"Pimping Myself" so does that make you a... never mind! Happy New Year!

Self employed?
My own best friend?
Pro-choice??
High functioning hoe?
Elegable for Obamacare?
Required to pay self employment tax?
Meg from Family Guy?

#4 and #7 ::raspberrys::

lol Happy new year mr president!

Looks like someone has a plan! May the Force be with you!

Peace, not emotion.
Knowledge, not ignorance.
Serenity, not passion.
Harmony, not chaos.
There is no death, there is the force.

I'm making a poster of that!

You have my support my friend. Best of luck, I know what I am working for this year :)

And you have my support too, wuffy! I hope 2015 goes amazingly for you.

-Be a leader
I'm President of mnfurs but not many people know it. For that matter, not many people understand why we have a board of directors and nonprofit status. I'm going to be more up front about who I am, who "we" are, and I'm going to be more visible so if there is a problem people know where to find me.

This is not the first time you've complained about people not understanding the board and how mnfurs works. It's not going to be the last. You want to be a leader by showing people the "we", but perhaps you should make sure you know the "they" as well. Are "they" only the people who show up and support the board, or does "they" also include the people who have found themselves on the outside of your club? I told you a long time ago that the actions of you and the rest of the board was creating a rift in the community. You refused to see it even though I myself was clearly standing on the other side. I don't know if you can see it now, and it doesn't really matter anymore. I've written mnfurs off as beyond repair. The problems that I've seen and know are unhealthy for any community organization, the mnfurs leadership doesn't see them as problems because they are good for the convention.

I nearly walked away from the steering group because I felt they were ignoring the community for the sake of a convention. You told me you were thinking of doing the same thing. I stuck to it though because you gave me hope that the direction of things could be changed in the community's favor. I had a deep respect for you and I trusted you. Then the group incorporated to meet the needs of the convention at a time when we still hadn't figured out what the community needed. You stood by and let that happen, and immediately took part in actions that I viewed as harmful to the community. You betrayed my trust and I lost all respect for you. I don't say this to you because I'm trying to make you feel bad about what you've done. You shouldn't feel bad, because I'm sure you thought you did the right thing and hindsight is 20/20. I only mention this because I know you don't respect my viewpoint and cannot see what I see. But even though you can't see my position, maybe you can see the gulf between us. That gulf exists for a reason. There is nothing left that I can do to bridge that gap, and you probably don't care to do so anyways. But I can ask you, do you really think that gaps like that form in a healthy community organization as often or strongly as they appear to do in mnfurs?

Mnfurs has been lacking leadership. I don't doubt your ability to provide leadership, but I suspect it is going to be leadership more suited to the needs of a convention focused organization and not of a community focused organization. Feel free to prove me wrong, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I'll answer this but I'm currently out for breakfast and I don't think my phone is going to cut it. :P

We do a TON of other events year round. There are only a very small handful of other furgroups NATIONWIDE that do a even a sliver of the regular events throughout the Year that MNFurs does. And that amount of events is only going to increase

The community and our weekly/monthly activities is still VERY important to MNFurs. Not every Board of Directors member is tied up with the convention.

As VP of MNFurs my primary focus is all of the "non-convention" events that MNFurs puts on. Picnics, Bi-weekly meets, alternate Bi-Weekly Meets, Community nights, Bowling, Movie nights.

Sure, I help out with the con as a photographer. But I only help document it, I have ZERO role in deciding where the convention goes or what the convention does. My focus is on everything else outside of the Con and as long as I am the community lead it will remain that way.

We incorporated as a Non- Profit NOT just for the convention. Sure it is there, but a good example of another reason we incorporated are for events such as the Winter Carnival which at this point is not possible to participate in unless we were a Non-Profit (Winter Carnival changed their rules to make it prohibitive for any "club" that wasn't incorporated to participate in the Parade a few years ago due to Liability reasons).


.

I am well aware of the winter carnival rule changes, and how you guys botched it up two years ago because you didn't understand the insurance. Seriously, $20 is enough for anybody to meet their new requirements.

