• Agile Coach Camps in the US
  • Why Attend
  • About Open Space
  • Code of Conduct
  • History of ACCUS
    • Aug 1, 2015 – Washington, DC
      • 2015 – Our Theme
      • 2015 – Agenda
      • 2015 – Venue & Hotel
      • 2015 – Sponsors
      • 2015 – Post-Camp OpenSpace Agility
    • April 28-30, 2017 – New York
      • 2017 – Theme
      • 2017 – Agenda
      • 2017 – Venue
      • 2017 – Proceedings
      • 2017 – Photos
      • 2017 – Org Team
      • 2017 – Partnerships
    • 10th-Anniversary Agile Coach Camp
      • Ann Arbor Theme: Why is Coach Camp important to us?
      • Ann Arbor Agenda
      • 2018 Organizing Team
      • Who’s Attending the Ann Arbor Camp
      • Ann Arbor Venue & Hotels

US Agile Coach Camps

Author Archives: Paul Boos

Agile Coach Camp Wrap-Up

26 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by Paul Boos in News

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Tags

costs, logistics, sponsor, transparency

Pre-note: when I use the word I, it’s Paul, and when I use the word We I mean your Agile Coach Camp team.

As a final wrap-up to Agile Coach Camp, we’d thought we’d share some of the thoughts in planning and in particular our budget and choices in expenditures. We hope this will prove useful to those planning their own Camp and provide a level of transparency we hope others will follow suit. It allows you to see our thought processes and debate our choices if you decide to set-up a Camp or similar unconference.

First we established a prioritized backlog of things we needed; basically just a list of items in the order of importance to make the Camp as successful as possible:

  • Team – people who are willing to help you with a myriad of things
  • Venue – you have to have a place
  • Facilitator – someone to help hold the space open for the right dialogs to occur
  • Theme – something to create a draw
  • Supplies – stuff to capture information and for people holding sessions to use
  • Snacks
  • Lunch
  • Breakfast
  • Happy Hour Friday Night
    • We broke this down further into food, then libations.
  • Happy Hour Saturday Night
    • We also again broke this down further into food, then libations.
  • Swag
    • We elected for optional shirts at an additional cost.
    • Buttons – they were a big hit in Indy
    • Cushions – the seats we originally knew about weren’t cushioned
    • Stickers – something to decorate you space or computer with…

If we had gotten considerably more funds, we may have expanded the Saturday Happy Hour into a full blown dinner.

We had two additional side goals: be able to give some money to charity and be able to pay forward some amount to whoever runs the next Camp.

Starting with team, I reached out to Andrea; she had been to a couple of Camps and was local and someone I formally worked with… It’s always nice ot have an enthusiastic partner. We added to the team over time adding Brandon and Julie and then eventually Sean. Of course, we also considered our facilitator part of the team as well, but I’ll discuss that a bit separately.

Next up was Venue: we toyed with all sorts of things, perhaps taking over a vacant/gutted office floor (as long as it had power) as well some other places we had seen. Once requirement I stipulated was it had to have natural light. In the past we have had two Camps where the light wasn’t natural and they were both low energy. It was the only consistent correlation I could make – the facilitators, event, etc. were all similar. We settled on the Thurgood Marshall Center (Andrea had held an event there before); it was about as affordable as we could get for the size and availability possible. (DC venues are very expensive and most don’t have natural light.) Because of the decision to have this just prior to Agile2015, we elected NOT to have a separate, but related workshop event prior as it would be just a hugely long time for people (in the past we have had Games Days). We thought perhaps if anything we might have a half day afterwards (which we realized with Daniel Mezick’s OSA workshop). We toyed around with having only a one day camp or a two day camp; we settled on keeping it our traditional one and a half days. This meant we had to pay for two days of the venue: $4430 for the Center including all conference rooms and the basketball court.

Next up facilitator: I’ve been involved with most US Camps, the second Camp in Raleigh, we paid for the facilitator – she was very good. The next Camp after that, the wonderful Mike Sutton offered his OST facilitation services up for free just pay for his travel. That was the model we took for every Camp I worked with ever since which brought us Olaf Lewitz and Deb Hartmann-Preuss as facilitators. (I was not involved with the Atlanta, I think that Doc List was paid, but I am uncertain.) I had reached out early to Rachel Davies this time, but she wasn’t available. Andrea threw out a request to some OST facilitators she knew about and Tricia threw her hand up and I am so glad she did. We paid her a $200 stipend to travel from Pittsburgh to DC to help defray her costs. Hands down IMHO, it was the most value for money for setting up of the event.

