it yourself. So we thought about combining our meetings.

In a small retrospective at our Scrumtisch yesterday evening we discussed, why it is so difficult to "keep the momentum". One reason we thought about, was that fixing a date for the next meeting was not an easy task.

And - what are we always telling our clients and colleagues - how agile people deal with this problem?

We are having regular meetings! Then you can have a long term planning, the date is in your calendar and the only question is: where will it be this time?

So, now we do the same: From now on ...

We will meet every second Tuesday of the Month

An other thing we discussed in our yesterday's meeting was how to name our combined meeting. "Scrumtisch" is not a good choice because not everybody is doing Scrum. Taking one of the group's name for the new combined thing would not be a good choice, too.

I'm a big fan of the ALE Network (the Agile Lean Europe Network), which brings together the European agilists (and some non-european as well).

And so we decided to have our future meetings under the umbrella of the ALE Network.

Our meeting is the ...

ALE Local Group Rhine-Neckar

So, if you ever come to the Rhine-Neckar region of Germany and it's the second Tuesday of the Month, come join us to have a beer, a glass of wine or water and make friends.