Home › Forums › MNFurs › Discussions › An Honest Discussion about the Drama Surrounding MNFURS
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Twisted.
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Let me ask you this, why do people still try and help MN furs and furry Migration?
- To give back to the community
- Because they are local partners where we helped them, and they are repaying the favor
- Because they want to be part of something bigger than themselves
- They have a skill set that they see the convention needs
- Bragging rights
I’m sure there are more, but I can only speak authoritatively about my reasons. That is I have tolerable social media skills, heavy tech skills, project management skills, and willingness to make mistakes and look stupid. And at the time those were required skills at the time.
So I ask you, is it realistic or I’d even argue fair, to create events far away from the majority of the membership?
MNFurs is a 501(c3) educational non-profit organization. We provide events in the Minnesota area, but we also provide learning opportunities, scholarship programs, and we provide charitable work with our members for others nonprofit organizations. Our board of directors is elected each year by our membership, from our membership
It’s in the name, it’s in your signature, and the bylaws do not restrict events to the Twin Cities. They simply state, “MNFurs will organize and participate in a variety of public and private events aimed to encourage the community to flourish, organize and build productive networks with the broader public.”
If you were to take a random person on the street, and this basic informational description is all you gave them, they would also come to the conclusion that you do things for the entire state. So you have to understand that it is not an unreasonable expectation or request. The question is, can MNFurs do anything with it’s available resources to fill the needs of the community beyond the Twin Cities.
I should mention, we have Werecamp right around the corner, and it’s not in the twin cities.
This is an example proving we can meet the needs of the community beyond the Twin Cities. It’s not feasible to run identical events all around the state at this point since we are taking advantage of a unique situation to help get Werecamp fully operational. But it can be used as a starting point to see what we could do. And I do in fact have ideas for things we can do to cover more ground in the state. Some of them I’ve been considering for years and some I’ve just thought of. But right now is not the time for me to explore implementing any of those ideas.
Now, I want to say that until today this has actually been a mostly civil discussion. It can still be one as long as people remain patient. I put hours into each post because I understand it’s important to be careful with these topics. Most people are happy with MNFurs the way it is and they will naturally try to diminish the impact of any issues people might have. At the same time, the people experiencing those issues will feel like the whole thing is falling apart because it seems like nothing is working for them and they will naturally exaggerate the impact of these issues. The truth is in fact somewhere in between. It is important to remember that nobody here is an enemy that has to be defeated. Everybody wants things to be better. The only difference is that some people need it to be better more than others. We are all on the same side even when it sounds like we aren’t. If somebody gets emotional, that’s ok. Just do your best to not take it personally, to be forgiving, and to see what you can do to help.
As for face to face meetings, it just isn’t feasible most of the time. The nature of the furry community in general and the fact that MNFurs does in fact cover a large geographic area means it’s important to develop the skills to address things online. By continuing the conversation online people can participate at their own pace. Once you have a face to face meeting, the people who have been following the topic but have not been replying are suddenly cut out. That said, if you feel the need to have a meeting with just a handful of people, there are technological solutions available. I can help make the arrangements for something after all of the business for Werecamp is wrapped up if you want, but I’m sure there are other people who could do so as well.
…in my personal opinion, MNFURS is not for everyone. Many people in the furry subculture have different ideas as to what the furry fandom is and what the image of furries should look like. What a lot of people don’t understand is that MNFURS is a family friendly organization. Also, there is a lot of older people running the organization, causing there to be a generation gap with younger furries who want to get involved in the community…
As a starting off point we have the generational gap. This is a very specific concern as no where else in these discussions had the age of our community been highlighted. Minnesota Furs was incorporated in 2012, obviously as Mouring and others stated the group has longer than that but let’s use that as an anchor in time. The influential members at the time (directors) were Aerak, Lego, Kurst, Ridayah, and Zmeydros. Additional furs such as Flip, Yarrick, Charles, Mouring, and Yancha (to name a few) also were active at the time. The average age of these individuals was in their late 20’s to mid 30’s.
