Comments on a couple issues ...

[External Poster]

This posting is from: annie
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There were a couple of items which, I believe, indicated that
the attendees did not read the DLV information, such as the
Large Final Mailing, and didn't have a good grasp on the way
things work in the real world of DLV.

Please excuse me if I appear somewhat insensitive to the
first one, but if instructions were followed, this incident
would not have happened.

+We were upset that someone could not have picked us up at
+Sahara Hotel for Blue Ox. My wife had to use a wheelchair
+and there was confusing instructions and directions to the
+Blue Ox-especially when I have never been there.

If I'm correct, you're the ones who phoned one of our contact
people just as the Welcome Celebration was getting underway.

While we do understand your situation, and we're normally
willing to bend over backwards if conditions warrant, please
understand that at that paricular time, we just did not have
the resources available to find you a ride.

The reasons we could not act on your request were twofold.

1. Your request was at very short notice. This has been a sore
spot since the very early days of DLV.

When a request for a ride comes in at short notice, all of the
volunteer drivers who were convenient to you and heading to
your destination are already on their way, or at the activity
already.

This (don't expect a ride at short notice) was outlined very
clearly in the "Rides and Riders" section of the Large Final
Mailing. Also in that section were instructions on how to be
sure you have a ride, if you need one, to your very first DLV
activity. Had you followed those, I'm very sure we could have
found you a ride, since there were several volunteer drivers
staying at the Sahara.

Yes, you had some unusual circumstances, and the reason we
could not take those under consideration and get you a
ride was ...

2. Your request came in at the absolute worst possible time,
that is for us to do anything about it. It was just as the
largest activity of the week, the one where the most newcomers
were expected, was getting underway. All of our volunteers
were busy greeting, checking in, working out last minute
details, etc. Even while understanding your situation, it
was just not possible to act on your request, sorry.
. . .

I still think there's some misunderstanding about the ride
share thing at DLV. Some without a vehicle seem to be under
the impression that local transportation is provided by
some sugar-mommy and seem surprised, even miffed, when all
they get is a list of volunteer drivers and instructions
to seek them out and coordinate a ride.

We've talked on occasion of things like hiring a shuttle bus
for high-demand trips, such as the Sahara to the Welcome
Celebration, but nothing ever happened. Is this something
we want to revisit?
. . . . .

We had one remark about the lack of a schedule.

First, if I may digress ...

We tried handing out printed schedules one year and it didn't
work out. Most of them were discarded as litter in the place
we had our Welcome Celebration. This cost one of our volunteers
some real money to duplicate these, not to mention the effort.

If somebody wants to take on the project, that is duplicating
and distributing printed schedules (and maps, and various other
items) for DLV 2009, that's fine, and it can happen.

Just keep in mind one very important point. There are no funds
for this, at all.

+Did not get a schedule and addresses given by phone were wrong
+and found it to be a royal pain to find out by daily call
+"where are we eating (lunch) today? and total absence of a
+daily printed schedule day by day.

The fact that we would not be handing out printed schedules
was published, over and over and over, beginning in January,
and repeated frequently in the mailings. It was again
emphasized in the Large Final Mailing, both in the main
section and in the "bare minimum" section.

If you arrived without a copy of the schedule and needed one,
the obvious solution is to get a copy, and there are several
ways this can be done. Easiest is to take a copy that someone
has and copy it. Every large hotel has a business center with
copy machines, and there are Kinkos type places all over the
place. Another way is to get someone who is local to print
a copy for you. Worst case would be to look at someone's copy
and jot down times and locations, even on a napkin if it's
necessary.

One other related point, which I think we need to emphasize for
next year, is that the DLV contact people can't be expected
to always give you on-the-spot directions to the various
activity locations. We can be sure that all of the contact
people have copies of the latest schedule and map, but we
really can't be certain that they're going to know the best
way to get from where you are to where you need to be.

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(This posting was entered by annie, an external user of MyDLV.)