Here is a starting point for discussion about what team meetings we should have, moving forward. I'm not stuck on any of these specifics. It's just easier to have a candidate proposal to pick apart, rather than starting a group discussion completely from scratch. I have probably missed some as well.
So feel free to question or challenge, or to propose tweaks to or deletions of, any of these. Or propose more meetings. We might end up with a panel of meetings completely different from what you are about to read. But here goes...
1. Full-team checkin (weekly, 25-50 minutes)
This is very similar to the meeting we have been having Mondays and Thursdays, but with less of a "here is my status" focus, and more of a "here is what other people might find interesting". The Scrum-of-scrums stuff probably wouldn't be here, and definitely no looking at workboards. The primary purposes are team-building and information-spreading.
2. "Sprint" planning (weekly, 25-50 minutes)
Since we won't be using timeboxed sprints, the frequency of this
meeting is pretty arbitrary. The main goal is to make sure the "To do"
columns in the sprint boards never go empty. This is where Dan (and Moiz) would propose stories to move from the product backlog into the individual sprint boards. Some combination of tech leads would attend, and would give rough estimates, raise issues about incomplete specs, suggest alternate prioritizations, etc. Other developers could be included, but most likely would be optional (and perhaps very optional). It's not clear to me to what degree this meeting should (or could) be divided up into segments for each sub-team.
3. Daily standup (almost-daily, 5-15 minutes)
I think it is useful for the subteams to have some form of meeting more than twice per week. But to avoid having "too many" meetings, I'll propose the option of doing these on IRC. I would also propose that each sub-team schedule its own separate daily standup, but obviously not at overlapping times. I'm totally open to individual subteams deciding they don't need daily standups.
These should probably follow standard daily scrum format, unless there is a reason not to: Each developer (or other information worker) would say what they completed since the last standup, what they expect to accomplish by the next one, and if they are blocked by anything. The main benefits of this are team cohesion, daily focus on what is important, and quickly identifying blockers.
4. Showcase (biweekly?, 25-50 minutes)
This is a chance for subteams to proudly demonstrate what they have accomplished. This could be opened up to folks outside S&D, but those details should be worked out. Especially in the near term, I'm not sure what frequency would be best. The purpose is twofold: It's always fun to show what you have done, and it's helpful to other stakeholders to really see what S&D is up to.
5. Retrospective (biweekly?, 25-50 minutes)
As we settle in, these retrospectives are likely to become shorter, and we will be able to go deeper on a smaller number of issues, and really discuss possible solutions. These could be every 3 weeks or monthly, but I would prefer to have them more often, but shorter. The purpose, of course, is continual improvement.
6. Technical deep-dives (purely as needed)
I haven't seen a case for holding a standing meeting time open for these, especially now that the team has 5 different but sometimes-overlapping subteams.