Thanks for asking this, Scared. It's important that folks know just how much work goes into bringing NEST to us. There are many of us who work together to make NEST happen.
MaxSpeer, LeeAllure, Venray, Venraya and myself are all on the advance team handling planning, preparations and registration. This includes lining up our hotel and venues; running registrations; planning our activities; purchasing all of our food, prizes and other items; preparing the information and materials for the site, e-mails you get and welcome packets you'll receive upon arrival.
You newbies should know of Bella and DVNC by now. They're our NESTNewbians liasons, in charge of making sure any questions you have are answered and you are well prepared for the experience of NEST.
Then, there's a whole other team ready to do things the weekend of the gathering itself. There are setup and breakdown crews, food prep crews, activity leaders. You name it. We probably have a team for it.
In fact, everyone who attends NEST is part of the team. This is why we asked folks on their applications what they'd be willing to help out with. We're in the process now of going through to see who has signed up for what so we can assign tasks. (You'll all be getting an e-mail with your assignment in the next week or so.) This will prevent anyone from having to work the entire gathering as has been the case in the past. Nobody should have to work for more than a half hour or so.
As has been said so many times in the past, NEST is what ALL of us make of it. You'll even have a chance to assist us in planning for next year. Every guest's welcome packet will include an evaluation form which we strongly encourage you to fill out and hand in before you leave. This will let us know what you did or didn't like, what you'd like to see more or less of, etc. All these things are taken into consideration in planning the activities for the following year.
(My apologies if I left anyone out. I'm still trying to wake up.
)