Squeak! We've been somewhat quiet for the past month as we work on things in the background. First, our 2016 Election Year Survey is going presently, https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RS6YTVK if you'd like to participate. Second, we decided to wait to do the new order of towels until a bit further into 2016. We're working on a couple somewhat expensive logistics problems at present - and don't want that to affect the run of towels.

There is a reason behind every warning label applied here. Our events - like many furry events - are sometimes the first exposure to the community some people get. Sometimes we forget this and do things without consideration. We like to get together and have fun - and we tend to have the best time of it when our events lack the following:

Weapons
Drugs (Catnip. Not Even Once)
Smoking (this can be done outside most venues)

We ask that you follow the instructions from us and from the staff of the venues we do events at. For instance, fursuits may not always be allowed due to safety and access concerns.

Only a couple more weeks until The Pool Party! Will we see you there?

Let it be known should you hear these words upon thy eyeballs that this is The Official Pool Party Agenda. We are standing up to Big Water and getting splashed a lot. All events over Halloween Weekend will be cash only, so please be prepared. A portion of proceeds will be donated to charities like Shriners Hospital for Children.

Our weekend-long campaign begins on Friday with The Bounce House of Representatives:
Where: Pump It Up, 9665 Allen Blvd in Beaverton, OR
When: 8pm to Midnight on Friday, Oct 30th, 2015
Dress Code: Fursuits and Kigus work best; but clothes are good too (changing space at the event).
Cost: $15 cash paid upon arrival (there is no ATM at the facility).
Music: "https://twitter.com/earvelvet" (twitter)
Food: Order and pay through Pump it Up before 8:30pm, delivery will happen about 10pm.
(Food is not mandatory of course, and usually a group goes out for a late dinner afterward).
Water is available (in cups or from drinking fountains on site) - please look out for yourself and your buds and stay hydrated.

Whistle Stop Tour
What: The Pool Party will be having a Whistle Stop Tour about as long and as complicated as its candidate, Baphnedia.
Where: Oregon Railroad Heritage Center, 2250 SW Water Street Portland, OR 97214; Parking is under the Martin Luther King / 99E bridge, near Caruthers Street.
Dress Code: Regular clothes or costumed; the conference room is our dedicated changing space.
Cost: $15 cash per person, plus bring an extra $5 for your train ticket.
Public Access: This event will be taking place in a public space; so opportunities for photos with small humans is possible. Some members of the public will be debarking from the train during our event.
Photos/Video: The Oregon Railroad Heritage Center reserves the right to take photos or videos of our group for their promotional purposes. If they think we're cool enough, that is.
Agenda: This takes place on Saturday, October 31st.
Early birds can enjoy the Gift Shop, which willbe open until 5pm and may stay open a little late for us.
5:00 pm: Guided group tours of the museum & changing space become available.
5:30 pm: "The Time To Change" if you are going to be in costume for the Whistle Stop Tour. Train returns and debarks near the museum.
6:00 pm: Whistle Stop Tour: Train embarks on a journey down the track to Oaks Park and back again.
6:30 pm: Train returns from Oaks Park to get debarked. So... no barking?
7:00 pm: We conclude with getting food somewhere and for those of us going swimming - returning to the hotel.

Ice Cream Social
Where: Cold Stone Creamery 11286 SW Scholl's Ferry Road in Tigard, OR
When: Starting around 1pm, ending when the last hug is given.
Dress Code*: We aren't recommending fuzzy attire around ice cream.
Cost: Generally less than $10, unless your appetite is like Baphnedia's.
Diet: Cold Stone has all the food groups covered: Candy, Chocolate, Caramel, Cookies and Cream. ^^
* We're not taking over the place; it is a public place.

Mark your calendars for Halloween weekend because the Pool Party is going to scare up some fantastically frightful fun.

You can now make reservations with the Hilton Garden Inn Beaverton whether you’re staying from out of town or you want to be as close to the fun as possible. Special Pool Party room rates start are effective Friday, Oct 30th 2015 to Sunday, Nov 1st 2015. Current taxes at the hotel are 10%.

