Who thinks we need our own float in the next pride parade?

[rachelison]

hi guys, Rachel here.

So I sort of thought about this last year but got the idea way too late. Something like what, 90 to 95% of furries are LGBT.  We should represent ourselves in the next MN gay pride parade!

The cost to apply/enter is about $300. I think Suit Up Saturday would be happy to donate at least $100 of that. I bet we could also nudge the FM board too- since I know they are looking to start giving some furry scholarships out.

I even have a truck I can use to pull a float and a crappy trailer that (might) work. I’d even be willing to dust off the sidecar motorcycle.

I say we build a float, and we make it out of fur. Every fur I know has at least a half a yard of extra/scrap fur lying around. Let’s make a giant (insert design here) rainbow patchwork fur colored float for the parade! And of course get lot of local furs to walk and ride with us.

 

I also suggest the MN Furs get a booth the pride festival this year- right?!

 

We are a big part of the LGBT community here in MN. Let’s show our pride (and our awesome artistic talents) to the rest of the community 😉

 

P.s it’s official, we are a RECOGNIZED lifestyle here in Shakopee anyway. we made it into Shakopee lifestyle magazinr

[Bandaid ♡]

I think that’s an awesome idea. I would love to get rid of some extra fur :3

“ everything that is beautiful people want to break, and you are beautiful I’m afraid “ - Nicole dollaganger

[Cori]

I think that sounds awesome!  I grew up in Chicago and loved going to pride every year.  I took my daughter to her first pride this past summer and we had a blast.  I would be happy to help out if we move forward with this.

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[Speyeder]

That sounds like a great idea

What can be so dangerous in a world where so many people are smiling?

chaoticravings.com

[Loo]

I think that would be a fantastic idea! I own a fursuit so i would love to participate if possible 🙂 definitely keep me updated!

"The greatest value comes from loving yourself for who you are" ~Lindsey Stirling

[Bryan]

YAS! I’m game, so long as I’m not drilling with National Guard that weekend.

[AtomiK]

I’m not part of the LGBT community (I fall in the 5-10%), but I think this is a fantastic idea. I also have my SUV I’d be more than willing to use to pull the float (plus I have a second car, so the SUV could be decorated as well), and possibly a full sized car trailer as long as the float decorations could be easily removed as I only borrow it. Regardless, this could be a lot of fun!

Andrew - https://atomik.smugmug.com/

[SilverStitches]

I think this is an awesome idea! I’d love to be involved in it too! unfortunately I don’t have any colored scraps, just white and black, but I would LOVE to help design and make it as well as walk in the parade if wanted! :3

The kind of fart that sounds like a question

[Kurst Hyperyote]

Get this out of the way first – I’m not a director of the board any more for Minnesota Furs but I do help them out as an officer.

Sokecond thing – as of our charter right now Minnesota Furs is the parent organization to both MnFurs and Furry Migration. Think of them as brothers. FM brotherly agreement is we don’t step on MNFurs local events that is not about the con and vice versa. This allows MNFurs to do it’s own thing while FM can do it’s thing.

That being said:

In the past we either did our own parades or for Gay Pride worked with Geek Partnership Society (GPS) to do a parade.

When we do a parade foot or vehicle there are 5 considerations.
1. Cost – this is not just parade admission but other side things from decorations to everything else. every action costs and at this point when you do x you don’t do y. We need to do more fundraising as an org if we want to do more and do more long term goals of being 501c3 should do.
2. Insurance – not only is this a cost but also a negotiation. Most parades want some sort of insurance – sometimes very specific style and insurance underwriters dont get that very often 😉 So it becomes a negotiation with insurance companies to get it right. As you can guess it’s significantly more if a vehicle is involved over walking. But as a group you need that insurance.
3. Planning and execution – From past experience a simple show up parade with a simple banner takes about 20+ hours to organize and execute. This doesn’t count some of the legal legwork. Usually we need someone from board or someone associate to explain Minnesota Furs why exist and it’s 501c3 status and long term goals. Again for every event like a parade it takes away trying to expand to do other events with our current volunteer base.
4. Participation – our parade numbers have been going down over the years. We kind of topped out for attendance 2 years ago
5. What it gets us? Some of it is visibility but as an org to be honest if it doesn’t get us more people to come to events and/or help out there are other things that will make members happier.

