In this mailing:
Org List
Updates and things to come
JoAnn's Words
Hotels
Computer Security
Re-registration testing
Opening thoughts and group photo
Charles Bar outside the box
Hotel discussion
Pre-DLV
Administrivia
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Org List:
This is the DLV 2012 Organizational Mailing List (dlvorg_at_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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Updates and things to come:
This is a fairly long mailing covering a number of topics, the
only one which is time-sensitive is suggested hotel selection.
. . . . .
It's been our tradition that after our suggested hotels are
decided upon, we take a "vacation" for the rest of the holiday
season.
The only planned active topic between now and the holidays is
hotels, and we'll hopefully have only 1-2 more mailings covering
that and any unforeseen time-sensitive issues.
We'll resume the active planning for our April event right after
the first of the year.
If there are any unforeseen events, anything of a time-sensitive
or critical nature, etc., of course we'll come out of our
hibernation and deal with it.
So ... If you desire, please continue to work on items you have
on your plate, taking time to enjoy the holidays. If you have
something to send in, please do so, and if it's not time-
sensitive, we'll include it in the first ORG mailing after the
new year.
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JoAnn's Words:
Some responses from JoAnn:
(1)_Hotels_: Endorsing the "THREE SUGGESTED HOTELS" does not
need to exclude others. Therefore, we need an ALTERNATIVE LIST.
I look forward to a consensus for the "three hotels", then I
suggest we can develop an alternative list rather than go to
the former ["old"] hotel approach. By providing an "ALTERNATIVE
LIST" with stated listed reasons for recommendations we address
other options to the "three suggested hotels" in a positive
manner and eliminate "defending our favorite place".
(2) _Group Photo:_ It is great to have a group photo, but it
seems that our group has grown in size while having several other
sub-groups. Therefore, I would suggest that we really are not a
"total group photo" type of group, but rather groups doing events
and having group photo shoots [i.e. tea, limos, site events, etc....
Stop there. Feedback??
(3) _Charles Bar:_ There are several options presented in this
e-mail newsletter. Please share your ideas and any alternatives.
Charles is a person who we need to recognize or his support. Need
I say MORE?. The question is: How?
(4) Yes, we need to have an _Elton John Night_! ..... "Just Do It!"
So who will step up???*
(5) _Night of the Soiled Doves[NSD]_: JoAnn, as participant, I
watched NSD go on a two year hiatus. In its time ... a great
activity! I would like to "step forward" and say that this event
will probably not return in 2012 due to the following issues: (a)
we do not have a DIVA person stepping forward to be its Coordinator,
(b) the liability of individual cars having our members in a caravan
presents liabilities we cannot accept as an ORG group, (c) the cost
for a bus/limo for this event has significant costs that our group
has not typically been willing to accept as an ORG group [although
a few individuals may be willing to pay],(d) we have several
alternative events being suggested this year which are less costly
and just as "in tune" as NSD when making DIVA all "it can be, and
then some". As Project Manager I see us having transitioned. Can we
"re-circle around"? Yes, but not probably. [JoAnn]
New ideas for our upcoming schedule are welcome as we move forward.
We need to schedule and create new activities that promote "an
excitement package" for DIVA WEEK. You all have been doing such,
so Annie and I expect more of the same from all of you !!!
Let's hear your feedback.
JoAnn
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Hotels:
As we've stated in recent weeks we would like to choose our
suggested hotels in a different manner this year.
Why?
Primarily because the method we've been using over the past few
years has resulted in a number of suggested hotels which failed
to garner a meaningful number of DLV attendees.
Our old method of hotel selection is, in essence, a popularity
contest. Many of us have favorite hotels and yes, we're tempted
to want to feature our favorites as the "official" suggested
hotels for DLV.
Our hotel suggestions are aimed primarily at newcomers who do
not know where to stay, and secondarily at anyone who wants to
stay or needs to stay in the proximity of other DLV attendees.
Since we discontinued our ride share program, it's more and more
important that we guide people to hotels which will be populated
with other DLV attendees.
Those who know Las Vegas well, do not have a desire to stay in
the proximity of other DLVers, those unconcerned about a ride,
or those who have a favorite hotel really don't need hotel
suggestions.
Here's what we would like to try this year.
We would like to present a "slate" (below) of three hotels to
you for an "up or down" vote. If this carries, these will be
the 2012 suggested hotels. If this fails, we'll fall back to
our previous method of selecting hotels.
The factors we used to create this slate include the needs of
the attendees stated over the years, the comments received
here, in the Discussion Forum, and in the recent years' surveys,
and the hotels' popularity by DLV attendees in recent years.
