From: annie (dlvdisc@geekbabe.com)
Date: Thu Oct 02 2003 - 00:51:26 CDT
>First, let me say how much I appreciate the organizing committee's hard
>work (whoever they are).
I'm one of them. One of the others has identified herself. The others are
free to identify themselves if they choose to do so.
The DLV organizers may not be as visible as those of other t* community
events for several reasons. Few ever flaunt their status, and we prefer
DLV without any class structure or pecking order. Another reason is that
our volunteers make up a good percentage of the DLV attendees in
general. At almost any DLV activity in 2003, about 20-25% of those
present were the organizers. I know this for a fact. I counted.
Our volunteers now number almost 40. All ages from the 30's to the 70's
are represented. Some are typical of those who frequent t* events, many
are not. Over 50% of our oragnizers are parents, all have or had a
mother.
These people are some of the finest people you will know on either side
of life, if you get to know them. I know all of the, some of them quite
well, and I assure you there is not a single jerk in the bunch.
>I know it's not easy and requires a lot of time and effort.
And this effort is unpaid and in too many cases unthanked.
>I am convinced the DLV organizing committee reached a decision on not
>what is best for DLV but what was convenient for 15 members of the
>organizing committee.
I will grant that this may be partly true. In DLV, it is those who
step forward to do the work who get to make the decisions, including
scheduling. That's the way it should be.
One item I would like to clarify is this perception that there is some
kind of a smaller "core group" who really makes the decisions. Let me
assure you this is not the case. (At least if it is, I'm unaware of
it.) All volunteers (30-some) had one vote on the schedule.
>If DLV's goal is to continue growing (or to at least maintain it's
Growth for the sake of growth is not a goal of DLV. We grow naturally
because people return and keep telling others they like it.
>If the goal of the organizing committee is to slow growth, and in fact
>shrink attendance, these dates are outstanding!
Actually, one of our long-time organizers is on record preferring a
smaller, more intimate, and easier to manage crowd, but we're not going
to intentionally discourage attendance. We realize that our model will
not scale well to large crowds, so in the future, yes, we may have to
limit attendance.
>"your opinion doesn't matter, go away".
Your opinion does matter and it was requested -- two months ago.
Although the decisions were made by our ORG group, input was requested
from all. Our proposed dates were announced on August 1, and feedback
was invited for the next month. Only one comment, a concern about the
weather, was received.
>responses of "focus on the positives", I find this simply a cop out.
I would interpret this as an invitation to suggest constructive
solutions.
I would suggest that if you do indeed want to have more say in the
way DLV operates, that you volunteer. You will then have one vote on
the items that cannot be decided by consensus. This also means that
yes, you will be expected to take on an active role in planning and
implementing the activities that make up DLV.
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