She helped us set a theme: we toyed with not having a theme as one always emerges slightly different from any particular one set, but ultimately settled on one via a conference call late April. The theme: “Expanding our art to sculpt effective 21st century organizations” seemed to have been realized by the emerging topic dialogs very well. We had 3 that I noticed that emerged for improving our craft (in order of what I took away – YMMV): invitation to take the Agile Journey, improving our ability to communicate technical practices more effectively (and in particular their importance), and how to focus on overall organizational agility.

Next up was supplies – to include nametags, flip charts, stickies, markers, sharpies, dot stickers, and certainly other things I am forgetting at the moment. I was able to find a few threw various thrift shops (including half of the name tags); these aren’t in the charges. The rest were ordered from Amazon ($374.90) except for some last minute Index cards ($15 – which I still haven’t gotten around to paying her yet for it). We had left overs, these will support upcoming unconferences: agiledialogs.org and glasscon.org and meet-ups (DC-SUG, GALE, etc.); they will not be used for any standard conferences. If any still remain after these and the next ACC US is within driving distance of DC, I’ll offer to bring some to help reduce the costs.

Snacks were provided from two locations: Amazon (for all the gluten-free and vegan snacks and the gluten-free muffins for breakfast); these cost $389.35. The second set was picked up by Julie from CostCo consisting of sodas, pretzels, pita chips, and fruit and was $206.49.

Lunch was $1600.50 from Dirty South Deli; we wound up with more food than needed (better than not enough). We gave all the left overs to the Center for their tenants. Most of the sandwiches survived through Sunday….

Breakfast was $1160 for both days from Bread & Chocolate. Again we had left overs and these were given to the Center.

Going back to snacks for a bit – Ice Cream Socials are a typical Southern tradition and since everyone was south of the Mason-Dixon Line, it seemed fitting to have one. Ice cream itself would have been too messy, so I went with a local popsicle company I have adored since I first tried them: Pleasant Pops. The feedback I got was everyone loved them. I think it made for some pleasant convos and a raise in energy mid-afternoon. This cost us $466.25.

For Happy Hour on Friday, the intent of which is to let people get to know one another a bit before Camp, we didn’t have but about 32 respondents, so we planned for 40. We elected to go to Chinatown’s La Tasca based on the basement space. (I had lunch with a friend thought it would be good – I had hoped to have the whole space, but that would probably have wound up being cost prohibitive.) Another tidbit, for both happy hours, we elected to only pay for food and sodas, trying to get decent libations just was too expensive and even if we had, it still wouldn’t have been satisfactory for everyone. Cost was $2022 and I thought the service was awesome so that included about an additional $150 over the included gratuity. I was a little disappointed personally that no one took the invitation to do a lightning talk, but I embraced “whatever happens is the only thing that could have” and I am all better now 🙂

Happy Hour for Saturday was planned for 70 (I knew we’d lose some locals due to family commitments and driving). Lost Society proved to be a good spot. They worked with me on the amount to keep the costs right, but I think they underestimated a bit on the amount. I think it still made for a nice place to let people relax and chat further. (I know I really enjoyed my convos!) The service could have been slightly better though (I felt it was standard) so I didn’t add over and above the included gratuity. This cost was $2755.38.

Swag: buttons were a huge hit in Indy so I got a bunch again (we had a small amount left over); cost was $182.98 for $200. Stickers were $78.35 for 250. The seat cushions (which hardly anyone took x-| )were $256.27; when we first talked with the Center they only had regular metal chairs, we wanted to ensure some comfort, so we ordered the seat cushions. 150 was the minimum order I could make for these.

Miscellaneous: we hope to make a photo book for Tricia as token of our appreciation (please post links to photos!!!). I have $60 set aside for that to have it made and for mailing it. We also made a donation to AgileLib.net of $25 for their outstanding site. This is our second year using their event log.

In total our outlay is $14,222.37.

We raised $8355 form ticket sales and $5909 from sponsors. The reason for the odd number is Markus had bought us a ticket, then couldn’t make it so he paid the difference in what his ticket cost to the $500 donation. There was a pay forward of $2717.42 from ACC US in Indianapolis. Our shirt sales didn’t hit sufficient quantity for any discount and in fact due to taxes and shipping costs we lost $71.35. I attribute this to missing the last responsible moment to get these up for sale as I tried to find a way to add it on the EventBrite system as opposed to a direct Paypal payment. The purchasing window became rather narrow.

Our ‘revenue’ was $16,910.00.

