Get Out The Float
The numbers are in for Get Out the Float Seaside 2022 from back in October 27-30, 2022 (yeah, we’re squeaking a little late here).
For attendance, 94 people registered, including 31 event volunteers.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get a count of the number of fursuiters attending or participating in the fursuit parade.
The fundraising for Sunset Empire Parks & Recreation Foundation’s Aquatic Activities Scholarship Fund raised $1,200, about 20% of their 2022 annual budget.
Thank you to everyone who helped make “GOTF 0” or “Our Last Experimental Event” a success. Almost right after that event, the holiday season was upon us, and time flies when you’re having a gas.
First up; we are presently taking suggestions for our next plush run. If you’d like to participate, clicky to take part in our short survey. Voting will commence in early February on our announcement channel Telegram.
Second, we have some plush left and we should conduct an inventory before we re-open orders. If we sell out of Finneus and the blue and purple sea dragons, Baphnedia will have an office with about twice as much space – until the next plush order comes in.
Third, Get Out The Float 1 is scheduled for early February, 2024 in Seaside, OR. We will announce more specific dates once we have a few more details locked in. Squeaking of, we’ll be adding a new category of posts here “GOTF1” for easier searching.
Squeak! We have live DJs for tonight in the Seaside Civic & Convention Center’s Necanicum East room:
Ash Coyote will be at Get Out the Float (GOTF) filming for season 2 of “The Fandom.” Her primary focus will be to focus on the community aspect of inflatables in the fandom.
She will be filming in our event spaces and potentially doing some one-on-one stuff.
Upon arrival at registration, you (attendee, staff, or volunteer) must fill out a media release form if you wish to be on camera for “The Fandom” documentary. You must either opt in or opt out. There is no conditional opting in.
For big groups shots for the documentary, she will blur out faces unless she knows for sure you want to be on camera. Fursuits will not be blurred.
Ash will be making an announcement to the event during Opening Ceremonies, 6-7pm Thursday, October 27th in Necanicum East introduce herself and talk about what her goals are with season 2.
Ash also wants it known that if you at some point do not want to be on camera you are free to approach her and politely ask to be excluded, no one is obligated to participate.
You can check out Ash’s “The Fandom” on YouTube.
(And we keep forgetting.)
Without further ado, we’d like to announce the theme for Get Out The Float in Seaside, 2022.
Send Tweet.
Taebyn will tell you a story and sing you a song at the Get Out the Float this October.
In the independent panel “Storytime with Taebyn,” Taebyn reads you stories. What kind of stories? I guess you’ll have to show up and find out!
If stories aren’t enough, how about “Taebyn Sings Weird Al.” You can already imagine that these are Weird Al’s parody songs.
For time and locations, check out the GOTF Seaside Schedule.
Come Join Bearly Normal and Taebyn for a live recording of their Furry Centric Podcast: Bearly Furcasting Feat. Taebyn at Get Out the Float: Seaside this October.
This weekly podcast has been on the air for over two years, they have recorded from Further Confusion, Biggest Little Furcon, and AnthroNorthwest.
This recording will include audience participation and lots of fun puns and jokes.
The broadcast will be a special release, so come be part of the fun!
Check the GOTF Seaside Event Schedule for time and location.
As a heads-up, our hotel rates are guaranteed for new reservations until Tuesday, September 27th. Please get your reservations in now for the Seaside event!
To register for the room block, please visit getoutthefloat.com/hotel. When calling the hotel, they should be able to add you to the Get Out The Float room block; even if the room block shows as ‘full’, provided the hotel has not sold out of that room type.
To register for the Get Out the Float event in Seaside, Oregon, on Oct. 27-30, 2022, please visit getoutthefloat.com/registration.
First and foremost, our Terms of Service (TOS) are written for an event that is not a furry convention and also not a fursuit charity event. Get Out The Float (GOTF) exists in a space between the two; with the expectations of both, at times. By and large, the number of furries who raise money for charity through interaction with the public is dwindling in comparison to the size the fandom is growing.
