[dlv] DLV 2009 dates, etc., please read carefully ...

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This is the Diva Las Vegas 2009 announcement mailing list.
This list contains only announcements and high importance items.

If you no longer desire to receive this list, see list removal
instructions below.
. . . . .
In this mailing:

Welcome
Proposed DLV 2009 dates
Golf concerns, feedback requested
Final call for photos
Things to come
Social networking sites - Cooperation will be appreciated
Personnel changes
Pinkfest
Administrivia
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Welcome:

We're asking all of you to please read the notice on DLV 2009
dates, posted immediately below, VERY CAREFULLY.
. . . . .

This is the first general mailing regarding Diva Las Vegas 2009.

Welcome to all, those who recently joined the list and those who
have been with us previously.

You can expect our mailings to come out every 1-2 months or so
for the duration of 2008. The next mailing is planned for the
first part of September, following the Call For Comments.

Sorry this mailing is so long, but there is a lot of very
important information on a variety of topics.

The floor is now open for comments regarding dates and on a
couple of golf details. See below.
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Proposed DLV 2009 dates:

Please read this section completely and carefully!

The proposed dates for Diva Las Vegas 2009, as voted by the ORG
group are:

Monday, May 11 thru Saturday, May 16, 2009.

These dates are tentative. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE ANY NONREFUNDABLE
TRAVEL OR LODGING ARRANGEMENTS UNTIL THESE DATES ARE FINAL.

A one-month Call For Comments period is now open, and will
expire August 31, 2008.

The date selection process this year was not easy. It took three
rounds of votes to obtain a majority of the volunteers.

It is very obvious that there is no ideal timeframe in the
spring of 2009. What you see as being proposed is really a
"least of all evils" compromise.

If no significant objections to this timeframe are received
by September 1, these dates will become final with no further
action.

The floor is open for comments on the proposed dates on the
DLV Discussion Forum at the url:

http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dlvdisc/
. . . . .

A few notes here on the proposed dates.

This is not a done deal yet. These dates are subject to review
by all (including YOU) for the next month.

They will be reconsidered if enough significant objections are
raised.

However, all possible 6-day spans between mid-March and late
May were examined and considered. All of them except a handful
were dismissed as being totally impractical.

Our big problem this year is that Passover, Palm Sunday, and
Easter come late in the season and Memorial Day comes early.
With all of these come countless personal and family
commitments and resulting conflicts.

We are enjoined by standing rules from scheduling anything on
Mothers Day or the Friday or Saturday before, leaving a three
day black-out period from May 8 thru May 10.

The week of the NAB convention, which historically has meant
crowds, long lines, and astronomical room rates, remained under
consideration as a "second choice" up until the last round of
votes.

Three of our senior volunteers, two of whom are the the ones
who have been active in organizing the larger recurring
functions, have various conflicts as well. Several candidate
timeframes were voted down due to these conflicts and the
resulting difficulty we would have in replacing their efforts.

The one "evil" of this particular May 11-16 timeframe is that
DLV will begin the day after Mothers Day. This may preclude
the "early start" for some who like to come early to get a
head start.

The alternatives to this day-after-Mothers-Day start are very
high room rates, doing without one or more of our more active
volunteers, or conflicting with the family-commitment days of
Easter, Palm Sunday, and Memorial Day.

The floor is now open for comments.

If there are concerns or objections, they need to be made
DURING THIS MONTH-LONG CALL FOR COMMENTS PERIOD, not
after it has expired, as was the case with a lot of roaring
and screaming prior to DLV 2004.

You can comment (in public) on the DLV Discussion Forum, which is
on the web at:

http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dlvdisc/

Alternatively you may e-mail dlv@geekbabe.com with your comments
or simply reply to this mailing. All comments, unless otherwise
noted, will be posted on the DLV Discussion Forum.

You may comment in private by simply replying to this mailing and
stating that your comments are not to be made public.
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Golf concerns, feedback requested:

Ladies (and gentlemen), Mindy is requesting feedback on a
couple of golf items.

Mindy writes:

>There was a comment about the format of the golf tournament.

>I don't have any objection to changing to a scramble or some
>other format. This has been tossed out for discussion several
>times in the past and the only feedback has been to keep it
>the same.

>Lets put it out there again for discussion. If we get support
>for a change I will make it happen.

>Also the comment on the prize stucture. Should we add a few
>dollars to the already low cost to support a prize system?
>Again it can go out for discussion.

You can comment (in public) on the DLV Discussion Forum, which
is on the web at:

http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dlvdisc/

You may comment in private by simply replying to this mailing.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Final call for photos:

TSIA! Last call, please get them in. There are a few whose
photos are very conspicuously missing! >>HINT<<

This is also a next-to-last call for removal requests.

The amount of photos in the staging area has just about doubled
since the last mailing. (Look again! Two additional galleries
have been added within the past week.)

