Preliminary survey report ...

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Michelle Jenkins
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Hi,

> Question here, does anybody actually know if the restroom cop thing was
> the result of an actual complaint by a parent, or was it just a guess?

For what its worth, I believe, that was related to me at the table by
Debbie when I first notice the HRC women holding up Rest room attendees.
I believe she checked it out and reported back to us while we were still
sitting there.

Since I didn't hear this directly from the HRC staff you can only treat
it as hearsay, and admissible any subsequent proceeding... I guess!

I did notice at least one little girl, being taken in there by her
mother but I certainly didn't see a lot of kids or indeed teenagers.

To be honest I wasn't quite so much worried about our people being held
up at the entrance as the really GG's being inconvenienced as a result
of our presence. I personally don't think that was very fair.

Michelle

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

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Michelle Jenkins
----------

A further comment....

> From what I observed, our people were using facilities properly, like
> not going in groups and such. Was this everybody's observation?

Well there were groups, because everyone was held up and let in in
either GG or non GG groups, so became a groupie thing, really! My
observation of what was happening.

Michelle

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

[External Poster]

This posting is from: annie
----------

This is a preliminary report on the quantitative portion of the DLV 2005
Attendee Survey. The comments and suggestions, as well as Entertainer Of
The Year, will be posted separately.

I've made comments at times. Your comments are encouraged. Just reply to
this message if you want to make your thoughts and feelings known.

61 responses were received, or roughly half of the attendees present at
DLV 2005. For voluntary surveys of this type, a response rate of 50% is
considered very good. This is slightly lower than our response rate last
year, but within the expected variance.

As before, not everybody answered all questions.

Thanks to all who took this survey, this lets us know exactly where
things stand regarding who participated and which activities were and
were not enjoyed. It also lets us know of any items that need to be
taken care of.
. . . . . . . . .

And now, the report ...

Times attended:

11 indicated this was their first time at DLV.
14 indicated that they have now attended twice.
36 indicated that they have attended 3 times or more.

There was a very pronounced skewing of the responses to returnees this
year. There was a marked decrease in the number of newcomers who took
the survey compared to last year, with a corresponding increase of the
returnees who took it. Most of the people taking it were 3+ times
returnees.
. . .

Distance traveled:

Average approximate mileage was 2678. Again, an increase from the
previous year.

9 respondees indicated less than 50 miles (local).
3 indicated 20000 miles or more.

Again, this supports the fairly consistent observation over the years
that about 20% of our attendees are local.
. . .

Method of travel:

Commercial air: 31
Private car: 27
Private/charter air: 1
Rental car: 1

Commercial air was most popular, with private vehicle running a close
second. This was essentially a flip-flop of what we saw in 2004.
. . .

Average age was 54.59, very close to what we saw last year.

Only 1 indicated less than 40
5 indicated 70 or higher.

We have not been attracting the younger crowd at all over the past few
years.
. . .

Public exposure:

DLV was first public exposure: 1
Less than one year: 1
1-2 years: 7
2-5 years: 12
5-10 years: 21
10-20 years: 8
Over 20 years: 5
Does not apply: 5

Again, we have a good mix of experience, from those newly out to those
who have been out and about for many years.
. . .

Frequency of public exposure:

Daily: 6
Weekly or so: 23
Monthly or so: 8
A few times a year: 17
Less than once a year: 2
Does not apply: 5
. . .

Self-identification:

CD: 23
TG: 14
TV: 8
No-Op: 3
Pre-Op: 3
SO: 2
Friend of community: 2
DQ: 1
Post-Op: 1
Do not identify with any: 4

This shows a slight decrease in those who identify as CD with a slight
increase of in those who identify as TG.

Again, a very good mix. All over the spectrum.

As before, we do not attempt to define these. This is a report on what
people say they are. Yes, there's quite a bit of ambiguity, overloading,
overlap, etc., between these terms.
. . .

Group membership:

Current members: 22
Former members: 18
Never a member: 17

Slight increase in reported membership from last year.
. . .

Other events, weighted responses:

SCC: 13
Holiday Enfemme: 10
Pinkfest: 9
FanFair: 9
Colorado Goldrush: 8
California Dreaming: 7
Texas T: 7
Be-All: 6
Fall Harvest: 4
Enfemme Getaway: 4
Esprit: 2
Paradise Poconos: 2
Dignity Cruise: 1

As has been the case for the past few years, the scatter in the
responses shows that we didn't have anybody who regularly did the
circuit of t* events. Although there are people who do this, we don't
seem to get many of them at DLV.
. . .

