[mfm_performance] Skunky Skuttlebutt - Mephit Furmeet Spring Newsletter

[Tyger]

SKUNKY SCUTTLEBUTT - You ain't seen nothing yet!

Mephit FurMeet 2005 Newsletter
http://www.mephitfurmeet.org

NOTE: MFM is not responsible for the content on external websites. Want to
contact a MFM staff member? The web page has the completely directory!

In this issue:
Announcing MFM 2005 and our Guest of Honor
Celebrating Life
Hotel Information
Registration Updates
Need Meeting Space?
Tiger Haven Cookbook Part 2.
Tiger Haven Charity Auction
LAN Gaming
Video Room
T-Shirt Contest
Dealers Den
Program Book
Mailing Lists and Message Boards
Programming
MFM Masquerade
Dance/Karaoke
Travel Information

--=={ 9 Lives, baby!  }==-- 
Entering its ninth year, MFM 2005 will take place over Labor Day weekend,
from September 2nd through 4th.  Our guest of honor this year will be John
"The Gneech" Robey, creator of the webcomics "Suburban Jungle," and the
now-retired "NeverNever."

--=={ Celebrating Life }==-- 
Each and everyone of us has a lot to be thankful for in our lives. We have
friends, mentors, partners, spouses, animal companions that we see every day
or that have gone on to better places. This year at MFM we will, though our
Spirituality Track have something special to remember those that are
important to us. While not something that everyone has to participate in,
this will give those that want to, a chance to remember the happy times. A
chance to say thank you for those special imfluences in our lives. More
details to come soon on this.

For opening ceremonies, we'll once again have a video trip through past
MFMs, which will incorporate the "Celebrating Life" theme.  What we want to
know is what comes to your mind when you hear this phrase.  Email Tyger at
mfmdirector at hotmail.com with your special thoughts

--=={ Hotel Information }==-- 
We will once again be at the Holiday Inn Select Memphis Airport
(http://www.hiselect.com/mphs-int'lapt).
The room costs will be the same as last year:  $89 plus tax per night for
regular rooms, and special rates for suites. (sold out but waitlist started
for suites) We will once again have exclusivity of the hotel for our
weekend! Beginning on MFM Friday we will be the only group in the hotel!

Pricing for the buffets in the Memphis Belle Restaurant remain the same:
$6.95 breakfast buffet all weekend, $7.95 lunch buffet all weekend, $10.95
dinner buffet on Friday/Sunday (all prices do not include applicable taxes
or gratuities). Coffee/Iced Tea/Fountain Drinks are included in the pricing.

So with this announcement, the MFM hotel room block is now open for
reservations! You can make your reservations by emailing hotel @
mephitfurmeet.net or mfmdirector @ hotmail.com or calling Tyger Cowboy at
800-653-6524. Please only book through these means as the hotel won't accept
direct reservations for the MFM rate

--=={ Register for MFM }==-- 
Registration for MFM 2005 is now underway! You can register online at our
website. Please note that this is the only way to pay via credit card for
your registration. Register before July 31, 2005, and you can attend for
$35. That's $5 off the at-the-door price.

SUPPORTING:
Includes a t-shirt mailed to you. Does NOT include a membership for you to
attend the convention but does allow you to pay a reduced price of $20 at
the door for a total admission of $35.) $15

ATTENDING:
Includes a free t-shirt and admission to the ice cream social. Until Aug
1st, 2005, cost is $35. $40 thereafter and at the door.

SPONSORSHIP:
Includes a limited edition print by our GOH, and a special thank you gift.
Cost is $60.

SUPERSPONSORSHIP
Includes everything above AND your print is framed, you get a cocktail party
with the GOH, Rog Minotaur, AND a special Supersponsor shirt. Cost is $100.

You can register at http://www.mephitfurmeet.net/register.php and pay via
credit card through PayPal,  or you can download a registration form at
http://www.mephitfurmeet.net/regform.txt and mail your registration in.

