South Mississippi Furry Association

The South Mississippi Furry Association, shortened to SMFA, is a regional group for furries living in or near South Mississippi, USA.

History
South Mississippi has had multiple different groups try to bring the area together over the years, none of which were particularly long-lasting or successful. Most of the groups were disbanded due to drama, the platform used becoming unpopular, or members moving out of the area.

SMFA's origins started when a few members of South MS Furs started to realize that the group was unlikely going to be active again due to the group's owner leaving the fandom and mods having no way to maintain the group. Said members discussed plans for a new furry group that took the ideas of other groups that worked well while avoiding the ideas that failed. Certain changes were going to be made for the group, such as having a strong admin team that can add more admins when necessary, having a better social media presence, and allowing any member to plan furmeets very easily and have it broadcasted to the group. The discussion resonated with people and led to the creation of SMFA in October 2019.

Many South MS Furs members expressed doubts at first, but eventually nearly all of South MS Furs migrated to SMFA and GulfCoast Furs. SMFA's first furmeet was hosted on November 1, 2019, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and their second furmeet was hosted on January 17, 2020 in Gulfport, Mississippi. These first two meets were important to drive home the fact that SMFA was not exclusively for residents of the Gulf Coast like previous groups were.

General
SMFA's goal is to become a long-lasting and successful furry group for the region. The group has many key differences that it hopes will help it reach that goal. SMFA's plan is to rejuvenate the area's furry community, have more frequent and consistent furmeets all across the region, and provide a safe and positive environment for its members. SMFA hopes that all of this will raise the group's awareness to furries in the area so the community there can become active like others across the country.

The group's main location is on Telegram, which is the most active chat and where all meets are posted. The group also has a Discord chat that's not very active but is still used by a few members at times. The group currently sits at nearly 100 members and is expected to grow larger as the group's awareness reaches more furries in the area.

SMFA does not limit itself to people in South Mississippi, though most of the members live in the area. There are members in the group that live in the surrounding area or even in states that are hours away as well. A large amount of people in the group live on the coast, which is why it's not uncommon to see meets shared with the chat that are not hosted by SMFA itself but rather the coast-specific group GulfCoast Furs as well as other nearby furry groups. Because of this, it's common for many members to attend meets from other groups in the surrounding area due to the proximity of them.

Due to the fact that there are less active furries living in South Mississippi and furry groups in Mississippi historically haven't been very successful, SMFA is considered to be, more or less, an extension to the largest furry groups in the surrounding area, which are: Louisiana Furs, GulfCoast Furs, MobiFurs, and Open Coast. In fact, many admins and members from the other groups are also in SMFA and vice-versa. Despite this, SMFA wants to host more of its own meets in the future as it continues to grow larger in members and awareness and establishes itself as a long-term and serious furry group for the area.