Hey there, this semester we have a strong line-up of series to (hopefully) cater to fans of different genres of anime. In addition to our returning series, the new additions to the line-up include The Familiar of Zero, Serial Experiments Lain, Patlabor, Macross Plus, plus a couple of movies during the semester. We hope to see you at showing.
5 replies on “Spring 2009 Schedule Unveiled”
Wow that’s quite a line up but how do you guys deal with copyright laws with licensed animes? Also how well does such a tightly packed evening work out? Our club runs from 8-11 and we show the first 4 episodes of a different show each week, some AMVs and whatnot, we talk a bit about whatever needs to be talked about and show a bonus episode of something at the end. It seems to work pretty well. Also how many memebers do you have and how do you keep attendance up?
Thanks,
Stephen
WCU JAS Technology Manager
We have a liaisons committee that takes care of the copyright problem; before showing anything, we get permission from the company that licenses it. This is done in advance of the schedule being shown. If for any reason mid-semester the company chooses to disallow permission, we pull the show from the schedule and find something else to replace it. Therefore, our showings are totally legal. I’m not sure why having a tight schedule would be a problem, though. Showing is primarily for exposing our members to anime they might not have seen before in their entirety. We have other events for people to socialize at, so the tight schedule has never really been a concern for us.
Hope that answers some of your questions!
To add to what Marketing said, we have business meetings on a separate day of the week, where things like scheduling and officer elections are worked out. That frees up time for more anime for members who don’t particularly care about how the club is run.
My previous experience with anime clubs (as an undergrad, I was the treasurer of Otaku Jinrui, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Anime Club) used about the same structure (4 hours with a mid-showing break), except that the hour before showing had the room reserved for playing games and socializing. (Also, like CJAS, Otaku Jinrui members would often take off for informal gatherings post-showing.)
Interesting. Whenever we ask companies for permission to show licensed anime they almost never reply to us and thus show mostly unlicensed shows.
About how many members do you have at your weekly meetings? Last semester we started off with ~40 people coming to club meetings but it dropped off to 15 dedicated members or so. Do you have a similar problem or do you maintain attendance all through the semester?
Another problem we seem to have or at least I perceive as one is getting sugguestions, ideas, feedback, and the like from the members is like squeezing blood from a stone. For instance clubs are entitled to a free 3×8 custom banner paid for by WCU and we’ve been asking for suggestions because we want the \users\ to have a say in it but no one has given us anything serious for suggestions.
We are forbidden by the university from showing unlicensed material.
We do experience a drop-off at showing, but our initial number of attendees is fairly large and so the number of returning members is respectable. I’m afraid I do not know the actual numbers; the treasurer might have a better idea. As for retention, mostly we retain members by promoting an atmosphere of camaraderie and friendship. We are very social, and so members who initially come simply for the anime often come back to spend time with like-minded fans. Many CJASers often meet outside of anime club for casual social events as well. We also have a weekly manga club where people socialize, we have a weekly e-board dinner, and we have a number of other social events such as karaoke periodically. In general, we have very little drop-off in members who attend the club business meetings, and actually usually acquire more e-boarders as the semester goes on. These members are very dedicated and are the cogs that make CJAS run, so they tend to come back.
We also use these meetings to address suggestions, ideas, and feedback. Say, for example, if we wanted to discuss banner suggestions. It would be placed on the meeting agenda, and we would not move on until we had reached some sort of conclusion on the matter, even if that conclusion was only getting some member to volunteer to sketch some designs. We would then, at a later meeting, discuss the proposed designs as a group and then vote on them to choose a single design. By having a separate board meeting, people who are interested in how the club runs get a sense of ownership in the club and form tight-knit friend groups, keeping our numbers up.
I hope this information was helpful to you!