[dlvorg] Hospitality, communications, DLV 2013 dates ...

In this mailing:

Org List
Planning for DLV 2013
JoAnn's Thoughts
Introducing the date selection process
New attendees and communications
Identifying newcomers
Administrivia
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Org List:

This is the DLV 2013 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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Planning for DLV 2013:

It's time to begin the date selection process for DLV 2013. Please
see details below.
. . . . .

Thanks to all who sent in photos. Since our second Call For Photos
went out, the number of photos in the staging area has close to
doubled! There are still a few more in the queue to be placed on
line as of this writing.

The staging area will remain open through the month of August.
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JoAnn's Thoughts:

It seems most fortunate that Annie and I can present for the coming
year -- 2013-- three different weeks for all of you to consider for the
DIVA 2013 Gathering with little external conflicts by other Las Vegas
activities. I await to hear comments about those dates.

On a second note: Those who will attend Diva for the first time, I
believe, need to be "reached out to" and welcomed at every event they
attend. This needs to occur quickly and easily at each activity. Our
memory's plays games on us about how nervous we "were not" when we
really felt nervous at our first time we attended (me, included.... and
scared!!).

So I ask what can we do to reach out "in a quite way" and effectively?
Katie's suggestion that first attendees just have a name tag with a
color; I like that [and maybe just a corner portion so not too obvious].
It is simple!! And I add--- no date on the card, no colors for others'
name tag, and just move on.

Let the planning for the Diva Gathering 2013... begin..!!

JoAnn
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Introducing the date selection process:

It's mid August, and time to begin the selection process of the
dates for DLV 2013.

For those who are new to this process, we (the ORG folks) select a
timeframe for the next year's event and we allow a one-month Call For
Comments from the rank and file prior to it being considered a done
deal. We would like to have the date selection process concluded by
early October and the final dates announced at that time.

We (JoAnn and Annie) would like to follow the same procedure and
principles we used last year for our date selection process unless
there are highly-compelling reasons to do otherwise. In summary:

1. Plan for a Sunday thru Friday timeframe. Option to expand by one
day under the appropriate circumstances. This particular span of
weekdays has worked exceptionally well in recent years.

2. A slate of vetted "candidate weeks" voted on by ORG members of
voting status following our usual Call For Comments period.

3. Other weeks or timeframes to be considered if and only if none
of the candidate weeks are deemed to be workable.
. . . . .

In our "vetting" process we examined all weeks between the last
part of March and the first part of May. Three weeks are free of
obvious major conflicts. These are:

1. Sunday, April 14 thru Friday, April 19.
2. Sunday, April 21 thru Friday, April 26.
3. Sunday, April 28 thru Friday, May 3.

An "asterisk" to the above is that week 2 (April 21-26) overlaps the
Laughlin River Run. This (River Run) was cited as a reason for not
being able to attend.

We've checked things over quite thoroughly, but if anyone can show
any reason why any of these three weeks would be bad, please speak
up, and the sooner the better. All of these appear to be free from
the usual suspects such as holidays, major conflicts, crowds, room
rate spikes, etc.

Another topic which comes up, one which we've had to work around
several times, is the availability of key players.

Yes, the availability of our more active volunteers is one factor
we need to consider when setting the dates for DLV. This cannot
trump all other factors, but needs to be taken into consideration.

If you are an active volunteer, or plan to be one for 2013, are
there any of these proposed timeframes which are especially bad for
you? If we have any serious conflicts, it's much better if we know
them in advance, and not at the 11th. hour.

Although this may sound unfair to some, if one or more of the people
who do the "heavy lifting" involved in making DLV happen are not
available, it can place a significant overload on the other
volunteers.

Therefore, if you are an active volunteer and you find that you are
ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY LOCKED OUT of any set of dates
proposed for DLV, please speak up PRIOR TO ANY VOTE BEING
TAKEN on those dates. And, (Can We Tawk?), please, we ask that in
good faith you do not exaggerate the level of difficulty. In
countless cases in past years we've had volunteers state that they
absolutely positively no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks could make
it if DLV were held on certain dates, only to find a way to be there.

Both JoAnn and Annie find all three candidate weeks to appear to be
about equally workable from a personal standpoint.

The floor is now open for DLV 2013 date discussion!
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New attendees and communications:

Katie writes:

Hi All.

People who are either new to D L V or new to going out or maybe both
could possibly be referred to as **New Attendee**.... or **My First
DLV**, or **DLV Year #1** They are short, to the point but say nothing
about the persons experience level so no one should get upset. I really
don't think we need progressive years etc' just the first one for all
the obvious reasons.

Continuing the discussion on improving communications, In the last
mailing we discussed the internet terminals in individual rooms or the
lack thereof where we could connect with others who knew what was going
on for ad lib DLV excursions etc. The Cyber Cafe in the Imperial has
several terminals installed there... Hence the Title **Bettys Cyber
Cafe**. I am sure even after the reno' job is completed that they will
probably continue this trend as it is cheaper than installing outlets in
every room in the building which most vacationers won't use anyway. Do
other hotels have something similar?

I have never personally looked as I don't need the net to survive when
away from home. I realize of course that there are many others who do so
please let us know if you have seen any other cyber type Coffee shop
places located in other Hotels.
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Annie responds:

Virtually all hotels now have Internet access in all rooms, either
wired, wireless, or both. CET properties (including IP) charge in the
teens of dollars per day to use it. MGM properties bundle it into the
Resort Fee, or in other words charge for it whether or not you use it.

The Internet kiosks, such as those in Betty's, appear scattered
about most major hotels. Most Strip hotels will have a Business
Center where Internet access is available. IIRC, nothing at Betty's
is free, with both the wireless and the kiosks wanting a Visa/MC.

Two of our popular merchants have been known to offer DLVers
access to the net just for asking. Neither of these, however, are
in any way convenient to our popular hotels.

There are wireless hotspots all over the city, free and paid, and
these come, go, and change quite frequently.

Internet access is there for people who want it badly enough to
seek it out and/or pay for it.

My guess is that a significant number of our people, maybe half or
so, do bring a laptop with them.

The big burning question, however, is how many of our people will
use the tools we give them to keep in touch? I sure don't know, but
my guess is that very few of our people will be willing to spend
very much or lug around a laptop.

What I do think is a more realistic possibility is to leverage what
most of our folks have and carry with them most of the time, that is
the cell phone. Most every cell phone these days is text-capable.

We've used this to an extent, but did not really promote it this
past DLV. This year we had something like 17 phones on the "chirp"
list (about 11% of the gang) and we know that it worked well with
the exception of phones on one particular carrier.

We did have the majority, close to 100 IIRC, willingly give their
cell phone number at activity sign-up time. That's 60-some percent
and I think that with some encouragement and promotion, we can get
most of them to sign up to receive the "chirp" messages on their
phones.
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Identifying newcomers:

DocRobbySherry writes:

No offense, I'm a bit tired of the, "Name the first timer", contest! U
can call a duck a mallard, a hen, a weasel, or macaroni. But, it's STILL
a duck!

An EASY way to identify new comers at DLV would be by colors. Have first
timer name tags in red. Second timers in orange. 3rd timers in pink. All
others in green or no color at all. Or, some such combo. That way u
could tell at a glance who's new and who's a returnee.

You're welcome!
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Administrivia:

This is the Diva Las Vegas 2013 organizational list.

This mailing was addressed to: annie_at_annie.net

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Diva Las Vegas 2013
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Received on Wed Aug 15 2012 - 07:50:40 CDT