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Gopher Opportunities

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Staffing

In 2025, Midwest FurFest played home to 16,925 attendees. Of whom, over 500 were on-site staff spread over dozens of departments. All of whom put together over 7.5 THOUSAND hours combined to make sure everyone has a good time.

Are you interested in joining us? Feel free to take a look at what our current needs are, and then go ahead and apply. If your ideal department fit isn't on the list, feel free to submit anyway. We may still take you in that department!

Not sure which department you like the most? When filling the staff interest application, list up to five departments that you are interested in. The more you include, the better chance of us finding a suitable place for you!

We look forward to seeing you soon!

PLEASE NOTE!! : If you are already staff for MFF, you do not need to proceed further. Please go to login.furfest.org to log in to your staff account. If you have staffed for MFF in the past, email hr@furfest.org.


Department Listings

  • A1 — Audio Lead

    • Design and implementation of the audio system.

    • Should be extremely comfortable with industry standard equipment and have detailed rigging knowledge.

    • Workload: High - 6-8 hr per day during con, with light work throughout the year.

  • A2 — Audio Assistant

    • Management of the patching and placing microphones or other input devices on stage.

    • Workload: normal - 3-5 hr per day during con.

  • A3 — Audio Utility

    • Audio forward position, but not experience dependent.

    • Workload: Low - 2-4 hr per day during con

  • L1 — Lighting Lead

    • Design and implementation of the light rig.

    • Should be extremely comfortable with industry standard equipment and have detailed rigging knowledge.

    • Workload: High - 6-8 hr per day during con, with light work throughout the year.

  • L2 — Lighting Assistant

    • Should have detailed knowledge of the lighting rig and be able to trace issues and resolve them.

    • Workload: Normal  - 3-5 hr per day during con.

  • L3 — Lighting Utility

    • Lighting operator.

    • Operates the console during shows.

    • Workload: Low - 2-4 hr per day during con.

  • V1 — Video Lead

    • Design and implementation of the video system.

    • Should be extremely comfortable with industry standard equipment and have detailed camera / switching knowledge.

    • Should also be extremely familiar with IP camera control and video format conversions.

    • Workload: High - 6-8 hr per day during con, with light work throughout the year.

  • SM1 — Lead Stage Manager

    • Helps keep the stage flowing smoothly.

    • Acts as a point of contact between performers/speakers and the AV team.

    • Workload: High - 6-8 hr per day during con, with light work throughout the year.

  • SM2 — Assistant Stage Manager

    • Helps keep the stage and BOH areas organized.

    • Workload: Normal - 3-5 hr per day during con.

  • VJ — Visual Graphics Operator

    • Should be very comfortable with Resolume software.

    • Workload: High  - 6-8 hr per day during con, with light work throughout the year.

  • CAM OP — Camera Operator

    • Operates the mid room cameras.

    • Takes direction from the V1 or V2( or who ever is switching).

    • Workload: Normal - 3-5 hr per day during con

  • General Responsibilities
    • Responsible for music-related events, including the main stage dances and con-provided lounges.
    • First Point of Contact for Performers on stage
    • Staff should be comfortable doing small AV troubleshooting on stage connections and mixer hardware
    • Other Duties: Lifting Medium Load Equipment, Keeping shows on schedule, executing talent changeovers
    • Good organizational and communication skills are a must
  • Stage Manager - Second Stage
    • Responsible for DJ changeovers
    • Minor AV Troubleshooting if needed
    • Assist with Second Stage Implementation

  • Schedule and delegate responsibilities to the firesolver team.

  • Ensure that there is always tandem coverage throughout the duration of active convention hours

  • Hold team meeting Day 1 of the con to ensure understanding of roles, shifts and answer any questions and address any issues raised by the team

Act as first responder to panel issues at-convention that include but are not limited to:

  • Minor A/V issues
  • Room capacity concerns
  • Ad hoc event rescheduling or relocation
  • Support for panel requirements and materials
  • Communication and dispatch to other on-site departments for information and assistance not readily solved within the Programming skill-set or knowledge

  • Monitor and respond to headless lounge needs such as water and fans

  • Perform setup and tear down of the lounge

  • Communicate any safety or compliance issues that may arise within the lounge

  • Maintain and respond to Programming-related information requests produced from interested parties

  • Input responses in the notification systems for timely answers to basic inquiries in the programming queue. 

