Hi guys,

Just wanted to let you know that Willie WestPac went into the mail yesterday for his trip out to Vegas. Looks like you have lots of fun things planned for him. Get great footage, Matthew!

Lisa

P.S. I sent a credit card with him, so he should be all set for his whirlwind time in Vegas! Perhaps you could also add a little Vegas trinket before you send him off on the next leg of his journey!

Due to jury duty, etc. we are re-scheduling the next committee meeting. How does Tuesday May 9 or 16 work for everyone? Let me know which works best and we'll go with the 'majority rules' rule! We'll plan to meet on campus and will try to conference call in anyone who cannot make it. Cindy

Frances Ohman/UNLV
04/16/2006 11:05 AM
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Subject
evening reception (Monday-September 25th)

Good morning,

I just wanted to give you a quick summary of the Border Grill meeting with Natalia Zelazny. Diana and I both attended the meeting at 3 pm. We learned the following:

yes, we can have an Elvis impersonator walking around, and she can help to find one if necessary
also, as far as entertainment they frequently have a mariachi band perform for some of the occasions
she is okay with us looking for entertainment that goes outside of the Mandalay Bay choices
There were no prices discussed in reference to entertainment.

non-alcoholic beverages run about $4 to $6 per person-there are free refills for any non-alcoholic beverage

She will e-mail a ball park total of the food and beverages based on two options (both buffet)-This will be no later than Tuesday of this week, and I will forward this to you as soon as I get it.
These are: Border Fiesta I & Border Fiesta II Border Fiesta I is $48.50 per person, and Border Fiesta II is $54 per person. There is a bar in close proximity to our downstairs north dining area, if anyone wants to order an alcoholic beverage.

The room for the reception had plenty of space. We will also have access to one outside patio directly in front of the lazy river area. If we have close to 100 guests, we will have access to two outside patios. We have two possibilities for seating. We can have 70% seating with tables in the indoor area and belly bars (tables that are higher that guests stand or sit around with higher bar stools) or we can have longer tables that seat 10 to 12 people per table and tables outdoors. She said the former creates a more roaming, cocktail like atmosphere.

We have several people specifically assigned to us that evening that take care of everything except separate orders for alcoholic beverages. The guests will have to go to the bar themselves, order, and pay for them there.

A contract needs to be signed to lock in the September 25th date. She has us down for 6 to 8 pm. On the date of the contract, they will expect 20% down.

She said she is lenient if we want to change some item on the menu that we prefer. Everything was very straight forward with no hidden costs. Let's assume we pick Border Fiesta II with non-alcoholc beverages. This would be $5400 for 100 guests plus $400 for drinks.

All of the tables will have cloth linens with chips, salsa, and guacamole in the center as the reception begins. Then, festive colored platters are passed around with finger foods (quesadillas, empanadas, etc). They have background music over the speakers which she said can be adjusted to our requirements. There is also music on the patio. The dining space is accessed by the stairs or an elevator to the ground floor. Of course, it is very lush and pretty with the pool. The evening lighting comes on at dusk.

The Border Grill is located near the shark reef.

Hours of Operation: Open daily from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m.
Last admission at 10 p.m.
Admission: Adults $15.95, Children 12 years old and younger $9.95, Children 4 and younger admitted free.

If you have a Nevada ID, the admission is $10 I believe.

Frances

Cindy and I would like to schedule our next meeting for May 10th at 2 p.m. Where would you like to meet, on campus or downtown?

They have re-opened at least part of the hardhat tour at Hoover Damn.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Apr-07-Fri-2006/news/6744154.html

Hotel Contract:
Lisa is Comfortable signing the contract. Since we are responsible for 90% of the contracted rooms, Paula will try to reduce the number of contracted rooms to 45.

Sunday Reception:
Jennifer reported on the Sunday evening reception. The Atomic Testing Museum will charge $1000-1200 for use of the museum. Catering will cost additional. We will try to raise money to support this event, but if we cannot afford it, we will have the opening reception in the thunderdome.

Monday Reception:
Frances reported on the Monday evening reception. Once the contract with Mandalay Bay is signed, Frances will work with Paula on the menu for a reception at the Border Grill.

Monday Lunch:
Diana reported on the Monday lunch. Diana investigated having the recpetion at the Barrick Museum. It will cost $35 per hour. An alternative would be to have lunch at the Alumni Center instead. The Italian themed Sodexho lunch is probably the best option.

Tom reported on a proposed schedule from the education committee. The committee discussed asking the eductation committee to modify the schedule to accomodate tours of the downtown libraries since they are closed on Sunday.

The committee discussed dine arounds for Saturday and Tuesday nights.

Paula reported that the Library district would be happy to do tours for us, but we would need to select a specific library. The committee felt that there would not be much interest in a public library tour.

Kevin reported that "what happens here, stays here" is copyrighted.

The comittee discussed Ethel M. Factory tours.

WestPac's bison mascot, Willie, is going to be featured in a video at the variety show at AALL. We've been asked to help film Willie in Las Vegas. This is a great opportunity for us to publicize the September meeting and raise interest in Las Vegas. Matthew has generously agreed to coordinate filming. Cindy and I were brainstorming and came up with some possible ideas (other than our local libraries, which of course will be included):

Fabulous Las Vegas Sign
Dancing fountains at Bellagio
Volcano at Mirage
Lazy River at Mandalay Bay
Lenin statue at Mandalay Bay
Pyramids at Luxor
Holding cards playing poker
In front of a slot machine
Oscar Goodman
Elvis
Blue Man Group
Celine Dion/Elton John
Rita Rudner
Penn & Teller - apparently they do a meet and greet with fans after the show, so this is actually doable

Siegfried & Roy statue at Mirage
Lance Burton
Showgirls - with a small "s"
Atomic Energy Museum
Elvis-a-Rama Museum
Liberace Museum
Red Rock
Petroglyphs at Valley of Fire
Lake Mead
Hoover Dam
Mt. Charleston
"Climbing" the Stratosphere
Caesar's Palace
Eiffel Tower
other Strip marquees

Lisa Mecklenberg Jackson is going to send Willie to me later this week, and we have a mini DVD camcorder available for checkout from the law school, so hopefully can get started in the next week or so. Contact Matthew, Cindy or me with your ideas.

(This video was mentioned in the Fall 2005 WestPac News.)

Looks like there should be no legal problem with using the Vegas sign (or derivations thereof) in our marketing.
 
Or so says Wikipedia:
 
"The design of the sign was never copyrighted; this has resulted in the image being ubiquitous on Las Vegas souvenirs, including smaller versions of the signs that also light up."

Per Paula's request at today's meeting, I changed the site's default settings, and everyone should now be able to use any and all HTML tags when posting new stories and blog entries to the site.
 
If you have any problems, click on the link marked "Input format" below the text entry box and make sure "Full HTML" is selected, not "Filtered HTML."

The bug with the website menu that I mentioned at today's meeting has been fixed.