The Pool Party Room Rates (not including tax) are:
$119/night for a single king bed
$129/night for a single king and sofa bed OR 2 queen beds
$149/night for a single king and bedroom suite OR jacuzzi suite

To make your reservation, call 503-439-1717 and provide the group name “The Pool Party”. Hurry because the reservations close Friday, October 2nd. Don’t miss out on a great stay near the best weekend of events in the Pacific Northwest!

This won't be a long post - our short attention span will see to that. ^^

Recently, a police incident involving a pool party down in Texas became big news; here we're not going to get into specifics of the incident - the video speaks for itself and all who see and study it arrive at their own conclusions. The Pool Party cares not how much melanin one critter has in their skin when compared to others. We do not care what species you are (unless we think you should be a giant inflatable for future pool parties!). We don't care about what bedroom activities you're into. But, we'd like to take this a little further than stating what might become the same ol' bland statement of equality. When we can afford to outsource more thinking - hopefully we'll be able to write something more fun.

Getting back to the reactions we've seen to the video, or to many other events that are centered around sexism, racism, fetishes and all that; we see too many working to frame the problem and to convince us of the consequences we should make the perpetrators feel (whomever they are). One phrase left unsaid by both sides is "You're either with me, or against me." If someone raises a logical point - they get demonized by the vocal minority of one (or more) of the sides fighting over a particular issue.

Our founder had a hard time imagining a worse world under George W. Bush, but sometimes reality is worse than fiction. It's like the conflicting voiceboxes of the internet chose to exemplify one of the worst behaviors of the former President and Anakin Skywalker with this "with me / against me" crap. Just because I'm an airhead who already asks others to think for him doesn't give you permission to think for me when I don't desire your thoughts.

Keeping a logical separation between what you witness and your judgement of who is doing the thing is huge. It allows those reading or hearing your words the rational ability to arrive at their own conclusions and take actions that are appropriate to them - including conducting further research or asking questions if they so choose. The distinction is educating (about an event or issue) by means of discovery, rather than by means of rote. Perhaps through this and less obvious means we can trade out the bonfires of drama with something better.

If this post maddens you, go find an inflatable and blow lots of air into it. ^^ #onetrackmind

- Baphnedia

Hey! We're looking for more feedback for the 6th Legislative Session; to help us airheads remember what we did right and learn what we might do better next time. Before we forget.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3RZFBZR

We are beginning to post events on Meetup for the next Legislative Session of The Pool Party. These events will be happening the last weekend of April and links will appear below.

FurlifeNW:
http://www.meetup.com/furlife/events/221048963/

Rose City Furs:
http://www.meetup.com/RoseCityFur/e.....nts/221048972/

FurGather:

There are some things that we're looking for help with for the 5th Legislative Session of The Pool Party (Feb 5-10th, 2015). The event is just a little over a month away.

For this next session of The Pool Party, we are looking for the following:
1 Privacy changing tents (at least one). We'd like to use it at both the bouncy castle place and the hotel, and possibly for fursuit bowling.
2/ Giant friggin fans. Macro furs included? Mainly for the bouncy castle place; while we can open up the doors in the back to help let in cooler air, it doesn't get very far. To help keep us cool (especially suiters), we ask for at least two of these awesome fans.
3 Fursuit/Invader handlers. We are quickly learning that when on bouncy castles, most of the suiters jump right in and we're in an environment that normally we wouldn't need handlers. Given how active the event is, we would like two or more handling volunteers; checking with the fursuiters if they need water, watching for fursuiters who get stuck on the big toys, and maintaining a mobile water supply to get water where its needed and handling other things as they come up.
? We're ready to hear your suggestions too, as the event is coming up soon. If you would like to volunteer, please comment or send us a note. We didn't simply inflate ourselves one day and POOF there's an event.