Please remember, all attendees MUST present photo identification (driver's
license, passport, college or military I.D.) when registering/checking in at
the event. There will be ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS MADE. Also anyone under 18
must be accompanied by a parent or guardian or have a notorized letter
giving them permission to be at MFM (email mfmdirector at hotmail.com with any
questions)

Registration will be open until 2 P.M. on Saturday and 12 P.M. on Sunday
this year.   If you arrive after this time, please track down a staff member
and we will get you registered.

One day memberships will be available at the door for $20 per day.  This
will not include a T-Shirt.  We will not be taking pre-registrations for
these.

--=={ Share Your Interests With Others }==-- 
MFM recognizes the diversity in interests among its attendees.   In an
effort to provide folks with special interests with a place to meet and
greet, MFM will allow groups to make use of its unused space, free of cost,
to its attendees.   For more information, please contact Tyger Cowboy.  This
will be provided on a 'first come, first served' basis.

--=={ Tiger Haven Cookbook }==-- 
MFM 2004's Cookbook, "Put a Tiger at your Table" was such a success; we're
doing a second edition!   "Big Cat Cuisine" is tentatively scheduled to be
available at MFM 2005.   If you are interested in contributing artwork or
recipes, please contact Tahamaki.

--=={ Tiger Haven Charity Auction }==-- 
MFM is pleased to be the largest single group contributor for our benefit
organization Tiger Haven http://www.tigerhaven.org and we will be continuing
our efforts to help a very worthy cause. We are currently looking for
donations and also auction assistants...please contact our Auction
Coordinator  - Hikaru at hikaru at ic-stories.com

--=={ LAN Gaming Information }==-- 
Once again this year, MFM will be featuring LAN gaming. Bring your machine
and participate in a free-for-all-furry-fragfest!
The LAN will have (at least) limited Megabit support this year. We'll also
have some new games.  Currently this includes the obvious Half-Life 2 and
related mods like C-S Source, and we'll be playing Armada 2!  There will
certainly be lots of Q3, TFC and C-S.  We'll probably also be playing Quake
2 Co-op(with werewolves ect.) and Natural Selection.  Expect to see other
games as well.  Requests are welcome. We are also planning a couple
exhibition matches you won't want to miss.  More details on these in the
near future.

--=={ Video Room }==-- 
Your loyal Furs from the Video Room are working on putting together a
surprise.
We'll be posting a 'poll' on the homepage where YOU can look over the videos
currently available for the Video Room and vote on the ones you want most to
have shown at MFM this year.  Or, if you have a video that you don't see
posted, you can offer to bring it with you. Hopefully this will allow us to
post the video schedule WITH the program rather then do it on a day-by-day
basis as in the past. Keep your eyes peeled for the official announcement
then let us know your desires.

--=={ T-Shirt Contest }==-- 
The rules for 2005's T-Shirt Contest are:
1) What's up for grabs?
There are three chances for your artwork to be selected for MFM's T-Shirts.
**Attendees Choice - The winner of the Attendees Choice will have their
artwork featured on the front of the MFM T-Shirts.   This is chosen by you,
the attendees (natch).
**Director's Choice - The winner of the Director's Choice will be featured
on the back of the MFM T-Shirt
**Staff Choice - This will be chosen by the staff and be featured on their
staff shirts (This year, we're doing Bowling Shirts)
Each winner will receive a free attending membership.

2)  Who is eligible to enter?
Everyone!  To be fair to all artists, we are putting in a requirement this
year that the winner of the previous year's Attendees Choice will not be
eligible for this year's Attendees Choice.  They will still be allowed to
enter, and may be considered for either the Director's Choice or Staff
Choice.

3) What do I submit?
The overall rating for the piece should be a "G" to "PG" rating - if you
wouldn't wear it in your elderly grandmother's house, don't put it on your
entry! The piece must feature a skunk as the main subject or subjects. It
should also bear either "Mephit FurMeet" or "MFM" as well as the year or
corresponding anniversary number (i.e.: 2005 or 9).

