Furnal Equinox: The founding of a furry convention in Toronto.

Prior to Furnal Equinox's establishment, the largest gatherings in the Toronto area tended to be larger furmeets such as the Islington Furmeet and BBQs hosted by Potoroo, which regularly attracted between 50 to 100 people.

It is arguable that the Islington Furmeet which was started by Ki Wind and Dan Skunk was the precursor to Furnal Equinox for it was it's success on June 14th, 2008, that inspired members of the community to think more seriously that a convention would be possible. The first Islington Furmeet brought together artists, dealers, fursuiters and had a dance, video and board games, lunch and dinner.

An Excerpt from Morgan's report on the first Islington meet. http://www.ontariofurries.ca/islingtonfurmeet/1/

As at least some of you know, the dysfunctional social maniacs in the Toronto Furry sorta-organization managed to actually co-operate long enough to organize something big. As a group. With different people doing different things.

I hadn't thought it was possible.

Of course it WAS only one day, and may have been a bit TOO optimistic, but everything has to start somewhere.

Through the summer of 2008, Dan Skunk began meeting with different hotels throughout the city searching for a suitable venue and discussing the process with users on #OntarioFurries

Durring the lead up to Islington Furmeet 2 on November 6th, 2008, Shiro Tora started a discussion on the Toronto Furry mailing list about starting a convention.

I wonder if this was how Anthrocon got started?

North-rocon! Tor-throcon! TorFurCon! someone book the website and the hotels! drinking age of 19; they'll sweep across ther border in droves!

This lead to a long discussion of what would be required to do this that included Dan Skunk choosing the name "CanFurEnce," Pyesetz the Dog designing a logo, and Dan Skunk nominating Shiro Tora as chair which he promptly refused.

On Wednessday, November 19, 2008, Sparrow, Dan Skunk, and Danruk made the first visit to look at the hotel that would eventually be chosen for the convention.

On Saturday, December 2nd, 2008, Dan Skunk created a board on Ontario Furries for people to discuss a convention in Toronto.

We had a lot of discussion about it here before, but we now have someone that has 5 thousand dollars for it and another that said a few thousand wouldn't be a problem.

Several people with experience running conventions have expressed interest in helping run it.

We spend a lot of last night discussing management, finances, and liability.

Looks like it's no longer a question of if it's going to happen, but how we're going to do it.

I've made a board on the web site we could use to collect ideas and help.

I'd really like to see us come together and support this since people are going to be putting a lot of effort into it for all of our benefit.

Eventually Dan Skunk made a call for people who were interested in staffing the convention and who were interested in forming the founding organizing committee.

This lead to a debate over who should be allowed to be involved which lead first to a nomination process and then to pole with each nominee asking the community to be on the committee.

After the pole was concluded, there was disagreement over how to interpret the votes and what threshhold to use to allow someone to pass. Dan Skunk solved this by inviting everyone who had more than 50% in the pole to start working together and this allowed the process to move forward.

The founding organizing committee consisted of Aaeden, Benjamin, Blindsight, Danruk, Dan Skunk, Ki Wind, Pakesh De, Potoroo, Scani, Shiro Tora, and Sparrow.

Dan Skunk organized the first in person committee meeting which was held at the Duke of Devon Pub where Pakesh De was elected chair.

Dan Skunk created polls to ask the community what name should be used and what date it should be held on.

Heather Bruton asked Dan Skunk about the convention at Furry Connection North which also lead to a discussion of the date with Heather Bruton suggesting March because she would be free then so Dan Skunk promoted the idea of March so she could attend and that's the date that was eventually chosen.

After no progress had been made for about 3 months, Sparrow wanted to move forward on things so Dan Skunk concieved the idea of having a small convention in 2010, before the planned 3 day convention in 2011. An idea which was accepted by the committee.

Heather Bruton was chosen to be the first Guest of Honor.

The name Furnal Equinox was conceived by ShiroTora and plays upon the convention's placement in March during the beginning of spring (the vernal equinox).

Furnal Equinox was formally announced to the world on July 1 (Canada Day), 2009 and was promoted at Anthrocon by the committee members in attendance there and by Heather Bruton.

Furnal Equinox was promoted in its first year as "Toronto's First Furry Convention".

In August 2009, Dan Skunk, Sparrow and Danruk were shut out of the committee by the remaining 5 members, Pakesh De, Blindsight, Shiro Tora, Crassadon, and Scani. Dan Skunk was also banned from any further involvement in the convention.

This sparked controversy with Dan Skunk and Sparrow protesting their expulsion on Ontario Furries. Dan Skunk contested that the vote was not valid because the previously chosen quorum of 5 members was not present at the meeting and because Dan Skunk was on a camping trip and not able to be present and Sparrow and Danruk were not consulted in spite of Dan Skunk attesting that they were still quite interested in working with the convention and pleading that Pakesh De talk to them, which he refused to do except for sending them an email informing them of being removed. Dan Skunk also argued that Sparrow, Danruk, and himself were instrumental in getting the convention started to no avail.

Shiro Tora was also removed from the committee at a later date, before the convention took place.

Dan Skunk continued supporting the convention through his web site, Ontario Furries, hosting a forum for them and giving them constructive criticism on their management of space and how to organize the schedule but the relationship between Furnal Equinox deteriorated with Dan Skunk banning Furnal Equinox, Pakesh De, and Shane for insults and slander on multiple occasions.

Dan Skunk also attended Furnal Equinox 2010 and even did what he could to help and complimented them for the convention and showed how his criticisms had turned out to be correct but later protested about some committee members unduly hassling and ignoring him and about Security being sent to stop him from helping set up some chairs after Pakesh De claimed the convention had no responsibility for these complaints.

This lead Dan Skunk to blacklist Furnal Equinox from Ontario Furries.

Dan Skunk, later, in response to an edit war on wikifur with Furnal Equinox claiming he had never been involved in the convention, unsuccessfully attempted to start a boycott of the convention on Ontario Furries telling people to leave if they want to show their support for the convention which lead to the host of the site, Echelon, deleting the entire site without allowing any backups to be made and inviting everyone to join his site, Canadian Furries.

SmashMeerkat, with help from other members of the Ontario furry community who were fed up with Dan Skunk's antics against Furnal Equinox started the web site, Ontario Furs for members of the Ontairo furry fandom.

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