In this mailing:
Org List
This mailing
Check splitting
Buffets
Survey items
Activity reports
Slow opener service
Orientation and schedules
Attendance
Local transportation
Various dancing topics
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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This mailing:
This is a long mailing.
It will probably be longer than most mailings to follow in the near
future.
There have been suggestions that we "divide and conquer" the topics of
this follow-up, concentrating on each one and limiting the "noise" of
other issues, giving each one a clear channel.
Over the next several weeks we'll be concentrating on one topic in
each mailing or series of mailings, depending on the activity.
You (the ORG members) will be deciding which topic gets first go-round
by your input and responses.
Topics of discussion (in no particular order) include:
Friday night (Closing) attendance.
Appropriate dress/behavior.
Check-Splitting.
Possible new activities/venues to attract folks, and keep things fresh.
Any other relevant topics.
. . . . . . . . . .
We'll plan on keeping the current ORG group intact for the next several
list cycles, and do the add/drops either when the relevant discussion
dies down or by the end of June.
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Check splitting:
Robin (with the "I") writes:
I have a suggestion when it comes to the bill at the end.
Some folks don't really mind about the cost and are quite content just
splitting the bill by the number of people at the table. I would fit
into this group.
Some people insist on paying only for their share, and usually wind up
haggling about the bill until someone says they will cover the missing
amount.. Why not seat people in groups of how they prefer to pay, and
let the penny pinchers fight it out among themselves.
. . . . .
JoAnn responds:
Robin and all other DIVA Attendees--
I would agree to Robin's approach, if I thought nothing would "splatter
on me" as I watched various tables go into "battle".
Therefore, another thought. ... and maybe not the answer... but moves
us closer to a solution.
When the bill comes to the table the tax and tip (most cases the tip is
stated as an automatic 18% - 20%). This amount is then divided by the
number sitting at the table and rounded up to a number each pays,
plus........ then everyone is told that amount and pay the "assessed
amount" plus their drink and food amount. It might be good to consider
this as the "SOP" of DIVA check sharing protocol at all activities when
people cannot have separate checks!!
This is a simple and an easier way to assign costs of the bill. A KISS
System [Keep It Simple Stupid] that keeps the concerns I hear being
addressed and stops all of the negative feels that I hear expressed
here.
. . . . . . . . . .
Linda writes:
Regarding Trevi.
I thought the food and the service was fine until after the meal when I
and others at my table had to wait seemingly forever to receive our
check. (This was Robyn's table too.)
It wasn't until nearly everyone had left that they took Dennis and I
into the back room and gave us each separate checks which we paid there.
Mine was time stamped 10:01 PM and Dennis was shortly after that. I'm
not sure what time Robyn made her payment, but I suspect that it was
earlier, because I don't remember seeing her around at that time.
I suspect that Trevi must have double charged for at least some of the
items on our check and Robyn somehow got stuck with the extra payment.
Whether Trevi did this intentionally or not, I can't say, but they did
seem quite disorganized, at least at our table.
. . . . .
Annie responds:
So what you're saying is that the Trevi staff did, eventually, give
those at your table who wanted them, individual checks. LOL, "taken
to the back room" sounds like something from the film _Casino_. :)
That data point, taken with the fact that in 2013 they did give us
separate checks at Trevi leads me to believe that the one check per
table was not as hard and fast as they might want us to believe.
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Buffets:
Dionne writes:
> Now if you're referring to a place such as that Asian buffet you
> once checked out, the one on Flamingo (is it still open?), a
> place like that may be willing to admit those who are not dining
> in exchange for the bar business.
I will put this one my To-Do list for my next visit. I will inquire
regarding alcohol and non-diners, as well.
That Asian buffet is still open and is on my list to re-visit. IIRC,
they have bottle beer & wine for purchase at the register.
Does anyone have comments on the Paradise Garden buffet? Flamingo Hotel
Las Vegas, 3555 S Las Vegas Blvd, Phone:(702) 733-3111 cost ~$20 pp.
