From: Annie (annie@geekbabe.com)
Date: Wed Jun 02 2004 - 09:22:53 CDT
In this mailing:
Org List
Welcome
A note about terminology
Moving forward
Dates for DLV 2005
Administrivia
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Org List:
This is the DLV 2005 Organizational Mailing List (dlvorg@geekbabe.com)
Replies to this message will be forwarded to the DLVORG list and not
the DLV-Announce or DLV-Discuss list.
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Welcome:
I would like to welcome everybody, new volunteers and old hands, to the
DLVORG group. This is the group that plans and implements the vacation
we know and love which goes by the name Diva Las Vegas.
We have several new additions to this group this year. 15 new volunteers
if I am correct, which is an all-time record for DLV! We appreciate you
stepping forward and hope that your involvment with this group will be
enjoyable and rewarding to you.
If you're new to this group, please don't be afraid to speak up. We need
your input as well as that of those who have been around several years.
Our group has one mission and one mission only, and that is to plan a
vacation that our attendees will cherish and remember for a lifetime.
I would like to ask everybody, particularly the new people, to think
about what you, personally, would like to do for DLV, both generally
and specifically. Yes, some of you have sent in notes of what you have
in mind, and these will be brought into the discussion here over the
next few mailings.
As you probably know, DLV is a sequence of autonomous activities. Most
of our "work" consists of planning those activities and taking the steps
necessary to make them happen.
Some of our activities are trivial, and these are those where there's
no formality, no sign-up, just show up. On these all we really need
to do is agree on what to do, where, and when.
Others are a bit more involved, and require advance planning, maybe
rate negotiation with a vendor, ticketing, $$$ collection, etc.
If my count is correct, we had 17 nontrivial activities (or about 2.5
per day) at DLV 2004, and each one was "adopted" by one or more of us,
who took the necessary steps to make them happen.
Our mission (should we choose to accept it) is to go forward and plan
DLV 2005 and take the steps necessary to make it happen.
One important thing to remember in the ORG group here is that it's ok to
agree to disagree. We do have quite a diverse group here, representing
all points on the t* spectrum and then some. Differing views are
encouraged, and playing devil's advocate is cool. Just remember to
respect each individual as a person and their point of view as being
valid from their perspective.
New and different ideas are always welcome. If you have something in
mind that you think DLV people would enjoy, put it on the table, even
if it's something really out in left field. As all of you know, some
of our activities are most certainly atypical for a t* gathering.
We try to reach decisions by consensus here, but when there's no clear
consensus or there's some disagreement, we result to the democratic
process and we vote.
In most all cases, those who volunteer to plan and implement a DLV
activity are the decision makers regarding that activity. Of course the
group as a whole has the final say on what activities will and will not
appear on the schedule. We work as a group to combine the activities
into the most effective format and schedule.
We have almost a year to plan DLV 2005. We do, however, want to get our
major plans and decisions made early in the game.
One improvement we need to make for this coming year is to solidify our
activities and the schedule a bit earlier in the process. A few items
were much too close for comfort this year. This has been one of our
sore spots the past few years.
Also, feedback indicates that our people want more detailed information
sooner.
I see the following as a calendar to go forward this year:
July 25: Call For Votes (this group here) on DLV 2005 dates.
July 31: Proposed DLV 2005 dates presented to the general DLV audience
for discussion. See below.
September 1: DLV 2005 dates announced.
November 30: Suggested DLV 2005 hotels announced.
January 1: Re-registration opens.
February 1: Registration opens for list members.
March 1: General registration opens.
Six weeks prior to DLV: All activities solid. Schedule frozen.
One month prior to DLV: Activity sign-up opens.
. . .
The ORG list is usually sent out Wednesday morning.
We'll plan for this list to come out "weekly as needed", sticking to the
Wednesday schedule as much as possible. If discussion is heavy or if
things are time-critical, additional mailings may be made. If traffic is
low, we may skip a week here and there.
There are a number of items that will come out on this list over the
next few days. Those are the activity suggestions received on the DLV
2004 survey and some various items that have been sent in that are
organizational in nature.
