Duly noted. Unfortunately, the schedule for SELEM is primarily dictated by the availability of the venue. Next year we are stuck with the 19th, 20th, and 21st of August.
And since we only see one or two people from the west cost anyway (even when SELEM was earlier in the month), I'd say it's not enough of a problem to warrant changing everything on this end. (We'd have to move to a completely different month.)
Moving SELEM so it doesn't conflict with the burn will likely only result in it conflicting with something else, and that "something else" might well affect more of the people who are already committed to attending SELEM as it is now. Sorry, but that's the way I see it.
Does this suck? Yeah, probably. Solution: Get some of your west-coast friends together (including the ones that go to burning man) and organize your own WCLEM at a time and location of your choosing. Or do what a lot of people do and compress your schedule so you can attend both events if you really want to. (Example: I attended SELEM, then flew to Southern Illinois the next day for a week's work at a Superfund site, then flew home for 1 day before leaving for Miami to go on the ILDA cruise... Busy schedule? You bet! But it was worth it...)
Actually, it is concrete.SELEM 2011 will be a 3 day event, and it will officially start on Friday, August 19th and run through Sunday, August 21st. (Load-in and set-up will be on Thursday, August 18th.)
Um... Neither is Laserchik. Granted, she's new here, so it's unlikely that she would immediately know that you are female, but in contrast, you could see her username, and that pretty clearly identifies her as female.
Adam