New question this year. Did our web site accurately depict what you
experienced at DLV?

Yes, definitely: 50
Yeah, kinda: 7
No: 0
Did not view the web site: 2

This question was mainly added for my curiosity.
. . .

On-line screens easy to use:

Yes: 54
A bit confusing: 5
No: 1
Did not register on line: 1

This is about what was expected. Usually 90% or so on a question like
this will be typical.
. . .

Technical or ergonomic difficulties with screens:

No: 56
Yes: 4
Did not register on line: 1

Again, about what was expected.
. . .

Hotels, satisfaction:

Boardwalk, definitely satisfied: 2

Imperial, mostly satisfied: 2

Palace, neutral: 1

Two Palace Station satisfaction ratings were discarded for inconsistency
since they both noted the Sahara in the comfort section.

Sahara, definitely satisfied: 11
Sahara, mostly satisfied: 11
Sahara, neutral: 2

Looks like people had good experiences at Sahara, Boardwalk, and IP,
with Palace Station being inconclusive, but no red flags.

The following other hotels had one response each, definitely satisfied:

Club De Soleil
Condo (unnamed)
Grandview
Riviera
San Remo
Tropicana

The following other hotels had one response each, mostly satisfied:

Hawthorn Suites
Mardi Gras
Terribles
Venetian

The following other hotels had one response each, neutral:

Best Western
Super 8

Note that no hotels places below neutral for satisfaction.
. . .

Hotels, comfort:

Boardwalk, very comfortable: 2

Imperial, very comfortable: 1
Imperial, somewhat comfortable: 1

Palace, neutral: 1

Sahara, very comfortable: 15
Sahara, somewhat comfortable: 6
Sahara, neutral: 3
Sahara, somewhat uncomfortable: 1

Two Sahara comfort ratings were discarded for inconsistency, since they
entered satisfaction ratings for Palace Station.

Again, Sahara, Boardwalk, and IP seemed to be OK, Palace Station being
inconclusive.

The following hotels had one response each, very comfortable:

Best Western
Club De Soleil
Condo (unspecified)
Grandview
Mardi Gras
San Remo
Super 8
Terribles
Tropicana

The following hotels had one response each, somewhat comfortable:

Hawthorn Suites
Venetian

Riviera had one response, neutral.
. . .

This next section is what I consider to be the most important of the
survey. It shows which of the activities people enjoyed, which they did
not enjoy, and points us in the direction of what our people want for
years to come.

I regard anything with 10 or more responses as a definitely valid
rating, and anything with 5 or more responses as a mostly valid rating.
I regard anything with less than 5 responses as provisionally valid due
to lack of a significant sample.

Activities, enjoyment, listed in descending order by rank. Scale of 0-5:

Dance Instruction: 4.83 (12 responses, 2 no-shows)
Limo Tour: 4.77 (31 responses, 2 no-shows)
Glamour Boutique Open House: 4.74 (27 responses)
Eating Out, Bertolinis: 4.67 (12 responses)
Bowling: 4.67 (6 responses)
Golf: 4.64 (11 responses)
Valley Of Fire side trip: 4.64 (11 responses, 3 no-shows)
Steven David HH/Dinner: 4.63 (27 responses)
Folies Bergere: 4.63 (16 responses)
High Tea: 4.6 (11 responses)
Dance Night: 4.6 (10 responses)
Showgirls Of Magic: 4.59 (29 responses)
Charles Bar: 4.58 (12 responses)
Slumber Party: 4.5 (4 responses, 2 no-shows)
Eating Out, Pacos: 4.5 (8 responses, 1 no-show)
Art Tour: 4.5 (2 responses)
Sunbathing: 4.5 (2 responses)

Lunch With(out) Ginger: 4.45 (33 responses)
Rocky Horror: 4.4 (5 responses)
Little Girl Tea Party: 4.4 (5 responses, 2 no-shows)
Lou Martinez Revue: 4.38 (21 responses)
Bellagio Lunch: 4.31 (13 responses)
Metro Comm Church: 4.25 (4 responses, 1 no-show)
Paddys Lounge: 4.22 (10 responses)
Walk Off Your Lunch: 4.2 (5 responses)
Pity Party: 4.18 (11 responses, 1 no-show)
Bahama Breeze: 4.13 (30 responses, 2 no-shows)
Karaoke, Flex/Rainbow: 4.1 (10 responses)
Eating Out, Milanos: 4.07 (15 responses, 2 no-shows)
Fremont Street Experience: 4.0 (7 responses)
Secret Garden/Dolphin: 4.0 (1 response)

The following activities were not enjoyed as much as we had hoped. There
are sufficient samples on all of these to indicate valid results.

