The Eurofurence Forum
Eurofurence Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Dhary Montecore on 19.01.2012, 22:53:42
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Ladies and Gentlefurs!
Are you a regular congoer? Would you be interested in some information about developments in the convention/event scene in Europe? Then we have a little announcement to make!
For years the security teams of Eurofurence and Confuzzled have been working partially together and exchanged information when necessary. Due to the reputation that both teams earned during the last years, the staff of some new conventions and events came to us, asking for advice or even for help. This way a network of friends began to form, friends that are responsible for the safety of furries at large events. During that development the desire to improve communication within this ever growing group became stronger, and the demands for professionalism and knowledge increased significantly. Until this day we gave our very best and we were praised by people like Uncle Kage or Cheetah and honoured as “the best security ever” at EF. This led many of you -who attended Confuzzled or Eurofurence in the last years- to come to us security guards just to thank us and flatter us even more with your kind words. In the name of the security teams of Confuzzled and Eurofurence we'd like to say thank you to all of you! Those moments make all our effort worth it!
Nevertheless it isn't easy to maintain the high standards we've set for ourselves without proper means of information exchange. The call for an “Information Backbone” for our security teams eventually ended in the idea of connecting all security teams of the events we work on.
After more than two years of preparations and work we proudly introduce to you: The project MI:3!
Experience gathered during the last years at the participating events has shown that keeping a furry convention/event safe is not only a tremendously responsible job, but also differs a lot from security work outside of the furry-scene. Therefore reliable teams consisting of members of the furry community are necessary to ensure the safety of all attendees, without interfering with the “normal” furry-behaviour. Unfortunately this also means that many members of the security teams are not trained to be security-guards and hence need to constantly learn and improve their own skills in that matter. Basically MI:3 strives to support all members of security-teams at fandom-events in that regard.
The MI:3 project was originally started by “Codewolf”, “Gyroplast” and “Dhary”, the leaders of the security teams of Eurofurence and Confuzzled. During the early planning stages of the MI:3 group, Drayygon, chief of security for ScotiaCon, also joined in and the name MI:3 was born. By now the LondonFurs-Meet as well as the Frantic Eufuria are also protected by MI:3 teams.
With the creation of MI:3 we have established an umbrella organisation for all furry-event security teams throughout Europe, combining our efforts, knowledge and experience to optimize our work for our community. To achieve this, the project provides shared communication platforms, knowledge and databases as well as shared personnel pools. This way the security teams of Eurofurence, Confuzzled, ScotiaCon, LondonFurs and Frantic Eufuria share information, experience, resources and even personnel. With this project we hope to further improve the security -and our service- to our community at events, and allow our teams to work more closely than ever before.
We believe that the positions afforded to us acting as a security team for furry events is a privilege, and one in which our personnel must act responsibly, and expect to be accountable. These are values we feel have not been adequately promoted amongst furry security teams at some events in the past, and one of our goals is to help change this. To that end, we will be offering our experience and personnel to other events in future, as well as accepting applications from other security teams to join MI:3 as part of a wider effort to build better security teams for our community.
For you as an attendee of one of our serviced conventions or events, this will simply mean that you will see even nicer and better informed security guards than before(or hopefully you won't see them ;)). Our goal is your fun and enjoyment and we will do everything we can to make your furry experience even more enjoyable and safe.
If you have any questions or if you just want to give us some feedback, feel free to contact us here or via our informational website https://www.mi-3.eu/
Thank you for reading, we hope to welcome you at one of our serviced events soon!
-MI:3 team
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Excellent news to be sure, I'm sure a lot of people will be delighted that there are those who are willing to give up even more time to making things run safely at conventions.
Thanks guys!
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This is history in the making and super-cool! I know that's how the Dorsi Irregulars (who do security at e.g. AC) were formed, since doing security as SCi-FI conventions and other such events was very different from doing it at the local bar.
I think many great things will come from this! :)
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I wish you a lot of success with this! I really hope this is going to benefit all of us. But I also hope you guys are aware that you have to be very careful about your public relations :) So whatever you do - stay reasonable. Stay realistic. Stay pragmatic. Stay open. And especially: Be humble. I can totally relate that you're all rather proud of your idea and your project. But nothing stirs more distrust than authorities acting overly boastful - especially if it happens before the project has actually begun to "deliver", if you know what I mean :)
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Thank you for your kind and supportive words, everyone! We'll surely face a lot of unique challenges in the future, but ultimately, all we want to do with this project is to improve and professionalize what we're already doing, every man for himself, as a community.