EDIT: We lost our venue and no longer have the hotel. So, disregard the hotel details posted below.

To our squeaky clean constituents,

The following sessions of The Pool Party will commence next year (these are the room block dates):
5th Legislative Session: Feb 5-10th, 2015
6th Legislative Session: Apr 23-28th, 2015
National Convention: Oct 29 - Nov 3rd, 2015
These events will take place at Shilo Inns PDX Airport in Portland, OR.
To make a reservation, please mention that you are a part of the group, The Pool Party. Please call the hotel to reserve your rooms as soon as practical at 503-252-7500. Our group rate is based on the number of people in a room:
1-2 people: $94/night
3 people: 114/night
4 people: 134/night
5 people: 154/night
(this price includes selected complementary breakfasts or discounted breakfasts at the hotel restaurant)

Squeak!

The blank towels were dropped off at the printers today, and we were told a 1-2 day turnaround on the towels. Depending on what else our founder is going through this week, we are happy to offer him some distraction in the form of getting things done.

Those who already ordered towels will receive theirs in the order that... well whomever inflated our egos the most will get their towels shipped first. :) We'll get shipping quotes as our next step.

Also, our dear leader will be checking in with our hotel for events in 2015. We'd really like to get our room blocks reserved before January 1st and announce event dates all around.

What are you up to?

Hotels these days just aren't prepared for the amount of fun in the pool we have, be it at conventions or at one of our own sessions. Why be a wet sopping mess freezing your way through the hotel to your room to dry off when you can bring your own banner of support for The Pool Party with you?

Our towels cost $20 each and will ship towards the end of November. The order form can be found here: http://goo.gl/forms/uU9GnvRomm

Have a fun, air-filled day! :)
- The Pool Party

So, we see now what the towels look like when the fibers aren't all nice and lined up... https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1i4VJ6CYAAuYwK.jpg In some ways, we kinda expected that, but would prefer a thicker towel for its usefulness.

So! We're preparing to open orders soon; just have to set up an order-form-thing. All this takes way more smarts than a pooltoy has any right to have! *cries*

Before we forget to mention this, some event times are more flexible than others. Times not in bold are written in Furry Standard Time. Times written in bold are more set be the venues we are having events at.

Lodging, swims, etc at Shilo Inn PDX Airport
11707 Northeast Airport Way.
Portland, OR - 97220
Happy Hour (at the restaurant) is 4-6pm daily, some meals tend to be had there.
Complementary or discounted breakfasts tend to be had too, just in the morning before 11am.
If you fursuit at the hotel, please stay away from the restaurant/bar area and away from the pool area (as this makes the staff nervous). Otherwise, it is OK to fursuit at the hotel (checked with the weekend manager today).

The Pool Party Agenda:
Friday Oct 10th:
6:45 - 8:45pm: The Pool Party Storms The Bouncy Castle
Pump It Up Beaverton, OR
9665 SW Allen Blvd Ste 110
Beaverton, OR 97005-4809
DJ Recca will be spinning at this event. :)
A "donation" of $15 may be paid to Pump It Up (cash or credit card) or to Baphnedia (cash or contact him for Paypal details).
Dinner: TBD
Late night swim?
Saturday Oct 11th:
10am Breakfast (hotel restaurant)
1:00 - 4:00pm Fursuit Bowling at 20th Century Lanes
3550 SE 92nd Ave, Portland, OR 97266
Evening / Late Evening Swim (pooltoy games?)
Sunday - Tues: More of an open schedule, as many folks will be departing during this period. Baphnedia will be away from the event much of Monday, Oct 13th but doesn't actually check out of the hotel till Tuesday morning.

We're just a bunch of pooltoys here; but we are trying to figure out how many towels to order, and such. :)

The latest ballot for us with short attention spans is here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BGGSHHS

Be sure to study hard! ^^

Best of luck,
Baphnedia

TL;DR Give us money. We want to do cool things with it. :)

We are open-minded about spreading inflatable ideologies everywhere; and not limiting The Pool Party to the area around Portland, OR. We are better at balancing needs than many others; mainly due to our wide fin base; and thought long (but not very hard) about how to make our legislative sessions more affordable and accessible while involving those who squeak at us from great distances away.

