High School Anime clubs

CHOIS CHOIS CHOIS

With summer break ending and the new school year starting, I want to get a jump start on getting my high school anime club going for a better year 2. Last year was okay but I want to get a better grasp on the promotion, organization of meetings, and execution of the meetings. Rym & Scotts anime club episode was a little helpful, but the difference is a College anime club and a High school anime club. The club ran well but not as well as I had hope, problems with communication as well as difficulties with the school cooperating with the putting in written announcements as well as reserving rooms. Plus not getting into the yearbook with the rest of the clubs, yet some club made in that I had never heard of made it. (I feel like were not wanted at the school)

So I hope for a better year for the club, so does anyone have advice on how to run a High school anime club?

Bromley

I attempted to arrange for a gaming club this past year at my own school. Although I did not run an anime club, I think aside from working around the administration, your best bet is to get an idea of how many people want to actually participate. If its <20 people who come to your meetings, it is not worth the massive effort to corral people into after school events. I had publicity difficulties with console parties after school and LAN parties at external venues.

The most successful venture was casual board game play, which is exactly what I think you should aim for. Make it embarrassingly simple for whoever participates in your anime watching to a) find out about it* b) attend and c) participate. Also, see if you can find that one geeky teacher who is perfectly fine with you using their room (and projector?). This ameliorates much of the trouble of finding a place to meet and the hassle of the main office.

*I'm thinking a Wordpress website depending on interest this year.

CHOIS CHOIS CHOIS

The teacher is also into anime as well, so no problems there. The problem wasn't equiment, it was the administration who keep making it difficult for the club's annoucment because the keep useing up the written anoucements space with school sports crap and old news that dosen't get erased.
The other problem was that in order to do annoucments, a teacher had to submit it and the club teacher supivisor isn't a standard teacher, she spends all day helping kids with there homework and so she dosen't get prep hour like the normal teachers.

Blattus

I would try and rely more upon word of mouth if the administration isn't going to be helpful. I'm assuming there are people from last year that would be willing to spread the word, and from my experience (as a high school senior this year), word of mouth tends to work better for these kinds of things. Plus, this way you could tell people to bring friends, which always is a plus because it always seems that people are more willing to go places in groups

If you want to feel wanted at the school, I would suggest doing something by the anime club that affects the entire school, like maybe a fundraiser of some sort that could allow the anime club people to raise money and say "hey other people at this school, we exist." Alternatively you could do stuff like have the anime club sponsor a schoolwide event, such a pep rally or whatever. Of course, the specifics would vary depending on the size/demographics of your school.

Anyways, good luck with the club!

Cremlian

Yea, Roach has the right idea, if your club is being looked over, try and do things that make your club stand out. I always thought a DDR marathon or something would be a great idea for a fund raiser. Sorta like how people collect money for causes to go running. Also, As all high school clubs have a teacher responsible for them you should chat with the teacher about how you can get yourself noticed better. Most likely the teacher has a better chance of getting the administration to actually notice your club. However, the nature of the anime club sometimes it's better to not be very visible. Especially if your not paying attention to the high school's rules of what you can and can not show. So with visibility comes responsibility. Honestly, in high school, a anime club is always going to be living on the edge.

kenjura

You lucky little bastard. Anime club in high school.

You know, back in my day, we had to order our anime from obscure fansubbers over the internet, and it arrived in VHS form! Of course, we didn't have modems...we had to just grab the phone line from the wall and screech into it at 2400 baud. And there were no VCRs, either, and no colors on the TV. We didn't all have TVs, either; we had to walk to our friends' houses, eight miles away, in the blowing snow, which was of course uphill in both directions.

Bah. Anime club in high school.

JukeBoxJosh

I wish more people liked anime/manga at my school. Seriously, including me, I can only think of 3 people that like it.

kenjura

That's because everyone you know is a girl.

No offense to geek girls, but the strain tends to run a little more virulent in guys. Most girls are too busy getting a life to discover the awesomeness of our geeky ways.

JukeBoxJosh

Oh no, the dudes obsess over sports, but that is something I cannot get into. Unless they talk about swimming.

Btw, I know dudes, I just don't hang out with them.

kage_rod

That's because everyone you know is a girl.

No offense to geek girls, but the strain tends to run a little more virulent in guys. Most girls are too busy getting a life to discover the awesomeness of our geeky ways.

Just a small, totally not-meaning-to-anger, note. Most of the chicks I know are more into manga and anime than the guys. I've seen some who are completely gung-ho about everything geeky. Versus, say, some of the guys who are like, "...I like Bleach..." XD Maybe it's just the place I'm in, where you do sports or nothing for guys. ^_^; At least, here in my hick-city. (and I totally give up with getting this quote thing to work. sorry)

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And I have to look up the Anime Club thing. XDD I just started GeekNights. BUT ANYWAYS...

This is our second year for both the Anime Club at my school and N00bCon, the con we did. This club got such a rocky start, and I'm not sure if it's anywhere stable yet. The first meeting was ... about mid octoberish? and the two running it - brother and sister - simply tried to get them to vote on what they wanted to watch. For the first meeting, it was a huge turnout. There were no chairs - people were standing and sitting in the back. However, due to the poor planning, we lost most of them - admittedly, it was dull. The people who kept coming back were hardcore, or just very bored. Finally, we ended up actually watching anime, mostly Bleach or Full Metal Panic from what I remember, and I hated being there because they talked and discussed and complained more than actually watched the stuff while on. Well, early December, plans for a con started up. At this point, I stepped up and gave them what I knew of cons, from my con experience (at that time, 3 cons; Ai-Kon in Winnipeg, Otafest in Calgary, and Animethon in Edmonton, all simply attending.) Turns out I was pretty much the most knowledgable about conventions, and ended up becoming con co-ordinator somewhere along the way. We managed to scrape together a horribly advertised, somewhat half baked convention we named N00bCon in May. And now. I'm the president of the whole freaking club because the original president stepped down.

.. I have this to say: It's a lot of work to get people intrested, and the main thing is is advertising. Screw announcements, written or verbal: get your friends to come, other people's friends to come, put up posters (colourful or simply very eyecatching, with a large "ANIME CLUB" and the date and time)... And then, use the first three episodes of what you're showing. At the start of the year, use something basic. I think for us it'll be Azumanga Diaoh. Then, slowly move up. Eventually I wanna show Dragon Half. But don't even bother worrying about watching a whole series, unless it's like Dragon half and it's 3 or 4 episodes. Consider the time you have - the time it takes for them to walk in, sit down, for it to start, etc. People will never come after school unless bored, especially if they have jobs. Never get ahead of yourself, and when planning, don't really go "This day we'll watch this." Try to keep to a schedule, but it'll be less irritating if you just line them up and let it go... Have someone that knows what's going on, in case you get sick and can't come to school.

Otherwise? Good luck, and remember to smile, despite that lil twitch in your eye.