As many locations in the United States are updating or removing their mask requirements we felt that it was time to expand on our mask policy. As we have previously mentioned masks have been shown to be the first line of defense during this pandemic. With people coming from all over the nation we continue to feel that it is the right choice to continue to require masks to be worn inside the convention space at all times, in all areas such as Panel rooms, Main Ballroom, Registration Areas, Dealer Den, Zoo, dances and all pre-function hallways. The following are very limited exceptions to this policy, and only apply to those that have been fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated individuals need to wear masks with no exception.

A) During load in / Load out and set up of major event areas (Main ball room and dealer power and registration setups most notably). These areas are closed to the general convention public, and the only ones in these areas are staff with plenty of distance between them. This is mostly for safety, since verbal commands and instructions need to comprehensible.

B) Panelists / Performers. These people are distanced far away from the audience, well beyond the safety ranges for social distancing requirements. This again is for comprehension, since some attendees with hearing limitations may need the ability to lip read, or may have comprehension restrictions with mask muffled speech.

C) Fursuiters with head on. This is for a concern of heat safety while actively wearing fursuit head. Sweat will cause masks to saturate with moisture, making an already hot situation even worse with a breathing limitation of breathing through a saturated wet cloth. Fursuiters should carry their mask with them at all times, so that if they take their head off in any areas, including the headless lounge, they must immediately put the mask on. Fursuiters not wearing a mask inside head should keep 6 feet away from other attendees. (ie no hugs)

D) Masks may be removed if actively eating or drinking, however you must remain stationary. You may stop, sit at a table/chair/floor and eat or drink food that was purchased from the hotel. Masks may also be removed for the Sponsor Lunch and the Staff Dinner.

E) Areas outside of Megaplex's convention space will default to the hotel's overall policy, as those areas are not enforceable by Megaplex. Those areas include all the outside walkways, pool, lodge buildings and main lobby. Anyone that violates the hotel's policy may be forced to leave the hotel, and Megaplex will not offer any refunds for anyone that is ejected for violating a hotel policy. The latest COVID updates from the hotel can be found on the Hotel and COVID-19 Update page.

Greetings,

As you all have been aware Megaplex 2021 registration has been on hold. While we do not know what the state of the world will be in regards to the covid-19 come August, we are remaining optimistic that we will be able to hold Megaplex 2021. We are working with the hotel as well as local public safety and health officials to ensure the safety of our attendees. That being said we are pleased to announce that registration will be opening on May 1st, 2021 at Noon ET and the room block we expect to be available on May 10th, 2021 at 1PM ET but we are still working to confirm this with the hotel. Should the date change we will let everyone know via our website and Social media. To make sure we are prepared for our attendees we will be moving to a Pre-reg only model. This will allow us to handle registration/badge pickup much more safely and efficiently and allow us to plan for attendance numbers better. As a result, registration for the in-person event will close on, or before depending on how many people we can safely have in the convention space, July 12th, 2021 at 11:59PM ET.

At this time, we are not planning to open up the application process to new dealers as many dealers chose to transfer their tables to 2021. We will be in contact with the dealers that transferred in the next few weeks to determine how many dealers we will have. We will also be using this time to determine how many dealers we can safely have in each room. Should tables become available they will be offered to those that donated their 2020 dealer spots first. If tables are still available, we will open applications for curated dealer selection. Selection will be based off uniqueness of product.

We understand that in person events right now are strongly debated and some of you may not be happy with the decision to move forward. This decision was made after many long discussions with our board and our legal advisors regarding our contractual obligations, local and regional vaccination rates, and our ability to hold the event in as safe a manor as possible. We are investigating, with the hotel, options to integrate online interactive components to allow those who aren’t able to attend an in-person convention to participate from home as well as the possibility of airing traditionally high attendance events to hotel rooms in the Caribe Royale.

Covid-19 has and will continue to change how furry and other fandom-based events will be run for years to come. You should expect to see some of the programming changed or replaced, events only allowing online pre-registration, mask requirements, and attendance caps. While we hope that we will eventually be able to bring you the Megaplex all of you have come to love know that our attendee’s health and safety come first and we will do what is needed to best ensure that.

Last year we really hoped that we would only have to cancel the picnic for 1 year and although we now have vaccines starting to be distributed the state of Florida is still not at a level where we could host even an outdoor event safely and responsibly. As such the Florida United Furry Fandom, Inc. Board of Directors has decided to cancel the Megaplex Annual Picnic 2021. At this time, we are still watching the progression of vaccinations and rate of infection as well as working with the hotel so that if we are able to have this year’s convention we can do so safely. We continue hold the health and wellbeing of our attendees as our highest priority and will do our best to keep our attendees informed of any new developments affecting the convention. While we are not able to have the picnic we ask our attendees, that are able to, to consider donating to our charity, The C.A.R.E. Foundation, at http://www.thecarefoundation.org/contribute/.

