Do you think southern California needs a convention to replace Confurence?

i think it needs a very different approach and a very different set of priorities though. i don't know if such a thing would be possible down there. maybe L.A. basin attitudes are just not conducive to the kind of perspective that would be needed.
i suppose if everyone down there who is able to do so wants to come up here for a little air and enjoy furcon or conifur i guess that's cool too. and i'm sure a lot of furs will say that anyone who can afford to live down there can afford to travell. it's this that i rather suspect might not be entirely the case.
even in the highest cost of living places there are ppl who find ways to survive very modestly. is it rational for austentation to be such a priority as to exclude them?
another minor question:
what becomes of the ursa majors
are arraingements being made for furcon or conifur or maybe anthrocon or somecon somewhere to host them?
at any rate i fur one sure hope so.
i'm not sure i fully understand the approach to conventions that is being taken down here.
when i was up in the northwest for a decade emersed in the sciffy community a couple of decades ago in pre furry convention days, the cons up there were run by concoms who were subsets of well and broadly established fandom bases. organizations with large memberships that held frequent periodic meetings, in some simple and inexpensive meeting room, monthly or even bi-weekly. then the seperate not for profit convention corporations would have for that year who ever was elected to the convention committee for that year from a large pool of opperating experience. keeping from year to year only the name, p.o.box and articals of incorporation.
chainges of venue and date were quite common and con attendance never suffered from them. i'm not sure i remember any two years in a row any of them were held at the same hotel.
the other thing that distinguised them was that the emphasis was always on the theme of the genre and never on little green pieces of paper. and to the best of my knowledge none of them ever failed to meet expensis. (which it does seem to me that holding costs in line is a reasonable element of doing so) i seriously do not believe the combination of avoiding unneccessary expense, and staying focused on theme, with a track record of meeting expenses at the very least, is any mere coincidence.

Not so much a convention as a furmeet. A gathering a furs w/o art show and dealers den, low key and fun.

Let Confurence stand as a historical example as to how *NOT* to run a furcon.

I would like to see something to eventually replace CF, but _not_ if it's under the leadership of the dopes who made the con what it was.

I'd like to see a comment on this that isn't anonymous.

I'd like us to always have an option of "undecided" in all polls from now on. ^_^

I personally like diversity in lots of things. I enjoy both small cons and big cons. Personally, since I don't live in California, I don't think I have much of a right to express an opinion about whether or not California needs or could use a second, smaller, more relaxicon type event.

But that's just me.

I think Southern California needs fans who want to contribute to the convention, not just fans who think that the convention exists to pay them something.

Fewer and fewer fans showed up at staff meetings over the last few years, and more and more demanded free memberhsips... less sponsors, less attendees, more demands. It simply doesn't add up.

When I suggested staff T-Shirts a couple years ago, most of the staff members said it should be free. Well, there went $1000 out of my pocket. Then, when I insisted that Saturday at the convention be Staff shirt day, some of the staff shredded their shirt and wore it under their gothic garb with just the front pocket logo showing. (stupid ingrates.)

My opinion: So.Cal furry fandom needs to grow up before it has its own convention again.

There is something of a movement now to form a Board of Directors of a new organization, which is what I suggested at this year's convention should happen. *IF* such a board is able to form, can demonstrate that it can fund itself, and is willing to have me as an advisor (not as a Director or the chairman, though; I refuse to take the reigns) then I will license the name "ConFurence" to that board, and there may yet be another ConFurence.

I will not foolishly allow someone else to get dragged down the hole like I was, though.

All this talk about there being too many fans here to *not* have a convention, but if that is true, where's the support? Why did Glen Wooten and I have to both Load *and* unload the artshow panels ourselves? Why, after plenty of notice, didn't anyone show up in San Diego to help out? When I loaned the panels to ConDor, there were plenty of helpers. When I loaned the panels to Conjecture, there were plenty of helpers there, too.

I will gladly get behind and help if a new group forms to continue ConFurence. Do I think that it will happen, though? Probably not in 2004, but maybe afterward, yes. Maybe this is the Wake-up call (or "Grow-up" call) for So.Cal furry fandom, and maybe, just maybe, the fans will hear it.

Do I think that SoCal *needs* it's own convention? No, although it certainly *wants* one, I don't think it needs it.

--Darrel.