It now appears that we have a plan. Campaign fundraising. Disclaimer: the words to describe the process may be completely inept and inaccurate (from any legal standpoint) as we are doing this for fun. So, less seriously; here's what some airheads and those who hug us came up with:

The Plan! I almost forgot it already! (remember to insert an airhead joke here)

With each donation, we ask for a suggestion of a subject for us to add the item to The Pool Party (bouncy castle) platform. Each agenda item will be as thoroughly thought out as our airheadedness allows, and posted as a new journal. Here's how choosing the subjects work: out of the pool of suggestions, one will be chosen at random. Inappropriate or unfit subjects will not be chosen. But we will still take your money. :)

# Donors -- Political Agenda Items:
1 -- 1st Agenda Item
3 -- 2nd
6 -- 3rd
10 -- 4th
15 -- 5th (and so on)

The second part of The Plan is as follows:
For this fundraising period (now until midnight, September 15th 2014), every $50 raised for writing political agenda items will reduce the cost of something relating to The Pool Party by $1. So, the current priorities are as follows:
#1: Towels, currently $25ea, we want to get them down to $15ea.
#2: Bouncy Castle Invasion, currently $15ea, we want to get it down to $10ea.
#3: Banquet Room for a Fursuit Frolic / Fursuit Games / Inflatables / We Don't Know What To Call This Yet Halp!
#4: Making the 5th Legislative Session of The Pool Party better now.

How to donate:
Use Paypal to send louis.lamp (at) gmail.com the donation and include in the note what you would like us to write about. Soon thereafter we will write a journal and post it here on FA on one of the subjects chosen. What do you want us to squeak about first?

*squeaks*

Whenever pooltoys hit the pool - you know the kind - inspiration and amazement ensue, regardless of age. The questions usually are "who makes these/where did you get them?", "how much do they cost?" and "may I (or my kids) use them?" Not necessarily in that order.

I may be full of myself (well, that or full of hot air), but when one mother gave us a bottle of white wine after we let her kids play on the toys for awhile in the pool... it really dawned on me how much such a quaint thing - pooltoys in the pool (those inspired by or created by furries) - would have an effect. From all this, I feel better about what I'm doing, and will strive to continue to do so. :)

This may also be known as The Pooltoy Agenda. For our party, we try to put everything in the same bounce house. The agenda is short like our attention span.

1. We will inflate the economy.
2. Patch kits need to be readily available to every species strata.
3. We will conquer our enemies with a floatilla of sea dragons.
4. We want to research and test adaptive petrochemical technology to make rising ocean levels more fun.
5. "Trickle down" economics can move aside for splish splash economics.
6. The Squeaker of the House's primary duty is to go around the room giving puffs and hugs.
7. Regular bouncy castle raids are a necessary and healthy part of life.
8. Our party is growing.
9. Fusion power is awesome; so is its byproduct: helium.
10. Pot heads get 'baked'. We get high. (on helium!)

Major editing and adding in online room reservation (since our room rate is ~$45 less than their normal rate): This is copypasta from the revised Meetup descriptions and the quality of the copy is better than cheap knockoff inflatable toys...

The Pool Party swells with new constituents and make us a force to tip elections (or tip waitstaff and sometimes pooltoys). This October join us as we storm the (bouncy) castle, go fursuit bowling (if available), and climb on political platforms (pooltoys, not soapboxes) in the... ok, well the pool.

The Pool Party Agenda:
Room Reservations:
1. Go to https://www.shiloinns.com
2. Scroll down and choose the Portland/Airport location
3. Once it brings up the Portland/Airport location page, scroll down again until you are able to select the correct dates. Under “PROMO”, please enter the group block number of 10120654168 and click on new reservation. This should bring up the rates for The Pool Party.
NOTE: The pool, hot tub, steam room and sauna are open 24/7 and the hotel welcomes large inflatable toys. Select breakfasts are complementary and dinner costs little at the hotel if ordered during Happy Hour. Access to the pool area requires a hotel key card.