Our current balance is $2287.93. We still have about 20 some people to pay for their Agile Alliance membership (which is why we asked questions about whether you were attending the conference or not as that paid for it already.) So we expect to pay forward $2087.93 for next year is currently.

Lastly, I have $1244.83 sitting in the Paypal account I set up for the event and $1490.32 in the NFCU account I set up for it. Some stuff has not been billed yet, so once that all comes in, we’ll be all square and I can pay forward the amount to the next Camp.

If you have any comments or thoughts, please drop a comment here, tweet to @acc_us (please also use the hashtag #accus, note underscore in account name) and/or blog post about it.  You have about 4 days to also post items on our AgileLib events log; this is truly important to us as well as photos.

Parking Details!

31 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Paul Boos in News

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Tags

logistics, news, parking

We’re going to have just a few spots marked for us tomorrow at the Center (we’ll need 1-2 just for the people bringing us food as well); about 2-3 blocks aways is Garrison Elementary school (corner of 13th Street and S Street NW) and you can also park in that parking lot – the entrance is on 13th Street.  That will accommodate another 20-25 cars.

There is a refrigerator onsite, if for some reason you need to keep anything cold, it will be available.

Cheers!

Agenda Updates Posted

30 Thursday Jul 2015

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news

Minor tweaks were posted to the Agenda for the post-Camp Saturday event.  We’ll gather at the Lost Society for a short happy hour from 5:30-7pm before people head off to home or dinner with fellow coaching colleagues.  This will place you squarely in the hot U Street corridor with all its new restaurants and bars.

Our Agile Events Logbook is live; please drop by and post what you are looking forward to AND/OR what you want to discuss at Camp (it gives you a chance to expand on the ideas you had when you signed up on EventBrite).

Lastly, if you are interested in having dialogs about thorny (meaning contentious) topics in the Agile Community (such as #NoEstimates, Scaling, etc.); be sure to check out the affiliated Agile Dialogs site.

AgileLib.net Event Log

21 Tuesday Jul 2015

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Our friend Tobias is setting us up an Event Log for recording things that occur at Coach Camp.  We used it last year to keep up with more recent events occurring during the Camp AND MORE IMPORTANTLY as a means for recording information that was happening in the Camp.

To get a feel for what was captured last year, drop by Last Year’s Log. BTW, a big shout out for AgileLib.net in general.  It’s a tremendously valuable online resource; please consider joining, using, and contributing.

WARNING: Big Update!

17 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Paul Boos in News

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Tags

logistics, parking, sponsor, sponsorship

Been a bit slow in updating the News (too busy planning and executing), so here’s a HUGE dump of info… Starting with…

We’re Sold Out!!!!

If you want to attend, please ensure you still go to EventBrite (button is on the Home Page) and add your name to the waiting list.  As a request to those that bought a ticket, please cancel if you find you can’t make it; we can issue a refund up until 5 days before.  That would hopefully allow someone to take your place.

New Sponsors!!!!

The support for Camp has been great!  Esther Derby has shown her support, even though she sadly can’t make it. This is very much appreciated.  We’ve also received support from Tim Ottinger – his blog, the Agile Otter is a great place to read up on some great Agile thinking. Learn more about our sponsors and their offerings by clicking on their logos on the Sponsor Page.  There is still time to sponsor and basically now, any additional sponsorship goes to three things: an additional fun evening mid-Camp, a larger donation to the Thurgood Marshall Center – our charity for this year (as well as our venue location), and more funds in the pay-it-forward bank for next year’s Camp.

Camp Logistics

If you look at a Google Map of the Venue’s location, we are in a residential neighborhood near the ultra-hip U-Street corridor.  Very cool for everyone finding dinner locations to continue convos and perhaps evening entertainment.  The downside is parking is very limited. Please try and carpool, metro (U-Street or Shaw-Howard U metro stops are both a few blocks away),  or taxi to the location.  The Center does not have much parking and it’s limited additional capacity is being taken up by your Facilitator and Camp Counselors (i.e. the planning committee).

If you are coming from out of town AND want to avoid getting a car, Washington-Reagan has a metro stop.  And for those that will then be going to AGile2015, there is the Water Taxi: Water Taxi Info – National Harbor.

We are also in the process of setting up an Event Log on the Agile Library. This free resource is available to everyone; last year we had a considerable number of posts made before, during, and after Camp that captured a large portion of the works created.  This adds to the thinking of the Agile Community-at-large, whether it be new ideas or answers to issues that coaches have been encountering.

Food!!!

