[dlvorg] Welcome new volunteers, welcome back veterans ...

In this mailing:

Org List
DLV Organizational mailing list
Welcome
JoAnn Here
Our jobs in the immediate future
Recurring suggestions and issues
Our electorate
Administrivia
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Org List:

This is the DLV 2015 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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DLV Organizational mailing list:

This is the first regular mailing to the DLV 2014-2015 volunteers and
contains mostly introductory and housekeeping items.

Items received in response to recent ORG mailings will appear beginning
in our next mailing.

If you do not wish to receive the DLV volunteer mailings, please reply
with the word "unsubscribe" in either the subject or body of your
message.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Welcome:

This mailing is the first DLVORG mailing for the planning of the DLV
2015 event.

You can expect our ORG mailings to come out every 1-2 weeks as needed
for most of the rest of 2014. We try to stick to a mid-week (Wednesday
or Thursday) mailing schedule but exceptions may occur.

Annie will be editing this list, and JoAnn, Beverly, and Annie will
moderate. All of you are encouraged to actively participate in the
discussion and planning.
. . . . .

For those who are new to the DLV volunteer scene, please feel free to
jump right in, add to the discussions, propose ideas for activities,
etc.

We encourage our volunteers to be proactive and self-starting. If you
have ideas for things that you think our people would enjoy doing,
please feel free to make preliminary plans and contact vendors and such
independently. Just be sure that you don't commit to anything ($$$$$)
until you have the "ok" from the group here.
. . . . .

Almost everything we have done, currently do, or will do is open for
discussion. Your input on about anything is appropriate and appreciated.

We try to make decisions by consensus, but if there's no consensus, we
make a motion and vote, using a kind of modified "Roberts" on-line
method. Those eligible to vote are those who are on record as
coordinating or assisting with at least one activity during the last two
DLVs.

An updated list of those of voting status appears below. Check it! Are
you supposed to be on it but are not?

All of you here, regardless of voting status, may fully participate in
the discussions and are free to propose activities, raise or second
motions, etc., and, of course, volunteer for specific functions. :)
. . . . .

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 TG 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 TG gathering.
. . . . .

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.

Please read the following items, think about them, and please don't be
shy about making your thoughts and feelings known.
. . . . .

One other item that was brought up in feedback needs to be put to bed
ASAP!

This was the suspicion that kick-backs were being given by vendors. You
can be assured that if this were going on, at least one of the senior
volunteers would have caught wind of it and stopped it. We try to run a
very transparent organization here and something like this runs quite
contrary to our core values.

We don't want this single comment to in any way discourage volunteers
from reaching out to vendors who have products and services of interest
to our people. If you have a certain vendor in mind who would like some
business from some very good customers, please get things rolling.
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JoAnn Here:

Annie has very good and insightful background information she is
sharing in this e-mail. It explains the Diva culture with regard to
planning this great "Diva Gathering".

JoAnn thanks you, Annie, for "circling around" and explaining our "core
values" which the volunteers over the years have come to model for
others. WOW!!

The Diva Week event happens because there is a "volunteers bottom-up
planning. Annie, Beverly, and I (JoAnn) see ourselves as providing
"oversight guidance" to carry out your ideas. This process accepts many
new and different activity suggestions, supports our attendees to
create and become activity sponsors, and makes the Diva Week Gathering
--- fun; and a real vacation for all who attend.

The "magic" of Diva is only limited when people do not step forward
like you and volunteer.

You are important and "LOVED" by the many who attend. Your volunteering
keeps all the rest of us coming back and volunteering, too.

Welcome!!! ...and ... Special Hugs.... to you who are volunteering.

JoAnn Segrue
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Our jobs in the immediate future:

The overall mission of this group is to plan and implement the DLV 2015
event. We have the better part of a year to accomplish this.

Over the past several years we've settled into a pattern where we have
divided up the planning year into two portions delimited by the winter
holidays.

Prior to the first of the year we take care of items which are mostly
strategic in nature, discussing best practices, taking care of behind
the scenes items, and making decisions which are more general in nature.

We try to take a break between the approximate time of Thanksgiving in
the US and the first of the year. (This sometimes does not happen.)

Around the first of the year we switch to tactical mode, programming and
scheduling. This is when we put the event together and be sure all of
the bases are covered.

Here are some of the items that we will be covering in the immediate
weeks and months to come.

1. Any final summarizing and rehashing of the 2014 event. (ongoing)

2. Any major changes in direction that are to be considered.

3. Any potential personnel changes or issues.

4. Election of the "Even Year" Administrative Committee member.

5. Dates for our 2015 event. (Target date: September)

6. Suggested hotels for DLV 2015. (Target date: December)
. . . . .

Among our ongoing and planned discussion topics for the near future are:

1. Our Newcomer Orientation session.

2. Name tags.

3. Effective dissemination of information during the event.

4. The "lunch with" activity and selection of venues.

5. Encouraging higher levels of participation.

6. Encouraging sanitation and hygiene - disease prevention.

7. The "low-information attendee" situation.
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Recurring suggestions and issues:

Annie writes:

For those who are new to the volunteer scene, here are a number of
historically recurring suggestions and ideas which have been brought up
many times but never implemented.

