Meet The Candidate Kizith

[MnFurs Election Committee]

The following is Kizith’s responses to a set of questions given to all candidates by the Minnesota Furs Election Committee. These are the unedited responses given to the committee. The only changes made by the committee was to format them for consistency between the posts.

What brought you to the furry fandom?

I was originally interested in the fandom simply due to the artwork and creative works posted on sites like FurAffinity and DeviantArt, but found myself drawn in when I attended my first ever meet in the summer of 2014. Ridayah was my first ever ‘contact’ in the fandom and through interacting with him and many others in it over the past few years, I have discovered that furries are a really close knit community and will take in anyone and treat them like friends, without judgement or rudeness. That takes a lot of heart and courage, and it’s what I’ve always admired about this fandom.

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

I plan to continue attending meets and acting as an advocate for the furry community when I am out and about, and, of course, sitting down with fellow furs to play a “friendly” game of Magic at the West Metro and Oval meets!

Is “Furry” an adult group, or an all ages group?

Furry, I feel, does not, and has not, ever lent itself to being a specific age range. I’ve known as many young furs to be good people as well as older furs. Furry, to me, is an interest if you want it to be, a hobby to others (such as myself), and a complete lifestyle, as with some I know. It’s too broad to be defined as a “youth movement” or an “alternative lifestyle” and that is the beauty and diversity of it. It really can be whatever you make of it!

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

I feel like I need to develop myself and push harder in the areas of interpersonal communication and making my voice known among a group. In order to enact change, we first have to be confident enough to propose it to others. I hope being on the board and fighting for furry community to thrive and grow will allow me, in some small, selfish way, to make that be a reality.

What do you feel are two of the most pressing issues with MNFurs and what will you do about them?

I feel like furry has always had an image problem with the wider public. Too many people only have the stereotypes come to mind when they think about the fandom. I want to change that!

For MNFurs as a whole, I feel like we are not reaching out enough to local communities. Where are the local library visits, the town hall speeches, the school dances curated by furry DJs? We could be doing more in the communities where we live, rather than the few cities where we have annual events, no matter how long running.

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

I feel like I am belaboring my point here, but I want to improve the impression of furry among the wider world, and reach out more to the local communities to tell them and show them that, yes, furries are just people with a passion for anthropomorphism. We don’t bite (much), and we definitely are just regular people going about our lives.

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

I want to increase exposure in the wider world and make the fandom more accessible by having more local events and maybe helping produce a video series demystifying aspects of the fandom that have been incorrectly portrayed and lampooned throughout the years. If people understand, they won’t be so quick to judge!

• This topic was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by MnFurs Election Committee.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by MnFurs Election Committee.

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