You say the community is still important to you, and then you list a bunch of events which for the most part require little effort. Events and meets alone do not define a community though. What about the actual community itself? Perkins has been too small for a very long time. To adjust a portion of the community chose to start meeting at other venues nearby. Most of these people consider themselves part of mnfurs, yet you make a point of stating that they are not. However, it is in fact you that sets the schedule for this other groups gathering. Whenever you reschedule the meets, they are also rescheduled. You call their gathering unofficial, but they are still attending your meet!

And what kind of community organization does not let all of it's membership vote for it's leadership? People have to PAY before they can vote. 20 volunteer hours, which is worth $160 at current wages. Why is this such a bad thing? Because you have placed a measurement upon the community that assigns people value based on how much they support you. Countless times I have heard your community members dismissing other people because they don't volunteer, or they didn't go to the convention. People have walked away from you because they feel excluded or undervalued. Other local groups have sought assistance elsewhere, because you have made it prohibitive to work with you. The fact that you refuse to relay info on what other area groups are doing unless they go through you, even if the info would be beneficial to some members of your community, speak magnitudes about exactly how important community actually is to you guys.

One last thing.
[quote]There are only a very small handful of other furgroups NATIONWIDE that do a even a sliver of the regular events throughout the Year that MNFurs does.[/unquote]
Can you actually back that statement up with numbers, because I know it's a pile of bologna that mnfurs leadership states to try to lift yourselves up above the common fur.

We are actively looking for an alternate to Perkins. Our goal is to provide rotating meets in different areas of the metro. We just had an alternate meet at the Machine Shed in Lake Elmo and are actively investigating alternate meet locations. But its not something that happens over night and many locations, just like Perkins but even more so, are too small for our group. The Machine Shed has been a Diamond in the rough so far.

But needless to say we are still looking. We are much more then Perkins regardless what you and a handful of others may think...

I have to be honest Cyber. Everything your committing to saying is severely impacting how others see you as an individual. Over the course of nearly 2 years I've been in the background reading, showing my neutral support here and there and trying to at least give some insight to your opinions and rather one sided mind set. I'm not even part of the board, I'm a furry in the community who at some times gives his time to help others, because I give a shit, and because I'd rather my actions speak, not text speak for my opinions or ranting one sided journals to do my talking.

This entire reply you gave to the journal shows how unmoving and close minded you are as an individual, its not a means of attacking you directly, I am however going to be brutally honest with you.

Having moved here in 2011, I saw the forming and meetings of the MNfurs board and grouping of friends and very special and awesome individuals that helped bring together what we have today. The general dramas and "He said she said bullshit" is totally normal and honestly not that surprising given what the community has been able to do for others as a whole.

Over the course of the few years that I've "heard" about you and honestly never saw you. I have to say that your opinions are that of someone who just reads the bad, never the good. The forum lurking looking for that "AHA!" I knew it was all a hoax!
You have got to get out of that slum mindset and look at everything the community has done to try and shine a better light on the furry fandom, from giving to Minnesota as a whole, to giving those kids at the Komo zoo a smile and a hug so that they can have a brighter day. Its the small things that yea, EVERY other furry community does. So what? To be honest I haven't heard of other fur groups doing the things that MNfurs has done over the first 2 major years of its inception. Not to mention how successful starting as a first year con a group could manage.

It's obliviously obvious how much you despise the word CON for the MNfurs group as you wanted to try and piggy back your idea into moving the con date into doing a September camping get together that exploded wildly out of control on the forums nearly 2 years ago, not to mention the self destructive journals you've left behind here and there over the course of the years since then.

I only hope that you look at these responses from someone who is NOT a part of the board, and quite honestly hasn't even attended a furmeet in nearly 1-1/2 years, not as a showing that I dont give a crap about the community, but at least I give credible insight and opinions on where things really matter.. Not bash it with a rusty 200 year old spoon hoping to find the hidden buried treasure that never existed.