These are being brought up now so that we do not take the time to go
down the same paths as before and have the same discussions and
conclusions as before.

We're not summarily rejecting these, but simply avoiding re-hashing what
has been hashed and re-hashed over and over.

If anyone can provide some novel and highly-compelling evidence why any
of these should be reconsidered, please feel free to do so.
. . . . . . . . . .

1. The rented hotel ballroom.

This has been brought up so many times, and last year in fact one of our
new volunteers got a bit miffed when we did not jump on the bandwagon of
renting a hotel ballroom at Circus Circus and holding one of our major
activities there.

It's often been presented to us as a goal, as if we've "made it" when we
can afford to rent a hotel ballroom.

It's been brought up as a desideratum in the context of if we would get
a bit more cozy with vendors, they would help us to rent a hotel
ballroom.

It's almost always presented with the idea of a catered meal and some
kind of entertainment.

Unless I've been totally misreading our people for the past 18 years,
this is not what our people want! Our people want something more on the
town and in the mainstream for our major gatherings.

Our opening celebration in 2010 at Firefly Plaza and our various Bahama
Breeze gatherings over the years are good examples of what our people
like for the maximum-attendance gatherings.
. . . . .

2. Registration fee.

The hotel ballroom is often brought up along with the suggestion of
charging a registration or participation fee. "If you would charge a
SMALL registration fee, you could afford to rent a hotel ballroom."

There have been countless other suggestions for a SMALL (and it's always
"small") registration fee, such as to be able to buy blocks of adjacent
seats at shows, to be able to send out tourist literature to attendees
in advance, to be able to rent an "office" or hospitality suite (see
below) or more fairly reimburse volunteers for expenses.

It's been a suggestion many times as a deterrent to no-shows.

Many of these suggestions for the use of common funds, such as seats all
together at a show, or a hospitality room, or reimbursement for expenses
such as name tags might be a good thing, but adopting a fee structure
would introduce a whole new dimension of complexity, including such
things as accountability, responsibility, and liability.

And, who reaches into the pocketbook and makes up the difference when
the books don't balance? Look around at almost any former TG event and
you will see that one of the main reasons that they are not around is
because they could not make the numbers work!
. . . . .

3. Locking in a week/month.

This is along the line of "DLV will always occur the second full week of
April" or something like that.

Again, it's been discussed countless times. At every go-round, nobody
has been able to name any particular week between mid March and mid May
that is guaranteed to be free of the popular religious/family holidays
such as Easter, Holy Week, and Passover, and high room rates driven by
larger conventions such as NAB.

If any one can name a particular week in the spring when Easter will
never occur and when NAB (or other room rate spikes) will never occur,
please do so.
. . . . .

4. Length of the event.

Our first year, 1997, we had a three-day event. We had a four-day event
in 1998 and a five-day event in 1999. In 2000 we went to a six-day event
and in 2004 we went to a seven-day event.

In 2007 we went back to the six-day event.

Why?

Volunteer workload limitations.

The pattern is very predictable. Each year we do a good job of planning
most of the schedule, and when weak spots are noticed we call for
volunteers to help with (usually smaller) fill-in activities. In almost
every case it's not been those who are doing little or nothing who
answer the call, but those who are already doing multiple other
activities.

Last year we did much better (thanks everyone who volunteered!). We did
not reach this "saturation point" until very shortly prior to the event,
(Items to fill weak spots on Tuesday and Thursday evenings) but it did
occur.

We really do not have the capacity to expand until we have the volunteer
capacity to avoid "doubling up" to fill in weak spots.

Here's the Big Burning Question:

Who, among the proponents of an expanded event, is/are willing to be in
charge of recruiting additional volunteer help? :) :)
. . . . .

5. Other missions, functions, events.

Expanding our scope to holding an event twice per year is an occasional
suggestion.

We've had suggestions to expand into local (LV area) outreach, to adopt
charitable causes, to put on benefit events for worthy causes, to become
more sociopolitically active. {dot dot dot}

Again, proponents of an expanded scope, need to be willing to be in
charge of recruiting additional volunteer help. :)

Later this summer we'll be launching an (for lack of a better name at
this time) information initiative, but it will be done under "separate
cover" and won't dilute the resources available for our main annual
event. Likewise, our "sister event", Pinkfest, occurs each year in the
fall, but that's planned separately using totally separate resources.

A great win-win which we've had a couple of times, along the line of
benefiting worthy causes, is to do a DLV activity in support of such
cause. A good example is the side trip and excursion to the Shiloh Horse
Rescue Project a few years back. We had a very enjoyable side trip and
the Project received our $upport.

