President – Astra (Term ends March 2028)
Astra Ether has been in the fandom since the early 2000s on the east coast of Canada. He only moved west a few years ago where he rapidly started volunteering and helping the cons in gradually more involved positions as he saw administrative needs. Starting in the staff health monitoring team, to Lead HR and now Convention Project Management, he has offered himself to join the board and the board decided to place him in the position of president in 2025.
Outside of Volunteering, Astra is a 3d printer, a gamer, a role-player and a bicycle enthusiasm.
Secretary – Gobiraptor (Term ends March 2028)
Gobiraptor has been involved in the furry fandom across continents, having moved to BC in 2021 from the UK. An avid convention goer and friendly face behind a vendor booth, she’s since been fortunate enough to participate in many conventions across the globe.
A regular volunteer for My Little Pony conventions and artist in the Furry community who’s always seeking more opportunities to get stuck in and help! When not participating in the community she can be found volunteering with the Vancouver Oddfellows, or enjoying hobbies such as playing board games and dancing.
Jr. Secretary – Hawthorne (Term ends March 2028)
Hawthorne has been a passionate member of the furry community for over 10 years, actively participating both online and in person. Living in Ontario, he has enjoyed many outings in Toronto, from potlucks and drive-ins to lively fur-suit walks.
In 2023, he started volunteering at Vancoufur as part of the accessibility team. Despite being a hedgehog, he’s often seen running around like a busy gopher, always eager to help. By his second year, his dedication earned him a leadership role, where he collaborated with others to make sure amenities like the quiet room and elevators were always ready for those who needed them most.
His passions include creating pixel art, tabletop RPGs, writing—especially for tabletop RPGs—and making sure every convention is a safe, welcoming space for everyone. If you see him, be sure to say hi!
Director – Sha’Kaar (Term Ends March 2029)
Sha’Kaar has been a resident of the west coast of BC his whole life, having grown up in Powell River, he found the online furry world and enjoyed much of the art he started to find. In 2002, shortly after moving to Vancouver in 2001, he discovered the furry fandom and was instantly hooked, and started to attend furmeets and various events.
Due to being away from the community for several years, 2008 to 2014, for personal reasons, he didn’t attend his first convention until 2016. From that day until today he has been hooked on the furry lifestyle. Accepting being a furry has been one of the best choices of his life. Not only did it allow him to understand himself better, but it allowed him to meet his spouse, whom he met at a Vancoufur Convention.
When he started to volunteer for VF, he started with helping in the hotel/venue department, and with a diploma in hospitality management, he felt it was a great fit. Since then he has worked hard as a VF staff to bring the best experience he could to the con with his hotel training and since becoming Vice Chair for 2021 & 2022, bringing his organizational skills to help the con as well. Now, he has picked up the mantle of Chair for 2023 as well as becoming the Community Rep for all the local furs. So not only does he strive to put on an amazing convention in 2023, but he wants to make sure the words and wishes of the community are heard and understood by the board.
Director – MageMechatronics (Term ends March 2029)
MageMechatronics is your bog-standard convention volunteer. Since rejoining the local convention scene in 2022 she’s lent a hand to every event she’s attended and recently made the jump to the BCAEA Board to find new ways to try to be helpful.
For hobbies, MageMechatronics is a regular PC and tabletop gamer. She normally has one or two weekly Dungeons and Dragons games going and enjoys switching between being a player and Dungeon Master regularly.
Director – Malissa (Term ends March 2029)
Malissa has been a part of the furry fandom since 2005, when she discovered it in high school. After graduating, she set out to attend as many fur cons as possible, eager to meet new people and explore her newfound passion. She quickly found herself immersed in the world of anthropomorphic animals and art, and has been an active member of the furry community ever since.
14 years ago, it was much easier for people to attend the far fewer conventions across North America. This is what Malissa did as she began her journey with Rainfurrest and continued to visit almost every other convention in the continent at the time. With a desire to make a difference, she decided to start volunteering for conventions the following year. She wanted to use her skills and experiences to help and contribute positively to her community.
When she’s not partaking in the fandom, Malissa is a Foreman Electrician. She loves to do a variety of activities that keep her busy and entertained. From playing board games and knitting to chainmailing and painting miniatures, she loves it all! She also enjoys camping and any outdoor activities that allow her to explore the world around her.
Directory – Jamesbear (Term ends March 2027)
Having grown up in the lower mainland since 2012, Jamesbear has been a resident of British Columbia for half his life. Around 2018, he joined the Furry community and began attending VancouFur. Initially, he volunteered during TomorrowLand and assisted with registration line management and cashier duties until Evfurquest.
He subsequently became the Registration Lead for Beyond Furmageddon in 2023 and helped set a new VancouFur registration record of 1528 attendees. Jamesbear enjoyed his time at the convention and relished the opportunity to meet new people while working at the registration desk.
In 2023, Jamesbear took the initiative to become the Community Representative for the BCAEA Board as he enjoys helping the community communicate with the general public. He is a graduate of Vancouver Film School with a background in 3D animation and VFX, and also works as a VFX teaching assistant at the institution.
In his leisure time, Jamesbear enjoys playing simulation and single-player adventure games, as well as photography and video editing. His passion for conventions and volunteering at them remains unwavering.
Community Representative – ShadowsMyst (Term ends March 2027)
Directory – Fisher (Term ends March 2029)
Fisher is the only member of the BCAEA board to have never attended a furry convention, but he has been aware of the furry fandom for several years and has lived in BC all his life. He primarily serves as the brony representative on the board, having been the theming director for almost every brony convention held in Canada and vice-chair of Vanhoover Pony Expo since 2024. He has also attended and set up hotel room blocks for several other brony conventions across North America since 2012.
