From: Diva Las Vegas organizers (dlvorg@geekbabe.com)
Date: Wed Dec 01 2010 - 02:41:08 CST
In this mailing:
Org List
JoAnn's notes
Important milestones
Mexican Dining
Hotel Scoreboard
Hotel representative
Fashion advise
Community Service project
Administrivia
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Org List:
This is the DLV 2011 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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JoAnn's notes:
No special comments, but several "housekeeping" items discussed
by Annie need to be advanced to get closure.
In addition, I offer some thoughts about doing an "outreach
event" as discussed in this e-mail. There needs to be more
dialog on this subject; as always, the "devil is in the
details". JoAnn
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Important milestones:
As we move on to programming for our big event, we need to make
everyone aware of two critical hard-stop drop-dead dates which
are necessary for us to hold as sacred.
This coming year's event occurs earlier in the calendar year
than in any previous year. In reality this means that we have
2-3 fewer weeks to plan this year's event and that all of our
checkpoints and milestones occur sooner than in the past.
. . . . . . . . . .
The two highly critical drop-dead dates are:
1. Sunday, March 6 (Three months away!)
Actvity sign-up mailings will go out the week of March 7, so
any DLV 2011 activity which requires a sign-up or a headcount
needs to be absolutely solid as to day, time, and price as of
March 6.
It's very easy to add activities to the sign-up process before
this date, but an exercise in futility to try to add them after
the first batch of sign-up mailings goes out.
History has shown that an attempt to do an out-of-procedure or
manual sign-up after this milestone results in an abysmal rate
of response.
Activities which are planned after this date will need to be on
a "no sign-up, just show up" basis.
. . . . .
2. Tuesday, March 29
The Large Final Mailing will go out Wednesday, March 30. With
our model, we have no effective means of passing the word
during the event, so if anything is going to be disseminated
to the attendees, it needs to go in the Large Final Mailing.
This means that everything on the schedule needs to be solid
and all announcements need to be prepared as of this date.
. . . . .
We'll all need to work together to keep these two critical
dates in mind as we make plans for DLV 2011. Please keep
both of these dates in mind when planning your activities.
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Mexican Dining:
Nora writes:
Hi Rosada:
I have hosted Dinners at two Mexican restaurants in the past few years.
One was at the Cantina in the Tuscany hotel and the other was at the Las
Palmas in the commercial center. A third restaurant which we have
frequently gone to is the Cabo restaurant in Palace Station.
Both dinners were scheduled on EON nights and knowing from previous
dinners we would not have more than 20 who selected that venue. Because
of the manageable turnout and knowing that these venues could easily
accommodate our group I did not make prior arrangements. There was no
problems with the restaurants accommodating us.
One suggestion since we went to the Cantina they have adopted a one
check per table policy. If requested they do break down the individual
meals at the register. At Las Palmas and Cabo there is no problem with
individual checks.
There was no problem with using the restrooms in any of the locations.
Palace station has a "remote" restroom not far from the Mexican
restaurant as does the Tuscany.
. . . . .
Sindee writes:
May I recommend "La Miohichan" (Spelling) its on the east side, they
gave me NO worries being dressed (as I am 24/7 I threw out all my
boi clothes) and they make the guacamole right at the table side.
The food is rocking.
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Hotel Scoreboard:
The floor is now closed for additional nominations, but remains
open for one more list cycle for seconds and additional hotel
discussion.
We'll vote on our suggested hotels shortly after next week's
mailing.
One very important note, particularly to those who are new to
voting status. The vote will be a "yes" or "no" for EACH of
the seconded hotels, and NOT a "select one of several" choice.
Each year we always seem to get 1-2 "I vote for the Sahara"
type of responses. This year we will be counting that type of
vote as a "yes" for the named hotel and an "abstain" for all
of the others.
(In order of nomination.)
Imperial Palace: Nominated, seconded.
Paris: Nominated, seconded.
Harrah's: Nominated, seconded.
Rio: Nominated, pending second.
MGM Grand: Nominated, pending second.
Sahara: Nominated, seconded.
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Beverly writes:
I would like to nominate the Sahara Hotel and Casino for DLV2011 as a
host hotel. I know that there were some issues last year, and hopefully
our continued support of the hotel will help smooth some of that out.
While the hotel definitely is showing its age, the low cost cannot be
overlooked. Last year I got room reservations for $30/night. That made
for a very affordable vacation. Plus, with so many sisters staying
there, it was a fun venue that was easy to get in and out of. It's nice
to have an inexpensive alternative.
. . . . .
Annie responds:
Thanks, Beverly. I will second your nomination of the Sahara.
I agree with your points. I should note that if we disqualified
any hotel at which the DLV attendees have had a restroom issue
or incident, we would have a very short list of hotels from
which to choose.
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Darlene writes:
i third the imperial palace good choice
the rio and the mgm are nice but dont know if we could get a
good break for hotel rooms unless you can guarantee enough for
a block...... where will the alternate be and dont
forget ladies still willing to volunteer as we get close
. . . . .
