[dlv] Diva Las Vegas 2008 ...

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This is the Diva Las Vegas 2008 announcement mailing list.
This list contains only announcements and high importance items.
See information on DLV Discussion Forum below.
If you no longer desire to receive this list, see instructions below.
Replies to this message will be forwarded to: dlv@geekbabe.com
Submissions/questions should be sent to: dlv@geekbabe.com
Abuse/complaints should be sent to: abuse@geekbabe.com
. . . . .
In this mailing:

Welcome (back) everybody
Important notes for 2008
En Espanol
Returnee re-registration is open
Things to come
Behavior, Dress, Restrooms
Administrivia
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Only 107 days Until DLV 2008!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Welcome (back) everybody:

Welcome to those who just joined the list! Hope to see you in April!

Welcome back to those who have been with us!

If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.

This is the "kick-off" mailing for Diva Las Vegas 2008. Quite a
bit of information appears below, so please read carefully, and
let us know if there's anything that requires a clarification.

We now have well over 750 on our mailing list, the largest
audience we've had of all times! We're looking forward to seeing
as many of you as possible this coming April.
. . . . .

Headcount:

This is the subject that everybody always asks about! :)

We will be posting registration numbers and projections as the
registrations come in. It's still far too early for any kind of
an absolute count prediction.

The best guess as of this time as to total turnout this year,
and that's what it is now, a guess, is somewhere in the 120-ish
to 150-ish range.

If the early re-registrations are any indication, the turnout
will be on the high side. This is the fastest re-registration
we have ever seen in our history. Less than one day after the
re-registration notices went out we had over 60 signed up!

Again, we're expecting a varied mix of attendees, people from
all points on the TG spectrum from those just peeking out of the
closet to those who are fully transitioned, SO's, friends,
admirers, etc.

One important note about attendance numbers. You will never see
the entire group in any one place at any one time. Our attendees
will be coming and going all week.

We will have two large maximum-attendance functions, the Welcome
Celebration and the Farewell Bash, on Monday and Saturday of DLV
week respectively. These are the two best opportunities you will
have to meet the majority of the others.
. . . . .

Attending DLV:

For those who are new, the steps you need to take if you want to
attend can be summed up:

1. Read the web site (http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/) to be sure
you know what DLV is, what it is not, and if DLV is something
you would want to attend.

2. Register for DLV. Re-registration for returnees is now open
(see instructions below), and registration for newcomers who are
members of this list will begin on or about February first.

3. Make your travel and/or hotel reservations, if necessary.

4. Show up and have a great time!

Simple, isn't it? :)
. . . . .

Our mailings:

You can expect a mailing to come out every 1-2 weeks until around
the first of April, depending on the need. Mailings will almost
always be made during the weekend.

Beginning around April 1, mailings will come out as needed,
sticking to the weekend schedule as much as possible.

All discussion, chit-chat, questions and answers, etc., appears
in the DLV Discussion Forum. The DLV Discussion Forum is available
in three forms, first as a mailing list, second as a web forum,
see link below, and third as a Yahoo Group, again see link below.
The content is the same on all three.

If you would like to receive the DLV Discussion Forum by e-mail,
please send in a brief note to: dlvdisc@geekbabe.com and state
that you wish to subscribe to the DLV Discussion Forum.

To participate in the DLV Discussion Forum on the web, please
visit the url: http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dlvdisc/

To participate via Yahoo Groups, please visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dlvegas/
(You must be a Yahoo member and logged in to access this.)

You may read and post via any of the above.

As last year, activity highlights will be posted to the DLV
Discussion Forum periodically.

The dress items, however, have been updated, "webified", and
moved over to the general portion of the web site. See additional
dress items in this mailing below.

To view the collection of dress articles, please visit the URL:

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

A special "In A Nutshell" summary of behavior, dress, and restroom
guidelines now appears within this collection at:

http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dress/nutshell.html
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Important notes for 2008:

A few clarifications, changes, etc., as we move forward ...

One misunderstanding which was reported in person and in feedback
last year is still plaguing us. Please pay particular attention
here, as this is extremely important.

WHEN YOU ARRIVE AND CHECK IN FOR DIVA LAS VEGAS 2008,
YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE - that's right, NOT RECEIVE - ANY
PRINTED MATERIAL SUCH AS SCHEDULES, MAPS, ETC.

All of this will be sent to you prior to DLV, and you should
print these items out and take them with you.

Further details on the contents of the Large Final Mailing will
be posted as the DLV date approaches.
. . . . .

Another point of confusion: If you will be attending with your
"Significant Other" (wife, husband, life partner), you only need
to register once. The one registration will cover both of you.
Just check the "SO attending" checkbox when you register, enter
your SO's name, and you're both on your way!
. . . . .

At DLV 2008, several of the daily happy hours will also be
designated as "Business Hour", where such things as check-in,
late activity sign-up and changes, and payment for activities
will take place.

These will be posted on the daily schedule. Further information
will appear as we get closer to DLV.
. . . . .

For DLV 2008, we will not be admitting unannounced or "walk-in"
attendees. If you want to be part of DLV 2008, you will need to
register in advance.

Registration is quick, easy, and free. If you want to attend
DLV, there's no reason not to register.

If you have any difficulty registering, e-mail us, and we'll
help you. We can even do it manually if necessary.

Your understanding and cooperation are appreciated. Thanks.
. . . . .