We as an organization do 2-4 parades a year. Last year we only had time for 2. We did one as our own walking troup and one with Geek Partnership Society as part of their Gay Pride festivals.

For Gay Pride we have been using GPS which has covered the costs and insurance to the event.

They have asked in the past to help both at the booth that they have and the parade itself.

A) get their truck ready
B) theme their truck
C) Provide additional theming with the parade
D) Help out for both days at the booth
E) Provide our own flyers/hand outs etc

Last years we have been doing various levels of helping…. A few years back we were very visible there at Gay Pride. Last year not as much. We basically showed up with banners and walked/sit in the float.

We just didn’t have the volunteers or time to help out and make our presence known last time.

But its all a balance act of what we can do, what we can do with others (TEAMWORK!), and what we dont have time to do now but should do later.

Again this is more a commentary I know this doesn’t give solutions but should help frame the discussions.

Member of Minnesota Furs a 501c3 Non Profit, former Convention Chairman for Furry Migration, volunteer, and always doings lots of other stuff.

Feel free to ask questions because I'm here for you!
Kurst "YipYap" Hyperyote

[Drake M.]

Question – When is the Pride Parade again?

~ Drake M.

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[rachelison]

The parade is June 26th at 10 am. We would need our application in with the fee sometime before mid March.

[rachelison]

Ridayah and Drake,

I know you guys have done the parade before. I also know MN Furs has a pretty full plate running all the stuff they do. I would propose a committee at least in part run by furries who don’t have the current responsibilities you guys have. I would be happy to be one of those people.

I know the parade didn’t end up being a huge deal before- but maybe we can change that. Last year I helped apply for a parade slot, helped organize our slot, and helped to run the booth at the festival.

I think a full, rideable float would be expensive, time consuming and hard to store- but what about a non ridable float? What if we build a wire frame furry/statue we cover in fur, and put in on a trailer? If it turns out really cool, you could use it for FM. Just some ideas. I have spoken to 3 different local artists and fursuit makers who have said they would be willing to help with the design and build. We could also maybe have an event at one of the picnics where we ask people to help. Get people to bring fur, have designers figure out where it should go and let people staple it onto our fursuit guy.

Just some ideas.

 

[Ridayah]

Going to take a moment to chime in on this as I’ve worked with the last few parades we’ve done –

Kurst is quite right, there’s a big consideration of insurance – even many walking units these days require full corporate level insurance just to take part, especially in the Cities. We have to provide it for the Winter Carnival parade, for example, but we have to explicitly get coverage.

Even with that, a float itself would require a rather significant amount of material and cost – cost that would have to be picked up somehow, and time made to build and prepare it. That’s quite a lot of work! And of course, the fiscal costs of entering the parade and such.

I’d propose doing two things, for those that would seriously like this idea – first is to find out the requirements and stipulations required to have a parade float in the Pride Parade. This would include insurance requirements, costs, deadlines, etc. Getting all that in writing would definitely help to determine feasibility. The second thing would be to find out what different ‘scales’ of parade floats cost, require in materials, and time/labor investments.

It certainly is an interesting idea – let’s see just how feasible it could be before we go diving in. Because it’d really suck to start planning it, and get halfway through, only to find out we couldn’t do it cause of some red tape we weren’t aware of!

[Drake M.]

Ridayah wrote:

I’d propose doing two things, for those that would seriously like this idea – first is to find out the requirements and stipulations required to have a parade float in the Pride Parade. This would include insurance requirements, costs, deadlines, etc. Getting all that in writing would definitely help to determine feasibility. The second thing would be to find out what different ‘scales’ of parade floats cost, require in materials, and time/labor investments. It certainly is an interesting idea – let’s see just how feasible it could be before we go diving in. Because it’d really suck to start planning it, and get halfway through, only to find out we couldn’t do it cause of some red tape we weren’t aware of!

Kurst and Ridayah already outlined everything well enough.  Where we need to start is what I have quoted above.

~ Drake M.

 

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