The three have been re-vetted, in particular for availability
of rooms and expected rates over the DLV period.
Here is the slate we're presenting to you, for an up or down
vote on the entire slate:
1. Imperial Palace. This is intended to be the "Low Cost" and
"Center of the Action" option. Criteria for inclusion include
price, location, and popularity with the DLV attendees over
the past 15 years.
2. Artisan. This is intended to be the "Safe" and "Off-Strip"
option. Criteria for inclusion include competitive pricing,
GLBT-friendly attitude by management and staff, and recent
history with the DLV attendees.
3. Paris. This is intended to be the "Upscale" option. Criteria
for inclusion include location, active pursuit of GLBT business,
and recent-years history with the DLV attendees.
This gives us one for the bargain hunters, which is also the one
which will most likely attract most of our people; one "safe"
option, which also covers those who want a nongaming or off-strip
hotel; and one high-end option.
Every hotel which was mentioned here was considered for this
slate, with as many factors as could be identified being taken
into consideration.
To address specifically why four hotels recently mentioned here
are not included on this slate ...
Rumor would be a duplicate of the off-strip "safe" option. The
Artisan is a known property and Rumor is new and unknown from
the hotel guest perspective, so Artisan was chosen as the better
option of the two for this year.
Tuscany would be a duplicate of the lower-cost option and the
off-strip option. This property does not have the multi-year
history with the DLV attendees.
MGM Grand - Please see discussion below.
Alexis Park - Please see discussion below.
We'll allow one list cycle for any comments regarding these
hotels and a booth review for any "indisputable video evidence" :)
of why this slate should be adjusted.
For anyone who wishes to call attention to procedure, you may
consider this to be a motion raised by JoAnn or Annie, choose
one, and seconded by the other. We ask those who do not approve
of this idea or of any procedural items to simply vote against it.
If this motion fails, the default will be to revert to our old
method and procedure.
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Computer Security:
Please do not get upset if you receive a message from "geekbabe.com
Abuse and Security" with the subject "Important e-mail security
notice to {you}." (Please don't shoot the messenger!)
We're seeing an increased amount of spam and junk mail coming
from obviously-compromised e-mail accounts. Many of these are
from names which are well-known to us. :) It's also obvious
that many of the victims whose accounts are compromised are
totally unaware that spam (or worse) is going out in their
names.
We're seeing this from users of all of the "big three" free
e-mail providers plus AOL.
We've installed a program to take the nuisance e-mail, extract
information from it, and compose a note to the owner of the
account explaining the circumstances.
This note is composed automatically, but reviewed, approved,
and actually sent by a human.
This note specifically includes the e-mail addresses out of the
user's address book or contact list which were revealed to all
recipients of the spam.
If you are ever a victim of this type of user account hijacking,
this procedure is known to be effective in getting the situation
under control:
1. Using a known-clean computer system (not the one you normally
use to access your compromised account), log in and change your
password to a new password known only to you and not used on any
other systems.
2. Before you use the computer system you usually use to access
your account, perform a virus/malware/spyware sweep using any of
several available security programs. This will remove such things
as spybots and keystroke loggers which may have been used to steal
your login credentials.
3. In the future, be very careful when clicking on any links in any
received e-mail, when opening any attachments received via e-mail,
or responding to any request to "verify your password" received in
e-mail.
Only in extreme circumstances is it necessary to abandon an e-mail
account to correct this issue.
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Re-registration testing:
Toward the middle of the month of December, we'll be testing
the DLV 2012 on-line registration system using ORG group
members as test subjects.
Most of you on this list will receive a re-registration e-mail
around the middle of December. This will be "live" and you can
re-register "for real" for DLV 2012 to help us test and shake
things down.
Please let us know of any issues you observe when re-registering.
Such things as typos, grammatical errors, system issues or any
unexpected messages, error messages, or anything that does not
work as expected.
Please don't feel snubbed if you don't receive a re-registration
e-mail on the first test run. The most common reason, among others,
is that your e-mail address used for the ORG list does not match
your e-mail address in the registration data. If you don't receive
the auto invite to re-register, you'll still be able to do so at the
general registration URL.
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Opening thoughts and group photo:
Delaney writes:
So far as the opening venue, I was fine with the Artisan. It wasn't
perfect, and I am certainly ammenable to another location, but I really
didn't feel there was a lot lacking last year, except perhaps a group
picture.