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
Thanks for checking this out.
I could foresee a successful opening gathering in such a place as the
Asian buffet with the buffet itself being one of several dining options.
This, of course, is dependent on such things as the venue being willing
to have a certain number of bar-only customers.
The purpose of our welcome evening is not to get totally blitzed, but
the availability of a wide variety of adult beverages at reasonable
prices is one thing our people enjoy and want at our major gatherings.
I don't think beer and wine only will make it. From your earlier report
prior to DLV 2014:
> I asked about alcohol. Jimmy says they have applied for a liquor
> license and it should be ready by April.
Do they now have a full liquor license?
As far as the Flamingo (Paradise Garden) buffet, I have a lot of
experience with it. This past trip I did it once with the DLV gang for
LWG and twice solo. I never remember having a bad meal there, but I do
know someone who did a number of years back.
As of now, the Flamingo Buffet is only open for breakfast-lunch. The
limited hours, limited beverages, and logistical issues probably rule
this out for a major gathering.
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Survey items:
Dionne writes:
DLV 2015 Survey report After reviewing this report, I teased out these
results;
What was your level of enjoyment? Bare Escentuals Makeovers all sessions:
5.0 (11 responses) (1 no-shows)
What was your comfort level? Bare Escentuals Makeovers all sessions: 5.0(9
responses)
All perfect scores! I shared this with the store Manager, Cindy and
asked her to pass it along to her staff. Great Job!
. . . . . .
Annie responds:
Both Bare Escentuals and Nordstroms makeovers did very well this year!
Perfect 5.0 for both! Congratulations to the Coordinators and staff.
+Bare Escentuals Makeovers all sessions: 5.0 (11 responses)
+Nordstrom Makeovers, all sessions, Nordstrom's: 5.0 (6 responses)
5.0 with 11 responses is exceptional, since any single score less than
5.0 will bump the activity out of 5.0 territory. You may notice that as
the response count goes up, the less likely is that activity to hit 5.0
on the enjoyment or comfort scales.
. . . . . . . . . .
Dionne continues:
> Both of these come very close to the "balance" that JoAnn has in mind.
I agree with annie's calc method and JoAnn's suggested 80/20 ratio of
activity/Vendor.
I want to add that I spoke with the BM store Manager, Cindy and MU
artist, Abbey after our sessions.
They both related stories of DLVrs who were out for the first time in
public and so nervous they were shaking. These GGs were warm, accepting
and glad to help. IMHO, this is similar to our Big Sisters program but
with GGs. This is one of DLV's strengths. I appreciated this when I was
the one who was shaking on my first BM visit.
. . . . . .
Annie continues:
The survey scores bring some light to the question of too many
commercial activities. If we look at the enjoyment scores of those
activities which were strictly commercial in nature ...
+Bare Escentuals Makeovers all sessions: 5.0 (11 responses)
+Nordstrom Makeovers, all sessions, Nordstrom's: 5.0 (6 responses)
+Creative Wigs Seminar, Spotlight: 4.58 (17 responses) (2 no-shows)
+2bShapely Workshop and lunch, Blue Ox: 4.45 (11 responses)
+Looking Glass Open House, Flex Lounge, Thursday: 4.33 (3 responses)
+Makeovers by Stephanie, Flex Lounge, Thursday: 4.33 (3 responses)
+Just You Open House, Wednesday: 3.50 (8 responses)
Only one commercial activity scored less than 4.0 and none of them
were to the left of center. This shows that those who attended those
activities enjoyed them and appreciated them being on the schedule.
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Activity reports:
Linda writes:
I'm sorry to be late getting this in, but BLTN so here goes:
TGIF Sunday 3/22:
We had only 9 people attend, whereas 15 had signed up. I think most were
satisfied with the food quality, although one vegetarian attendee could
not find anything appropriate on the menu and the waiter was unable to
help her; she ended up ordering 2 or 3 varieties of soup.