Fast forward to today, yes some of our general staff are in their mid 40’s or 50’s. But they have seen the rise and evolution of the fandom, have seen other communities and conventions go through the same pain we’re talking about today. Over the years people have moved, or changed their interests, maybe focused on health, career, or family. Today having myself, Deirdre, Aerak, Wintermane, Euro, and even Kizith (who Euro is filling her position) the average age of the directors is still mid 30’s.
Every name I listed off I can all but guarantee want(ed) to take a break from time to time. Either to go back to just having fun at an event or to change up what they do. But we see it for what it is, responsibility and work. We don’t get paid, and we still have families, careers etc, but someone has to do it. The election process IS the system in place for changing out the guard, and by being a 501c3 it must be the system. Directors may feel pride in the time they have spent and want to see their efforts are honored, but we don’t gate keep the election process. Our duties are to ensure that the rules that shape it in our ByLaws are being upheld.
I don’t agree with the argument of a generational gap, nor do I think that the director positions are the greatest pressure point. I’ll speak more of that later. My question is what do others consider as a generational gap? Who (not by name but by personality or other traits) are the type of furs that best represent what you want to see and how do we encourage those people to seriously want this responsibility?
The board exists for a few reasons and performs some key tasks for Minnesota Furs. One of the most important duties from the standpoint of the community is that the board works to keep the social aspect of the group on track. They take care of talking to facilities such as Perkins or other venues; maintain the various social media and the website used by the group; help schedule events; and so forth. Additionally, they transparently manage the assets of the group, both the fiscal assets (donations, paying for space rentals, etc) and physical (the banners, fliers, etc). More information about how this transparency and the management of resources is done can be found under the Operational Documents page.
That quote was taken from https://www.mnfurs.org/about/board-of-directors/
As the website quote states the directors and staff (Yancha and Drake are very committed) are the individuals to handle these duties. We take these events because they are tentpole to our community and in some cases act as fundraising for the year round operations. We see conventions and holidays every single week of the year and try to avoid conflicts when possible. We make sure amenities are taken care of. And that information is put out online early enough. We’ve missed the mark at times but we’re juggling a lot of duties.
The most valuable resource in our organization is the person, not the dollar. And when time is limited and it comes down to the bureaucracy of running a non profit, or fun, directors are obligated to take the side of bureaucracy. This is going to be unpleasant to hear but as an individual, a director, our duties are to the compliance and fiduciary oversight of the 501c3 as according to the IRS. Not to events. We are not responsible for driving across town/state and creating events. Or ensuring a minimum threshold of attendee’s show when an event is put on.
On more than one occasion I’ve had to have a board meeting where we reviewed the conduct of our community. Does this get spoken out loud? No we make a conscious effort to respect the privacy of our community members and avoid commenting on our website or social media. It’s our intent to handle situations as professionally as possible. Obviously I won’t go into detail but directors at any point can be pulled aside or had to have special meetings where the topic was if what we saw or what we heard needs to be escalated. “We cannot do that, we cannot have someone profiting off the non profits events.” or “This person has been reported for inappropriate conduct we have to address them.” or “So the police have requested information about this person, who wants to be the point of contact for this call?”… yes, that last one has happened. Again we avoid using our platform and even speak in code on issues, we do not want the precedent that every story of drama, entitlement, or bad conduct gets repeated in a megaphone.
… I know there were MAYBE two events that were in St Cloud that were posted, no one really showed interest except maybe one or two individuals. All meets seem to be required within the city boundaries or no one shows, this is not a state-wide setting…
…I personally have tried to get meet ups in St. Cloud for half a year back in 2017 if I recall. for the 6 times I tried, only 2 of them were ever posted to MN furs, and those two times I had to ask Drake to post them….
Biohazard I know Jac already made a comment about your events but I’d like to expand on this further. I was provided an export of the submission form and I found your submissions. Of your six events I saw that 5 of which were posted on the calendar, but only 2 of which made it to the front page. None of these events were posted using our Twitter. But what Jac covered has some gaps.
One of the quirks of our website and organization is that duties are siloed/compartmentalized. Every year after elections the officers play what is nicknamed “the card game.” Where we, during our annual 3 day weekend retreat, have a typed list of all of our duties throughout the year and attempt to divide them up evenly based on experience, dependencies (i.e. I’m the treasurer therefor filing the taxes goes to me), and total bandwidth. Officer duties like President and Vice President are voted on. We play this in part to help us focus throughout the year. As well to have a consistency throughout the year on tone and inflection.
