The MNFurs group, formerly the Saturday Night Club Furs group (SNCFurs), started as a spin-off from another group that originally met in a small pizza place around the University of Minnesota campus. The main meet-up event started as a bi-weekly Saturday night dinner meet-up, and that much has not changed. The name was changed to MNFurs in 2005 to reflect our relationship with the local community as it grew from a set of close friends to a much larger community.
At first all the group was a small mailing list of around 20 people with an average bi-weekly meet attendance of 10-12. Since then we have grown and changed. People have moved away, but many more have come. The group has been in several different venues around the metro, though we have been meeting at Perkins since 2004.
In a matter of six years with little to no real advertisement other the word-of-mouth MNFurs has gone from a small group of close friends and associates with a weekly meeting number of less then a dozen people to 40-60 people in the same room every other Saturday night. We’ve gone from 20 to over 200 people on our mailing list, web-site forums, and LiveJournal community combined. For something that started as a small handful of people, MNFurs has become the largest furry community in Minnesota.
Our goal is to provide a neutral and friendly atmosphere where fans of Anthropomorphic Animals and artwork can gather to meet each other locally in the Twin Cities and surrounding area; forming friendships and meeting new people.
While the dinner meets are still the mainstay of the MNFurs group; we have held picnics, movie events, hotel parties, and other smaller events hosted by members in our community. Our long-term vision is to build a sustainable resource for the whole of Minnesota. These resources include, but not limited to, helping groups inside and outside of the twin cities form meets and other events through knowledge transfer, matching talent needs, and potential seed funding.
Within the local community we have a large amount of experience with putting on events, hotel negations, publications, and organizational skills. We’d like to be able to work with those within Minnesota to help see their events get off the ground in a successful way. By doing this we can help grow and improve our community.