Welcome Celebration: 3.85 (27 responses)
Michael Cagle Show: 3.82 (28 responses)
Night Of The Soiled Doves: 3.78 (46 responses, 1 no-show)
Carluccios Dinner: 3.75 (24 responses, 1 no-show)
Hamburger Marys: 3.72 (32 responses, 1 no-show)

Please don't read too much into the ratings on the following activities.
Although they are rated lower than most, there really are not enough
responses to form any definite conclusion.

Lake Mead Cruise: 3.33 (3 responses, 2 no-shows)
Thrift Shop Tour: 3.0 (2 responses)
Eating Out, Nathans: 3.0 (5 responses, 1 no-show)

I see both good news and bad news in these numbers this year.

The good news on these figures is that 31 of the 39 activities we
tracked here placed 4.0 or better, which is excellent overall. This
shows that the vast majority of our activities were greatly enjoyed by
those who did them.

Nothing placed lower than 3.0, which showed that for all of the
activities we tracked, more enjoyed them than disliked them.

The bad news is that several of our repeated activities slipped very
badly. Some of these were our previous "big guns", which were almost
guaranteed to be successful.

Those which slipped badly are listed here with the last year's enjoyment
rating, which is for 2004 in all but one case:

Michael Cagle Show: 3.82 (4.68 in 2003)
Night Of The Soiled Doves: 3.78 (4.91)
Carluccios Dinner: 3.75 (4.72)
Lake Mead Cruise: 3.33 (4.86)

These are the ones which placed greater than 4.5 in their last appearance
but placed lower than 4.0 this year.

Two of these showed quite a disparity between the newcomers's ratings and
the returnees' ratings.

NSD: 4.1 (newcomers) vs. 3.7 (returnees)
Cagle: 4.5 (newcomers) vs. 3.7 (returnees)

For NSD in particular, there was feedback that indicated disappointment
from those who expected it to be more like last year's NSD.

The Cagle Show was rated quite highly by newcomers, but not so by those
who had seen his shows before and had at the time rated them much
higher.
. . .

Activities, comfort. Listed in descending order by rank. Scale 0-5:

Metropolitan Community Church: 5.0 **DING**
Little Girl Tea Party: 5.0 **DING**
Thrift Shop Tour: 5.0 **DING**
Eating Out, Nathans: 5.0 **DING**
Secret Garden/Dolphin: 5.0 **DING**

Dance Night: 4.9
Paddy's Lounge: 4.89
Bowling: 4.86
Eating Out, Pacos: 4.83
Golf: 4.83
Glamour Boutique Open House: 4.82
Pity Party: 4.82
Fremont Street Experience: 4.75
Slumber Party: 4.75
Hamburger Marys: 4.7
Bahama Breeze: 4.7
Charles Bar: 4.69
Carluccios Dinner: 4.65
Bellagio Lunch: 4.62
High Tea: 4.6
Welcome Celebration: 4.58
Valley Of Fire: 4.58
Folies Bergere: 4.53
Night Of The Soiled Doves: 4.51
Lunch With(out) Ginger: 4.5
Walk Off Your Lunch: 4.5
Steven Davids HH/Dinner: 4.5

Michael Cagle Show: 4.48
Dance Instruction: 4.45
Eating Out, Bertolinis: 4.45
Lou Martinez: 4.4
Showgirls Of Magic: 4.39
Limo Tour: 4.39
Rocky Horror: 4.17
Sunbathing: 4.0

Karaoke Flex/Rainbow: 3.9
Eating Out, Milanos: 3.8
Art Tour: 3.67

Lake Mead Boat Tour: 2.5

Only one placing low on the comfort scale, but with a small sample, it
may or may not be significant. No real surprises here, as this shows
that most of our people were comfortable in most venues.
. . .

Time crunch:

Seldom or never: 31
Occasionally: 23
Frequently: 6

About the same in proportion to last year.
. . .

