Hey, why not list some suggestions for the club?

I don't have any right now, but one I can think of for the forum is... less forums. Why? Well, we really only need one or two forums (CTRL-A, and general discussion)... we hardly get the traffic towarrant a forum in the first place after all.

First off, great job for arranging the trip to Anime North. I would be back on co-op term that summer so I wouldn't need the bus ride. If only there were something like this when I joined last year.

Secondly I really like the new animes in the big shows, can't wait to go back to loo and watch them. As for the animes that doesn't suck... well sorry to burst your bubble I lost interest in going to the weekly shows after I saw the agenda. If last term's vp(Nikorasu) runs it again next term I might go back and watch them, but as of how I'm thinking of only going to the friday/saturday shows.

Thirdly, I really like the new forum. I really hated the green on the old forum.

Can someone fill me in with what happened in ctrl-a this term?

Oh ya Please vote for Tsukasa in JSaimoe.

I'm in favour of switching back to the old format for the big shows, but still supporting volunteer shows, and having a shorter lineup on Saturday.

But that's me.

I think the current format is the result of the desire for a change to take place but a failure in implementation. I think that, and I may be mistaken, the original concept was to have small weeknight shows run by the exec akin to what Guelph has. Instead, we have weeknight shows held by volunteers whenever, and the 'big shows' that we hold are on Fridays...

I think that with some tuning, and by switching the big shows to Saturdays, things might workout better, but to be honest, that's ignoring the larger problem of social activities and participation.

That said, I don't think the format matters much. New members will either think that we aren't showing enough anime (or we aren't showing new enough stuff) and older members probably don't like the new format (but won't turn out to vote to change it back).

Social activities? The only ones I remember hearing about were the luncheon, lasertag (Is this a go? O_o) and cosplay contest. As far as participation goes for me, the showings are not always at the best of times so I only show up for a maximum of 1 hour and the luncheon was occuring at the same time as my midterm! >_< Speaking of the luncheon, who went and how did it go? I would've loved to go... Especially to get costume materials as I don't have one yet... Hahaha! ^_^'

They went to get costume materials after the luncheon? That never happened last term... I hope ctrl-a do other activities after luncheons and maybe more people will join.

What was the original reason that we cut down on the "big CTRL-A" shows in the first place? Was it because we wanted more smaller shows?

And I thought the point of smaller shows is to make more... interactive (for lack of better word), ie, not just a whole bunch of ppl sitting together watching anime, but also so fans can get together and discuss anime or something like that. Because let's face it, we can't show the "current" stuff because of legal issues, and with the Internet and other sources, people can easily get anime and watch it themselves (including the new and shiny stuff). So we need to offer something that people can't get at home.

That's why I think there should be more... events and activities and social things for anime fans. I don't mean to stop showing anime altogether (because what anime club doesn't show anime?!), but the focus should be less on the anime showing, and more on other things.

That being said, I realize it's difficult to organize these things and actually get people interested, because there's so much apathy out there (and people are busy and stuff). It'd be much easier to just put on shows.

Maybe having joint events with other clubs might generate more interest. Like maybe with the UW Gamers, have an anime-based gaming night or something.

I saw a lot of enthusiasm from people on Clubs Days, that they want to do stuff anime-related (other than just showing anime), such as drawing contests, doing cosplay etc. But I feel bad that they're gonna be disappointed if all CTRL-A does is hold 3 (not 4) big shows.... The weekday shows, while a good idea, don't seem to generate as much interest as I thought, because people are busy with assignments and classes and other things.

I don't really like the current format of just showing stuff on Fridays. Because we only have like 5 hours per month to really get together as a club. And people want to see stuff (seeing as how many suggestions we got for series), which leaves little to no time for activities that we did have during shows in previous terms (such as Anime Guess that Tune). (having activities during shows would be a good start, since we've got more people there at the shows anyway). I think Saturday would be a better idea for the shows, because it gives us like 9-10 hours instead of 5 (but then there's the problem of people going home and working and stuff, but we can't please everyone).

But since we have less "big" shows to plan, how about using the meeting time for doing things other than discussing things regarding the club? Like the previously proposed "showing anime at meetings"?

Speaking of meetings, I agree with Nick's earlier proposal that we should move to have exec meetings, where misc things that are usually discussed over email can be done face to face (because it'd be much easier and faster). And this would save time from the normal meetings, so we can maybe do some other things. Amy told me that she went to a Konja meeting, and they played a game there. Can't we do that at our meetings too? Like... anime bingo or something.