All of us at Megaplex wish you a Happy Holidays (or as close to happy as you can). This has been a year of firsts and unfortunately many lasts. We want everyone to know that we are working hard to make sure Megaplex isn’t one of those lasts. Some of you have reached out to us asking what’s up with registration as we would normally be reminding you all about registration opening. While we are cautiously optimistic that Megaplex 2021 will be able to happen we really don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. With Christmas just a couple days away we don’t want you to worry that you may have missed an announcement from us. For now, we have decided to postpone the opening of our online registration until March 1st with Hotel rooms opening up sometime in March as well. This should allow us to have a much better understanding of how vaccines are doing and what restrictions may be in place in August. We want to be able to give you as much information on what restrictions we will have in place before you register. Please be patient with us and hopefully we can see you this August.

We are happy to announce the 2020 Megaplex Online Experience is a go and we hope you will join us online Aug 21st - 23rd to help raise money for The C.A.R.E. Foundation. We have lots of information posted so make sure to check out everything on our site. https://megaplex.online/

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When I took over as chairman, I never thought this would be a letter I would have to write. The last few months have been hard on everyone. Many in our fandom and around the world are dealing with the loss of their jobs and for some having to say goodbye to loved ones for the last time due to COVID-19. Furry Conventions have been rescheduled or outright canceled for this year one after another after another. It is with a very deep sadness that I must announce that Megaplex 2020 is to be added to the list of cons canceled for 2020.

In the spirit of transparency, this has been a long and difficult decision not just for me but for the entire board of directors. Questions like “Could we do enough to keep our attendees safe?”, “Could we still provide the experience our attendees have come to expect?”, and yes even “Could/Would enough people attend in order to be able to afford the event let alone future events?”. The board held an emergency meeting to discuss our options and determined that if we wanted to be able to offer full refunds to our attendees as well as continue operation to be able to hold future events, we could not put off the decision any further. We came to the conclusion that even if we could do enough to keep the virus at bay it would massively affect the convention experience and it would be very possible that only a third of our planned attendance would be willing or able to attend.

We love each and every one of our attendees and will be offering the ability to donate your registration fee to Megaplex, transfer your registration to next year, or to request a full refund for those whose credit/debit cards were charges this year. We hope you will at least consider donating your registration fee though we understand that may not be an option for many. We still have operating costs we need to cover for this year as well as fees associated with each registration that we do not feel would be right to deduct from everyone’s refunds.

All is not lost, we are looking into the possibility of hosting an online convention which those who donate or transfer their registration would have free access to. More details will be released on this if we are able to do it as they become available.

Additional information as well as the form to designate how we shall handle your registration can be found at https://megaplexcon.org/COVID19-2020. We kindly ask that questions regarding the cancellation be directed at the resources listed on that page as opposed to reaching out to staff members. This cancellation is especially rough on our staff as they have put in countless hours to work through all of the issues to bring you this years convention.

Sincerely,

Scooby

Megaplex Chairman

Thanks to the generosity of Torid and Panterro Katt, Our poker tournament will have special trophies, prizes, and a few surprises this year!

It’s hard to miss the recent announcements made by the CDC and federal government recommending gatherings be restricted to 10 people or less and the recent restrictions being put in place by many states. After seeking guidance from medical professionals and out of an abundance of caution for the health, safety and wellbeing of our volunteers and attendees the Florida United Furry Fandom, Inc. Board of Directors has decided to cancel the Megaplex Annual Picnic 2020.

At this time there still remain NO plans to postpone or delay this year’s August convention. We are in high hopes that any future event restrictions will be lifted prior to the convention but will continue to monitor the quickly evolving COVID-19 situation. Our commitment to our attendees is unwavering and we will do our best to keep our attendees informed of any new developments affecting the convention.

While we are not able to have the picnic we ask our attendees, that are able to, to consider donating to our charity, The C.A.R.E. Foundation, at http://www.thecarefoundation.org/contribute/. We also wish to support our fellow conventions that have been affected very deeply by the COVID-19 situation. If you had planned to attend any of the conventions that have been forced to cancel or postpone, we would like to ask all those able to afford it to consider donating their registration at said events to their respective conventions. Furry Conventions often operate on very tight budgets and cannot weather this storm as well as much larger events. Your donation could be the money they need to be able to weather this storm.

We have had many reach out to us and we want everyone to be aware that we are taking the COVID-19 threat seriously. A lot can change in the next 5 months but at this time we are not yet planning to cancel or delay the con. In the meantime, we are working on policies, procedures, and guidance to help reduce the risk to our attendees and volunteers. The Board of Directors will be meeting in the next couple weeks and will review the latest information and guidance on COVID-19. Updates will be found on the COVID-19 page of our website and on our social media.

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