Since I last wrote to you I have had the opportunity to meet with many of you and hear from others by phone and mail. There are so many good things going on in the community it's hard to draw attention to it all in one monthly communication. Thank you so much for reaching out and sharing your thoughts and ideas with me, as well as all the great stories from your local group meetings.

You may be wondering about the bee that's making its first appearance in this newslestter? Well, she's a queen bee and will be a mascot in some of our material to help us to focus on the role of "servant leader" and giving back to the community.
To that end, I have some exciting news to share.

The Scrum Alliance owes its strength and continued growth to the tireless efforts of our scores of volunteers across the globe. They help plan Gatherings, organize user groups, submit informative content to the website, and all kinds of other things that help raise awareness of our organization and Agile. Now it's time to give something back to those who've given so much of themselves.

I'm thrilled to announce the Scrum Alliance is now accepting nominations for recipients of our Award of Excellence in recognition of outstanding volunteer efforts. If you know of a community member who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to promote Agile methods and increase the visibility of the Scrum Alliance, drop us a note at volnominations@scrumalliance.org and tell us about it.

Last month, I had a chance to meet up with old friends and former colleagues who are among some of the top minds in the security space. Some of the faces you may recognize: Jim Bidzos, Martin Hellman, Whitfield Diffie and Ron Rivest, to name a few. For all of you familiar with the security space you know these men and their peers ushered in the world of secure e-commerce and communication that we enjoy today.

 The early days of the adoption of world class security strikes me as having some similarities to the exciting times we face now in the Agile space. The true thought leaders -- you and your colleagues -- are like these early security pioneers, the people leading the efforts to help transform the world of work. Your efforts today and in the future form the foundation upon which the whole workplace evolution will rest, and you should be proud of the change you have inspired.

As we go forward, hundreds of thousands of new eyes will be looking at how they can become familiar with your work and how it might help them. This is a big responsibility, but one that I am sure you're ready for. Your hard work has made it possible for all these new people to find their way to Scrum, and with your guidance they will change their lives and work environments.

There have been plenty of announcements recently from other groups within the Agile space. Project Management Institute (PMI) had some big news with the announcement of its new Agile Project Professional (PM-APP)SM certification. Be sure to take a minute and read all about it in a great article [link] penned by Frank Schettini, PMI's Vice President, Information Technology. I look forward to working with our colleagues at PMI as they bring more bright minds and ideas into the Agile space.

March promises to be a busy month for our organization. Response to our Scrum Alliance REP program is enthusiastic, are membership is growing by leaps and bounds and we now have over 120 user groups spread throughout the globe. To hear more about the ongoing work of the Scrum Alliance and to share your ideas please join our open Board Meeting on March 14th, 2011 at 12:00 EST.

Conference Dial-in Number: (605) 475-4800

Participant Access Code: 1008578#

Here's the agenda of things we plan to cover:

Welcome and Call to Order - Mike Cohn
Secretary's Report - Steve Fram
Treasurer's Report - Dan Hintz
Managing Director's Report - Donna Farmer
Nominations Committee - Harvey Wheaton
Relationship with PMI - Board
Open Forum comments - All
Adjourn

As always please send me your thoughts and ideas and feel free to reach out to me to discuss projects you are working on that you would like to share with the community.