Darrel Exline

Darrel L. Exline ran the Polar Den BBS from 1990 through 1994, then as owner of The ConFurence Group from 1999 through 2003 Darrel acted as chairman of ConFurence, hosted CritterConDiego, and assisted Zoniecon as an advisor.

Darrel is also involved with many other conventions not related to the furry fandom, including Conjecture, ConDor, Loscon, Anime Los Angeles and the 2006 Westercon: Conzilla. He resides in Lemon Grove, California in San Diego County. His fursona (although rarely used these days) is Jym Chago, "Your Friendly Neighborhood Polar Bear™"

ConFurence involvement
Darrel was one of the early members of ConFurence, starting with ConFurence 0. He took an active role starting at ConFurence 7 where he helped with onsite security, and ran the convention newsletter at ConFurence 9 and ConFurence 10. He became co-chairman of ConFurence 11 and formed The ConFurence Group as a business entity to run ConFurence when Mark Merlino and Rod O'Riley stepped down from being its organizers in April of 1999.

Darrel's period of ConFurence chairmanship was not without troubles, including a steady fall in attendance, which started before his leadership. This fall resulted in lower income for the convention; to cover the shortfall, Darrel spent $60,000 of his own money over four years, by his own estimation. By ConFurence 2002 it became clear that this situation was not going to improve, and so Darrel decided to end the convention after 2003.

Controversy
Regarding Confurence, some have blamed Darrel personally for the filming by The Man Show (and Jimmy Kimmel Live) at ConFurence 2003, and as chairman of the convention, he has openly admitted to being responsible for their presence. However, despite bitter fans claiming otherwise, Darrel received no financial gain for inviting them. The hotel surprised each of those groups with a location fee, since the City of Burbank is at the heart of the film and television industry, but that did not translate to any compensation to Darrel or The ConFurence Group. The Jimmy Kimmel Show segment was only 2 minutes long, aired only once on late night television the day after ConFurence 2003 ended. Darrel learned in July 2003 that The Man Show did not feel they had sufficient material to produce a good show, so it was never run.