Two versions of the entry will need to be uploaded - one for display/voting,
and a second, higher-resolution piece for use should that entry win or be
selected for other use by a member of staff.

Display Piece: No more than 800 x 600, black and white. This display piece
should not contain a signature to show who created this (We will go into
more detail on this later). Artists need not worry about misuse of their
artwork, as this piece will be watermarked by the staff as being an MFM
T-Shirt Entry prior to being placed on the website for display. The "Display
Piece" should be submitted as a .JPG or .GIF.

Final Piece: This will be the actual artwork used by our printing company to
make the t-shirts, or the staff should your piece be used in any other
function. This finished work SHOULD contain a signature which will appear on
the t-shirt. The recommended dimensions are at least 10 inches high at 300
dots per inch or higher. The "Final Piece" should be submitted in Adobe
Illustrator (.ai) format, although TIFF or EPS will also be acceptable. This
is by request of our printer that it be sent as Illustrator format.

When the artwork has been received, you will be notified within 72 hours
that it was received. If you did not receive a notification within 72 hours,
please do not resend your email, but instead a follow up to see if it was
received and the administrator of the contest just plain forgot *grin*.

4) Display of artwork
Once again, we will be running a 'blind' contest.  We will only display the
title of the piece, not who the creator is. By doing this, we hope to make
the contest fairer by making everyone choose the submission based upon the
piece itself, not the artist. Voting will be the same as in previous years -
commencing for one week, after which votes determined to be ineligible will
be discarded and the design which gets the majority of valid votes will be
the winner.

After voting has finished and the director's choice has been selected, the
t-shirt entry page will be updated with the names of the artist who
submitted each entry.

5)  When do you need it?
Cutoff Date for Submitting Entries is 11:59 PM Central time on Saturday,
July 16, 2005.

6) Other things.
Each artist may enter up to three pieces for inclusion in the contest. The
administrator of the contest shall abstain from voting. The rules for voting
will remain the same as in past years, where for a vote to be valid, the
corresponding email address must be subscribed to one of Mephit FurMeet's
mailing lists. IP Addresses will be logged, and MFM reserves the right to
disqualify multiple votes from the same IP.

7)  Some stuff you need to know (Better read it, it affects you!)
By submitting an entry to the Mephit FurMeet T-Shirt contest, you are
granting Mephit FurMeet and its parent corporation, Mid South and Tennessee
Anthropomorphic Arts Association (MST3A) an irrevocable, non-exclusive
license to use the entry for promotional purposes. The original creators of
the work are permitted to use the work in their own portfolios and
promotions. Mephit FurMeet and MST3A reserve the right to review all entries
and not allow any entry that it deems inappropriate (i.e.: drug/alcohol
references, violent or sexual content, or possible trademark/copyright
violations).

MFM shall in no way be responsible for entries that are lost in transit,
either via email or postal service. If we do not receive an entry before an
established cutoff date, the entry will not be included in the contest.

--=={ Dealer's Den }==-- 
Dealers' tables are available at the following rates: $25 for full table /
$45 for double table The cost of Dealer's Tables do not include Membership.

For more information, please contact Cutter McCoy. Don't delay, tables will
fill up quickly.

--=={ Program Book }==-- 
Want to contribute a story or artwork to our Program Book? Get in touch with
Sheve via email at conbook( @ )mephitfurmeet.net

Want to Advertise in the program book? Great! Here's the lowdown on costs:
Inside the book:
$40 for a full page
$25 for a half page
$15 for a quarter page

Cover Ads (Full page only):
$50 inside covers
$75 outside rear cover

Advertisements should be in black & white or grayscale. Ads can be either
emailed or sent by postal service. Payment for advertisements should be
remitted to our main address (provided at the end of this message) Ad space
will be done on a first-come, first-served basis. To check availability,
consult with Sheve.