Annie responds:
Thanks Darlene.
Since you didn't use the term "I second" on the two hotels,
we'll assume you intended this for discussion only. If this
is not the case, please let us know during this list cycle.
We've been down the "group rate" path several times over the
years and in all but one case those "special group rates"
were higher than the web rates or cold call rates. Things
really work differently for the casino-hotels in Las Vegas
than they do elsewhere. The one case where we did have a
lower negotiated rate was Nora's efforts with the former St.
Tropez. This was a nongaming hotel.
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Hotel representative:
Beverly writes:
I would like to comment on the suggestion (mine) of having a hotel
representative attend the first meeting. I have organized many T-girl
events throughout the Midwest and have used this approach successfully
each time. By having an inroad/contact withthe hotel I have found that
they have gone out of their way to help insure a successful time with
our attendees. They have made sure that their staff understands the
importance of our patronage in their establishment and have set policy
on how the staff should act around us.
Of course the casino acts independent of the hotel with its own policies
and procedures which we will have little influence over. But having the
hotel on board has been a major part of the success of these events.
That is my suggestion because, if you were a newbie to a vacation/outing
like DLV, wouldn't you like to be put at ease at your first meeting by a
member of the hotel welcoming you to their facility?
. . . . .
Annie responds:
Since we've decided to adopt JoAnn's "flat" model for the Hotel
Hostess Program this year, it will most likely be up to the lead
Hostess at any particular hotel to exercise the option to make
such contact with the hotel staff, subject to the guidance of the
ORG group here, of course.
Some more thoughts on this if you don't mind ...
You'll find that the climate and culture of the typical Las
Vegas casino-hotel and its management and staff will be quite
different from that of the hotels that are typically used for
the main-line TG events.
Likewise, the culture amongst our attendees is significantly
different from that of the attendees at the major TG conventions.
Although I don't have numbers to back up this assertion I'm
about to present, my guess is that for every shy newbee who
might feel warm and fuzzy with such a line of contact to the
hotel staff, there will be an equal or greater number of
returnees, fiercely-independent DLVers, and rated players who
don't want any of us contacting (or worse, negotiating with)
the hotel staff on their behalf.
If anyone disagrees with this assertion, please speak up.
The thought of having the restroom situation drawn into this
particularly concerns me. That's a "third rail" that will burn
you if you touch it! In our history we've had two well-intended
attempts to negotiate a satisfactory restroom solution (San
Remo and Boardwalk) and neither one turned out to be agreeable
or popular with our people. Please be very careful on this!
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Fashion advise:
Norma writes:
>I think this is a great idea if we can get someone with
>professional rather than merely personal experience.
How about contacting a local Mary Kay or Avon lady? I'm sure
they would be happy to come out and give a demonstration. Here,
my Mary Kay lady has been most helpful.
. . . . .
Annie responds:
If you (or anyone) wants to arrange things, this can happen,
and we did have some Mary Kay Open House sessions during the
early years of DLV.
I think that Ginger's Bare Escentuals sessions went very well,
and similar activities with other vendors such as MK or Avon
are possible if somebody takes the initiative to get them
arranged.
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Community Service project:
JoAnn writes:
Some suggestions have been made this year in support of outreach
or fund raising activities. I personal think they all are very
worthy.
However, I would like to discuss how such activities might fit
into the DIVA theme that "this is a vacation not a convention
or 'fund raiser event'".
So bear with me for a moment as I "roll out an approach" to this
subject.
There have been two specific projects suggested. While I will
not share the names to protect the particular event's sponsors,
however, I would like to offer a context for these suggested
events:
(1) The activity should be presented as an "outreach theme"
rather than a fund raising theme. Fund raising may be an element,
but should not be the sole purpose.
(2) The activity needs to be educational [informative] with the
DIVA attendees going to a site/location of the 'sponsoring cause',
such as, a GLBT Center., Shelter for Transgender, Animal Rescue,
etc.
(3) The activity would be best if it were interactive, whereby
there is a meet and greet, discussion, or some type of interaction
between the DIVA people and the 'site people'. This is one of the
reasons why the Soiled Doves (hope you will be the Event
Coordinators this year, Aiko and Kumiko Yvonne ) has been so
successful.
(4) And most importantly, it would be perceived by the DIVA
attendees as something unique and fun to do.
To give an example. Maybe there could be a visit to the Las
Vegas GLBT with the DIVA attendees as guests at a discussion
group about DIVA and its Annual Activities in Las Vegas followed
by an "open mic" session, or whatever.... and a donation to the
GLBT Center from Diva Members who had attended one of the events
earlier at Diva Week.
If this is to occur the Org Committee would have to authorize
such a donation collection and it probably would be for only
one event each year.
Just some ideas. Your comments welcome! JoAnn
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Administrivia:
This is the Diva Las Vegas 2011 organizational list.
One address for all items regarding this list, additions, removals,
changes, submissions, questions, etc.:
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Diva Las Vegas 2011
April 3 - 8, 2011
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
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