Likewise, if you are planning to bring guests (other than your
SO, of course) to DLV 2008, they will need to register as DLV
attendees. This gets them on the roster, allows them to sign up
for any of the optional activities they wish to do, and admits
them to all of the regular DLV activities they want to attend.

Unannounced guests will not be admitted to DLV 2008, sorry. Your
understanding and cooperation are appreciated.
. . . . .

Due to some very frustrating problems, we will no longer respond
to "challenge-response" or "click to activate" e-mails. You must
give us an "in the clear" e-mail address to register for DLV. (If
you don't know what this is, don't worry, it doesn't apply to
you.)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
En Espanol:

Bienvenidos! Si el espanol is su lenguage nativa y Ud. tiene
dificultad comprendiendo qualquier cosa sobre DLV, Ud. nos puede
mandar sus preguntas por correo electronico en espanol, y se los
mandaremos a uno de nuestros voluntarios que hablan espanol. - La
direccion electronica es: dlv@geekbabe.com - Muchas Gracias.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Returnee re-registration is open:

Re-registration for returnees is now open.

In most cases you will be able to use express re-registration,
which only takes a minute or so.

Most of you who previously attended should have received a
personalized clickable express re-registration link via e-mail.

If you didn't receive this if it does not seem to work for you,
or if you just want to do it the hard way :) use the url:

{link removed in web archive copy}

If you have any difficulty registering on line, or if you see
any kind of unexpected result or error message, please report
it. If anything is wrong, e-mail dlv@geekbabe.com and we will
check out the error and help you get registered.

Registration for newcomers who are members of this list will
begin on or about February 1.

ONE VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: When you register, depending on
circumstances, you should receive either a confirmation
e-mail or a validation e-mail very shortly afterwards.

IN THE EVENT YOU RECEIVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHEN YOU REGISTER,
SOMETHING IS WRONG AND WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT! If you don't
receive anything, write to dlv@geekbabe.com and explain the
circumstances.

The most common problems we see, and we do see a number of
them each year, are mis-typing your e-mail address when you
register and undeliverable e-mail due to "mailbox full", "user
not accepting mail", etc.

One important note to volunteers: If you registered in December
to test out the registration system, you do NOT have to do it
again. Your registration is considered "for real" unless you
say otherwise.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Things to come:

Here's a summary of our timetable regarding some milestones that
we will pass in the next few months:

January 1: Re-registration opens. This just happened. Most of you
who attended DLV between 2001 and 2007 who did not have an e-mail
address change should have received your re-registration notices.

February 1: DLV 2008 registration opens for newcomers who are on
this mailing list. Big Sister request sign-up opens at this time.

March 1: General DLV 2008 registration opens. Please note that
you must be registered to be admitted to DLV 2008 functions.
We reserve the right to close registration early if headcount
projections exceed our capacity.

(On or about) April 1: Activity sign-up begins. Those who are
registered will be sent a mailing with a clickable link to a
screen for all optional activities which require a hoop-jump
or a headcount. This is a one-stop-shop for all of these.

April 15: Registration closes, activity sign-up closes, Large
Final Mailing is sent out.

April 21: DLV! :)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Behavior, Dress, Restrooms:

For DLV 2008 our wish is to have far more attention paid to
having fun and enjoying DLV than attention paid to these
issues. We're asking all to help out with this.

For those who are new, here's some background. Due to our
mainstream orientation, we have certain behavior, dress, and
restroom guidelines, which all attendees are expected to
observe, both in practice and in attitude.

We realize that 98% of our attendees wish to dress properly,
behave properly, and use restrooms properly, so we're not going
to annoy you with endless-loop admonitions.

We will, however, be taking very prompt and very firm action
should action be needed.

The emphasis will be on consideration of others.

The Golden Rule Of DLV:

HAVE FUN - HAVE A LOT OF FUN!

HOWEVER, DON'T HAVE YOUR FUN AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS!

This "Golden Rule Of DLV" forms the basis of all of our behavior,
dress, and restroom policies and guidelines.

In response to some comments that our behavior, dress, and
restroom guidelines were verbose, fragmented, and difficult
to fully understand, we've summarized the guidelines in a
nutshell on the following page:

http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dress/nutshell.html

This gives an overview of the guidelines, as well as what you
can expect, and what will be expected of you.

We had very few issues and incidents last year at DLV 2007, and
we thank all who attended for making it that way.

Now, for those of you who may not like the way the guidelines
have been enforced in the past, please volunteer to be the one
who does the enforcing. We are DEAD SERIOUS here! If you think
you can do a better job, please step forward and volunteer to
do so.

For those of you who may be insulted or offended by being
reminded of our guidelines, at registration and at check-in,
sorry, DLV is not for you. We expect those who may be of
advanced standing (many years in public, full-time, post-op,
noted persons in the TG community, etc.) to help set the example
and respect our guidelines both in attitude and in practice.

Your understanding and cooperation are appreciated.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Administrivia:

This is the Diva Las Vegas 2008 Announcement mailing list.

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

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
message to dlvdisc@geekbabe.com and state that you wish to receive
the DLV Discussion Forum.

To view the DLV Discussion Forum on line, visit the URL:

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

One address for all items regarding this list, additions,
unsubscribe requests, changes, submissions, questions, etc.:

dlv@geekbabe.com <--- NOTE: all lower case

Archives of this list appear on the web at:

http://www.geekbabe.com/annie/dlv08arc/
. . . . .

Diva Las Vegas 2008
April 21 - 26, 2008
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
. . . . .

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