On Thursday evening, the Boston 501 Tech Club had a record turn-out of seventeen people getting together for dinner.

The restaurant was noisy, and we split into two tables, so there wasn't much opportunity for conversation that involved everyone in the group all at once.  However, the seating arrangements allowed for a great deal of rotation, and I had an opportunity to participate in a lot of different conversations.

We had a number of first-time attendees, and I was especially happy to see Khalid Mustafa there.  He is the manager of technology of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, and also the director of the ULEM Technology Training Institute and the Timothy Smith community technology center that makes its home there.  It would be a a pleasure to run into Khalid anywhere, but I was especially happy to see a local leader of the community technology center movement at the table with members of the 501 Tech Club.

Another first-time attendee was David Clark, who expressed his incredulity at the reluctance of nonprofit organizations to adopt open source solutions.  In additionally to his vividly expressed opinions and great good humor, David brings considerable expertise on accessibility issues to the nonprofit technology community.
I was also delighted to note that all of the women in attendance yesterday evening were also members of the Boston Techobabes group.  Obviously, participation in a single sex group doesn't preclude active membership in a professional group that includes men and women.

Eric Segal (a fellow veteran of the Northeast Circuit Rider lunch group) and I had a chance to get together and catch up before dinner began.  As usual, Eric is thinking not only about his own technical specialties but about the longterm technology needs of the nonprofit sector in our region; I look forward to some more brainstorming with him soon.

All sorts of kudos are due to Merove Heifetz of Earthwatch, who serves as our local 501 Tech Club convenor on a volunteer basis and has done a great job of organizing our outings.  Since she is moving to Washington, DC to start a degree program in nonprofit management, we will soon have the bittersweet prospect of saying farewell to her.

The evening's finale took place just outside the Harvard Square MBTA station, as a few of us exchanged just a few more thoughts before parting.  A group of folks from the Berkman Center's Thursday evening bloggers' group hailed me at what was obviously the conclusion of their dinner together.  I had felt a pang about choosing to miss the weekly Thursday bloggers' meeting in order to consort with the Boston 501 Tech Club, but for just a moment, it seemed like a kind of harmonic convergence.