# FC2012 June Newsletter



## frysco (Jun 8, 2011)

*Further Confusion 2012 : The Infurmary*
June 2011 Newsletter

1.  New Venue, New theme
2.  Announcing our first Guest of Honor - E.E.Knight
3.  Launch of the _FC2012_ Themed Website
4.  New Reservation policy and a message from our chair
5.  _FC2012_ Pre-Registration is Open!  Now Fully Online!
6.  _Further Confusion 2012_ Dealer Room SOLD OUT
7.  Furry Market Place spaces go on sale August 1st, 2011
8.  Music Track
9.  Next Staff Meeting
10. For 'would-be' Staff


*1.  New Venue, New theme*

The theme for _Further Confusion 2012_ is "The Infurmary (For a limited time
every surgery comes with a free prize inside!)". It will be held at the
San Jose Convention Center, from January 12th through the 16th 2012, with
the San Jose Marriott and the Hilton San Jose as our main hotels and the
St. Claire as our preferred overflow.


*2.  Announcing our first Guest of Honor - E.E.Knight*

_Further Confusion_ is pleased to announce that E.E. Knight will be one
of our Guests of Honor. Mr. Knight is known for his "Age of Fire" series
of books starting with Dragon Champion, which chronicle the adventures of
a race of talking dragons. It is unique in it's story as the books are
told from the dragon's point of view. Mr.  Knight has also written a
series called Vampire Earth.


*3.  Launch of the FC2012 Themed Website*

This coming Saturday (June 11th) at noon Pacific Time, we will be
launching our themed website for this year. Many thanks go out to Narumi
and Krahnos for working on bringing our theme to the website!


*4.  New Reservation policy and a message from our chair*

This year we are moving to what may be our final home at the San Jose
Convention Center just one block from last year's location at the
Fairmont.  We have secured the site for the next 3 years on the Martin
Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.  This new location holds promise with
more programming space, indoor parking, and two wonderful hotels attached
to the property.  The San Jose Marriott and the Hilton San Jose will be
our main hotels continuing with the St. Claire as our preferred overflow.
All in all, an outstanding move.

So that we can continue to offer the best attendee experience the
convention, hotels, and venue can provide, we must make a difficult but
necessary change to our hotel room registration process and policy.

We are now currently accepting hotel reservations for _Further Confusion 
2012_.

At the time of registration each person will be immediately billed their
first night's room and tax for each room reserved.  This will be
considered a non-refundable deposit and will not be returned in the event
of cancellation.

This tough decision is necessary to help mitigate room holds that are
released shortly before the convention start date and after the room block
has closed.  Conventions such as ours are granted concessions and program
space based on how many rooms are filled over the course of the
convention.  Once the room block is closed if someone releases interest in
a room it counts against our room block.  If enough rooms are released,
which has happened, the convention is liable for those rooms and must pay
for them.  The costs can be very high which can diminish the ability of
_Further Confusion_ to offer world class amenities to our deserving
attendees.

_Further Confusion_ is asking that attendees reserving rooms within our
block carefully consider their reservation before making it. If you are
making a reservation with a debit card for example, your bank account will
be deducted the first room night and tax immediately and no refunds will
be offered.  In the event of a cancellation no further charges will be
made beyond the first night and tax.

Please consider your choices carefully as you reserve!

Contact hotel_@_furtherconfusion.org with any questions about this policy.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.


*5.  FC2012 Pre-Registration is Open!  Now Fully Online!*

You can pre-register for _Further Confusion_ next year with our spiffy new
online registration system!  Just follow the directions to the online
registration system at the top of the Registration page our web site and
then enter your information.

Pre-registration is $45 for regular attendees (through August 31st, then
the price will rise to $50), but you can also pre-register at the sponsor
($100) or patron ($200) levels.

Since this is a new system, it's going to look a little different to what
you might have used in the past (but may be familar to some).  The big
benefit is that you'll be able to work out whether you've pre-registered
or not at any time of the day, just by logging on!  No more worried emails
at the last moment wondering if you remembered to pre-register or not -
the answer will be just a few clicks of the mouse away!

First, create an account with your real first and last name, and then you
will be asked to set up a security question that no-one else can answer.
The first time through, you'll also be asked to give your contact
information, but when you've done that once it'll be there from year to
year.  Then pick the membership type that you want, and how you want to
pay.  Currently, you can choose to either mail in a check or money order
with a form that you print, or you can pay instantly online through PayPal
(which also works for credit cards).  Coming soon, we'll also have a
separate credit card option for those people who don't have a PayPal
account.  Watch this space!

It's not all automated, of course!  If you have any questions, you can
still talk to a real person by emailing registration_@_furtherconfusion.org.


*6.  Further Confusion 2012 Dealer Room SOLD OUT*

Yes, once again we sold out after less than one month from when we opened
the application process. All spaces are currently taken and we have a
considerable waiting list.

All NEW applications made for a Dealer Table through the on-line process
will be put on the waiting list and will NOT be guaranteed to get a table.

