Midwest FurFest September Newsletter

We're counting down the days, now, until Midwest FurFest 2002! Read on for all the news and information, including how to register online!***UPCOMING DEADLINES***
Calling all Creative Types
Advertising... It Works!
Gathering Gophers
Reaping the Registration Reward
Handy Habitatation!!! (Hotel Reservations)
Let's Make a Deal!
Campaigning for Charity Contributions
Fun With Fur
Mailing Lists
Contacts

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DEADLINES FAST APPROACHING
September 30, 2002 - Last day to mail in Art Show Registration
September 30, 2002 - Special $30 early supporting membership pre-registration rate ends; $40 thereafter
October 15, 2002 - Last day to submit art and stories for the con book
October 31, 2002 - Last night to make hotel registration for the guaranteed con rate.
November 1, 2002 - Last day to mail in your registration
November 17, 2002 - Last day to register online
November 22-24, 2002 - Midwest Furfest! See you there!

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CALLING ALL CREATIVE TYPES!!!
October 13th is the last date to submit artwork and stories to be used in the conbook. Please, please, please, please (pant pant), PLEEEEASE draw or write something for us! We don't have any real theme-- just "midwest" or "chicago"-- and we want to be able to include as much as possible! This means you need to go RIGHT NOW and work on something for us. WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?! Oh... well, read the rest of the newsletter, and THEN GET TO WORK! :)

Art is preferred in high quality GIF or TIF format, and stories should be sent as text. Both can be sent to publications@furfest.org. Contact publications to get a Snail Mail address if that is preferred.

We are also looking for reporters/photographers for the newsletter this year, you will get gopher hours for the stories and photos you submit. For more information, please email publications@furfest.org.

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ADVERTISING... IT WORKS!
Would you like to submit an advertisement for our conbook or on-site newsletter? For more information, please email publications@furfest.org.

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GATHERING GOPHERS
With Midwest Fur Fest fast approaching, its time for to recruit furry folks to help make this years convention the best convention ever! We need volunteers to gopher for the various departments at the convention, but we only need a couple hours of your time. In return, youd be rewarded for your time with a special gopher button and print made by our guest of honor. For anyone willing to give more than time, we have crash space available, and for individuals willing to give us 10 or more hours, we have registration reimbursement. So, if you are willing and able to help, please email me with the following information:

Real Name-
Badge Name-
The day you can help-
Area youd like to help in-

Some of the areas we need help in are:
-Con Suite
-Art Show (Bag Checker/Set up and Tear down)
-Charity Auction
-Internet Room (Monitor)
-Dealers Room (Badge check)
-Badge check for the dance
-Registration

Hours earned are DOUBLED from 11:00PM to 6AM, so you can earn reimbursement in as little as 5 hours when working the late hours!!!

Thanks so much!
Rachel Dali Hug
MFF Gopher Wrangler
gophers@furfest.org

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REAPING THE REGISTRATION REWARD
Registrations for this year's Furfest have been coming in steadily and it looks like we'll have even more folks this year to share the fun! We just want to pass along a few reminders:

First off, we have online registration! Yay! All you need to do is surf over to http://www.furfest.org/registration and click on "Register Online" and fill out the forms and follow the instructions. You can pay with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, eCheck, and PayPal. It's quick, simple, and you can save the cost of the stamp!

Second, remember that the special $30 pre-registration rate for supporting memberships expires at midnight on Monday, September 30, 2002. This applies to both online and mail-in registrations; online registrations must be completed by midnight (Central Daylight Time), and mail-in registrations must be postmarked by September 30. After September 30, the pre-registration rate goes up to $40 (the same as the at-the-door rate), so grab the lower rate while you can!

Thirdly, have you considered sponsoring at Midwest Furfest? An $80 sponsorship will get you a T-shirt, special sponsor-only prints from our guests of honor, a free convention T-shirt, lunch on Saturday of the convention with our guests of honor, plus some great surprises as well! Not to mention our eternal gratitude and probably some good karma, too.

