The first Thursday of every month a dedicated group of software engineering professionals meet at the University of Minnesota to share their experiences and further their knowledge in how to improve the software development processes in their respective companies. It is a meeting of the Twin Cities software process improvement network (Twin-SPIN).

Twin-SPIN is a regional organization established in January of 1996 as a forum for the free and open exchange of software process improvement, experiences and ideas. Representatives from industry, government, academia, other professional organizations, and consultants are welcome to participate. The Twin-SPIN mission is to help sustain commitment and enhance skills in the area of software process improvement through an active program of networking and mutual support. The organization strives to serve as a source of educational and experiential information for its members, other SPIN organizations, and the general community of software professionals.

Since 1999, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering has successfully hosted Twin-SPIN meetings. Average meeting participation has doubled since then, and it is our hope that it will continue to grow in the future. Topics presented and discussed last year included "eXtreme Programming" (Pascal Roy), "The Evolution of a Software Engineering Process Group" (Bobbi Stark and Kris VanHofwegen), "Getting Out of Our Own Way" (Ed Tilford), and many others. Information on recent talks can be found in the Twin-SPIN archive hosted by the Critical Systems Research Group at the U: http://www.cs.umn.edu/crisys/spin/.

Participation in Twin-SPIN is free-of- charge and new participants are always welcome. Twin-SPIN meets the first Thursday of the month, August through June. Meeting announcements are posted on the Twin-SPIN home page (www.twin-spin.org), and more information can be obtained from the Facilitator/Moderator Jesse Freese (jesse_freese@fissure.com) or Mats Heimdahl (heimdahl@cs.umn.edu). If your organization is interested in sponsoring the Twin-SPIN meetings (to help cover coffee, cookies, and parking expenses), your donation will be gratefully accepted (http://www.cs.umn.edu/ crisys/spin/sponsors/).

We hope to see you at a Twin-SPIN meeting this fall.

-Mats Heimdahl