If you applied for a dealer table BEFORE May 19th and have not gotten an
email from us (especially the email that confirmed that we received your
application), then it is possible that the email from us has been
considered SPAM by your ISP or Email provider. PLEASE check your spam
folders for email from jethric [at] comcast [dot] net. We have also been
sending them from my alternate email of jethricvadel [at] gmail [dot] com.
Only the very first email is sent from a furtherconfusion.org email
address. So make sure your spam filter has furtherconfusion.org, and my two
email addresses whitelisted or you are never going to see any email from
me. And that could cost you your table.

We have 17 dealers that have NOT sent in their mail-in signature form that
is REQUIRED for them to get their table.

Their table is still being held for them, but if they do not get that form
in by June 15th, 2011 (this is extended from the original June 1st, 2011
date), their table will go to the waiting list! At the time of this writing
(May 26th, 2011), we last picked up our mail on May 25th, 2011. We pick up
the mail every Wednesday and Saturday.

There are also 8 dealers that HAVE sent in their signature forms, and
indicated they wanted to pay by PayPal or credit card but have NOT done so.
They are under the same deadline as those that have not sent in their form.
If they do NOT arrange payment by June 15th, 2011, their currently held
table will be forfeit and will be released to the waiting list.

We are aware of some MIME issues with the email sent out automatically by
our on-line system. However, I have also sent out email manually to the
above persons. But I have NOT heard back from them. (Those have heard back
from are not included in these numbers.) I will be sending one more round
of email. But I will NOT be extending the deadline beyond June 15th, 2011.

The listing of Confirmed Dealers and 'Dealers in Danger of Losing Their
Table' is now available on the website at
http://www.furtherconfusion.org/fc2012/dealers/dealerlist.


*7.  Furry Market Place spaces go on sale August 1st, 2011*

We will be using the same online application system for the Furry Market
Place as we have been using for the Dealer Room this year. There will be
twenty (20) spaces available. They will cost US$75.00 and come with one (1)
full membership to the convention. More information on this space will
become available on the website in July. At this time we may not require
the mail-in signature sheet, but the same legalities that required it for
the Dealer Room may force us to still do it. Watch the website in July, as
we should know more by then.

The Furry Market Place is a General Audiences Only sales space outside the
main Dealer Room of the convention. All vendors in the Furry Market Place
area are required to set up and tear down nightly as no merchandise can
remain in the space overnight as it is totally unsecured. Limited
electricity may be available but is not guaranteed.


*8.  Music Track*

We are very excited to be back for another year with this fantastic
convention, and can barely contain our anticipation of the promising events
we have planned for the Music Track this coming _FC_. The main goal of this
track is and has always been, to bring more exposure to the ever growing
pool of musical talent that the furry fandom boasts. We will be providing a
variety of educational and instructional panels, musical performances, and
opportunities for musicians to showcase their talents. (More information of
which will be released as time goes on).

A major goal of the music track is to showcase a featured musical artist
each year. We are very pleased to announce that this year, our featured
artist, a Bay Area local, well known for his singing, songwriting and
unique performance style, is Travis Ratledge. Also known within the Fandom
as Colson Grainger, Ratledge was most recently the Guest of Honor for _Camp
Feral 2010_, has been invited to be a Special Musical Guest for for the
upcoming _Midwest FurFest 2011_, as well as being selected as Guest of Honor
for _Confuzzled 2012_.

Colson's unique singing voice, musicianship and outstanding performances,
samples of which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/tratledge, have
earned him a well deserved reputation as a talented and promising up and
coming musician.

We are very excited that Colson has agreed to be our featured artist this
year, and are excited to be able to showcase his abilities to share with
the attendees of this year's _Further Confusion_ in its new home at the San
Jose Convention Center. Come join us for a musical experience that you
won't soon forget!


*9.  Next Staff Meeting*

The next meeting is this coming Saturday (June 11th), and will take place
in the San Jose Ballroom of the San Jose Marriott hotel, starting at 1pm.

For those furs wishing to participate in our staff meeting from out of
town, we will be doing a trial run with a conference bridge at this
meeting, using pro-grade conference phones.

You do not need to be staff to join the call, but we are keeping this
number unpublished at the moment while this solution is in beta: please
contact info_@_furtherconfusion.org for the number, along with what you're
interested in doing for the convention.

(Note that this is a regular number in the Bay Area, and is not toll free -
_FC_ is not responsible for your phone bill)

We will join the bridge from the meeting room a few minutes before the
meeting starts, and will make time for folks on the conference during roll
call, etc.


*10. For 'would-be' Staff*

Are you working with _FC2012_?  Have you been officially hired?  Are you
able to access our private site?  Do you see your name there?

If the answer to any of these is "no" or "Wait, what private site?",
please speak to your track leader or "boss" (ie, the person who hired you)
to make sure your info has been sent in to our HR team and that you've
been added to the appropriate lists.

If you would like to be staff, but have no idea what you would like to do
(or even if you have an idea of what to do), you can contact our HR team
at HR@furtherconfusion.org.


-- 
_Further Confusion_
info_@_furtherconfusion.org
http://www.furtherconfusion.org/


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