Fourthly, please note that there has been an important
clarification in the minor attendance policy for Midwest
Furfest. See the Registration FAQ at
http://www.furfest.org/registration/faq
for more details.

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HANDY HABITATIONS!!! (also known as Hotel Reservation information) The hotel is currently taking reservations. Make yours now, avoid the rush, gurantee yourself a room in our luxurious hotel! Hotel information is listed below:

Hyatt Regency Woodfield
1800 E. Golf Road
Schaumburg, IL 60173
USA
Tel: (847) 605-1234

Room rate is $85 a night (mention that you are with FurFest). If you have any problems whatsoever, please report them to our Hotel Liaison.

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LET'S MAKE A DEAL!

The Midwest FurFest Dealers Room is almost filled - in fact, it may be filled by the time you read this. We have a larger room than we had the first two years, with a few new dealers and many returning favorites. A list of dealers who will be at this year's convention, including links to many of their web sites, is available at http://www.furfest.org/dealers . The status of table availability is posted there also, so please check before sending in a dealer room application. Inquiries about dealer room operations or status should be sent to dealers@furfest.org.

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CAMPAIGNING FOR CHARITY CONTRIBUTIONS
Once again, our charity auction will be benefitting Animals for Awareness, a local no-kill facility dedicated to helping exotic animals in need. Please consider donating something to the charity. Artists-- draw pictures. Other creative types, donate a sample of your work. Stuffed animals, books, comics, recipes, computer games, posters, toys, and, yes, even services (please remember that this is a Family Friendy con, though!) are acceptable. Please contact our charity auction coordinator if you have any questions or suggestions!

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FUN WITH FUR
Midwest FurFest is planning its biggest fursuit track yet. This year our Fursuit Guest Ysengrin will help us with everything werewolf, plus we've lined up panels on construction, performance, and fursuit relevant issues and we would like more volunteers to run them. If interested, send an email to fursuit@furfest.org and
we'll talk. Remember, all our participants are what makes programming a success. We also plan to have a fursuit parade, a photo shoot, and a fursuit "dead dog" party at the end of the con.
With the number and quality of fursuiters coming to the con, this year should be a blast!

The Furry Variety Show on Friday night is back (with Robert King directing, just like old times). This event combines the spectacle of the masquerade with the cooperative performing madness of a Vaudeville show. If you have an act, or just would like to join our little vaudeville/sketch comedy show, send email to rcking@enteract.com to get on the fvs mailing list. We'll find a place for you.

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MAILING LISTS
Midwest FurFest has two mailing lists available: MFF-Announce is for official announcements only. You should receive only a few messages per month maximum from this list.

MFF-Talk is a discussion list, a place to ask questions or talk about Midwest FurFest. The number of messages on this list will depend on the subscribers. There is also a digest format available for this list.

You can subscribe to any of these lists by emailing major@furfest.org with any subject, and in the message put:

subscribe mff-announce
or subscribe mff-talk
or subscribe mff-talk-digest

When you subscribe to either list, information will be sent to you on how to unsubscribe, should you wish to do so later. 'Major' (Majordomo) is an automated process, you should not send mail to 'major' other than subscribe, unsubscribe, and other commands that will be explained in your welcome message. Any questions about 'Major' may be directed to puma@catbox.com

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CONTACT INFORMATION:
Art Show artshow@furfest.org
Charity Auction auction@furfest.org
Dealer Room dealers@furfest.org
Gophers gophers@furfest.org
Hotel Liaison hotel@furfest.org
General Info info@furfest.org
Newsletter mffnews@furfest.org
Operations ops@furfest.org
Parties parties@furfest.org
Programming programming@furfest.org
Registration registration@furfest.org
Webmaster webmaster@furfest.org

Other contacts are also listed on our website.

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ANY QUESTIONS? Perhaps our website has the answer! It's being updated by the week, so stay tuned at:

http://www.furfest.org

It includes contact addresses for many MFF staffers too, as well as a "who's going" page.

Midwest Furfest & MFF Newsletter are productions of
Midwest Furry Fandom, Inc 2002