What this means however, is that the person who is responsible for reading the event submissions, the person who posts on the calendar, who posts on the front page, who posts on twitter, who… this may very well be someone different every time. Furthermore year to year this may very well change for any of those positions. Why do we distribute the duties so sporadically? Well we may not actually do so, one person may have many duties, again it varies.
So how often does the submission form get used in the first place?
2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 Furry 4 10 10 11 13 5 Furry-Staff 2 2 3 12 25 12 Spam 140 110 23 2 0 1 Harassment 1 0 0 0 1 0 Total 147 122 36 25 39 18 % Furry 4% 10% 36% 92% 97% 94% This does not reflect events that made it to the calendar, or social media. Rather raw submissions. Early on it would receive 20-30 submissions but the majority of those are by members of our community like Kurst, Drake, Yarrick, Kellic, Flip, or other individuals who are familiar with the Form and the requirements of the events team (or were part of the team). So when I say we had 10 actual furs post events in 2017 that 6 of those were Biohazard. As you can see we’ve had a rise of spam bots and fewer events by event staff and other familiar furs. Even if we dismissed the separation between familiar and unfamiliar we have a drop in submissions every year.
Also for fun, when I say 140 spam posts here’s an example of what I see, and these get THROUGH the spam filter!
“Food Technology 2020”
“It is proud to announce the 4th International Conference on Food Chemistry and Technology, to be held during February 24-25, 2020 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On this auspicious occasion, Organizing Committee invites the participants from all over the globe to take part in this annual flagship conference with the theme “Food Revolution & Emerging Technologies for Food Research and Development”. Food Technology 2020 aims in proclaim knowledge and share new ideas amongst the professionals, industrialists, and students from research areas of food Science, food Chemistry and food microbiology to share their research experiences and indulge in interactive discussions and technical sessions at the event. The Conference will also have a space for companies and institutions to present their services, products, innovations and research results.”“28th International Conference on Pediatrics Health”
“Pediatric Health aims to learn and share knowledge in Pediatric Health field. Pediatric Health 2019 is an excellent platform to focusing on the themeAdvance Concepts And Frame Works For Pediatrics And Nenonatal HealthCare““Global Summit on Advanced Dentistry & Dental Marketing”
“Advanced Dentistry 2019 is a platform that allows all the devoted and dedicated dental professionals to explore their knowledge, their experience, and their achievements in an advanced way. It is to share & discuss the new and advanced Technologies that the dentistry field has witnessed during recent years, which will drive the Dental fraternity, one standard up., With time, technology must also be advanced. So, we are here to share some improvise ideas that will be helpful for the new generation people and that will certainly provide them a boost you can say. Experienced people will share their knowledge with the youngsters and the youths with their smart ideas will show that the Dental fraternity is in safe hands. Our conference aims to provide educational opportunities as well as world-class scientific content delivered by quality keynote speakers, with plenary sessions, symposiums, hands-on workshops, etc., We welcome you all to associate with us and witness the event live. So, what are you waiting for,”I don’t think that shows how inclusive to furs outside the Twin cities are treated, it shows that maybe that title of “old boys network” is more accurate. Ergo not many people will be willing to step up to volunteer or to run as candidates. Since the voting seems to be held in the twin cities causing only the more “loyal” furs to show up and vote for the same candidates year after year. Instead, how about making the votes available in some electronic form on the website so ALL furs in the state that wish to, can vote.
Events, volunteering, voting, elections, it creates a feedback loop, this is true. Because our voting structure is tied to our proactive nature it limits how many people can vote to begin with. This is not deliberate but asserting that 20 hours of time can be dedicated from 250+ furs is not feasible. The alternative options were as I believe Mouring stated to switch to a payment method but then furs who have no interest in our region can just buy their opinion and force a popufur mentality. 20 hours was established to give a quantifiable number to the IRS and hopefully detract those who are not truly invested in the community.