  • Utilize the handbooks and guides provided for information regarding programming and scheduling


  • Managing attendee lines during Registration, Dealers, Art Show, Main or Secondary events, large panels
  • Controlling elevator access during the convention and peak elevator uses
  • Provide answers to attendee questions
  • Provide assistance during Convention Center or Hotel Evacuations, if necessary
  • Provide important announcements
  • Hours Expected: 20

  • Scope of Practice

    • The General First Aid Staffer shall provide first-aid and emergency care in accordance with applicable OSHA first-aid requirements and within the limits of their current training and certification.

    • Staffers shall not diagnose medical conditions, prescribe or administer medications unless specifically authorized and trained to do so under applicable requirements, or provide treatment beyond the recognized scope of their first-aid and CPR training.

    • When a medical situation exceeds the staffer’s training, certification, or available first-aid resources, the staffer shall immediately escalate the situation through Dispatch and the First Aid/Dispatch Lead and request emergency medical services when appropriate.

    • The General First Aid Staffer is expected to follow established OSHA first-aid and emergency-response requirements when assessing and responding to injuries, illness, and medical emergencies.

  • General First Aid Staffer
    • Position Summary: The General First Aid Staffer is responsible for providing prompt, appropriate first-aid and emergency assistance to staff, participants, and guests within the scope of their training. The First Aid Staffer works under the direction of the First Aid/Dispatch Lead and Assistant Directors and is responsible for maintaining a safe, responsive, and professional first-aid presence throughout the event or facility.
    • Required Qualifications
      • Current CPR certification from a recognized training organization.
      • Current first-aid certification or documented first-aid training appropriate to the responsibilities of the position.
      • Ability to recognize and respond appropriately to common injuries, illnesses, and medical emergencies.
      • Ability to remain calm and professional during emergency situations.
      • Ability to communicate clearly with Dispatch, Leads, Assistant Directors, emergency medical services, and other staff.
      • Ability to follow established first-aid, emergency-response, and incident-reporting procedures.
      • Must understand and remain within the scope of their training and certification.
    • Primary Responsibilities
      • Provide basic first aid and emergency assistance within the limits of their training and certification.
      • Assess situations and determine when additional assistance or emergency medical services are needed.
      • Provide CPR and use an AED when appropriate and within the staffer’s current training.
      • Respond to calls for medical assistance dispatched through the appropriate radio channel or communication system.
      • Maintain awareness of surroundings and identify potential safety or medical concerns.
      • Coordinate with Dispatch and the First Aid/Dispatch Lead during medical incidents.
      • Request additional staff, an Assistant Director, or emergency medical services when appropriate.
      • Monitor individuals receiving first aid and arrange for additional medical evaluation when indicated.
      • Maintain confidentiality and treat all individuals receiving care with dignity and respect.
      • Complete required incident or first-aid documentation accurately and promptly.
      • Maintain and inspect assigned first-aid supplies and report missing, expired, or damaged equipment.
      • Keep first-aid areas and equipment clean, organized, accessible, and ready for use.
      • Follow all applicable workplace safety procedures and OSHA requirements relating to first-aid and emergency medical response.
  • Hours expected: 20


  • Prior event or safety experience is desirable, but not necessary.

  • Provide general assistance with medical and safety concerns

  • Use good customer service skills to assist attendees as needed

  • Hours expected: 20


  • Communicate clearly with attendees in a room with large crowds

  • Perform data entry quickly and without errors

  • Perform multiple operations (managing paperwork, money, and a wide range of forms of government IDs) quickly and without errors

  • Hours expected: 20 - (8 hours Thursday, 4 hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday)
  • Assist with panel setup on Thursday/tear down on Sunday afternoon
  • Assist with hanging mail in art on panels
  • Assist with checking that Artists have followed our requirements when hanging
  • Answer attendee and artist questions throughout the weekend
  • Assist with Bidder sign up
  • Gather bids on Saturday night and prepare for Art Auction
  • Act as cashier on Sunday
  • Occasional badge check and other duties as needed