Paying $160 dollars is a really childish gab by the way. Saying that people HAVE to fork over money to the community in order to be heard? Dude, really? Its obvious people are hearing you. Just probably not in the way you might have wanted. You do not need money to be heard. Actions speak volumes, and so far all the actions from you are just..

I want to end this reply with saying that this is my own opinion on the matter. I went to this journal to reply to how awesome things have been going, only to scroll down to a grumpy reply from someone who gave up on the matter years ago.. only to try and get the new year started with more drama and unclosed issues.

Honestly, I'm hearing a lot of anger here but not much substance beyond, "I'm angry and I'm condemning you no matter what".

"Events and meets alone do not define a community though. What about the actual community itself?"
Perkins is too small, I agree with you. We are investigating other options. People have been gathering at Caribou for years (I have gathered there for years!). Minnesota Furs, the organization, does not have any sort of agreement with Caribou on using their facility, however we never stated that going over there makes you, "not an MNFur". We have folks who just go to Perkins. We have folks that just go to Caribou. And we have many of us who bounce between the two. We are all members of the community.

"And what kind of community organization does not let all of it's membership vote for it's leadership?"
Before we can tackle this we need to think about that word and how to define it. Membership. Who can vote? Can someone who just walks in from off the street who has no knowledge or opinions (and no involvement at all in furry before that point) have a right to vote for the group's leadership? I am assuming your answer to that would be no. It's not fair. So the issue becomes that of defining who can vote. Our organization decided that in order to vote, being that we are a volunteer driven organization, that volunteering in some way was key to that.

"People have to PAY before they can vote. 20 volunteer hours, which is worth $160 at current wages."
No one has to pay anything. But you do have to give. You have to care. You have to get up and be a part of something. And getting these volunteer hours is so easy. Here are some options to get the hours:

1. Attend our monthly community meetings
2. Help out at a Minnesota Furs event
3. Help out at Furry Migration
4. Help with other nonprofits - here are some examples
-Anime Detour
-Humane Society
-Convergence
-Como Zoo

There are so many ways to get hours. 20 volunteer hours does not equal $160 at current wages because that's the spirit of volunteering. People do not "volunteer" because they get money. They volunteer because they want to help support a cause.

"Countless times I have heard your community members dismissing other people because they don't volunteer, or they didn't go to the convention. People have walked away from you because they feel excluded or undervalued."
Honestly, this feels like we are talking about you. I'm more than a little confused how someone who hasn't been a part of the furry community (not mnfurs but furry in general) has heard from multiple members of the community that he has denounced in his own journals, regarding anything. In your own journal from your FA page you say:

"I have become a bit jaded with the furry fandom in general. My interest in furry hasn't changed, but I've gotten to the point where I'm not trying to interact with anyone now. I keep getting the same message from the fandom and I've grown tired of hearing it. I don't pump out porn of my character, therefore I'm not worth knowing. Not that there is anything wrong with porn, but when that is the only metric used to start interactions in a fandom you quickly give up on trying to break through that barrier."

That paragraph right there displays just how out of touch you really are regarding this fandom.

Okay, done with breakfast! And fully caffeinated.

My thoughts on this:

You walked away from the fur group right around the time that we were first getting incorporated. So it's been a few years. And as an outsider who doesn't go to meets or any of the events, you are making a lot of assumptions. When we first incorporated, yes, there was a lot of focus on the convention because it was something our community had been wanting for many years. And we wanted to get things right. A lot of time was spent drafting a convention charter outlining what we were setting out to do. In addition to Furry Migration, we still have the biweekly furmeets, spring and fall picnics, bowling, and we do nonprofit work with the community's help at places like Como Zoo, Petco, and the Winter Carnival to name a few.

A lot of what we provide our community, and what I'm most proud of, is something that takes place behind the scenes. This subject usually takes place behind closed doors because of it's sensitive nature. We have a lot of great individuals in the local furry community. These individuals are successful, ambitious, fun loving, silly, crazy at times, and well... furry. Sometimes we are on the same path and at other times we are on different paths, however we are all good people trying our best to get by and make our dreams happen. Unfortunately there are also some unsavory individuals floating around out there. Individuals who, through their publicly recorded actions in the past, are a danger to our community. We keep these individuals away from our events so that we can ensure a safe and fun environment for our members. This is one of the biggest responsibilities of any social organization. It's not always publicly talked about, but out of all the services an organization like ours provides, safety of those in the community is the most important factor.