One common "forest for the trees" situation is that our people often
overlook one specific very worthy cause, one which has benefited many
people in our community and continues to do so. That "cause" is, of
course, Diva Las Vegas. :)
. . . . .

6. A hospitality suite.

Most other TG events have some kind of a physical headquarters, office,
hospitality suite, or some kind of common area. This is usually located
in the primary hotel hosting the event.

This would be a Good Thing<tm> to have. It would be a Very Good Thing<tm>
to have!

The very nature of the model of our event (no common pool of funds, no
central hotel) presents some challenges to opening such a facility, such
as:

If it is to happen, it has to be located such that it's very convenient
to the majority of our attendees.

Somebody has to staff it. At least one volunteer needs to be present at
all times that this is open. Again, this is a volunteer capacity issue.

Somebody has to pay for it. Such a facility would certainly run into the
high three figures, most likely into four figures, for the duration of
our event.

The closest we've come to this was for DLV 2007. A boutique out of
Chicago was planning on attending and having a temporary studio in one
of our suggested hotels, which was to double as a hospitality suite for
all during the daytime hours. They decided to withdraw when (you guessed
it) they realized that they could not make the numbers work.

A few years ago one of the local vendors (no longer active in our
program) hinted to me that their shop could be used as kind of a
headquarters and hospitality suite. At the time I could also name (at
least) two other firms who would likely jump at the chance to be
designated as "DLV Headquarters", but none of these were in any way
convenient to the locations where DLVers were staying.

If anyone has any idea of how to make this happen (without adopting a
registration fee, of course) please feel free to say so. :)
. . . . .

7. SO activities.

It's been a recurring suggestion and discussion item. We've also had in
the past a number of "SO Only" activities, two of which were well
attended and scored highly on the survey.

Most of these were planned with "traditional" SOs in mind. A few of them
did note "male SOs welcome" in the mailings.

These then kind of morphed into "SO and Partners" gatherings, none of
which were particularly propitious.

Our attendee base is extremely diverse. Many of the partners present do
not fit into the traditional "Spice" definition of what many expect a SO
at an event such as this to be.

Other TG events are starting to see this as well.

The desire to reinstate activities geared to SOs has been stated many
times but never in recent years has gathered much steam. If anyone has
any ideas along this line, please say so.
. . . . .

8. Special Group Rates<tm> at a hotel.

Over the years, we've been teased many times by the promise of special
group rates at various hotels. In almost all cases (Riviera, Boardwalk,
and Gold Coast being specific examples) the rates we were quoted, which
always came with various conditions, minima, guarantees, deposits, etc.,
could easily be beaten by anyone knowing how to use a web browser or a
telephone!

However (comma) we have indeed had two cases where rates which offered a
meaningful discount over cold-call or web rates were made available to
our group with no strings attached. First was at the St. Tropez (now
Rumor) a number of years ago. Nora arranged this simply by chatting with
the GM. Most recent was at the Artisan. Cynthia did more or less the
same in a conversation with the GM of the property.

If anyone wants to again pursue this, be my guest, or in this case I
will be your guest. :) You don't need anyone's permission to do this,
just be sure not to commit to anything (translated: $$$$$) unless you
wish to be personally responsible for it. :)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Our electorate:

This is the list of those who will be of voting status for the 2014-2015
season. This list was taken from the final 2013 and 2014 schedules and
is, of course, subject to human error.

If you have coordinated or assisted with a DLV activity in either 2013 or
2014, please look over this list carefully. Please be sure that you and
all of your assistants are listed. Please be sure that "we have the
correct Judy" by checking the first portion of the e-mail address next
to your name.

Please report any errors or omissions.

Aejaie: aejaie@
Annie: annie@
Beverly: msbevw@
Bob: bobmlasvegas@
Cami: cami.desiree@
Dale: bdbirch@
Danielle: rdbadler@
Delaney: eponinedo@
Dennis: rbardentucson@
Gina: ginarichards1@
Ginger: ginigrace@
Jill: jillhillcd@
JoAnn: jo@
Kandi: webmiss@
Katie: wilskatie@
Laura: laura.tommygirl@
Linda: linda@
Marilyn: ah_marilyn@
Marisa: marisaaah@
Michelle: michelle.jenkins@
Pamela: aaalmp01@
Randi: ranshell@
Robyn: bdbirch@
Sara: sara1967ca@
Sarah: sarahc01@
Shellie: ranshell@
Sherry: docrobbysherry@
Stacy: stacycdooo@
Sue: sue_leighton@
Valorie: valorie.sapphire@
Vanessa: vkw423242@
Vera: lvrosada@
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Administrivia:

This is the Diva Las Vegas 2015 organizational list.

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 2015
(dates to be determined)
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Archives of this list appear on the web at:

http://www.geekbabe.com/annie/org15arc/

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To send material to this list: Send submission as regular e-mail to
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Received on Thu May 22 2014 - 06:43:36 CDT