#NorthUKFurs

The poll regarding the Manchester meet date has now closed. The final outcome was for the Manchester meet to be moved to 12th May, with the Sheffield meet remaining on 30th June.

Source: UKFur Forums (Registration required)

In view of the declining attendance at Chester meets in recent years, and ConFuzzled clashing with the usual Manchester May meet weekend (26th - 27th May), it has been proposed to move the Summer Manchester meet to the end of June, Summer Sheffield meet to the end of July and Winter Sheffield meet to the end of January.

The Manchester main meet organisers have set up a poll on the UKFur Forums (linked above) seeking opinions as to the preferred date for the Manchester meet, and whether Chester should be replaced with another location permanently, or if we should go with a five town/city rotation.

That's all well and good but doesn't particularly address concerns of Sheffield meet attendees, though I appreciate there's a significant degree of overlap, as changing the schedule at short notice is likely to leave people out of pocket, given the need for people travelling reasonable distances to attend to make travel and accommodation arrangements quite a way in advance to obtain the best price. (Note that your Editor has a vested interest in this, having already booked a non-refundable hotel room for the traditional Sheffield meet weekend. -Ed)

On the grounds that not everyone follows us on Twitter or has an account over on the UKFur Forums, here's a list of provisional dates for the meets in 2012. These are subject to confirmation by the various organisers, so keep an eye out for updates.

Main Meets:

• Chester: To be confirmed due to lack of interest
• York: 25th February, 28th August


• Liverpool: 31st March, 29th September
• Leeds: 28th April, 27th October


• Manchester: 26th May (Clashes with ConFuzzled), 24th November
• Sheffield: 30th June, 29th December

Newcastle Meets:

• 1st January
• 5th February
• 4th March
• 1st April
• 6th May
• 3rd June
• 1st July


• 5th August
• 2nd September
• 7th October
• 4th November
• 2nd December

Manchester Mini Meets:

• 14th January
• 11th February
• 10th March
• 14th April
• 12th May
• 9th June


• 14th July
• 11th August
• 8th September
• 13th October
• 10th November
• 8th December

I think it's fair to say that the NorthernFurs website is past its prime, having had the same basic design since late 2005, so I figured it's about time we had a makeover, and that's where you come in.

Sadly, I don't have the web design and art skills of Miyabi and ppb, so the end result won't be as stylish as the LondonFurs site, but with a budget of 75p and a packet of Rolos, what d'you expect? :P

Seriously though folks, I've made this post to get your input as to what you'd like to see on the refreshed site, given that very few people use the features that already exist.

Originally published on The UKFur Forums. You can comment here or there.

Just a quick reminder for those of you attending the Sheffield meet this weekend, that the WHOLE of Sheffield City Centre, inside the Inner Ring Road, is classed as an Alcohol Restriction Zone.

What this basically means is that if a Police Officer or one of the City Ambassadors (who are authorised persons for the purposes of the Order) catches you drinking alcohol in public, or catches you with an open container of alcohol in public, they can confiscate it from you and you could potentially be fined up to £500 if convicted.

It's that time of the year again, when we invade Sheffield for the first of the Summer meets. Once again, Sil is organising this meet, so if you've got any questions ask him. If you've been to a Sheffield meet before, you'll be familiar with the plan, but here it is as a reminder:

More details can be found over on the NorthernFurs website.

The Plan

Saturday 26th June:

11am - Meet up in the main "lobby" area of Sheffield (Midland) railway station, near the main departure boards. If you can see the tram tracks, you're on the wrong side of the station, so cross back over the footbridge to find us.

11:30am - Head to our venue for the day. Once again, this will be the Old Queen's Head next to the Interchange.

4pm - We depart from the venue, usually splitting into several groups for food, cinema and a stroll to the Peace Gardens (assuming the weather's nice!)

6pm - End of the day's activities, with folks going their separate ways to Hotels, home, etc.

Sunday 27th June:

Noon - Meet up outside Sheffield (Church of England) Cathedral, by Cathedral tram stop.

1pm - Head to the café in the Millennium Galleries/Winter Gardens for tea, cake, and other such goodies.

2pm(ish) - Head to the Peace Gardens to relax, and decide what to do from there. Groups generally split off to go to Meadowhall, the cinema, or just potter around town.

NB: The whole of Sheffield City Centre inside the Ring Road is an "Alcohol Restriction Zone". If you have an open container of alcohol in public, you're liable to have it confiscated and could earn yourself a fine of up to £500.