Be a part of our ground forces as we Storm the (Bouncy) Castle! For this event, $15/person is asked for (since we reserve the facility for just ourselves). This event takes place in Beaverton, from 6:45 - 8:45pm on 10 October, 2014. Baphnedia will ask for donations to help cover his costs for this event of those he knows are attending (there is an RSVP list he is keeping, so if you plan on going, let him know!).

Fursuit bowling for Saturday, Oct 11th, is in planning stages at time of writing.

This event is extended until Tuesday morning, as a few of us (Baphnedia included) work graveyard shifts presently and by extending it helps us enjoy our offset weekends to the fullest. If you have any questions please contact me! I look forward to seeing you!

*squeaks!*
Baphnedia

The Pooltoy Seal Of Approval is given for The Fourth Legislative Session of The Pool Party, now that room reservations are able to be completed online. The steps are:

1. Go to https://www.shiloinns.com
2. Scroll down and choose the Portland/Airport location
3. Once it brings up the Portland/Airport location page, scroll down again until you are able to select the correct dates. Under “PROMO”, please enter the group block number of 10120654168 and click on new reservation. This should bring up the rates for The Pool Party.

What questions can we answer for you? :)

We found a 'really good' weekend where there weren't a lot of major nearby furry events in Canada over Columbus Day weekend for the Fourth Legislative Session, to take place in Portland, OR. The reason for this is that Columbus Day in the USA takes place during Canadian Thanksgiving. Go team.

So, we didn't want to create an extra burden on our Canadian constituents, we decided to do one or more informal legislative sessions in the pool at Rainfurrest, somewhat dependent on the weather. We're going to try to figure out what days and times we're aiming for (so that we're not overlapping too many major con events), because overlapping seams are the best - we are told that overlapping events isn't the best thing to do. :)

The sessions will be partly based on how busy folks are and the weather; we will announce them through our Twitter account, The_PoolParty. What questions have you?

Questions we've been asked recently:
Why do you have such thin skin?
Are you really full of hot air?
Do you have that new vinyl smell?

The Pool Party swells with new constituents and make us a force to tip elections (or tip waitstaff and sometimes pooltoys). This October join us as we storm the (bouncy) castle, go fursuit bowling (if available), and climb on political platforms (pooltoys, not soapboxes) in the... ok, well the pool.

The Pool Party Agenda:
1 Get your room reserved!
1a Room block for "The Pool Party" is open for reservations!
1b Earliest check-in date: 9 Oct 2014.
1c Latest check-out date: 14 Oct 2014.
1d Room Rate: $94.00 for 1-2 adults (+$20 per extra adult).
1e For further information, please ask Baphnedia or the hotel (venue information should appear below).
2 Be a part of our ground forces as we Storm the (Bouncy) Castle! For this event, $15/person is asked for (since we reserve the facility for just ourselves).
2a This event takes place in Beaverton, from 6:45 - 8:45pm on 10 October, 2014.
2b To pay ahead of time, please contact Baphnedia and he will send you his paypal address. Once paid he will send you an invite to get on the bouncy castle facility's RSVP list for the event.
3 Fursuit bowling for Saturday, Oct 11th, is in planning stages at time of writing.
4 The pool, hot tub, steam room and sauna are open 24/7 and the hotel welcomes large inflatable toys. Select breakfasts are complementary and dinner costs little at the hotel if ordered during Happy Hour. Access to the pool area requires a hotel key card. This event is extended until Tuesday morning, as a few of us (Baphnedia included) work graveyard shifts presently and by extending it helps us enjoy our offset weekends to the fullest. If you have any questions please contact me! I look forward to seeing you!

*squeaks!*
Baphnedia