I would love the MI:3 to become less of an "operative" business like the Dorsai, and more of a helpful community composed of individual teams all across europe, maybe even world-wide, in which we share our experiences and establish a certain standard to rely on, and to serve as a guide and help out with "veteran" security volunteers for fledgling events which are still struggling with their organisation.
Yeah, I think I'd like that. :)
Of course I've been anxiously considering the sociopolitical ramifications (I KNEW you could use that phrase in a normal sentence!) of starting such an ambitious project, and we'll try our best to not be utter dicks.
Please slap me hard if that fails, before everything goes down the drain thanks to someone powertripping. ;)
Gyro
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Of course I've been anxiously considering the sociopolitical ramifications (I KNEW you could use that phrase in a normal sentence!) of starting such an ambitious project, and we'll try our best to not be utter dicks.
Please slap me hard if that fails, before everything goes down the drain thanks to someone powertripping.
Yes, beware: Ambitious Authority can lead to Powertripping, that most insidious of Psych Bugs (and now we have used the other!).
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i was once steward on a anime convetion and its hard work; i hope you project goes wel becase when in fails it wil have major probles for cons in the future
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Hi,
as a visitor of cons on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and living as an alien in Germany with experience in international projects (and scars to proove it) I feel the need to point out: be totally aware of sociological and cultural differences when teaming up internationally. Do not take everything for granted, do not think you understand each other just because you both speak the same language. Especially "safety and security" issue are starkly different, I noted. I consider continental european conventions to be more easygoing than ones of anglo-saxon origin. Examples may be like that electrical equipment being tested for OSHA compliance on site in the UK, in Germany not. Or some of the suits I saw in Germany may be cause for a ban in the UK (or USA) for being too "liberal" (spell: sexy :-) or otherwise dangerous).
my 5 cent. Wishing your project all the best
Ragear
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Ragear: Tell us some news... (http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS6f_em7U_5YewsqSPu7ZjeZkBfvTNSDSgimXwTju5AOq-Qu0dJ)
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Health and safety regulations do differ from country to country. But I don't think security teams are going to be dealing with much of electrical safety unless they are told to stop people wandering around the cabled areas whilst being set up.
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We really thank you, here in the forum and all the others that congratulated us for this step!
Even though this project lives on the experience of more than a decade of security service at furry events in all of Europe, we take every word of advice from you serious. If things work out like they seem to do, the public won't see or hear anything from this anyway.
Regarding the laws: The informational backbone of our project includes databases with all the relevant laws for every country/state we work in. Let's hope that our high goal of serving our community will work out. We will do our best to live up to the trust and the high reputation our teams have earned. Thank you all for your kind words. :3
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I wanted to visit the site that the OP mentioned but Firefox begins to whine about a unsafe security certificate. Is it safe to visit the site?
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I wanted to visit the site that the OP mentioned but Firefox begins to whine about a unsafe security certificate. Is it safe to visit the site?
Yes, it is absolutely safe to visit the website. That issue with the certificate is known and unfortunately not avoidable right now. :3
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I believe this team up. Was in mind to expand and share of expertise and train new members in our too quick grooving cons. Where interaction of furry community and public is in-avoidable.
And protect us from some public individuals whom would like take personal "FUN" of anybody from furry fandom due their difrerence (tails, ears, suits, exc.... )
I think this requires certain observation skills and experience who are gain by years of observation and expertise to be in position of Con Security or Fursuit Spotter.
Believe by Mi:3 group now more people can learn these skills and build them up by sharing his observation and make any spotter aware of the threads.
Keep good work.
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The concept scares me a little (in an orwellian kind of way), but at the same time I have complete trust in Gyroplast, Dhary and Codewolf (don't know Drayygon personally).
Good luck with your efforts, and steer clear of drama at all times.
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It's not really orwellian. It's more like a staff exchange programme - teams learning form each other and sharing manpower. The same goes on in other departments between cons - they usually just don't come up with spiffy names for the cooperation :)Ö