With not everyone admittedly interested in Furry Migration (for one reason or another) that leaves helping MNFurs directly via staffing, or smaller meets and activities, to fill in the gaps. It’s reasonable to deduce that without a steady flow of those the majority of voting hours come from Furry Migration. However I would need to verify carefully if you need to be an active member (20 hours) to run as a candidate. Viable candidates are those who integrate themselves with the other community members, letting us when acting as regular folk get to see their personality and worth ethic as opposed to a complete stranger. Staff positions can be anyone, hours or not.
…I’ve had friends have this same difficulty running events within the Cities themselves, so this issue doesn’t really have anything to do with being outside the cities, it’s just a general issue.
Kehmet aptly uses a phrase of “this issue” that in context to Biohazard, I interpret that to mean the issue of events not showing up on the calendar, front page, etc. But he could also be referring to a lackluster turnout in attendance. Without context it’s as best a way for me to bring up what I’ve seen as the big issue and representation of half of this threads feedback. That we’re not all talking the same language or at least the same issues. Here’s many of the flavors of event based issues MNFurs has had over the years…
Problem A) My event did not show up and I don’t know why.
Problem B) My event is awesome but I need help. I lack time, experience, confidence, or assets..
Problem C) I was given feedback about my event but I don’t want to address that feedback.
Problem D) My event did not get run by MNFurs.
Problem E) My event does not need the oversight of MNFurs.
Problem F) My event did not get the attendance I desired.
Problem G) My event would never be accepted by MNFurs. MNFurs is family friendly.I’m not saying these issues have all been thrown around in this discussion, far from it. But this is why Aerak and others may feel exhausted and defensive. It’s why the responses of Vanbael, Snapcat, and others have been to “just do something yourself”. I’m going to walk through each of these versions of the lack-of-events issue and attempt to demystify whatever I can.
Problem A) My event did not show up and I don’t know why.
This is focused on the social engagement of the organization and indeed one issue we’re rightfully able to be questioned on. The only reasonable explanations I can offer is if the contact information on the submission was mistyped or if there were follow up concerns that we had not resolved. But when you hear positive reassurance that your event has been approved, and don’t see it anywhere, that is indeed an issue that we would like to improve on.
Ways to help us given our limited staff are to plan events a couple weeks (we require 2 but the more the better) in advance. An event submitted that only would take place a week out is going to struggle. We can not reliably provide same day processing. If you receive no response after 3-4 days please poke again or follow up via another method. Methods include emailing [email protected] or [email protected]. If the day you submit is days from a major holiday or event remember that can play a factor. Lastly I have not seen this expressed in this discussion at all but is worth saying nonetheless: If a submission comes across as being condescending or spiteful it is unlikely to gather attention. We do reserve the right to not post an event.
Problem B) My event is awesome but I need help. I lack time, experience, confidence, or assets..
The implied issue here I’m going for is not to be confused with the issue of fence tossing the idea to someone else (see problem D) but merely someone who wants to take charge of their own event but cannot do so alone. In terms of tone of my post this is gonna shift. A few of these are very short in talking points.
If you are working on an idea and want someone to bounce the idea off there are many people in our community that are awesome sources of experience. Not just limited to the directors and staff so I suggest reaching out and hopefully a friend of a friend of a friend will have a story to tell. But as staff and directors it’s not realistic to assert that we can support everyone’s events personally. As I said very early on we’re bound to the same limits of family, friends and careers.
This is a fairly case-by-case problem and I don’t know how to expand on it. If you think this stands out as being a predominant issue I would like to hear more. I can only imagine that the ways we can improve on this may be to expand our guides, or create new topics.
Problem C) I was given feedback about my event but I don’t want to address that feedback.
Admittedly, this is vague but I had to stop the pedantic line somewhere. The first form of feedback often expressed is just that, our own experiences and insight on commonly expressed questions that we hope to save time on and bring out the best of your activity. Examples can include: Is the event fursuit friendly? What are the costs associated with attending the venue? Links? How many people are you able to support? Small questions like that are overlooked. A big one however is: Is it best to have your event on that date-time as it conflicts with some other event? Ultimately conflicts will occur or your event is very precise (say a sports game or movie premier) and changes are unavoidable. When it comes to official MNFurs events WE may discourage events to be placed at the same time, but we will not stop you. We just may not put in the full effort due to conflicting schedules.