Local transportation:

Personal vehicle: 26
Rental vehicle: 18
Another's vehicle: 11
Taxi: 2
City bus: 1
Limo/shuttle: 1
Walking: 1
. . .

Difficulty getting rides:

No: 57
Yes: 2

This tells us that for the most part, people can get around and that our
ride share program is working.
. . .

Difficulty locating venues:

No: 52
Yes: 8
. . .

Difficulty finding the group:

No: 51
Yes: 8

These last two questions show a significant increase from last year.
This is something the ORG group will be discussing.
. . .

Were directions and maps helpful:

Yes: 49
No: 3
Say what: 8
. . .

Difficulty phoning volunteers:

Never needed to: 37
No: 15
Yes: 4
Never got numbers: 4

I was one whose phone number was published. I received a grand total of
one DLV-related call this year. Several reported that they tried to
phone me but got either dead air, ring no answer, or a "non working
number" recording. I found that I was unable to get a good signal in
many parts of the Sahara. Outside Milano's we tried and I had difficulty
calling out (about 1 in 3 success) and only one attempt to call in to me
out of several resulted in an actual ring. The carrier is at a loss to
explain what happened.
. . .

Difficulty identifying volunteers:

No: 51
Yes: 8

Slight increase over last year.
. . .

Were our people friendly and inclusive:

Mostly yes: 47
Yes somewhat: 7
Neutral: 5
No somewhat: 2
Mostly no: 1

Definite slippage from last year.
. . .

Did you participate in the DLV Discussion Forum:

Yes (e-mail): 25
Yes (web): 15
No: 17
What the --- is this: 4
. . .

Comfortable being seen with group:

Mostly or always: 48
Sometimes: 7
Frequently uncomfortable: 4
. . .

Did you attend another (non-TG) event with DLV:

No: 54
Yes: 5
. . .

Did you attend another TG event along with DLV:

No: 59
Yes: 1

Hmmmmm ... I wonder what this one was ... :)
. . .

Did you participate in the Big Sister program:

Big Sister, negative experience: 4
Big Sister, LS was no-show: 1
Big Sister, positive experience: 7
Little Sister, positive experience: 3
Little Sister, negative experience: 2
Did not participate: 41
Unaware the Big Sister program existed: 1

I would like to ask those who reported a negative experience, either as
a Big Sister, or as a Little Sister to please give us some details as to
what went wrong or what didn't go the way you had hoped. Please send to
dlv@geekbabe.com and if you do not want your name included in any
dissemination, please say so.
. . .

Roommate matching:

Had roommate, negative experience: 2
Had roommate, positive experience: 0
Did not participate: 58
Unaware: 1

Again, if things did not work out for you, please let us know the
details. We want to know if we can do something to prevent things like
this from happening in the future.
. . .

Interested in roommate for next year:

No: 54
Yes: 7
. . .

Costs:

Approximate average spent on accommodations: $500.00
Approximate average spent on food: $275.83
Approximate average spent on alcohol: 124.17
Approximate average spent on gaming: $334.17
Approximate average total to attend DLV: $1761.67

These are up significantly from last year, particularly for gaming and
for the total. $1761 vs. $1260.
. . .

Did you consider DLV to be affordable:

Yes, definitely: 50
Yes, somewhat: 8
Neutral: 2

Again this year, nobody stated that DLV was not affordable. This may be
a self-fulfilling question, since those who don't consider it affordable
will not come.
. . .

Would you prefer a more or less structured schedule?

Want more structure: 6
Fine as it is: 48
Want less structure: 7

The tribe has spoken.
. . .

Seclusion of venues:

Prefer more seclusion: 5
Just about the right mix: 38
Prefer less seclusion: 19

These are just about the same numbers that we saw last year.
. . .

Was DLV the right length:

Too short: 3
Just about right: 48
Too long: 8

And this is similar, with the long and short responses flip-flopped this
year.
. . .

Name tags:

Yes, liked them: 28
Ok, I guess: 28
Nada: 5
. . .

Restroom incidents:

Used restrooms, had an incident: 3
Used restrooms, had no incidents: 39
Seldom or never used them: 15
Does not apply to me: 4

Three reported issues/incidents vs. one last year. :(
. . .

Expectations:

Exceeded expectations: 16
Met expectations: 43
Failed to meet: 2

This shows a definitely slippage from last year, with 40/24/0 in 2004.
. . .