  • General Responsibilities

    • Assist with room set up
    • Provide and enforce a seating chart for the marketplace
    • Run a lottery for the artist alley and inform all winners
    • Register artists and marketplace vendors on site prior to opening
  • General Staff
    • Comfortable talking with people
    • Able to use a computer somewhat proficiently
    • Able to read and understand rules that may change over the course of the event
  • Artist
    • Will helm a table in the Artist Alley for the majority of the duration of opening hours
    • Will need to follow the rules for their section, including being completely visible and actively working on art or other projects
    • Will need to be able to answer questions, observe other artists for rules violations or other issues, and set an example for others to follow
  • Operations
    • Handle behind the scenes tasks
    • Will need to have a familiarity with technology and troubleshooting (hooking monitors to HDMI and changing displays, updating graphics, managing communications)
    • May need extended availability

  • Check ID from either sitting or standing; be able to verify age from assorted international identification to ensure they are 18

  • Assist with answering questions and dealing with issues of dealers and attendees

  • Patrol the dealer room to identify problems with intellectual property infringement or improper adult material handling, reporting potential issues to be followed up on by either security or a dealer room lead

  • Assist with directing and organizing during set up or tear down

  • Lock and unlock doors in the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center (DESCC)

  • Relay requests for cleaning, setup changes, AV, maintenance to convention center staff

  • Work with departments to determine layouts, schedules, parking needs, etc.

  • Lock and unlock doors in the Hyatt Regency O'Hare

  • Work with departments to make sure setups, schedules, and other needs are met

  • Relay requests from attendees and staff to Hyatt Regency O'Hare

  • Handle housing requests as they come in

  • Work with departments on accessibility and housing needs for staff

  • Assist with management of room booking systems

  • Plan bus routes between venues

  • Monitor during con to make sure there are no issues with busses and that they are following schedule

  • Work with vendors and venues to provide coat check/ bag check services as needed


  • Prep of basic food and cleaning
  • Basic food safety knowledge is helpful
  • Heavy lifting may be required, but anything above 50 lbs will not require only one person.
  • Hot food will be handled, as will knives, on occasion.
  • Dish washing, sometimes with chemicals like bleach or soap.
  • Industry experience, such as a line cook, would be a plus, but never required

  • Assist with the recruitment and onboarding of new and returning staff

  • Respond to service desk tickets in a quick and efficient manner

  • Educate staff on HR Rules and Procedures, where necessary

  • For on-location staff: Check-in staff when at the convention

  • Practical Human Resources experience is a plus
  • General Responsibilities
    • How to quickly access maps, programming schedules, nearest bathroom, nearest ATM.
    • How to swap batteries for radios.
    • Have a general idea of the layout of the hotel and convention center.
    • Assist with directions to specific rooms for events.
    • Request assistance from other staff, or the head of the department.
    • Intake lost item reports from attendees, as necessary.
  • Lost and Found
    • Processing the inbound lost items though out the day.
    • Looking up the description of items people have lost.
    • Processing the lost items effectively to allow for faster retrieval.
    • Holding any hazardous materials aside for a director to approve disposal.
    • Processing outbound/return of lost and found items as requested by attendees.
    • Contact attendees on status of lost/found items as necessary.
    • Intake lost item reports from attendees, as necessary.

  • Review and respond to social media inquiries on Hootsuite in a respectful and timely manner

  • Triage incoming emails and sort inquires to the appropriate departments

  • Provide at-con responses and announcements to attendees and staff

  • In charge of enrolling, assigning duties to, and tracking gophers

  • Responsible for keeping gophers properly distributed across convention needs and communicating to other departments regarding those needs

  • Decent at multi-tasking

  • Requires strong computer proficiency and exceptional customer service skills

  • Are exemplary stand-in gophers for when gopher demand exceeds gopher supply

  • Also assist with "staff only" temporary tasks for other teams

  • Often rock-star gophers in their past, are ideal role models and trainers to the gophers and lean on their experience of having done the same tasks themselves

  • Help track and influence the evolving status of convention needs and the gophers themselves and effectively communicate that information to the Dispatch team

  • Requires exceptional customer service skills


  • Distribute Accessibility Wristbands
  • Manage the Quiet Rooms
  • Provide direction/resources, as needed

  • Handle cash, running cash drops from Registration to the Finance office (located next to Registration) on an hourly basis

  • Assist in movement of cash to bank or safe locations

  • Monitor Gaming area for safety, badges, and to prevent loss of lending library items

  • Check in and out items by verify attendee badge numbers and recording in and out

  • Assist attendees with finding events, both Gaming related and otherwise

  • Check on panelist and event vendors to see if they have any additional needs

  • Answer attendee questions

  • Provide guidance on where to find things around the convention

  • Assist with transport of convention material and equipment from the storage units to the Hyatt Regency O'Hare and Donald E. Stephens Convention Center on Wednesday

  • Distribute material and equipment around the convention once it is on site

  • Assist with taking everything back to the storage units on Monday

  • All photographers are required to provide their own general photography equipment (body, lenses, batteries, SD cards etc). Decent low-light capabilities are recommended for event coverage and con space coverage. A hot-shoe mount is required to sync with the studio lights. Studio equipment (lights, backdrop, flash sync transmitters, etc) are provided by convention.