Fisher’s interests include gaming (especially DRG), travelling and photography. Between convention work, his job as a caretaker and helping family, though, he doesn’t find as much time for those as he’d like. He also has two cats, Ling Myao and Alphonse.
President – Skepticolt (Term ends March 2025)
Skepticolt is a child of the 80’s, influenced early in life by shows like Animaniacs, Rescue Rangers, and Star Trek. He began attending conventions in 2015 with BronyCAN, where he volunteered in the registration department until it’s end in 2018. Seeking to fill the void Skepticolt volunteered at other conventions, including VancouFur and Vanhoover. He joined the board of directors in 2019, and became president in June of 2020.
Before discovering his identity as a Brony and Furry, Skepticolt had a variety of occupations in the US Army and took his sweet time earning a degree in psychology at UFV. He counts canoeing, electrical engineering and video games among his hobbies.
Vice President – LinuxPony/LinuxAvali (Term Ends March 2025)
LinuxPony (also referred to as LinuxAvali) is a second generation geek, hailing from a household the grew up watching Stargate SG1, Firefly, and Enterprise among a long list of Sci-fi and fantasy influences. He worked as a Gopher as soon as he was old enough at VCON, being voluntold by his mother who worked on their board of directors at the time. It wouldn’t be until 2010 when he discovered ponies and got his first immersion into the furry fandom.
He volunteered at BronyCAN in 2013, the local Vancouver pony convention for all 5 years before making the jump to volunteering at VancouFur, Howloween and Vanhoover Pony Expo and still volunteers for them all to this day.
In 2022, he made the jump to the BCAEA board to better support the conventions and see them prosper long into the future.
Linux is a software grad from BCIT and enjoys writing code, playing Minecraft, and hanging out with his friends online and in person.
Secretary – AceCoyote (Term ends March 2025)
Ace has been associated with the furry fandom for over fourteen years, initially being intrigued by the creativity the community has to offer and eventually, it has led towards many long friendships and adventures he could cherish for the rest of his life. The first furry convention Ace had attended is Condition: Blue, which took place in London, Ontario as of 2012. Enjoying his time during that weekend, he found himself attending more of these events and even volunteering in some of them across North America; Furnal Equinox, Anthrocon, Midwest Furfest, Fur Eh?, Vancoufur, and many others. Ace hopes he can provide the community of Vancoufur with memories of the convention they can happily cherish and build onto during the years to come.
Also, for any golf, backpacking, camping, or board-game fanatics out there, Ace is always down to arrange such trips whenever he can!
Community Representative – Lunar EC (Term ends March 2025)
Lunar was born and raised in the lower mainland since the 90s. In 2016, Lunar join the Online Furry Community out of curiosity and has gain many knowledge about the Fandom. Lunar first joined the Vancoufur furry convention in 2020 and was instantly captivated by the community’s creativity and positive spirit. Inspired to give something back to the community, Lunar returned to the convention in 2022 as a dedicated volunteer. With a knack for organization, communication and a genuine love for the furry fandom, Lunar is excited to help out fill in volunteering positions where it is needed the most, from managing events to assisting attendees. Eager to enhance the convention experience for everyone, Lunar looks forward to reconnecting with old friends and making new ones, all while contributing to the vibrant energy of the event.
During the time when Lunar is not partaking in the Fandom, he works as an electrician dealing from low-voltage/residential tasks to High-voltage/Industrial work (Hospitals, Oil Pipelines Industries, etc). Lunar likes to keep himself busy and entertained by doing many activities. From playing DnD, video games and drawing Digital Art to doing many physical/outdoor activities like hiking, surfing/snowboarding, swimming and hunting. Basically Lunar loves to do things that makes himself feel alive and always wanted to explore to many areas that he hasn’t gone before.
Secretary – CainenMcGuffin (Term Ends March 2024)
Cainen has been an active member of the furry community in BC since 2016, with VancouFur 2017 being his first major furry convention. He has attended VancouFur, Howloween, and Fur-Eh every year since then, and has ran/participated in panels, talent shows, and fursuiting events. You may have seen him around conventions as the coyote fursuiter wearing the hockey goalie gear and sporting a unique fursuit goalie mask.
Most recently, Cainen has been involved in furry related short films and video projects. This includes submitting short films for Furry Film Festival and producing promotional/feature videos for both VancouFur and Fur-Eh. He considers himself an artistic person and hopes to encourage others to embrace their creative side.
Cainen was nominated and voted into the board in 2021, and is looking forward to learning from this experience and contributing in any way he can.
Vice President, Treasurer – Havok (Term ends March 2026)
Havok became interested in the furry fandom in the early 2000s through an appreciation for the art of the fandom. He began volunteering for conventions in 2013 with Northwest Fanfest, and was the President of the West Coast Fan Society, the parent organization for Northwest Fanfest in 2014. In 2017 he became involved with Vancoufur as the Logistics Lead, and has been Operations Executive and was nominated and elected to the board in 2020. He was selected as Vice Chair for Vancoufur 2021, but when the 2021 chair resigned, he stepped up to become the Chair. Havok would describe himself as a pragmatic and practical person that handles conflict and difficult situations with calm and humor. He has an extensive grounding in security, operations and logistics from doing it professionally for nearly 10 years.
Outside of volunteering and the fandom he is an avid tabletop roleplayer, and coffee fanatic. He also is heavily into scifi, movies, and paintball.