We almost had a check-splitting fiasco, as the waiter announced that
they did not allow it. When I and others pointed out that we had eaten
there before, on multiple occasions with much larger groups and that
check-splitting had never been a problem, he said he would ask his boss.
When he returned, his boss had told him that they have allowed check
splitting for the past 2 years, so the waiter was a little behind the
times; I think he was a recent rehire and was stuck in the past.
He was also very slow serving us, leaving us unattended for long periods
of time. As far as service goes, this was probably the worst I've seen
there. Of course, it was also the first time on a Sunday.
Karaoke with Shiela at Phoenix 3/23:
Because of the slow service at TGIF, the 3 or 4 of us going to karaoke
didn't arrive until about 9:30 and we found 4 or 5 of us already there.
A few more trickled in during the rest of the evening, but several left
together around 11:00 for late-night clubbing. I never saw the booths
fill up like last year, but we did make good use of the couches. There
were probably between 15-20 of us, but not all at the same time. I think
everyone who came had a good time.
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
Thanks for the reports, Linda.
In light of your report, I'm wondering if in many venues, check
splitting is really at the discretion of, or the whim of, the staff at
the time. I know, for example, that Trevi gave us separate checks in
2013. Had you not "called the bluff" on the waiter at TGIF, he would
have successfully saved himself some work.
I wonder if some appropriately-applied con$ideration, as in asking for
help from "Mr. Jackson", might be an effective means for minimizing the
impact of the check issue.
Your experience at TGIF is also another good (???) example of how an
activity which runs "long" can impact subsequent activities.
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Slow opener service:
Katie writes:
Hi to all those who attended the opener and were disappointed about the
slow service in our room.
I feel I must apologize for the lack of action I might have taken as I
was supposed to be co hostessing the opener and got wrapped up in having
a great time when I probably should have noticed the slowness done more
to help. Bev had her hands full being the chief organizer of the opener
and unfortunately I fell short as a co Hostess. Sorry Gang.
The rather flamboyant very tall waitress who was the drag queen styled
lady there was supposed to be waiting tables en femme with permission
from the Bahama Breeze management and really was not doing her job
hardly at all but in reality she was spending her time taking photos and
socializing with us instead, This was a main factor which led to the
slow service. I imagine she get her ass kicked from the BB management
after the evening was done due to the other staff having to fill in for
her.. Which did not really happen as the other bar staff had their own
responsibilities to look after, Consequently our night out in the Gazebo
room slowed down to a snails pace and some of the girls had to go into
other rooms to get a drink and some even left early.
As I said I got distracted and sincerely apologize for that. Sometimes
things like this creep up on you and you never get the handle on it
till' it is too late.If I help out again next year and this happens
again I will most certainly take her aside and tell her to do the job
she is being paid to do or I will be talking to her boss. Sorry again
Gang. The night could have been so much better with just One more waiter
in the room but unfortunately staff minus one kind of put a bit of a
damper on the opener.
On the fun side of things I really like the suggestion that we introduce
some of the hostesses at the opener who are coordinating activities
during the rest of the week so that attendees will know who is in the
drivers seat when they go to an event.
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
Thanks for the report, Katie.
The Bahama Breeze opener was well-attended and well-rated and those
are the important things.
Although it was well-attended and well-enjoyed, there were some issues
and just about every negative factor seems to be related to or an effect
of staffing and personnel.
A side-effect of the no musician issue was that we did not have an
effective working sound system. The announcements we tried to do were
unheard by a good percentage of our attendees. Several who attended the
closing gathering had no clue about the prize give-aways, for example,
even though they were at the opening gathering.
This precluded us having much of a "program" this year. What I am
hearing is that the Teeming Millions want more structure, and part of
this is a desire for such things as the Coordinators of the major
activities to get up and promote them. We need to be sure we have the
facilities to make something like this happen next year.