When:
Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th February 2010

Where:
York

Info:
Meet up at the train station between 11am and 12pm. Other details have yet to be finalized.

More info can be found at http://www.northernfurs.org.uk/

When:
Saturday 20th February 2010

Where:
Sheffield

Info:
A quiet coffee meet in the heart of Sheffield, we'll be meeting up at the station then heading off to the Old Queen's Head pub.

More info can be found at http://forum.ukfur.org/index.php?showtopic=21614

Familiarise yourself with the Manchester meet rules. If you see anyone breaking the rules please report to SkaPup the Husky, Little Wolf, myself or meet volunteers DarkOverOrd and Meeko.

Saturday 9th

By 12pm - Meet up at train station

By 12pm (and no later) gather up at either:

1. Inside Piccadilly train station; outside platform 1 & 2 and near where the train timetable board is
2. Or if the police move us on, outside the main entrance where WHSmiths is near
3. All else fail, straight outside Eden down Canal Street

Have someone's mobile phone number in case you turn up late and find nobody there!. You can even private message me if you wish to obtain mine! Look for a group wearing tails and rectangular badges with their furry fursona on it. If you're new I suggest you introduce yourself rather than stay quiet and go unnoticed.

After 12pm - Eden Bar


The meet venue is where furs will be hanging around for most of the day. For January I have booked Eden bar down Canal Street. The booking cost us nothing, so be polite to the staff!. We'll have a large portion of the room to ourselves, with regular customers at the front end of the venue. The reason why we're not in Crunch2 is because I wish for our meets to have a change of scene. Eden is a pleasant looking venue, though it's slightly more orientated around food. I'll look into them having some seating arrangements. The music won't go blazing loud in the evening, the place looks quite social and drink prices are average. Food is pricey so I suspect most will be eating out anyway. We have the place till around 7pm (or was it 6?).

You can relax, drink, make plans with friends to go shopping, where to eat out, etc. Please remember that activities are not forced upon the whole group, it's entirely up to individuals what they wish to part-take in. If you're in need of something for you and your friends to do I can provide suggestions or feel free to ask in the thread.

Small side note: I won't actually be at the meet till after 3pm, since I'll be on the train making my way back from Peterborough. I'll be leaving it in the capable paws of Dark, Meeko and I'm sure Tracker can lead the way.



Here are a couple of things happening this month, if you have anything you wish to add please tell me.

1pm - Pizza
Tsubaski

Tsubaki will (presumably) do his usual group trip to get cheap pizza from a local take-away, yum.

Midday - Fursuit walk

The fursuit walk happens at some point midday, traditionally around the 3pm hour. This is presuming it does not bleeding rain. I suggest you check the weather reports the day before packing your fursuit. Otherwise you can fursuit inside the venue. We've got consent from the bar that people may use the toilets to change, so please keep it orderly. Please keep awareness of what's going on if you wish to not to be left behind.

Don't forget to treat the fursuiters and their fursuits with respect. It's bad enough for them fearing the general public pulling their tails and startling them from behind so they don't need it from with the furry group. If the fursuit walk goes ahead I'll have some volunteers to look after them.

After 6pm - Cinema
Stuart Otterson

I'll take some people to the cinema to catch a film.

I'm not sure there's anything good out, though we could catch Sherlock Homes as directed by the legendary Guy Richie. I'm happy to debate over suggestions.



At the AMC cinema we could go for either the 6pm, 7pm or the latest at 9pm.

To make life easier on me I suggest we set off half an hour before hand. Please gather outside EDEN!!! <--- I cannot stress this part enough.

At this point the meet usually winds up. The number of people in the bar do drastically shrink, so don't say I didn't warn you! After the film some of us may return to the bar.


Sunday 10th

By 12:45pm - Meet up

Meet up at Picadilly train station, outside platform 1 and 2. Have someone's mobile number if you turn up late.

What we do is largely up to whoever turns up. We'll probably start by hanging out at TV21 Cafe bar.

I'm open to a shopping trip or whatever tickles your fancy, just purpose something to me on the day.

Familiarise yourself with the Manchester meet rules. If you see anyone breaking the rules please report to DarkOverOrd, Meeko or myself.

This will be our last mini of the year. Over the last 2 years that I've been socialising with the local furs in Manchester, much as changed; people have come and gone, more coming than going though, the venues have rotated, traditional activities have emerged. There's definitely a large social mix and many different friendship groups who take the opportunity to get together once a month and hang out. I hope this carries out into the new year and beyond and that we carry on being a tight knit, well connected local community, providing hospitality to those new and always have fun among like minded anthropomorphic fans.

