History of Anime Association NIU

Anime Film Night (AFN)- AANIU was initially started in June of 1999 at the Sycamore Public Library. Average attendance: 15 people.

NIU- Fall Semester 1999, AFN had temporary recognition because Eron Rauch was working on campus and could take care of all of the bureaucracy and meetings during his lunch breaks. An extensive flyer campaign ensued.

First Showing- September 1999.

Initial shows screened: The Vision Of Escaflowne and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

September Average Attendance: 35 people.

The Planning Committee- Shortly into the semester, a number of helpful members started forming the planning committee. At first they were more of an official advisory group, but soon it was apparent it was exactly the format needed to govern the club in a fair and useful manner.

First Halloween Party- The planning committee manages to pull off a very nice and fun Halloween party including karaoke, a video game contest, an otaku contest and a wonderful costume contest.

October Average Attendance: 50 People.

First Artists Meeting- October 1999, The artists decided it would be nice to be able to help out those just learning to draw, and plan a monthly get together to discuss and learn about art themselves.

November Average Attendance: 55+ People.

November 27, 1999- Our temporary recognition expires because of the conflicts and troubles with NIU's student government which resulted in the impeachment of the President among other things. However, when told about our numbers, they were more than happy to extend the recognition and we all breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Christmas Party- December 1999, A laid back Christmas party that included NOT getting to do karaoke because of Quiet Hours, a Santa Pinyata that we had to resort to martial arts to break and an anime character imitation contest.

Spring 2000 Semester:
Things were generaly more laid back, with average attendence around 35 people. "Princess Mononoke" was brought to the local art movie theater partially at the request of the club. We had a couple of parties, finally adopted a constitution, and survived Anime Central 2K. Also, we helped with CAB's Illustration Festival.

Summer 2000:
Still recovering from ACEN, some club members made the trek to Anime Expo, Anime Iowa, GenCon and Otacon. Sometimes people would even show up to the biweekly Association showings at the Sycamore Library.

October 2000: Halloween Party was very successful. We had the highest attendance of any party so far.

Spring 2001 Semester:
Our official club webpage is up finally up and running on the Student Association (SA) server. We also get an actual budget from the SA, although we ended up with less than what we wanted.

Summer 2001: Very low attendance at the showings at Sycamore Library.

Fall 2001 Semester:
An emergency election was held for club president because the previously elected president decided not to attend NIU. The show that had the largest attendance each night was "Trigun". Major overhaul of the club website started at this time.

Spring 2002 Semester:
Used SA funds to purchase a DVD player for the Preview Room. We started having biweekly showings in the Preview Room. Tuesday nights were the main shows, where "Beserk" held the highest attendance rate. Thursday nights were set aside for big movies and a few episodes of old or not well known anime. This was planned by Dave Schrader so that more of the regular club members could help decide what might be shown for the next school semester. Along with the Thursday night shows, Dave also made newsletters which gave background information on the anime which was previewed.

Summer 2002: Sycamore Library showings are cancelled indefinitely due to very low attendance.

FAll 2002 Semester:
For reasons beyond our control, we had to shift the showing times an hour earlier (6pm to 9pm). We continued having biweekly showings in the Preview Room (Tuesdays and Thursdays). We showed two long TV series on Tuesdays and two regular 24 to 26 episode series on Thursdays. We had an extra hour on Thursdays to show miscalaneous anime. Another first for us: we had a more equal ratio of males to females for the semester. However, more males attended the Tuesday showings, and more females attended the Thursday showings. This was due to a mistake by the planning committee. The Tuesday shows were of the "shounen" category, and the most popular Thursday show (Ceres Celstial Legend) was of the "shoujo" category.

Summer 2007:
Much has happened over a 5 year span. The Student Association has had some issues with
their website and in turn many organizations were unable to update their website. So here
I will try and summerize the major events. New Tshirts were made in the 2005 2006 school year
they were designed by Mary Lythgoe. The Anime association started sending members to ACEN, covering
badge fees only. Attendance was high in Spring 2007. Some where along the way a large donation from
two people created our current club Library. The library is being very kindly held at a club members home.

Fall 2007:
Attendance was its highest ever with more than 40 members!!

Spring 2008:
Due to the shooting tragedy that occured on Febuary 14th 2008 in Cole Hall. The Anime
Assocation was forced to find a new, hopefully temporary, home on campus. Begining March
4th 2008 the Anime Assocation meets at Mc Murry Hall on the East end of campus. The club
Members new and old were not only saddened by the loss of our home in the Cole Hall preview
room, but also by the later news that Cole Hall was slated to be demolished in the late spring
of 2008. On March 2nd 2008 during a committee member meeting a sign was created with by current club members:
Art by Tamara T., Materials and set up by Dave S. and Amber L.
The sign was made with care from memories of current club members, as a memorial, and as a way of
saying goodbye to our old home.

Yes those are dragonballs...among the other bizarre things drawn by club members.

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