If you attended DLV 2008 and have not received the link to the
photo staging area, please write in and say so. Everyone who
attended has a reasonable number of removal requests for any
photos in which they appear.

Thanks to all who provided photos from this year's DLV! :)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Things to come:

We're already looking ahead and laying the foundation for DLV
2009.

There are no planned sweeping changes, but yes, some fine
tuning when and where appropriate.

New activities being discussed include an interactive Murder
Mystery, a costume party, and an upscale dress-up dining and
social event.

Several of our old favorite activities will happen again, many
with twists to keep them fresh. Some of them may be put on
sabbatical for a year to allow new activities to fill in their
timeslots.

For DLV 2009 we will be noting the expected degree of public
contact at each activity on the final schedule.

Our Administrative Committee will be examining the possibility
of a hardcopy printed schedule. The big challenge is that it
will have to be paid for somehow.

Further plans for DLV 2009 will be announced in our general
mailings, and your input is always welcome.

Our suggested hotels for DLV 2009 will be announced in early
December, 2008.

Although we had a very good response to our Call For
Volunteers last May, the door for new volunteers is still
open. Wanna help out? If so, e-mail: dlvorg@geekbabe.com
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Social networking sites - Cooperation will be appreciated:

Since DLV 2008 we've received a whole slew of e-mails asking us
to visit various social networking sites for the alleged purposes
of answering questions, reading messages that have been left for
us, etc.

Experience has shown that these messages and questions almost
always have more to do with promoting the site in question than
they do with DLV.

We would like to continue to focus our web presence, our e-mail,
our discussions, and our communications through our own media.

We're asking everyone's cooperation in helping us to keep our
communications clean and focused. You can help out in the
following ways:

We ask that you please do not "invite" DLV to various social
networking sites.

If you have a question about DLV, the correct place to ask is
the DLV Discussion Forum or the associated Yahoo group, or via
e-mail if you do not want to ask in public. We ask that you do
not use third-party sites to relay questions or messages to us.

If you need to contact DLV, the correct e-mail address is
dlv@geekbabe.com and is the only supported means of contact.
Please send mail directly to us at that address, and not via
a third-party site.

For similar reasons, we will not respond to or pick up any
electronic greeting cards. Well over 90% of these are promotions
for something or worse, ratware. If you wish to send greetings
to any of the DLV volunteers, please do so directly via e-mail. :)
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Personnel changes:

We are making the position of Project Manager, which was held
by Annie through 2006 and by Aiko for 2007-2008, a rotational
position with a one-year term.

Annie will be taking the Project Manager position for DLV 2009
and Aiko will be re-assuming the position for the DLV 2010
event. Neither Annie nor Aiko will be taking the position for
DLV 2011.

The ORG group has also voted in favor of establishing an
Administrative Committee to handle the business of DLV which
is not related to activities. Previously this business was
handled by ad-hoc groups of volunteers with no designated
responsibility.

This committee includes those holding designated positions,
plus two elected at-large members, selected from the DLV
volunteers. Election of these two members is in progress.
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Pinkfest:

Pinkfest 2008 (another "vacation not convention:") will be held
in Chicago from Thursday, October 23 thru Sunday, October 26.

Like DLV, Pinkfest is held in a mixture of mainstream and
alternative venues, and has activities of all types. If you have
attended DLV, yes, you will see some familiar faces at Pinkfest.

Of particular interest this year is a walking tour of Oak Park,
the home of Frank Lloyd Wright, being planned by two of the
local Pinkfest volunteers.

We have a mailing list and associated Yahoo group for Pinkfest,
similar to those we have for DLV. The address of the Pinkfest
mailing list is:

pinkfest@pinkmyst.com

Like the DLV lists, the Pinkfest list is discreet and very
militantly spam-free.

For those who prefer a Yahoo interface, the corresponding
Yahoo group "Pinkfest" echoes the content of the Pinkfest
mailing list. The URL for the Yahoo group is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pinkfest/

Please note that you must be a Yahoo member and logged in to
read and post to and from the Yahoo group.

The content is exactly the same between the Pinkfest mailing
list and the Pinkfest Yahoo group.

For further information on Pinkfest, please visit the Pinkfest
web site at:

http://www.pinkmyst.com/pinkfest/
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Administrivia:

This is the Diva Las Vegas 2009 Announcement mailing list.

This list is limited to announcements and other high-importance
items.

Replies to this mailing will be forwarded to: dlv@geekbabe.com
Submissions/questions should be sent to: dlv@geekbabe.com
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Questions/answers and discussion items are redirected to the DLV
Discussion Forum, which may be subscribed to separately or viewed
on the web. To subscribe to the DLV Discussion Forum, send a brief
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To view the DLV Discussion Forum on line, visit the URL:

http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dlvdisc/
. . . . .

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Archives of this list appear on the web at:

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. . . . .

Diva Las Vegas 2009
May 11 - 16, 2009 (tentative)
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
. . . . .

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