Eric “Snap” Stevens

[MnFurs Election Committee]

Tell us about yourself.

Hello!  I am Eric Stevens but have gone by Snap E Tiger or simply ‘Snap’ for 24 years.  I am 48 years old and was married to my husband Deron ‘Thor’ in 2013.  We live in White Bear Lake, MN with our two cats and a dog.  I’ve worked as a full time fursuit maker since 2012 having worked at PayPal, Werner Enterprises and the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo before then.  My idea of a great night is 70 degree weather, steaks on the grill and a cold beverage or two while sitting in lawn chairs conversing with some good folks.

What brought you to the furry fandom?

   In 1999, I was the Weekend Supervisor at a Kinko’s copy shop.  Someone was sitting in the corner drawing and invited me to take a look.  They told me about what anthropomorphic characters so I went to a computer and started searching.  I was instantly hooked.  After joining some mailing lists and bbs chats, I met some great friends online and started my journey.  There was no organized group in Omaha Nebraska at the time so with the help of Posicat’s IFPL (Internet Furry Proximity Locator) I was able to reach out and bring some locals together forming ‘Furbraska’ that same year.  I attended my first con MidWest FurFest in 2000 and brought along my first fursuit, a black cat name Tsi’goti.

How will you continue to volunteer in the community after being elected to the board?

   I have helped with Staff at Furry Migration since the con started.  I have taken on more responsibility with the convention, and have served on the MNFurs board for the past year which doesn’t leave a lot of time for much else.  For a while I was head of Registration for the convention.  Currently I am head of Volunteers and oversee 8 departments as a ‘Division head’.

How do you view events like Furry Migration and Midwinter Frolic impact the Minnesota Furs community today and tomorrow?

   I’ve learned that Furry Migration and Midwinter Frolic has three major impacts on the community.  One, they bring people together.  Two, They satisfy the educational goals of the organization by offering learning opportunities to those who may not have been exposed to topics that make our fandom what it is, and Third they help provide funding and materials for our smaller MNFurs gatherings such as the Oval Meets, Picnics and Holiday Parties.  As Furry Migration and MidWinter Frolic get larger, MNFurs and the opportunities provided by MNFurs get larger as well.

What are your strengths that you will bring to the board?

   I am self-motivated to get things done behind the scenes.   In being a board member for the past year, I had to learn what it took to handle treasurer duties which included doing the Organization’s taxes, keeping our insurance up to date and filing out the proper forms to keep the MN Department of Revenue happy.  I am an effective decision maker.   When I do attend meets, I do what it takes to get materials there from our storage facility and ensure coordination with others involved is done well in advance.    Also, I’ve been involved in furry fandom for 24 years and have seen a lot of ups and downs.  Its interesting how some changes have been cyclical over the years and some have not.

What do you feel are areas where you want to further develop yourself? Why?

   Time Management.  My career keeps me very busy.  Fitting in Furry Migration duties as well as the MNFurs Board of Directors’ duties has been a challenge.  I am definitely not perfect.  Since the organization has switch over to Office365 I have started using calendars more which has helped quite a lot.  Also, I am a bit of a homebody.   I volunteer so that I can have an excuse to force myself out of my house.  This year I wanted to attend a lot more meet ups and be social but its something I have failed at.   I know some people in our org would like more Board interaction with everyone that attends the meets.  It is something I will continue to work on.

How can Minnesota Furs reach out to other communities local and national in furry and other fandoms?

  Currently I am a member of the FCLR (Furry Convention Leadership Roundtable) which puts convention leaders together.  Questions are asked, then answered from a very experienced group of people.  Reaching out to other fandoms has been hard this past year… but on the other side of the coin, our organization has found that we can be self-sufficient.  We no longer need to lean on other organizations to ‘show us the way’ or provide hard materials for us to borrow.   Has that made us a bit anti-social with other local fandom groups?  It has.  I do not feel that it is a bad thing.

What are two things that you would like to see accomplished/improved during your tenure?

  With the loss of our meeting space with the GPS (Geek Partnership Society) we no longer have a home base of operations.  Currently we are relying on side rooms at restaurants and libraries to hold our meetings.  Online meetings are ‘OK’ but for our meetings that are open to the public, in person discussions are preferable.  In time it would be nice for MNFurs to have its own home base of operations which can be utilized by everyone in our organization for meetings, workshops, etc.  We have found that we would need a minimum of $14,000 in extra donations a year to make this happen.  It is quite a lot of money but within the next two years, I see this as a possibility through fund raising and grant writing.  There needs to be a larger focus on this in order to provide more community activities.

  Increase in volunteers – MNFurs has a wonderful group of people who help set up events, run the website, handle IT infrastructure and ensure proper communication to our members.  We need to ask for help so we can efficiently handle the Organization’s workload.  We tried to launch a kind of Human Resources department last year which failed because it focused more on procedure rather than the people themselves.

One goal of MNFurs is to promote education. How do you intend on helping promote education?

   We do a wonderful job satisfying the education side of our nonprofit objective through Furry Migration and MidWinter Frolic.  As mentioned above, we provide learning opportunities at events where otherwise folks may not have exposure to them.   Our core volunteers also learn new skills that they can take into the workplace.  Our website is also a fabulous education tool for those just getting into the fandom.  Parents of minors can educate themselves via our website as well.  The best education one can receive is by MNFurs offering more meetings to increase social development skills.

   Overall, I like where MNFurs has been and where it is going.   We wouldn’t be what we are today without the hard work and dedication of volunteers.  Commitment from more folks within our community is the only way we can grow and get better.  I am ready to commit for the next two years.

 

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