The next form of feedback is going to be more focused on compliance. With an event provided by an individual we have to see that the event is open to the public (does not discriminate), and does not require some form of payment or in-exchange action to the event itself in order to join. As an example: If your holding a meet within a restaurant or theater there is naturally limited seating available; you may need to direct them to the venus site or hold an RSVP as under certain conditions its reasonable to say at some point attendance is cut off. But prior to that the public should be invited. In a similar vein this is why a submission that uses your private residence or that uses a private invitational list will be rejected. A non profit is for the purpose of supporting the public sector, not the private sector be it individual or business. In addition, if you have an event idea to be held at a venue you are employed this may be too specific to endorsed because that is a conflict of interest.
An alternate part of the compliance is the safety and debugging of an event. If your event is a simple meet or day in the park that’s fairly predictable, but if your goal is to find an intense hike through the woods at dusk we aptly should dot our I’s and cross our T’s about what will happen if someone gets exhausted or worse injured. Like stated in Problem B this may simply be a case of someone with related experience bringing up valuable concerns and not trying to detract from running anything.
The final form of feedback is going to be hyper focused on lacking information in order to see an event posted. If I had submitted a request to “Get together to watch the 4th of July Fireworks in Crystal MN” that sounds interesting (I picked that because it’s close to me) but it does not clearly state my intent. The events team would wonder where are people supposed to meet, how early should they arrive for parking, is it open/free parking, how late will the event go for, how crowded is it going to be, should members dress up, .. i can go on and on but we really want to front load as much information as possible.
As detailed as those went just take away that this bullet point is all about that social engagement too. Like the prior bullet points. In a similar vein the best way to help us here is that extra time and some reminding after a couple days. The events team may need to do research on their own. If something sounds like a non-issue to yourself but is being reported as such then ask for more insight and reading material. If you read something inconsistent then ask about it. I’m sure we as MNFurs can do better here too, just remember that an event can still be discussed on our forums without the use of the submission page.
Problem D) My event did not get run by MNFurs.
The implied issue is literally that an idea is submitted, but the person wants no part in running the event. This problem is rare but gets a bad reputation as being the darker side of the submission form. When people look at what the MNFurs organization is based around, some are believing that when they share an interesting idea it is GOING to be picked up by someone in the organization merely because a lot of people through chatter really want the event. The problem to be very precise is that when an event does not get off the ground it’s seen as a slight against new ideas.
We do want discussion on the forums and finding unique activities that support our mission of community building and education, but we want the people who would run with them even more. We already have the forums as-is so in what ways do you think we can better match up ideas and those who can get them off the ground without creating new positions for staff?
Problem E) My event does not need the oversight of MNFurs.
In some respects this is the polarized opposite of the last few problems. Here we have an individual or an organization submitting an event and really just hope to see it posted online without much engagement with the events staff. As any business let alone a 501c3, we MUST have a process for which events are submitted and reviewed before endorsing it. All of the talking points I brought up in Problem B are part of this process. Personal liability will exist but when it gets on our calendar and our social media it’s MNFurs who is telling people to attend an event. This is also why I say discussion on the forums can exist separately as it’s your message.
Problem F) My event did not get the attendance I desired.
Let’s not compound this by delays of the organization processing events, and assert that the event has been fully marketed. That the problem is that out of the 250-300 people who may attend a picnic or party, the individual event turnout is lackluster. Early on this is an indication that the wrong expectations are being set. The goal of an event should be to satisfy your own interests with any local friends first and foremost. Ale “I’m going to do this, I think it’s fun does anyone wanna join me?” Which at the day of the event if no one new is joining, so be it.
Ways to remedy this may simply be repetition, if you had a low turnout with a very positive feedback from those who participated, talk with them as to when they want to do it again. Already you have a successful event. Over time friends of friends will be visiting or entirely new faces will start to join. Another may be the feedback discussed earlier; Issues of timing, cost, may in some cases be a factor. Talk on the forums or to staff and explain where you hoped to be, and maybe there’s ways to climb closer to that over time.
When all things are said and done we cannot promise an attendance quantity. We cannot promise that through repetition of the same people will attend over and over.
Problem G) My event would never be accepted by MNFurs. MNFurs is family friendly.