I was originally told that our "hostess" would be working as a server,
and being one server short really had a negative impact. Yes, a good old
@$$-chewing is in order, but an admonition to "get to work" would have
been appropriate and appreciated at the time. With another server
running drinks, the lack of a bartender could very well have been a
non-issue that evening.
Anyway, I hope the situation is better next year.
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Orientation and schedules:
Katie writes:
As for the person who did not think we revealed enough in our
orientation presentation, I guess we have to work on that. I personally
just ad libbed it and had not prepared a speech but if I do it again
next year I will write some things down which might be relevant to new
attendees.
. . . . .
Annie responds:
Orientation is clearly an evolving concept.
What I'm hearing from the masses is a general desire for more structure
and specifically for more structure in the orientation.
I think the answer here is to simply have some defined goals for the
orientation session and enough of a structure to meet these goals.
This year's Orientation scored 4.19 on the enjoyment scale compared to
4.64 in 2014. I was really not paying enough attention to it this year
to offer an informed opinion, but I do think one of the needs is to have
more structure and more of a specific list of topics to be covered.
I think it needs a tune-up and not a tear-down. I think we are
converging on something that will be effective.
Likewise, I don't think we need a change in personnel. The team of Vera,
Katie, and Delaney offers three very long-time multi-year attendees who
are still very much in touch with the rank and file.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Katie continues:
I had planned on bringing along a few printed schedules for handing out
to those who wanted them but had second thoughts about that and I left
them at home because I thought the info sent out by Annie would actually
be read by new people. I used to read it until I got the hang of DLV so
I assumed that others would too.
. . . . .
Annie responds:
As far as printed schedules, I think we need to decide if we are going
to do this (print schedules and hand them out) or not. If we're going to
do it, we need to do it right, meaning enough copies to go around and a
plan to make them available to all.
We did this for a couple of recent years. One legal sheet, map on one
side, schedule on the other. They cost real money and required effort
to duplicate and to schlep around to the various activities. In order
to be accurate, it needs to be produced "just in time" with all last
minute additions and changes.
If we have volunteers to do all of this, then it can happen. Let's
discuss it.
+ Did you find the lack of a printed map and schedule to be an
+ inconvenience?
+ Yes, a major inconvenience.: 5
+ No: 62
+ Maybe a minor inconvenience.: 6
11 out of 73, or about 15% of the respondees, stated that it was at
least to some degree an inconvenience to not have the printed map and
schedule. Does that number (15%) warrant the cost and effort? I don't
know, I'm asking. :)
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Attendance:
Linda writes:
I wonder if the lower attendance this year was due to fear of illness, as
there were so many who got sick last year. The fact of its being even a
week earlier than last year and still in the cold and flu season may have
added to that fear. Just a thought! Thankfully, I didn't hear of anyone
getting sick this year.
. . . . .
Annie responds:
The survey confirms that illness was mostly a non-issue this year.
Concerns about low(er) attendance fall into two classes.
First is the overall decrease in attendance of the event as a whole,
which is something that most other TG events are also reporting.
The second is lower than expected turnout at certain activities.
I am personally not too concerned with the former, as there are a number
of easy to identify factors, none of which are under our control, which
add to a lower overall level of participation. Higher costs and lower
demand for TG events in general are just two of them.
What does concern me is low activity turnout, particularly when the
sign-up counts and machine-predicted show-up counts are much higher
than the actual door counts. This means that we have people who have
intended to participate but for some reason decide not to.
This (lower than expected activity turnout) is one item I think we need
to address.
. . . . . . . . . .
Joann writes:
My pet issue - do we want to make an effort to attract individuals to
the event - with our average age now over 60, and few attending over 70
or under 40, well, do we care, or are we ok with things as they are ?
. . . . .
We did have one "I wish there were more my age" response on this year's
survey, and I assume it was from a younger attendee.
Yes, our average age has been creeping up from a once-steady mid-high
50s into the 60s.
