FCN is no more

[pmart]

Furry Connection North, the world's 8th largest con, is not returning for 2014, citing "it was only supposed to last 5 years" and "it got too big for us to manage."

My take: this was always Gir Tygrin's con, and he's mostly dropped out of the fandom at this point but would rather not have someone else in charge. He hasn't held any Ann Arbor meets, which used to attract upwards of a hundred people, in a few years. As long ago as August 2011, he was considering pulling the plug on Michigan's primary forum (until more money came in, of course). FCN was more or less his last connection (ha!) to furry.

But, from a staff member:

The size of attendance wasn't the issue. The problem was the event had become too much of a strain on the personal lives of Nik and Gir, and they refused to put themselves through the stress anymore. When they both stepped down, a few other staff members did as well, myself included, and nobody volunteered to pick up the reigns. There was talk amongst the staff of training some new blood to keep it running, but it just didn't seem feasible.

[magus]

The quote, and the take, are both correct. Gir, for whatever reason, has been seeing the con as a huge stressor in his life, from what I hear, and wanted rid of it. He seemed to distance himself from the con this year, and that plus some strategic personnel losses (people are getting the hell out of Detroit, imagine that) caused this year to be a bit of a mess. With those losses, there's not a whole lot of talent to take over. AC, for all its flaws, does this right, there's someone understudying to take over at pretty much every upper position. FCN, with free beer on tap and perhaps the flashiest dances of any con, was a party that got out of hand, not a well-run convention. I think this year saw a fairly hefty attendance increase, so it certainly wasn't loss of membership.

The one thing that's mostly forgotten at this point is that originally it was only *half* Gir's vanity con. Originally it was Gir and 2's vanity con, when they lived together, and just before 2 went off to his *massively* successful standup career in LA. (cough) Amazingly, his first attempt at a vanity con lasted three times longer than the second, in a much smaller community.

[pmart]

Welp, the shitstorm is beginning.

A staff member who was against discontinuing the con, who knew about the decision before it was announced, tells me that nobody was given the opportunity to take over. It was essentially not on the table, which is the opposite of the official line of "nobody wanted it." That seems to be the common belief now.

Aaaand now, at least 3 different groups are attempting to plan an FCN replacement meet/con in April 2014. I've heard "hotel meet in 2014, back to a full con in 2015." I've heard "new con in Dearborn." I don't know what the third group is saying or who's in it, and I can't keep track of who's in which of the other two. Apparently no significant number of FCN staff is in any camp - they're all mostly people with no con staff experience.

Facebook event page for your viewing pleasure: https://www.facebook.com/events/383930785068809/

On top of all that, Great Lakes Fur Con is starting in Grand Rapids in 2014, which is looking like an Antheria-level bag of unprofessionalism, and they've already tweeted that they may move to that second weekend in April for 2015.