There are less than two weeks left to reserve your hotel room for Conifur Northwest at the discounted rate. Convention attendees who reserve their rooms by September 4 will pay only $99 per night. If you don't reserve your room by that date, the hotel will charge you $199 per night (for the small rooms). If. like most attendees, you stay for three nights, that could cost you $300 more than the discounted rate. Don't delay! Call Sheraton Tacoma/Tacoma Convention Center at (800) 325-3535, and reserve your room for Conifur today! Mention Conifur to get the discounted room rate.

There are also less than two weeks remaining to pre-register for Conifur at the low price of $40! Pre-registration must be received by September 12. You can register for the convention on-line at www.conifur.org. Conifur Northwest is September 26-28, at the Tacoma Convention Center, in Tacoma, Washington. This year’s guests are “Grrrwolf,” artist extraordinarie, and Chuck Melville, artist, author, and editor.

The Fursuit Challenge is back! Last year a band of hearty adventurers took up the challenge: to build a fursuit, from scratch, at the convention. They started feverishly measuring, cutting, sewing, and gluing on Friday morning, and just in time for the Masquerade, they had completed a mascot costume for the convention. They want to try it again, this year's goal is to create a mascot for our featured charity, the Washington State Ferret Rescue & Shelter (WSFRS is a non-profit, no-kill shelter which cares for ferrets in the Puget Sound region). Come join in! That's right, the Fursuit Challenge is a full participation event.

There are still dealer's tables available! Reservations and payments are coming in fast, now, so if you haven't reserved your table, do so right away! You can register at the Conifur website. If you have any questions, send them to [email protected].

Folks keep asking what sorts of events are happening at this year's Conifur. The current version of the schedule, including clinics, the ice cream social, dances, and more, is available on events page of the website. Check it out!

Conifur needs sponsors! We've been able to keep the membership fees as low as they are thanks to the generosity of past Conifur sponsors. Keep this tradition alive! Sponsors receive various goodies (including a free con t-shirt). Every year some of the dealer's and artists donate additional goodies that are given out to the super sponsors who donate the most. Even more important than those rewards, is all the good karma you gain by helping out a worthy cause. Thanks! For more information, check out our sponsor's page.

Don't forget to reserve your hotel room. Hotel rooms must be reserved by September 4 to get the discounted rate (that date is set by the hotel, we can't move it!) You can reserve your hotel room at the Sheraton Tacoma/Tacoma Convention Center at (800) 325-3535. Don't forget to mention Conifur to get the discounted room rate!