So lets enjoy the last mini meet of the year and celebrate being part of the local Manchester fur community!

Saturday 12th

By 12pm - Meet up at train station

By 12pm (and no later) we gather up either:

1. Inside Piccadilly train station; outside platform 1 & 2 and near where the train timetable board is
2. Or outside the main entrance where WHSmiths is near
3. All else fail, straight outside Apotheca down Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter

Have someone's mobile phone number in case you turn up late and find nobody there!. You can even private message me if you wish to obtain mine! Look for a group wearing tails and rectangular badges with their furry fursona on it. If you're new I suggest you introduce yourself rather than stay quiet and go unnoticed.

After 12pm - Apotheca



The meet venue is where furs will be hanging around for most of the day. There you can relax, drink, make plans with friends to go shopping, where to eat out, etc. Please remember that activities are not forced upon the whole group, it's entirely up to individuals what they wish to part-take in. If you're in need of something for you and your friends to do I can provide suggestions or feel free to ask in the thread.

An explanation on why we're in Apotheca inthe Northern Quarter instead of Crunch2 in Canal Street can be found on the forum.

NOTE: I will be asking volunteers to donate £1 towards the booking fee.

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Here are a couple of things happening this month, if you have anything you wish to add please tell me.

1pm till around 2pm - Christmas Market Crawl
Stuart Otterson

I'm personally planning to relax at the bar and concentrate on socialising, but I'd be happy to take people round the Manchester Christmas market if they wish. I'm reluctant to go to the stalls at Albert Square as past experience has shown it to be stupidly crowded which can make the ordeal frustrating. There are however other stall locations, including Anne Square and the triangle which I know the location of.

1pm - Pizza
Tsubaski

Tsubaki will (presumably) do his usual group trip to get cheap pizza from a local take-away, yum.

Midday - Fursuit walk

The fursuit walk happens at some point midday, traditionally around the 3pm hour. This is presuming it does not bleeding rain. I suggest you check the weather reports the day before packing your fursuit. Otherwise you can fursuit inside the venue. We've got consent from the bar on previous meets that people may use the disable toilet to change. Obviously if a disable person needs it I trust you'll be kind enough to give them priority, but since lately we've been using the upstairs bar, the chances of such occurrences diminishes. Please keep awareness of what's going on if you wish to not to be left behind.

Don't forget to treat the fursuiters and their fursuits with respect. It's bad enough for them fearing the general public pulling their tails and startling them from behind so they don't need it from with the furry group. If the fursuit walk goes ahead I'll have some volunteers to look after them.

6pm - Chinese Buffet
Stuart Otterson

To round off the last Saturday mini meet of the year, a group will head to the Chinese buffet. Which one is a matter of debate though. It'll likely cost just under a tenner for evening prices. Feel free to head with friends for an afternoon priced buffet though.

8pm - Cinema
Stuart Otterson

Anyone with money left can head over to the Cornerhouse to catch a film.



This month we're going to watch Where The Wild Things Are directed by Spike Jonze!

The showing will be at 8:30pm, we'll start leaving around 8pm.

For anybody wishing to go earlier with some friends at the AMC there's 5:50pm and 8:50pm, Odeon 7:15pm and 6:20pm at the Cornerhouse near Oxford train station.

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Sunday 13th

By 12:45pm - Meet up

Meet up at Picadilly train station, outside platform 1 and 2. Have someone's mobile number if you turn up late.

What we do is largely up to whoever turns up. Nexas cafe has in recently months become our traditional hang out where we can relax in the arty farty Northern Quarter.

At some point - Urbis Expo
Stuart Otterson

I will take a few people to the Urbis where they have free expeditions on Hip Hop, the history of Manchester television and the Curry Mile currently on show. The Urbis is located near The Printworks and Arndale shopping centre.

3pm - Gamerbase
Zion

Zion is interested in heading to Gamerbase located underneath HMV. Gamerbase has a load of computers connected over a LAN network and filled with a number of popular video games.

Late - Mandy Moo's and Dry Bar
We'll might have a little drink at Mandy Moo's if people are after a milkshake and then we'll probably retire the night at Dry Bar in the Northern Quarter, relaxing and wishing everybody a happy Christmas and a grand new decade! Peace and love!

Full details can be found on the forum thread.