In planning man’s weekend to Vegas he submitted the attached ridiculously gay three page long “activities survey form” for all to fill out plus this super long and extra lame ass explanatory email. Don’t waste your time reading the whole thing…

Gentlemen (and Wally),

As Joe mentioned in his July 27 email, the plan for this year’s Vegas trip is to have much more structure, with specific plans and organized activities that may require reservations, tickets, or advance purchases. This email requires a response from every guy who is planning to go. (If you’re not going, sorry for cluttering your inbox).

However, let me stress that NO activities are mandatory (although Friday group dinner and Sunday sports book are pretty close). If you want your Vegas trip to include nothing but blackjack, slots, pool lounging, or the sports book, knock yourself out. That is always an option for you.

For planning purposes, though, we need to get DEFINITE head counts for various organized activities, so that we can identify participants and make reservations. That is where the attached Word documents come in. There are two. One is called “Vegas Itinerary (2011 options list)”. This breaks down the trip into several time periods (e.g. “Saturday – Early Morning”) and then lists a set of options for organized activities for each time period. Beneath each option is a line where you must “check off” your interest in that particular activity. There are generally three boxes to check: “Yes (Preferred),” “Yes (With Group),” or “No.” (We know we’re all planning a group Friday dinner, so there you’re just ranking your restaurant preference).

“Yes (Preferred)” means that you are very interested in doing that activity on that day and time. “Yes (With Group)” means that you will do that activity, but it’s not your first choice and you will do it only if there are several other people doing it and there are not enough people willing to do your preferred option (if selected). “No” means that you will definitely not do that activity, and that if everyone else is doing it, you would rather entertain yourself (gamble, wander, whatever) during that day and time. To give an example, let’s say you really want to do Grand Prix Go-Karting on Saturday afternoon, and select “Yes (Preferred)” for that option. But Grand Prix Go-Karting, for a group reservation, might require 6-8 guys. If nobody else wants to do Grand Prix Go-Karting, then we won’t make a group reservation for that. You also think “Heck, if nobody wants to do Go-Karting, I would rather go to the Price is Right Live Show with four other guys than just wander around entertaining myself for that afternoon.” So you check the “Yes (With Group)” box for Price Is Right at that time slot. But you also would rather play blackjack or nap than go on a 6-hour Hoover Dam educational tour. So you check the “No” box for Tours at that time slot.

Again, “wandering around doing normal Vegas stuff” is ALWAYS an option for you, even if it is not specifically listed as an option. But if you choose to do that, you are choosing to provide for your own entertainment at that time. A lot of other guys in the group may be off doing organized golf, or karting, or shooting, or whatever. Let’s say, for example, that you want to spend all of Saturday at the sports book betting on college football – that’s great. It is not specifically listed on the option list because it is ALWAYS an option. But you still need to fill out the form so that we know you’re not going to be doing anything else that day. Just fill out the option list by checking the “No” box for each of the Saturday options. You will not be included in any organized options; you’re on your own to entertain yourself for that day and time.

The second document attached, called “Vegas Itinerary (2011 options list – example)” is simply the regular options list form, but filled in with my personal preferences. It is simply an example of how to fill out the form – obviously your choices for each option may be different from mine. For example, I am not interested in going out to clubs on Saturday, so I checked the box for “No” on that option. I am very interested in going to the gun range on Saturday early afternoon, and so I checked the box “Yes (Preferred)” for that option. Etcetera.

Once we receive everybody’s responses, we will total up the votes and interest for each option and use them to determine which activities will be reserved and which will not. We will then send around a final itinerary, listing each organized activity with its participants. When everyone has confirmed that is correct, reservations will be made, tickets purchased, etc. That means once you are confirmed as a “Yes” – either (Preferred) or (With Group) – and commitments (reservations, tickets) are made, you MUST do that activity, or be on the hook for any non-refundable expenses.

More than one activity may happen at any given time, and sub-groups may split and form throughout the weekend. For example, we might have 4 guys who want to golf , 3 guys for the gun range, and 4 guys for Price Is Right, all on Saturday afternoon. But then we might have 10 or 11 guys all want to go see Viva Elvis on Saturday night after dinner. Each guy would effectively have a personalized itinerary that would spell out which events he signed on to do at which times.

Sorry to give you homework, but this is the best way we could think of to make sure we can make reservations for organized activities, while also ensuring that nobody has to do anything they can’t do, don’t want to do, or don’t want to spend money on. Please email your filled-out options list to Joe, Barak, Kevin, and/or Bud.

In case you can’t tell, I think this trip is going to be awesome and I am incredibly excited, even 3 months in advance.

–Bud