Will you return:

Yes, definitely: 50
Yes, probably: 9
Maybe: 2
Probably not: 1
Definitely not: 0

This is more or less a copy of what we saw last year, with 51/9/3/0/0.
Even though the expectations were not as greatly met as before, the
intent to return has not slipped.
. . .

Average number of days: 5.63. This was a slight decrease from 2004.

Comments and discussion about anything presented here is welcome. The
floor is now open. Thanks again, gang. :)

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

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Gina
----------

It's magic....

There were really two of me!

Love ya,

Gina

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

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Michelle Jenkins
----------

Hi

Very interesting

>Eating Out, Bertolinis: 4.67 (12 responses)

As I only counted 11 people at the table this implies an outstanding
turnout!

Maybe they sat in a different part of the restaurant?

Interesting....

Hugs
Michelle

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

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Diana
----------

Seems year after year there are remarks about not knowing where the
group was and things of that nature. Hint: take latest DLV
notification before you leave and open it up on your monitor, Hit Ctrl
P, and follow prompts to make a copy, take it out of printer and put in
suitcase. Sheesh. (/sarcasm)

If you don't bother to scroll down all the way then let me inform you
that each email has the updated week's schedule at the bottom of the
page.

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

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Caitlin
----------

Personally, I had transferred the whole schedule to my PDA on Sunday
afternnon before I departed.

Sorry Princess but I didn't realize that the schedule would be updated
after that. Obviously my fault.

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

[External Poster]

This posting is from: annie
----------

>Seems year after year there are remarks about not knowing where the
>group was and things of that nature. Hint: take latest DLV
>notification before you leave and open it up on your monitor, Hit Ctrl
>P, and follow prompts to make a copy, take it out of printer and put in
>suitcase. Sheesh. (/sarcasm)

(Please read the whole item before anybody flames me ...)

It still amazes me how many people answer the survey to the effect that
they did not know about the Big Sister Program, Roommate matching, ride
sharing, maps, directions, etc. You can give them TFM, but you can't
make them RTFM. :( Fortunately those who don't RTFM are in the minority.

The majority of the people do come to DLV well informed. Those are the
ones who typically don't gripe about not knowing things.

Now, to assume the role of devil's advocate, this year there were
several things that did not work out the way they should have. In a few
cases the group was not where it was stated it would be. In one case
there was a group assembled, but nobody to lead. These are things we
do need to work on in ORG, and they are not due to anybody not RTFMing.

The thing that was most frustrating from my point of view is that we had
far too many changes too late in the process. Yes, some of these were
fallout due to one vendor failing to honor what was agreed upon, but
there were a couple items that were clearly our oversight or
shortcoming.

Unfortunately this caused some final schedules that went to those who
requested them early to be in error. We also had one case where one
activity changed venue, then changed back after the final schedule was
released.

We in ORG are clearly going to have to do a better job of finalizing
the schedule at an earlier time.

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

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Caitlin
----------

I'm not flaming here and I do apologize if this does appear to be so in
any way.

Although, yes it would be a difficult task I presume, it would be nice
if there were a place or person/people to call if such changes of events
were to occur. Surely this would lead to less confusion and a more
enjoyable experience for those left in unknown locations.

As a first time attendee, on my first night, my first impression was
"WTF kind of organization is this?"

Granted, nobody wants to be the recipient of a barrage of phone calls
while mingling with friends, having dinner or heaven forbid in a show.
But perhaps a simple solution may be found for this dilemma? Thank you,
I'll get off the soap box now...

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

[External Poster]

This posting is from: annie
----------

>... it would be nice if there were a place or person/people to call if
>such changes of events were to occur. Surely this would lead to less
>confusion and a more enjoyable experience for those left in unknown
>locations.

Did you receive the Large Final Mailing? If not, something is wrong and
we need to see where the process failed. In it were two numbers, one
local, one long distance:

+Making contact and checking in:
[munch]
+Contacting the group:

+For general information, to find out how to meet up with the group, if
+you need activity information, directions, etc., contact:

+Nora: 702-292-xxxx (local call from Las Vegas)
+Annie: 402-681-xxxx (long distance from Las Vegas)

Nora's phone was working fine. Mine was spotty. About 1 in five outgoing
calls went through the first time, maybe 10% of incoming calls went
through on the first attempt. I've reported it to the carrier.

Please let us know if you didn't receive the LFM, as that contains
quite a bit of info.

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