This is a very special issue that both MNFurs and Furry Migration is dealing with and has been brought up in this discussion. Family friendly is seen to be targeting kids where as members of our community want more 18+ content.
But what does more adult content mean? When it comes to our year around community events there are three interpretations I can imagine:
1. All that’s desired is a space to discuss events and activities privately in an 18+ section: https://www.mnfurs.org/groups/topics-and-events-for-18/ It requires you to provide your age in your bio and then request access as a two step process. It’s not been used in months, was that known? If so, can we go into discussion as to why it’s not useful and work through that process? If it’s a hidden gem then how do we promote it?
2. To have adult programming is to do the same things without children, to do the same games, movies, romps, etc.. such as having a Perkins meet but no kids. Recall what I said about discrimination? We cannot do this. The venue and activities of the event are what matter, when the venue is a family friendly environment, so should be the event. There is more to explore on this I’m sure, but it is very much a context is key. On a side note if the problem is only with a specific child, approach us on that, that is a different issue and can be looked into.
3. The lack of kids is desired due to legality of adult activities. In other words, this is where the impression of Sexuality, Alcohol, & other activities come to mind. If this feels like a misrepresentation then by all means we need to explore this more in detail. I know people have interesting ideas but outside of this discussion thus this topic has been painted in a light of wanting a hookup site. Going back to year 1 of Furry Migration a submission for a “Cuddle Party” was accepted as it was promoted as a de stressing and relaxing place where people can just be close together. The standard was of course that its kept clean, that the door is kept open to anyone, and that the lights kept on. It got shut down.
(My personal conjecture and closure)To revisit what was established: we cannot promote a business, our calendar events are open to the public to see, our focus is community building and educational activities, and we don’t operate for revenue or ego. I agree with the organization needing help. I also agree that we can do better in getting events up or providing a structure for pairing the people with good ideas with people who can execute them.
Why haven’t we heard more about how to help MNFurs?
Aside from static information that may or may not need refreshing, small call outs requesting for help and volunteers during our events can be done but it’s a delicate balance before we become a lecture and annoyance to those who want to enjoy their time with friends. There used to be smaller meets run to focus on the Organization. Learning about who the Directors are, what goes into running MNFurs, and brainstorming new ideas. They were held in meeting rooms of restaurants like Culvers and Devanis but lacked any online conferencing – at the time the infrastructure did not exist and some places still lack solid enough internet. Even one person new would be worth the effort but what started happening was the same 8-12 people were attending over and over. Staff or friends of staff who already were well aware of the community. As personal lives evolved so did the availability to run such events. Staff started focusing on the more personal contact of meeting someone, learning about them, exploring their interesting skills and if they want to help. Fully updating and managing a website like ours – both front and back end – is a 3-4 person job or the job of someone compensated.
Maybe we need to bring back community meetings, or some other informative event. But if our feedback from the community is just “more X programming” without an interest to help out then there’s going to be a serious loop. At the end of the day if I’m going to put on an event for the intent of having fun I won’t be representing the board but my own self. I like video games, d&d, movies, and good food. I no longer live north of Sartell rather I’m in the cities. The event is going to be what I and my friends have fun doing.
Concerns of Furry Migration taking over everything cannot be proven or disproven. The convention is growing at a 10-15% rate per year yet we do have community members who have very little interest in it. Regarding where our help is coming from staff is recruiting staff not just local but pulling in friends from Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois, etc. Furs who have no value in our local year round programming. Even the staff we have can throw metrics off when not everything gets recorded, myself across all duties I put in average 20+ hours per week. Those like me throw numbers off and it gets very subjective trying to argue who counts and when.
Big events like the Holiday Party had 15 individuals I recall involved either before the event, on site directly behind the table (Cyber you are even among those I count) or just indirectly making sure trash gets picked up or helping move things during setup. As that event or WereCamp grow they too are going to need more help. But we do need more activities outside the convention to get voting hours that much is true.
I know I had not touched on the experiences of Richard during Furry Migration, this is because after talking with some of our Operations heads at the time (one being my roommate Legonnare) they had no recollection of this incident. This is not to be dismissive but that having been 14 months old (at the time of initial discussion) the issue may have naturally resolved itself via changes and ever growing experience of Staff. We do have vests and STAFF printed on our badges so I would hope individuals are presenting themselves as such upfront. Additional training is always needed. When an interaction goes poorly it can always be escalated; either to a head of Operations, the chairman, or the board of directors. But much like an incident at say a Picnic or meet the sooner it’s brought to attention the better.