TL;DR: Our Terms of Service do not differentiate between fursuting in public vs fursuiting in spaces we are responsible for (such as within the convention center). We will re-tool our TOS after our 2022 event, as there are many variables at play, and the needs and scope of the event are evolving. On our schedule, we will tag events [PUBLIC FURSUITING] if we need you to adhere to the dress code in the TOS. If an event is not tagged as public fursuiting, then we are not strict regarding the fursuit portion of the dress code. If you need to remove your fursuit head because you are overheating – this is a safety issue and is a sign that you need help right away; do not hesitate to de-head in public. A handler will give you water and walk you to the nearest headless lounge.
Malicious coverage of the furry fandom is something many of us have had to deal with on some level or another – for a long time, no less. This post is not written to reminisce about history; rather to give you a deep dive both into our thought process, and why we take the approach that we do, without going into anecdotes or stories into venues that we no longer create events at, such as the one featured above in Baphijmm’s photo.
The public seems to be much more scared, defensive and angry about things that they don’t understand than they used to be. This is in part to the ease at which we can reach wide audiences today and the vulnerability to polarity that exists in both mass & social media that is evident. The act of choosing what we wear (even with regular clothing) communicates to others what communities we are in &/or what beliefs we hold.
In fursuit, we are absolute showstoppers. The public understands cute, fuzzy animals raising money for charity when we’re out for fursuit walkies. Without that additional context, those who do not trust us begin by starting at the worst-case scenario; and things generally do not get better from there.
We stretch the aforementioned public’s understanding by allowing partial suits – so long as no skin is showing. When the suspension of disbelief that what they see is a person instead of a fursona; their reaction is often irrational and extreme.
The public doesn’t understand why a fursuiter might take their head off, or why we (generally) wear balaclavas under our fursuit heads, or the multitude of reasons that we might not be in character every single moment we are in suit.
We’re also not paid performers. This is an area where the norms of furry conventions apply less and the norms of charity fursuiting apply more. Wearing a “complete” suit (whether fullsuit or partial), gives the public context that you are a big fuzzy animal. If you de-head, having someone not in suit bring you water and start escorting you to a headless lounge gives the public context that you are overheating and getting help.
When fursuiting, it is likened to wearing a soft sofa of extra material and the temperature you experience can easily be 20°F or more in excess of what the current air temperature is. We wear balaclavas under our fursuit heads because they help wick sweat away and help us keep cool. Other strategies for keeping cool include battery-operated cooling fans in our fursuit heads and cooling vests that use re-usable ice packs in addition to staying hydrated.
To this end, this is why headless lounges exist; even at furry cons. Fursuiters need a place to cool down and be away from the rest of the event without having to attempt to trek all the way back to their room.
The magic we bring when in fursuit is worth preserving and not casually tossing away. By the same token, that magic is not worth our lives or our health (or the associated medical expenses from an ambulance to the E.R.). We are less formal in our requirements for public fursuitng than charity fursuiting groups but more formal than almost every furry convention.
The fursuiting section of our TOS is especially important when fursuiting publicly. This helps maximize public participation and acceptance of our group specifically and of furries, generally. When not fursuiting in public, we do not need to be as strict. Our TOS will be re-tooled after our 2022 event to better reflect this. In the meantime, we have an event to continue preparing for and this subject may very well be a most compelling subject for a panel. Oh drat! Panels! We umm… still need to make a panel submission form!
In discussing this topic, everyone is usually right about how they are affected by dress codes, fursuiting / full suiting, gatekeeping and many many other arguments surrounding this issue. It is possible for everyone to be right about a subject and encounter massive disagreement.
Our direction on this issue is to pursue what helps the event continue for the long term; this is based on our experience of negative public interactions and venues we lost because of who we are. In the years ahead our community faces the challenge of addressing Furry Panic in public discourse and in the body politic.
We are an LGBT-centric community that presently has the ability to fursuit in public. It is not something that we take for granted; and our emphasis on public interaction with our events is done in the hopes that public acceptance of furries is something we won’t have to think about, someday as well as introducing more furs to charity fursuiting and some of what it entails.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading and understanding.
Squeak! Time is running out for ordering your plush sea dragons and Finneus.
The sea dragons and Finneus online ordering form is closing Saturday, September 10th, 2022. All orders will be processed in the order received.
How can you get your own sea dragon plush or Finneus? Head on over to the Toys store.