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
I agree with you on about everything. The opening gathering at
Artisan was the best-attended activity in our history and overall
was one of the most successful. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
The only thing I've heard this year that could be better is the
suggestion for a "garden party" type opener at Rumor, but there
are many "ifs" on that one.
As for the group photo ... {sigh!}
The Artisan pool area would make an attractive setting for such
a photo, but it will be a logistical nightmare to get everyone
rounded up, out there, and posed. Unlike most hotels, the Artisan
does not have a PA system which covers the lobby/bar/restaurant
area, so getting everybody's attention is difficult. The only
thing I can think of is to use a bull horn (tacky, I know) to
announce that the photo is to be taken and then use 10 or so
volunteers to herd the ca^H^Hattendees to the photo area.
We posed a question to the readers on the Discussion Forum a
while ago regarding the importance of the group photo. The
thread is on line here if anyone wants to review it:
http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/mydlv/mainforum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2094
The query received 10 responses. That's 10 responses out of
155 readings on the MyDLV side, 194 receiving it on the Yahoo
side, 84 receiving it on the mailing list, and 4 receiving it
as part of a digest. The responses were all valid personal
thoughts and feelings, but no conclusive pattern emerged. My
conclusion was that the majority had the "don't really care"
due to the relatively small number of responses.
I really don't know about the group photo.
One suggestion was that we schedule a group photo as a separate
stand-alone activity at an attractive setting. I have no clue if
we would have a meaningful turnout for something like this.
Anyone? Any other thoughts about the group photo?
Comments?
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Charles Bar outside the box:
Gina writes (from a conversation):
I was thinking, why don't I ask Charles if he would be willing to
come see us on Thursday night, his night off, and either serve or
be served in a room we rent and stock with our own supply of booze?
Maybe rent a room at the last limo stop and set up our own party
room. Cover the cost with a $20 cover and if Charles pours then we
pay him with generous tips, with a minimal per drink charge $5 or
so, or we make it a celebration of his service over the years and
shower him with our appreciation?
Just thinking outside the box. I'd figure out a way to get to town
to make it happen (if he is interested). ...
What do you think of my Charles Bar idea?
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
First of all, you do need a way to get to DLV this coming year,
with or without Charles. :)
.. I like the idea and I'm in, but I see two stumbling points
which may affect turnout.
1. That $20 cover. I know how our people behave (and how they
spend) and this will cause some fall-out.
2. I can envision some griping about it being "not mainstream
enough", as our people like to be out in the open, particularly
those who do the Limo Tour.
An idea I had last week was to maybe invite Charles (and maybe
Stacie as well) to join us on the Limo Tour. This is assuming
they can get the time off. I don't know Charles' hours. We could
take a collection from Charles' fans to cover it (I'm in). After,
we could invite Charles (and Stacie?) to whatever after-limo bar
we settle upon.
What do you think of this?
. . . . . . . . . .
Gina continues:
That would be good, they are off Wednesday and Thursday.
I don't think $20 for Charles Bar crowd would be a problem
especially if it included most of the booze....
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie continues:
Let's see here ... at $20 cover plus $5 per drink, that's cheap
compared to Charles' prices at the bar! :) :) :)
And, I commend you for thinking outside the box. :)
Let me continue thinking out of the box here, and if I were
Charles, particularly after being cooped up for 8 hours a day
in a service bar jerking yet another jack and coke, I would
much rather ride around enjoying the company and consuming
potent potables than to serve drinks to a bunch of otherwise
well-lubricated DLVers.
Let's let Charles be "one of the girls" this year! :)
. . . . . . . . . .
Joann responds:
I am now going to run a JoAnn "... thoughts delivered from a
stream of consciousness... but not necessarily well thought
out ".... but just there!
"Doing Charles", we need to have a "end play" to pull out of the
bag...
Tell no one, but makes the Limo Tour have a new spin!!
Some options--- which can be any one of the following, or some
combination thereof---
(1) Pre-arrange, unknown to Charles, at the last Limo stop where
he is surprised that he is the "guest bartender" which we have
pre-arranged for "his show" that evening. [Would the Artisan or
Paris be a good candidate?] Or...
(2) Do # 1 but he knows he is the "guest bartender".
(3) Select the Bellagio with a 2am gathering on the night of the
Limo Tour at one of their established bars where he is the "guest
bartender" for the night. We arrange with "management".
(4) We re-do the Limo Tour with a 30 minute stop at xxxx? for a
round of champagne {toasts} with Charles ... he is waiting for
us and is theTour "surprise". The venue... Erotic Museum, Power
Exchange, ????
(5) Charles rides as a guest with the Limo Tour, but we end the
evening at the Bellagio where he leads us from Limo to a designated
bar there (pre-arranged).