Again, I think there are several factors in play here. One is the cost
issue, with increasing prices and those middle-aged or senior being more
likely to afford the higher prices. Another I think is less of a demand
for TG-specific events by the younger set. Younger people have more
options nowadays and I've observed a tendency to go directly into the
mainstream, as opposed to the LGBT community.
I would welcome input from our under-40 people along this line. :)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Local transportation:
Dionne writes:
> I had a rental car and would gladly have transported people, might
> consider a DLV Uber type app exclusively for us.
> You need a way to let people register complaints without making a
> scene.
Maybe creating a Twitter handle & feed for tracking activities in real
time would work for these?
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
We decided, in 2009, to get out of the local transportation business.
I think that was a good decision and should stand.
We had a "Ride Share Program" for over a decade, which worked very well
in the early days but became confusing and disorganized as the group
grew, not to mention the showing of the ugly head of the "L Word" every
so often.
We do not prohibit activity Coordinators from doing their own thing WRT
transportation to/from their own activities as long as they accept the
responsibility for doing so and that all agree that everything is at the
risk of those involved.
Next year we are going to try a "Group Text" thing, as a shout-out party
line for anyone who needs to keep in touch with the group for any
reason. This could be used for catching a ride with someone, just as the
cell phone and other media are used today.
If anyone wants to sponsor any kind of effort for organized ride sharing
again, It will need to pass muster with our local resident Hold Harmless
Wonk :) meaning that those of us who are most exposed in this informal
association are sufficiently insulated from the "L Word" and such.
As for registering of complaints, I took this one as a meaning how to
tactfully register a complaint about a venue, such as the lack of
separate checks. I'll respond in the Discussion Forum, but I'm sure all
here know that the correct thing to do is to get the DLV Coordinator in
the loop and address things in a civil manner using the Coordinator as
the official channel to the venue staff.
As to creating a scene, this is specifically addressed in our Conditions
Of Participation:
+ That you be polite and courteous when dealing with other DLV
+ participants, vendors, merchants, hotel/restaurant/showroom staff,
+ the general public. etc.
Nobody wins when somebody goes into bitchmode and curses at a staff
member!
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Various dancing topics:
Dionne writes:
> Need to come up with new day-time activities to keep things fresh.
> I would like more dance lessons, voice lessons, etc.. . . . .
> Let's find other places to dance than Paris every time.
Since I'm a Dance professional (except pole dancing), this one's on my
list of To-Dos.
It would be helpful to find a theme such as 50's Jitterbug, Blues Swing,
Classic Ballroom, Latin Salsa, Disco, Tea Dance or ?? I can support any
of these themes with dance lessons, tunes and MC/DJ. I'm not a Vegas
local, so the sound and lighting equipment would be supplied by the
Venue. I'm checking into several Venues on my next visit to Vegas.
As for dance Venues other than Paris, I found the Mizuya Lounge (and
sushi bar) at the Mandalay Bay hotel, 3950 S. LV blvd. 89109. They have
live music that is dance-able most nights, no cover charge and 2-drink
min. that is not enforced. Free self-Parking is convenient with a short
walk and valet is available. Depending on which band is playing, this is
a drop-in replacement for Paris Cabaret, IMHO. and accessible via Tram.
PS - Watch America's Ballroom Challenge on PBS ( or view on website) for
some samples. I know the Hosts and most of the Judges on a personal
basis (male-mode only).
. . . . . . . . . .
JoAnn responds:
It would be great to provide a mix --- Paris and the alternative --
Mandalay Bay.
We do the Paris every night because there has been no coordinator
sponsor for an alternative!!! So Mandalay Bay is a great suggestion.
Step up and be the Diva Coordinator for a couple of nights.
. . . . .
Annie responds:
I agree with JoAnn. He/she who volunteers to coordinate selects the
venue.
I also think some kind of a daytime organized dance instruction and
practice thing would go over well. We had a reasonably good response
to such things about 10 years ago.
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Received on Wed May 06 2015 - 07:13:12 CDT
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