I was surprised at the number of people that showed up in the 1st couple of meetings. The numbers have diminished greatly since then though, maybe due to midterms, but also because if you're not part of the exec or cares or knows how the club runs (like the stuff with the projector, our office etc), it's rather boring to sit there and listen to people talk about things that don't really concern you.

I realize I'm just throwing out problems rather than solutions, or maybe CTRL-A is just too big of a club to have everyone interested and come to club events.... From the rush of people at the beginning, there is potential interest in the club. But if the club is just going to show animes (stuff that aren't shiny brand new), people are going to lose interest and just stay at home to watch anime.

I agree with MapleRose! I'm new to the club and I don't know anyone at all, I just show up to some random shows for a while and then I leave cause I have classes or other things to do. This club should have more social activities, but not necessarily less anime... How will you guys incorporate more social activites and what, I think should be discussed at the meetings or organized by executives.

More or less. I think it was because the debate regarding show format had waged on long enough, and the decision was made. I think it was so that we could have more small, interactive/sociable shows. It seemed to work over the summer, but I haven't been to any weeknight shows this term, so I can't say how well it's working now.

Indeed we do. That's been a problem swept under the Matt for many terms now; heck, look at the CTRL-A FAQ:

"Anything you show I can watch at home, so why should I bother going to shows?
...They're social...
...We've got a bigger screen than you do...
...The membership picks out titles for you...
...You will actually watch anime..."

The arguments are less than stellar, and they don't really address the issue of offering something new; the arguments just dismiss the issue.

Yeah, I agree with you that there should be more activities and events. There are two things that need to be resolved with regard to that:
1. Have people to do it
2. Have something to do

There's no shortage of ideas; many people have suggested stuff. Apathy is a big problem though. Take the Anime North trip for example. Response rate? A handful of exec... and that's it. Sure, only a few notices went out, but at the first meeting, almost everyone was interested. Now? Nothing.

This was discussed before the forums crashed; I think the result was that anime-themed games are just too niche, with some exceptions. I think we ought to just help UWGamers out and tack our name onto the end of whatever event they hold. I don't know if it would generate more interest, I think CTRL-A just sort of attracts the people that don't participate... does that make sense? If I'm right, we really need to do something about that...

My experience with CTRL-A to a tee! You need people to hold events so that members can do stuff, but you can't find people to do the events because they don't think people will come out (because in practice, people don't come out). Members then get bored with the club because all the club does is watch anime. Watching anime really isn't 'fun'; interesting sure, but not 'fun', it's too passive to be fun.

Saturday probably is a better choice, but we can correct that for next term.

Perhaps the executive could make decisions at exec meetings and regularmeetings could be saved for... meetings? And social stuff? You're right on track there.

It's probably many factors, but the largest is likely that meetings suck, and they don't have to. I think lots of people showed up because the club actually bothered to advertise during orientation week, and the advertisements have better than some from the past few terms

Pointing out problems isn't bad; if people aren't aware of problems, they can't come up with solutions. Unfortunately, I've given up on CTRL-A, and I'm going to start my own club. I proposed ideas similar to yours on several occasions in the past, and have even implemented some of them, but there's not enough enthusiasm coming from the exec. Enthusiasm and dedication have to come from the bottom-up (members to exec) or top-down (exec to members). Since the exec is usually highly dysfunctional and disorganized, it's really hard to get much more than just the operation of the club going.

The whole situation is funny to me, because what I'm telling you is similar to what an older member told me two or three years ago.

Social? I don't see why people will want to go out and social about animes. It takes like a minute to go on an anime forum and talk about animes to people who actually watch the same series as you do.

you got bigger screen so what? Is it 1080p? I don't think so, then why would people want to watch in a theater environment than their 15 inch lcd screen? Resolution > screen size. If they are the same then the smaller the screen the better.

Membership picks titles for you? so no freedom of picking what animes to watch? why join the club than? I know you can recommend titles but it all comes down to votes. If you don't have enough interest your not going to watch that series.

actually watch anime? what? I watch anime whenever I want. I just load up my laptop and boom I can watch animes in class if I wanted to. iPod videos allow videos on the go, pop some animes on there and you can watch animes anytime. Why should I join the club if I can get anime from so many other places.