Better stop here. Take a breath and listen to the feedback.
JoAnn
. . . . .
Comments, gang. :)
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Hotel discussion:
Sara writes:
Hotel Suggestion:
Last year MGM Grand was on the list and I would like to see it stay
as an option. My reasons are as follows:
I found it to be a mid-level price point. Cost more than Imperial
Palace but not as much as Paris.
Cannot compare the room to Paris but for DLV 2011 I stayed at IP
for two nights, then moved to MGM for the next three (long story
there). Worth every penny for the upgrade. The room was gorgeous
and beyond clean. I could have stayed there a month.
IIRC, many of their rooms actually have more square footage than
your average room which makes it better suited for sharing the
cost with a friend or two or three. OK, three might be pushing it!!!
I was treated with 1000% respect and courtesy at MGM. All of the
above are reasons I'm strongly leaning towards returning to the
MGM Grand for DLV 2012.
That's my hotel 2-cents.
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
Thanks, Sara.
The MGM Grand was considered for the "High End" option on our
slate, since it's previously been one of our suggested hotels and
we've received no negative comments about it. We chose Paris as the
"High End" option over the MGM, primarily on room rate but other
factors were taken into account.
About a month ago we checked hotel rates over the DLV period and
found MGM to be about 10% higher than Paris, not including the
"Resort Fee" which is charged by MGM but not by Paris.
When your note came in, I re-checked rates since you stated that
you found the MGM rates lower than Paris rates.
These are all "cold" web rates, ROTH rooms, no special amenities,
for 7 days stay, including two week-end nights. I checked both
the hotels' web sites and Travelocity and found the hotel sites
and Travelocity very close in price.
As of last Thursday, the Paris web site was quoting an average
of $115 and change average per night, with Travelocity quoting
an average of $116 per night for Paris.
MGM's web site quoted an average nightly rate of $144 and we
got $147 from Travelocity, neither including the $22.40 per
night Resort Fee.
Price is really the main reason we chose Paris as the high-end
suggested hotel over the MGM. Other factors include the longevity
of the history housing DLVers and Paris' up-front statement
inviting members of the GLBT community.
I hope you'll understand why Paris was selected over MGM Grand
as the higher-end option on our slate of hotels.
Of course the MGM Grand is still an option for any DLVers who
wish to stay there. Our suggested hotels are mainly for those
who need guidance in where to stay.
. . . . . . . . . .
Delaney writes:
Many years ago I had stayed at the Alexis Park - they had a good sized
indoor courtyard and were nice enough. I don't know the current
condition, or if they serve food, but as it seems folks are looking for
options, perhaps this would be a fallback position. As I don't live in
Vegas, perhaps someone who does has some intel on the AP.
. . . . .
Annie responds:
I'm going to use the term "looked at" instead of "considered" for
the Alexis Park as one of our 2012 suggested hotels. The main reason
it was not used is that it would be a duplication of the nongaming
off-Strip option.
A secondary consideration, actually moot due to the duplication,
was that there was a question raised regarding management/staff
TG attitude at the AP prior to DLV 2009. That most likely is old
news, water under the bridge long out to the sea. We need to
limit our suggestions to one hotel per class, and that's the main
reason.
. . . . . . . . . .
To all,
Even though your favorite hotel may not be on our suggested list,
please feel free to personally suggest it to other DLV attendees.
Those who want to see more options already have them, in the form
of the gaming and nongaming hotels green-lighted on our Big List:
http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/vendors/
If you don't see your favorite Las Vegas hotel there, it's only
because nobody has added it to the list. Just use the link to
add your favorite if it isn't already listed. It's toward the
beginning of the categories.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pre-DLV:
Delaney writes:
With respect to the pre-pre gathering on Saturday, Elton John is at
Ceasars that night, and I am thinking of going - perhaps others would be
interested.
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
This (Elton John) would be an excellent thing to have, not as an
off-schedule pre-DLV thing, but as a part of the main DLV program.
If someone, you or another, would check to see if his show is
on during DLV week it would be a great addition to our lineup
and I'm sure it would generate a good crowd.
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Administrivia:
This is the Diva Las Vegas 2012 organizational list.
This mailing was addressed to: dmr_at_geekbabe.com
One address for all items regarding this list, additions, removals,
changes, submissions, questions, etc.:
dlvorg_at_geekbabe.com <--- NOTE: all lower case
Diva Las Vegas 2012
April 22 - 27, 2012
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
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Received on Wed Nov 23 2011 - 06:30:53 CST
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