This year we’ll be getting Lunch catered from Dirty South Deli; we’ve arranged parts of their menu they will cater to be Gluten-Free/Dairy Free, Gluten-Free/Vegan, and some great Vegan friendly salads (dressings, and cheeses will be on the side).  We think this will accommodate everyone that has special dietary needs, though I will personally admit it was a bit tricky; we’re sorry if anyone finds that we couldn’t meet their special needs, getting everything right across a diverse audience is really difficult. (It’s kind of like having multiple product owners…)

AND we will have an ice cream social catered by Pleasant Pops. I’ve been a personal fan of theirs now for years having started my cheering after trying them as a food truck/cart and then going on and backing their Kickstarter campaign when they opened their market place cafe on Florida Ave.

A Word About Our Affiliates

These are sites run by organizers (i.e. Camp Counselors – including one that can’t make it) or a free resource we’ll be using.  Please drop by and learn a bit about their thoughts.

New Sponsors + Agile Alliance Membership opportunity!

18 Thursday Jun 2015

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I wanted to take a few moments and welcome and thank our newest two sponsors: Temenos and the Agile Alliance. Both of these great organizations join our impressive roster of sponsors.

Temenos runs the annual Systems Thinking in Action conference promoting growth and understanding in systems thinking. They also have Temenos retreats; these are intimate growth and vision retreats in containers of safety (Temenos is Greek for container). A couple of your organizers have been on these retreats and we can say they are deeply moving.

The Agile Alliance the non-profit supporting the adoption of Agility as described by the 4 values and 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto.  With their sponsorship, Agile Coach Camp can offer a yearly membership into the Alliance for $10.  We’ll do this during registration as you MUST attend to get the offer.  You are not required to join, and if you are attending the Alliance’s Agile2015, you payment for that conference automatically gets you the yearly membership.  If you aren’t attending though and want to join, just bring $10 to registration and we’ll get your name and email to pass to the Alliance so they can register you.  The Alliance has fantastic resources for members and runs occasional virtual conferences as well.

Agile Coach Camp Polo Shirts!

13 Saturday Jun 2015

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Screen Shot 2015-06-13 at 4.00.03 PMWe’ve added a new ticket type to Eventbrite so that you can get a high quality Adidas polo shirt with this year’s Agile Coach Camp logo embroidered on the front.  The cost is $50 per shirt; at about 25 or more ordered, the volume discount will start letting us make a small sum to add towards additional goodies at the Camp (additional food or maybe rent a space for lightning talks on the Friday).

Impress your friends! OK, at least let them know you came…

If you are interested in a shirt, drop by the Eventbrite page and buy a ACC Shirt ticket.

If you want one and aren’t attending Camp (why not!?), go ahead and purchase one, then contact Paul Boos (@paul_boos on Twitter) and we’ll make arrangements to ship one to you anyway for $10 (again there will be an overage that will be used to help pay for the camp).  Look as smart as the folks that are attending!

Some Exciting News…

08 Monday Jun 2015

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First, the event is shaping up well; we have Tricia Chirumbole as our Open Space facilitator. She actually stepped up several weeks ago and I failed to get that published / (failure = I learned something). We’re very excited to have her and she helped us shape our super Theme: “Expanding our art to sculpt effective 21st century organizations”.

Excella Consulting joins our roster of sponsors; with their support, we’re on our way to providing an outstanding Camp.

If you haven’t checked out the Venue yet, you should!  This venue, besides being a great historic building, is also a non-profit that helps improve racial justice.  We’re very excited to be working with them since our payment for the facilities directly helps them. Our hope is to raise enough funds that we can also make an additional donation to them.

Thank You to Leading Agile!

17 Sunday May 2015

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Leading Agile has long been a supporter of Agile Coach Camp and we’re happy that they have reconfirmed their commitment to improving the craft of agile coaching by sponsoring this year’s Camp.

Please take a few moments and thank Mike Cottmeyer and his crew when you have a chance.

If you would like to become a sponsor, we’d love to hear from you.  We’ve made it super easy to make the donation and we’re looking for many contributions as opposed to just a few large ones; after all this is a community!

Newly Themed and Registration is Live!

05 Tuesday May 2015

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We’re very excited as today we set our theme with our OST facilitator. We selected a theme that seems to be an area frequently encountered by coaches: “Expanding our art to sculpt effective 21st century organizations.”

You can read more about the theme through the “Our Theme” menu item; we hope you find it as inspirational as us!

And with that, we also took our registration live! Drop by and purchase tickets!

Eventbrite - Agile Coach Camp 2015

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