BAS operates in a small, very prep, liberal arts college in a small town in coastal Maine. The club had been going since about 1998 as an official entity; I joined in the winter semester of '01 and progressively ran more and more of its day to day operations (desperately looking for other staff to pick up the slack, and fortunately finding them) through my senior year ('01-'02). We were college-only (despite having three comic stores in our town of 20,000 people) and drew about 10-30 people per showing, depending on content. While I was there, we did one showing per week, usually about 4 eps of one show and 4 of another, or a movie in place of one of these. After I left, the staff kicked it up a notch and started running two showings a week, for 4 running series, and actually got a lending library together. Membership has accordingly picked up.
When I graduated, I swore that I would never again run, help run, staff, or do anything for another anime club ever again. Famous Last Fucking Words.
While I was working, collecting unemployment, working, looking for work, and applying to grad schools from the Boston area in '02-'03, I got into MITAC, partly because I needed an excuse to go into Boston every week, and partly because I could leech off their library, which is generally acknowledged as the largest and best in the US. They run 1 regular showing every week, with a couple running series and some other random stuff around the edges. I didn't get roped into running staff for them, but I estimate that I've run off about 50 tapes, CDs, and other items for the library, some on request and some just because I had stuff that they didn't.
MITAC packs in about 150 people of all ages from all walks of life every week, including a couple really odd characters. A bunch of cool people, though -- or at least the ones who sat around me in this period.
I got into grad school at Michigan for fall of '03 and firmly resolved not to do squat about Animania. I would offer suggestions to get them out of their financial hole (ridiculous charges for showing-room access and total reliance on raffle-ticket sales for funding), but other people would implement them. Not only did the other staffers brush off most of my ideas as unworkable, but I ended up doing staff for the duration of my graduate studies, including two of the club's November minicons. Most of the time, all I had to do was lift heavy objects, and the rest of the staffers were pretty cool people (well, except Jeremy
), so it actually turned out to be not that bad. As Kalium mentioned above, monthly showings, 200+ people, and 4-5 "series blocks" of 3-4 episodes or a movie each.I left Michigan to take my current job the week after the '04 edition of CJN. I'm currently back with MITAC, at least as much as my work schedule allows me to actually leave the plant. Come April or so, I'll be in Dresden, and probably in no position to investigate the local uni offerings.
For GMDanish, follow what I outlined for BAS in my closing message; it worked for a college of 2000 with similar initial numbers. As follows:
- Multiple showings. More options means more people with different schedules. Flex these on time: Friday late and Saturday afternoon seem to work well in Brunswick.
- Flyers everywhere; comic stores, record shops, walls in appropriate college departments [CS/engineering/Asian studies], everywhere your fans may be lurking. Include what you're showing as well as times.
- Activities fair. Anytime the college gives clubs a chance to pile into a hall and recruit new members, go for it. Send your most personable members and be engaging and accomodating -- you know, the opposite of what all the anime/manga clubs do in the first minutes of Genshiken.
- Lead with free food. This never fails. The club may take a wallet hit, but if you have a library, you'll make it up in access fees sooner or later.
- Have a library. Dupe everybody's collection and make some borrowing rules; use school funds to buy official DVDs to lend out. Make people pay an access fee for borrowing priveleges and/or a security deposit incase they scratch/demagnetize something. This does require someplace to keep the library, which is why Animania didn't have one.
- Screen big-name stuff. Run Cowboy Bebop for a semester; at 4 eps a week, you'll finish it, and everyone will show up. Play Akira and Totoro on different bills -- or on the same one if you want to mess with people. If you're a small club looking to grow, licensors don't care.
- Be friendly and accepting to new members, especailly freshmen. They may bring their friends from other contexts, and at least will ensure that the club remains after you graduate.
--K
