Real Name & ‘Fur’ Name: 
Matt aka Aerak
Tell us about yourself:
If you want the lengthy version, just view my forum bio. For now lets just keep it short and sweet.
I am a fursuiter; I love the performance aspect of it, and using fursuiting to help out within the greater non-furry community. I am a gamer, who has a passion for table top roleplaying games and weaving a good story that people enjoy. I am a devoted boyfriend and have been in a relationship for over six years. I am a business wolf: I am second in command of a company that employs 10 people. Last but not least, I am community driven and have worked to make MNFurs successful for many years preceding the formation of the board.
What brought you to Minnesota Furs?
I used to be a complete introvert during high school and only had one friend. By the time I turned nineteen this friend had turned into a… how to put it nicely? He turned into a really nasty character that I really wanted no part of. I had had a passing interest in furry for a couple of years by this point, so I thought, time for a change. I decided to seek out these “SNC” fur meets I had read about online. SNC stood for “Saturday Night Club”, which eventually many years later would become MNFurs. I came into the group an introvert with no faith in myself, or my abilities. I was so bad at socializing; I remember my first furmeet where I barely said a word and was physically shaking most of the time, afraid that I would say something stupid. BUT, despite being ridiculously shy, after that first meet I was excited and knew I’d found my home. Within weeks, I was hanging out with all sorts of people and doing all sorts of things that were completely out of my comfort zone. And in time I loosened up and ditched my introverted tendencies. And so something very unexpected started when I joined MNFurs. I grew up.
What skills do you see yourself bringing to the group, and how will this improve MNFurs in the future?
There are a lot of universal skills I share with my fellow board members. We all possess an ability to take the initiative, to draft documents when needed, to do research, and to provide oversight and accountability. We are all driven to make this community succeed.
What do I bring to the table? I bring my vision for what the group should become – for what it has the potential of becoming. I share the dream of our other board members in setting up a scholarship program. Independent of that, I want to set up a mentoring program for people within our community considering college. I myself dropped out of college because I didn’t know what I wanted to do and was intimidated by it all. My boyfriend spent $60,000 on an associates degree at an art school that he could have gotten elsewhere for a fraction of the price. There are plenty of people that will enter college in their lifetimes and I want them to be able to know their options. And I want to be able to arrange panels for everything from public speaking to writing, to management, to give our community the tools they need to be successful.
Apart from what we are doing for people in MNFurs, I really think we also need to help out the greater community. I think, “those who can, should”. We collectively have a passion for the arts – artwork, design, photography, writing, performing. Creativity. We need to be lending our skills to other neighboring charitable organizations. We also have quite a growing pool of people who whether they know it or not, have become skilled event planners. Pulling off an event is complicated, but to many other organizations looking in, we make it look easy. Planning and helping to plan events for other groups is another way we can help our local community.
We are the friendliest furry organization I have ever encountered or heard of. And that has nothing to do with the board of directors, and everything to do with our members. We need to continue to set the bar higher. We need to be the furry group that everyone looks to. We have to be compassionate towards others. We have to help when we are able – not just volunteering at an event, but being a good neighbor to our fellow furs, welcoming new members into the group, and lending a paw when someone needs it. We have to continue to be awesome, so that when someone comes into the furgroup and encounters any one of us, they know that they have come home.