  • Cover assigned studio fursuit photo-shoot shifts

  • Cover major main/secondary stage events, as well as a handful of photography-relevant smaller events

  • Take general photos of attendees and interactions around the con space

  • Build signs in Adobe InDesign

  • Design swag, badges, table runners

  • Create artwork

  • Use Adobe illustrator to design signage and banners

  • Setup and Tear Down

    • Deploy signage and banners on site Wednesday night

    • Strike signage and banners on Sunday evening

  • Design miscellaneous trophies, tickets, awards

While some prior experience is always beneficial, entry-level candidates can still be useful as part of our support team, and we can train individuals in our specific technologies and practices.

  • Support Atlassian products (JIRA and Confluence) used by staff to track issues (internally and externally) and build a convention-wide knowledge base

  • Assist in development and operation of our custom registration and convention management system, RAMS

  • Manage single sign on and identity management throughout the organization

  • Manage software licenses

  • Manage our Amazon AWS infrastructure

  • Set up computer and network equipment for various parts of the convention 

  • Troubleshoot issues with computers, networking, and peripherals equipment on site at the convention

  • Deploy and support phones and hotspots at the convention

  • Respond to equipment requests 

  • Provide email support

  • Prepare and distribute Sponsor and Shiny Sponsor gift packages/bags 

  • Assist Guests of Honor with any needs they may have during the convention

Staff Duties

Very simply, your duties in general as a member of staff are as follows:

  • Be the best example: Remember that MFF has a Convention Code of Conduct that we expect everyone to follow. As a member of staff, you will be expected to set the Gold Standard by which we hope all attendees will look up to.
  • Be punctual for your shifts: Show up on time for your shifts! To run smoothly, your department needs you to be there when expected!
  • Remember your hours: Generally, MFF requires each staffer to work at least 15 hours. Some departments, such as the Public Safety departments (Crowd Management, First Aid, and Safety) and Registration, may require more than that.
  • Do the best that you can: If you are ever confused about what you have to do, ask! From Leadership to Line staff, there are hundreds of staff who are willing to help answer your questions!

Staff Benefits

MFF offers the following benefits to all members of staff:

  • Complementary Attendee Registration: As a member of staff, you are also a member of our convention. Enjoy a free attendee membership, on us! This complementary registration also comes with a specialized badge (so long as you join us before November 15th), and you will be able to check-in for your badge at a special location coordinated by our Human and Critter Resources team.
  • Sponsor Line Access: As a member of staff, we also allow you to get in line with sponsor/shiny sponsor entry queues for any major events.
  • Staff Hotel Room Lottery: All staff are eligible for the Staff-Specific Hotel Lottery, which takes place before the Attendee Hotel Lottery. This effectively grants you an extra chance to score the room that you always wanted (and if you don't, you can always try again in the Attendee Lottery!).
  • Staff Lounge: All Staff gain access to a dedicated area where snacks, drinks, and light hot meals will be provided through the whole weekend.
  • Complementary Meals: All staff with the special edition badge will be able to get one (1) complementary Breakfast OR Lunch at the O'H American Grill Restaurant for themselves on Friday and Saturday. This means that you could get Breakfast on Friday and Lunch on Saturday, or the other way around. You could also do both breakfasts, OR both lunches.
  • Special Gifts: You will receive a challenge coin, a special lanyard, a custom staff pin, and some other various Midwest FurFest-branded gifts.
  • Thank You Dinner!: Finally, all staffers are invited to join us on Sunday night of the convention for a full buffet dinner provided by the Hyatt Regency O'Hare.


Staff Interest Application


Complete Onboarding Paperwork

PLEASE NOTE: This is only for use when directed by MFF HR. If you are just curious about how you can contribute, please choose the interest button above.

Ready to complete your staff onboarding paperwork?

Staff Onboarding