Some discussion on this year's org list will be carryover from last
year's, and those who are new might want to review the archives of the
2004 ORG list at http://www.geekbabe.com/annie/org04arc/
Archives of this year's ORG list will appear on the web at:
http://www.geekbabe.com/annie/org05arc/
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A note about terminology:
All of us come from different backgrounds, and not all of us speak the
same dialect of English. As I'm sure many of you have noticed, we don't
all use the same terms when speaking of DLV and the various entities
which make it up.
Here's the way I tend to use these terms. It's up to you whether you
adopt these conventions or apply your own. :)
Activity: One of the individual happenings that makes up DLV. Such
things as the Limo Tour, the High Tea, and the daily Lunch With Ginger
would be examples of what I call activities. I usually consider the
names of all activities to be proper nouns, so I'll frequently
capitalize them.
Event: The singularity. DLV as a whole. Made up of many activities.
Venue: The location or facility at which DLV or a DLV activity happens.
You will find that, if you haven't already, that there is quite a bit of
overlapping and overloading of these terms. :)
If you choose to use your own terminology, I'm sure I and the others
will understand unless it's in the correct context. :)
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Moving forward:
Overall, compared to the past few years and especially to DLV 2003,
things went very well from an organizational perspective. No major
issues that I can see. I don't forsee any contentious or divisive items
over the next coming months.
If there's anything major in nature, however, we want to address it
sooner, not later.
This year, I'm not hearing any calling for any sweeping changes, or any
major changes to the scope or the format of DLV. "If it ain't broke,
don't fix it."
Of course, new ideas, and different ideas are always welcome. DLV has
always been a good example of "out of the box" thinking.
Set in stone, however, are the following:
1. The overall venue, Las Vegas.
2. The approximate timeframe, spring.
3. The format, vacation not convention.
If anybody wants to see something in a place other than Las Vegas, at a
time other than the spring, with a different format, or with a higher
degree of formality, they are of course free to start one. :)
On our plate at this time are the following items:
1. Any final summarizing, follow-up, rehashing, analyzing, etc. of DLV
2004.
2. The scheduling of DLV 2005. Not the day to day schedule, but the
place on the calendar and the length of the event.
3. General discussion, ongoing from this point forward, about DLV 2005
activities, general and specific. The next mailing to this group will
contain the activity suggestions that were received in the 2004 survey.
This can serve as a conversation starter as we begin our activity plans
for 2005.
I'm not hearing any calling formalize, or steer in the direction of a
convention this year. I think we can safely say that this movement died
back in 2001 or so. May it rest in peace. :)
. . . . .
One principle I would like to see us adopt this year is that each
nontrivial activity has two volunteers on it, whether they act as
co-coordinators, primary and assistant, or primary and standby.
Why, you ask?
That way if we have a drop-out or lose contact with a volunteer (which
always seems to happen in the months right before DLV) we're not
scrambling and arm-twisting to get somebody else to take it on.
A related principle on this is that I would like to see no more than one
activity coordinated by the same two people. That way if one person
should drop out or break contact, no activities are at risk, and if any
two should drop out or break contact, only one activity is at risk.
As many of you know, we had a number of activities placed at risk this
last year due to volunteer drop-out or lost contact. We've even had a
couple cases of no-show volunteers in years gone by.
Another principle I think we should adopt is to have one or two standby
nontrivial (evening) activities planned and ready to roll out in case
one of the primary scheduled activities can't happen for one reason or
another. IMAO, the San Remo/Flex ending was kind of underwhelming when
compared to our planned Michael Cagle show. I'm sure our people would
have appreciated it if we did indeed have something more appropriate in
the can that we could have dropped into that timeslot.
Comments on this, gang?
. . . . .
I am hearing comments regarding a few of our perennial favorite topics
of discussion, such as:
1. One centralized hotel, group rates, (hospitality suite or meeting
room. {yawn}) :)
2. Mainstream vs. alternative venues.
Might as well have our yearly go-round on these ... :) :)
As for hotels, there seems to be a calling from the Teeming Millions to
have one central/official/whatever hotel. Talk on the Discussion Forum
seems to oppose this, however.
Several people mentioned the group rate thing again, more so than in the
past.