When you look at all that Minnesota Furs provides, there is always room for improvement, but overall I believe we are being successful in our mission. 2015 looks like an exciting time and we have many small tweaks and changes we are working on which hopefully we will be able to share with people very soon.

I need to get ready for work, and with this being my clopen night I won't be able to reply until later tomorrow. You've managed to put a bit of misinformation in there though. I doubt you are intentionally being misleading, you have a strong desire to prove that furries are better and tend to color your statements with that viewpoint. I'm just going to let you know that if you want to convince me with an argument, you need more facts than opinions.

Happy New Year, buddy! May it be a good one. And I wish you all the best with your plans.

Happy New Year! May the odds be ever in your favor!

Happy New Year Aerak, may it be nothing but success and happiness for 2015 :D

To sum up everything,, there is no other group in the country that offer meets, get-together's and events and is as organized as MNFurs. Of course it's Minnesota. You wouldn't expect anything less.

Happy New Year from us: &
It was nice to see you at MFF!

Here's to a happy and safe New Year for all of us, Furry, Therian, and regular Human alike.

P.S.

Aerak, as a new-ish member to the community, allow me to thank you for all the Board has done, and is doing, for the community.

Happy New Year!

And thank you!

I'm going to address your slander first.

I wanted the convention just as much as anyone else. I was working just as hard as anybody else was on making it happen. My plans were a bit bigger than what most other people had though. Unfortunately, when things went into motion my plans were stepped on. I was foolish enough to try to convince you guys that the community would benefit from making an adjustment and was branded a traitor. However, I never said I didn't want the convention. I don't think the convention has to be melded in with the community, but that does not mean I don't want it to exist. Anybody who ever told you I didn't want the convention was wrong to do so. Please stop trying to make it sound like I don't want the convention.

I never walked away from the community. For a long time I was only able to go to meets and events because I had made an arrangement with work. A time came when that arrangement had to end, trying to keep going to meets started to impact my health. I was going to help you out as best as I could from a distance, but then things happened that prompted me to sever my official connections with the organization. (I'll get back to that point later.) I did not walk away from the community though. Very few people could work with my crappy schedule and I'm grateful to the few who did. I worked hard to change my work situation and I was able to do so recently. I was dealt a bad hand this year though and found myself in bad health. I'm still trying to recover, but I'm better than I was. I've actually been planning on going to a meet for a few weeks now, the schedule change in December pushed the meets onto my work weekends, but in two weeks I'll be able to go again.

I don't claim that you haven't accomplished things. I don't claim that you haven't done good things. I don't claim that you aren't successful. I DO claim that you have made some mistakes. I was clumsy with my approach, but the point I was trying to make earlier was how does a list of your accomplishments erase the mistakes that you won't address? I have also not done a very good job of explaining the mistake that I have seen. The mistake that prompted me to sever my connections with the organizational aspects of the community. The flaw in your structure that I cannot support.

One of the first things you did after incorporating was remove someone from a volunteer position. For the sake of avoiding added argument, let's just assume here that you were justified in taking that action. So what's the big deal with removing somebody from a position? There are other volunteer opportunities, I don't question that. All the same you diminished this person's ability to gain those hours. It probably wasn't enough to keep them from getting 20 hours, but it is possible that it could have. It is the fact that the board can have a direct impact on the election process through their oversight of volunteering that I take exception with. This isn't just a theoretical possibility, you unintentionally did it already. I know you will say that it's a needless worry, that the board would never do such a thing, but why leave this exploit in place? I did give you the tools for an alternative method. There are other ways people can show their investment in the group. I can explain if you're interested, just let me know when you see me. If you don't care just don't ask. No promises that you won't hear about it again though.