Post edited 3:35 pm – January 8, 2012 by mouring

What we covered and additional notes:

Introductions (Why we are doing this)

+ Who we are: Mouring, Cyber, Aerak, Flip, Ridayah, Larus, Kellic, Xmeydros, Lego, David, Kurst, Pat
+ Why we are doing this.

Discuss walkoffs

A few people mistakenly walked off at an early meet without paying their bill due to the delays. Yarrick pay $50 in unpaid bills. If you think you may have mistakenly done this please contact Yarrick or Procyon (Flip) and help resolve this.

Review of 2011

+ Snowpocalypse – 124 registered people, more that just showed up. Space was very cramped, and some unfriendly people were with us, but over all it was bigger than anyone expected.

+ Spring Picnic – Little confusing to find the location along with the typical wet weather, but we had a great time.

+ Fall Picnic (Plus pre and post events) – Back at Hidden Falls and were at the GPS center.

+ OMFG – 107 registered people. Space was a still a bit tight, but again people seem to enjoy themselves.

+ Zooboo
+ Sushi Event
+ Bowling
+ Valleyscare

Volunteers

+ We will need volunteers this year in much greater numbers, and we'll try hard to be much more responsive and up front. Please, if we call for volunteers and you don't hear back from us then PM us or email the person making the request. Or come over at the meets or at any other event and chat. Things do get lost in the shuffle.

Events for 2012

+ Parade Event (Cyber) – Please see: http://www.mnfurs.org/forums/e…..rade-2012/ as things have changed slightly, and Cyber will try to get everyone the information as he is informed. He is still looking for non-fursuiters to help out as well as fursuiters.

+ A Hotel Event in August (Mouring) – Some discussion is going on at: http://www.mnfurs.org/forums/d…..t-in-2012/ , but in general I'm still going through and contacting hotels. The event will be closer to SP'11 in terms of having Panels (a Fur track and a general track). I'll be making more solid announcements (including the event name) by the middle of February as I need to get final approval at the beginning of February. But what I can say is this will be a two day event. With the current discussion of the Friday night being an 18+ event and the Saturday being open to all ages. I'm still looking for general feedback on what you want. I'll try to honor when I can. If I can't I'll make a list of things the community would like to see and pass it to the next Hotel Event Director for him/her to try and squeeze in.

+ Anime Detour (Procyon) – It is starting to ramp up there is a meeting later this month (I'm unsure if I misheard the date, and I didn't get around to verifying it so I'll let Procyon make that announcement official). If you are going please stop by the general area: http://www.mnfurs.org/forums/g…..me-detour/ and drop a message in the proper thread. Same with ideas/suggestions for programming. As he has 18 hours of "micro programming" to fill for Anime Detour.

Picnics

We're pretty much outgrown Hidden Falls. The rangers were on the fence this last year on if we exceeded the amount of people we had contracted for. To keep this space with the number of people we have the count goes up dramatically. Other options that have been suggested are Trapp Farm Park (Eagan), Blackhawk park (Eagan), French Region Park (Plymouth), and others. Discussion in MNFurs (I didn't hear if Kellic publicly suggested it) steering group was to put the Spring and Fall picnics on opposite sides of the 494 loop (e.g. NW and SE) so we can be more fair in our distances (at least for those in the Twin Cities.. Sorry for those outside it).

Thoughts were asked about pre/post GPS events. I remember hearing a complaint about the lack of A/C, but regretfully in my corner I didn't hear everything stated. Nor did I catch the voting. I thought (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that the post-picnic was better liked by those who were in attendance.

Other events in 2012?

We asked the community what else they'd like to see for events as well as if they were willing to help run those events as the MNFurs steering group can be stretched thin. As well if you have an idea please also take the time to research the location. We'd love to help advertise any smaller events that are self-paid (sushi, Valleyscare, etc) and we'd encourage everyone who want to do that to talk with us. Anything larger that requires MNFurs to help pay the bills or front cash (picnics, hotel events, buying the "Water Park of America" and turning it into the "Water Park for Furries") needs a formal presentation, and I and others will be happy to help set you on the right path to present that idea.

Grumble is looking at doing a St Cloud event potentially on Feb 11th. Looking at the calendar it is free.. Grumble if you can get in touch with me via PM with the information (location, times, a rough blurb on the event, etc). I'll get it up on the Calendar since Kurst is away (I think I can do this… It looks straight forward.. *cringe* I should really know Wordpress better since I am technically Kurst's backup).

That fills out Kellic's direct notes… I remember catching snippets of discussions on bi-weekly meets and the need for larger space. A call to help support some artists events. A call to support some gaming events (which it sounds like GPS will be offering more of.. Yes it isn't furry directly, but it may be an advantage to invade their events and expose others to furry games we enjoy).

If I someone reading this and feels I missed something please post it. As I stated since I was back in a corner (with a waiter that ignored us for 45+ minutes =) I didn't always have the best location to absorb all the different conversations floating around Kellic.