Finally I would hope someone can elaborate more on this whole adult-only desire and submit examples that promote our requirements. As an example, would adults want to see something like getting together at a bar for drinks and social time? Again, we would love to hear more ideas from you.
Those are great points Twisted but I got to ask, will volunteering help for all events? Not being rude but when I went to 2018 Furry Migration and tried to volunteered, most of the time the person running it was not sure who needed help and said to cheek back later. So I cheeked back every now and then but only got more or less the same response for both Friday and Saturday. So even when someone tried to volunteer the lack of communication would hinder things. But while at the con I tended to observe how the registration prices and treatment of suiters like a sort of class system has been in placed. Fursuiters at the top like kings/queens. Partial suits/Handlers as nobles, then cosplayers/regular people at the bottom as peasants. The same being for regression, super sponsors at the top, sponsors in the middle then pre-regerstaion at the bottom. It is hard to shake that feeling but it seem true, the more money people have on them the better treatment they get in return.A mind without purpose will wander in dark places
That touches on feedback we have received this past year from both potential volunteers and staff in desperate need of help that were not getting it. This year we will be implementing a ticket system so that the volunteer desk knows exactly which departments need help and when. We’re also going to have volunteer perks clearly on display, because, though it’s nice knowing you helped out, it’s also nice knowing that the help is appreciated by us.1. All that’s desired is a space to discuss events and activities privately in an 18+ section: https://www.mnfurs.org/groups/topics-and-events-for-18/ It requires you to provide your age in your bio and then request access as a two step process. It’s not been used in months, was that known? If so, can we go into discussion as to why it’s not useful and work through that process? If it’s a hidden gem then how do we promote it?
Even though this isn’t an issue right now, but I remember trying to get a request to get in and took more than a year for me and apparently everyone else to get added in. I think that’s why people haven’t been using it recently, but Kurst took care of it. Thank you, kurst
- Name: Dragon
- Age: Dragon
- Species: Dragon
- Sex: Dragon
- Size: Dragon
- Weight: Dragon
- Height: Dragon
- Identity: Dragon
- Orientation: Dragon
- Gender: Dragon
- Hobby: Being a dragon
Those are great points Twisted but I got to ask, will volunteering help for all events? Not being rude but when I went to 2018 Furry Migration and tried to volunteered, most of the time the person running it was not sure who needed help and said to cheek back later. So I cheeked back every now and then but only got more or less the same response for both Friday and Saturday. So even when someone tried to volunteer the lack of communication would hinder things. But while at the con I tended to observe how the registration prices and treatment of suiters like a sort of class system has been in placed. Fursuiters at the top like kings/queens. Partial suits/Handlers as nobles, then cosplayers/regular people at the bottom as peasants. The same being for regression, super sponsors at the top, sponsors in the middle then pre-regerstaion at the bottom. It is hard to shake that feeling but it seem true, the more money people have on them the better treatment they get in return.
Regarding volunteers I’ll defer to Aerak on the goals going forward, he is one of the three leaders going into Migration 2020. But to give an example this year we had an issue where our Con Suite was running like a well oiled machine, but oil didn’t get changed all weekend.
I don’t know if that was a lack of volunteers, a similar issue to what you said for 2018 where communication had a bottleneck, or if consuite couldn’t get the word out. Knowing both departments personally I do know that volunteers was busy also pulling double duty badging con space. But when looking for something to do and wanna help out it never hurts to just ask the department directly (e.g. consuite) even if it looks like their going strong.
For the special treatment of groups i’m unaware of anything that’s different from whats found among other conventions?
Fursuiters will see a lounge with fans and water if their needing to avoid overheating. The parade is as much for the audience as it is for the participants. And sponsors and super sponsors get some extra tangible items and some priority seating or early access as a thank you for their extra support. The latter are simple means that don’t cost any convention extra as the goal of a sponsor should be to support said convention not get an extra $40-$100 in value of rewards.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Twisted.
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