If anybody wants to volunteer to take this on, please do so.
With our model of DLV it's impossible to require our people to stay in
any particular hotel.
Speaking freely, the "special rates" we've been quoted over the years
have been along the line of a joke. :)
If somebody can indeed come up with real black-and-white bookable rates
that are indeed lower than the readily-available cold-call or web rates,
I would love to see it happen. However, I'm not holding my breath.
Just remember that we cannot contractually guarantee any level of
occupancy and we don't have any front money that can be used for any
deposits and such.
I didn't hear any calling this year for a hospitality suite or any other
kind of common area. If that is to happen, it will be up to those who
have it as a priority to make it happen.
. . .
I'm hearing more of a calling this year to go more mainstream and more
upscale WRT our bar activities.
For those who want to see more mainstream/upscale bar type activities,
please feel free to plan them. All you have to do is make plans and
get them on the schedule.
Now, for those who want to replace such venues as Goodtimes and Flex for
such things as the Welcome Celebration and the Annual Mixer, you will
need to do some homework and seek out facilities that not only meet your
criteria of being more mainstream/upscale, but are also as friendly and
comfortable to those who are just taking their first steps out into the
real world. Yes, we need a few large group activities in places where
ALL will feel comfortable.
Comments?
. . . . .
I'm also suggesting no change to our current policy of increased
attention to behavior/dress/restroom issues. (I'll often times
abbreviate this B/D/R or BDR.) Our procedures obviously worked, and I
did not hear any concerns of them being too strict or too intrusive upon
individual style.
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Dates for DLV 2005:
One of our first jobs is to set the dates for DLV 2005.
The floor is now open for discussion of the DLV 2005 dates.
We want to have a preliminary selection made by the end of July and have
a one month call for comments period from the DLV audience in general,
then announce the final dates around the first of September.
This year I want to be sure we dot the i's and cross the t's and be sure
there are no misunderstandings, either by this group or by the Teeming
Millions<tm> regarding how the dates are set.
For the record, it's this group here who makes the decisions, including
scheduling and the setting of the dates. That's the way it should be.
Those who do the work call the shots.
No, there's no smaller ill-defined subgroup that actually sets the
dates, to be rubber-stamped by this group, as was implied last year.
I'll remind everybody that we are now enjoined from scheduling anything
on Mothers Day or the two days prior, meaning that for 2005, the days of
May 6-7-8 are off limits to us.
A related issue is the length of DLV.
Personally, I thought the 7-day DLV, ending on Saturday, worked fine,
and the length was about the maximum we can handle with our current and
anticipated volunteer force, and also stay within the means of our
attendees.
We're also starting to see reports from our survey that DLV is too
long. We did not see this when DLV was 5-6 days.
Yes, there are always people calling for DLV to be longer. However,
those who say "yes, I want DLV to be longer AND I personally commit to
coordinating additional nontrivial activities" are not very common.
Therefore, I'm suggesting we consider 7 days at most for DLV 2005 unless
we have a marked increase in volunteer commitment and enthusiasm.
. . . . .
Networld+Interop runs from May 1 thru May 6 this coming year. Having
DLV either immediately before or immediately after allows those who do
N+I to do both on one plane ticket.
If we're to allow the people who come to N+I, which includes one
longtimer from overseas who is effectively locked out if this is not
the case, to do both on one ticket, I see two options:
1. Sunday, April 24th. thru Saturday, April 30. (A variation on this
theme might be Monday, April 25 thru Sunday, May 1.)
2. Monday, May 9th. thru Sunday, May 15.
Anyway, those are my suggestions.
The floor is now open for discussion of the DLV 2005 timeframe.
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Administrivia:
This is the Diva Las Vegas 2005 organizational list.
One address for all items regarding this list, additions, removals,
changes, submissions, questions, etc.:
dlvorg@geekbabe.com <--- NOTE: all lower case
Please do not send binary attachments (photos, etc.) directly to the
list, as the list processor will not properly handle them. If you want
to send photos and the like, mail to: annie@annie.net
Archives of this list appear on the web at:
http://www.geekbabe.com/annie/org05arc/
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