Inclusiveness (was Re: DLV leadership ...)

[External Poster]

This posting is from: kumiko yvonne watanabe
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I hope so too. I don't think as they get older, they will still claim
the title of 'wild' but then again, defining what 'wild' is... who
knows, they can just as easily disappear too.


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(This posting was entered by kumiko yvonne watanabe, an external user of MyDLV.)

[annie]

> Some of the girls are very clicky (sp). They will say hi to you but
> after that nothing.

Unfortunately the TG community does have a propensity for cliquishness. It's not unlike, and shares some of the same dynamics with, the overall adolescent community.

We've been trying to deal with this ever since DLV started growing but it seems like we regularly get gigged on the survey for it. A few years ago we had a few gift cards donated and we gave away a $100 card to the returnee who was voted "most welcoming and inclusive" by the new attendees. (It was my observation that the winner was indeed very deserving.) That may or may not be repeated for obvious reasons.

> Me meeting new people is nobody's fault but mine.

I really don't think that most of the people are intentionally being rude or trying to appear exclusive. I think they are simply so engrossed in the then-and-now conversations that they tend to ignore what's going on around them. At DLV (and at other organized TG events) I'm having a difficult time remembering a single rebuff when I've asked "May I join you?" to a group which is not giving off overtly "closed" body language.

> I have found a lot of girls talk to those they know with their plans
> and if we don't know them we are left out.

Over the years we've really tried to encourage our attendees to please be more inclusive, particularly when it comes to those who are new attendees and to those who have not established close friendships.

One of the reasons we expanded the Late Night Dancing to most every evening is to give everyone a universal and unconditional invitation to join us and socialize. It has appeared to work very well in the last few years.

> Maybe have an app or something we could go on to see where everyone is.

We're trying to do just that. We tried a somewhat low-key test roll-out of a group text feature this year. Most of our people have either a phone which can display text messages or an email account they check during DLV. There were a few technical issues reported (seems to be mostly dead zones in certain LV properties) but we plan to encourage more people to use it next year. This could indeed be used for such things as finding out where groups of our people happen to be at the moment.

> some of us need some help in meeting people and introducing ourselves.

One of the things we've always offered from the very early days of DLV is to actively introduce someone around. It's very seldom actually asked for (Delaney, please correct me if I'm wrong here) but I know that I have done it on occasion and I know some others have too.