--=={ Mailing Lists }==-- 
General chat for those interested in or attending MFM 2005 can be found at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mfm-chat
We also have direct mailing lists for news and related posts regarding MFM.
This information can be found on our website. Also on our website is a new
and improved message board system where you can post your thoughts.

--=={ Programming }==-- 
Want to share your knowledge? If you would like to take on the task of
heading up a panel, email the name and a brief description of your panel to
our programming director, Delphinios.  Contact Information can be found at
our website.

Here are the updates from MFM's Track Leaders:
Spirituality:  Legacy and I are very excited about this year's panel
line-up.  Last year we had great success with "Therianthropy Through the
Ages" and the kitsune panel.  We will be retooling "Therianthropy Through
the Ages" to focus on a particular culture (still to be determined) and
looking at therianthropy within the culture from a historical point of view
before tying it into modern spiritual views.  This year's mythical animal
panel is "Dragons".  The focus will be historical background with personal
experiences added by the panelists.   Also returning this year is the
meditation panel.  We learned a lot about what did and did not work last
year and will be dividing this panel into two one hour sessions.  The first
session will be discussion of meditation techniques and the second half will
be an actual meditation putting those techniques into practice.  We're
hoping for a more comfortable atmosphere in which to do it this year so that
folk can stretch out or lie down as needed.  Suggestions for other panels
are still needed.  Please submit them to either myself or Legacy for
consideration.

Fursuiting:  On track for this year are the Fursuit Social, an informal meet
and greet panel.   All Fursuiters are encouraged to attend and find out more
about the weekend's fursuit activities.  We will also have information on
Fursuit construction and performance, as well as the Fursuit Parade.  Last
year, we had 70 Fursuiters in the parade.  How many will we have this year?
Also don't forget the Fursuit Games! This is an event that shouldn't be
missed! Fun for participants and spectators alike!

--=={ MFM Masquerade }==-- 
As always, no MFM would be complete without the Masquerade! This year we
have a special challenge to our performers to come up with a "50's theme"
act. Let's see just how creative and warped their minds are.

--=={ Dance/Karaoke Information }==-- 
This year's dance will be a prom theme.   Bring a date and dance the night
away.   We will also be doing Furry karaoke again this year.

--=={ Fly, Drive, Stay }==-- 
UNIGLOBE Professional Travel, as the "Official MFM Travel Agency", has
secured for the Mephit FurMeet the following discounts, we will also be
happy to book travel for any of the attendees.

Hotel: The Official Mephit Fur Meet Hotel is the Holiday Inn Select Memphis
Airport. http://www.hiselectmemphisairport.com . The hotel is pleased to
offer a rate of $89 per night single/double/triple/quad occupancy for the
period of September 2nd - September 7th  Like years previous, to insure the
accuracy of reservations, all reservations must be made through UNIGLOBE
Professional Travel.

To make reservations, contact Tyger Cowboy at 314-962-3330 (St. Louis
local), 800-653-6524 or furtravel( @ )hotmail.com . All reservations must be
made through the office to get the MFM discount. The hotel offers a free
airport shuttle and is going to offer the reasonably priced buffets to the
MFM attendees like we had last year. Any questions about the hotel or
accommodations, he would be more than happy to answer!

Car: National Rental Car Systems will provide MFM attendees a minimum
discount of 5% for any rentals used for MFM. To book this discount they
should use the discount number of 5435776. National does not charge an
additional driver fee for spouses/domestic partners.

Air: Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines are the official airlines
of Mephit FurMeet. To book your reservations, (internet bookings are not
eligible for the discount) call Norwest Airlines directly, UNIGLOBE
Professional Travel at 800-653-6524 or email at furtravel( @ ) hotmail.com
and you will receive a 5% discount off the lowest applicable discount fare,
including first class, or a 10% discount off full fare unrestricted coach
fares, purchased 7 days in advance. We will be posting the special MFM code
in the next few days (Northwest had an oops)  An additional 5% discount will
apply when tickets are purchased at least 60 days in advance of your travel
date. Make sure you mention MFM and give Norwest your code when you book
your reservation.