Editing: Apparently I should be clear on somethings. I am not a student at the school but an Adjunct Professor in the Computer science department and a Computer Lab professional there. At my college student clubs must have a staff or teacher act as the Advisor to the club who is a go-between for the students and the school administration. I hope this clears it up.
Edit2: Mentioned in several posts about why events are the way they are, the school insists on having some academic or cultural connection for the clubs to make them less social and more "school-oriented". To this end, we had to have events that connect the Anime/gaming side with something cultural and my students suggested the origami and the Japanese lessons. (Our President right now has mostly had the only experience of running a middle school, while the former president of the college that left a few years ago was very much someone who did not like the idea of social clubs, ie: clubs that didn't have a purpose other than students making friends or networking.)
Edit3: For those wondering about the Maid Cafe, no it wasn't as you would think. The idea was more akin to High Tea event, but with more of a japan spin on it due to students in a survey asking for something connected to a Convention, and our then Head of the Student Activities (person who takes care of all the clubs and events on campus) asked for a Maid like Cafe since that seemed the most appropriate to have over a panel or similar event. So we did a thing where students could come in, watch a movie and be served by our members. They were supposed to get cloth napkins with their names written on them as a parting gift but the school did not come through with access to our funds at the time for us to get them. I hope that explains more and clears that up.
So I'm an Advisor for my community college's Anime/Gaming club. We've been in existence since 2004 and I've been in charge since 2008, and over the years we've, of course, fluctuated with the times and focused on various social activities. In recent years there's been a downturn in students that want to join the club since we can't do as many activities as we used to due to Red tape (basically we have to give 3 weeks for larger events before they happen, and 2 weeks for smaller events). Thing is we need students to join us as many of our members will be graduating soon. Since I'm an older Millennial my tastes and views on games and Anime are probably vastly different than younger Millennials and Gen Zers.
So what I'm hoping for here is suggestions in ways to get students active in my club? We already do tournaments for various games, so gamers tend to come to us easily but what I'm looking for is the Anime fans. I've seen a lot of students watching it on computers in the library and in the Student union (commons). So any suggestions on how to create events that would cater to the Anime crowd, or something that we can do, other than "Put on Anime" -we've tried to do that and it doesn't seem to get them to want to come to us.
(For the record we're in the states.)
Just so you know things we've tried:
White Day Celebration -covering the Asian Holiday that follows Valentines day
Ghibli movie -found out we need licensing rights, and the school wasn't willing to pay for it since they already had used that upon other live-action movies
Origami day -Did not attract people, or they didn't get the idea of paper folding (would be willing to try that again if we can get someone to teach it)
Maid Cafe -Was a bust due to the school insisting we use the business that runs the cafeteria and no one likes their deserts, also stuck in a corner room so no one saw us.
Anime Days -Gamers will come in and take over the tvs after about an hour or so since the room we use has to be open to the public.
Japanese lessons -Only club members came and we had too many screwing around rather than learning.
I'm open to suggestions, any suggestions at this point. Keep in mind we're not a huge community college, and the vast majority of the school is Hispanic but there are a lot of anime fans, as I've seen them walking around with plushies and various anime on their shirts. Also, I'd like to get girls to join us as the group is mostly dudes and it would be nice to have equal parts women and men in there.
Edit2: Mentioned in several posts about why events are the way they are, the school insists on having some academic or cultural connection for the clubs to make them less social and more "school-oriented". To this end, we had to have events that connect the Anime/gaming side with something cultural and my students suggested the origami and the Japanese lessons. (Our President right now has mostly had the only experience of running a middle school, while the former president of the college that left a few years ago was very much someone who did not like the idea of social clubs, ie: clubs that didn't have a purpose other than students making friends or networking.)
Edit3: For those wondering about the Maid Cafe, no it wasn't as you would think. The idea was more akin to High Tea event, but with more of a japan spin on it due to students in a survey asking for something connected to a Convention, and our then Head of the Student Activities (person who takes care of all the clubs and events on campus) asked for a Maid like Cafe since that seemed the most appropriate to have over a panel or similar event. So we did a thing where students could come in, watch a movie and be served by our members. They were supposed to get cloth napkins with their names written on them as a parting gift but the school did not come through with access to our funds at the time for us to get them. I hope that explains more and clears that up.
So I'm an Advisor for my community college's Anime/Gaming club. We've been in existence since 2004 and I've been in charge since 2008, and over the years we've, of course, fluctuated with the times and focused on various social activities. In recent years there's been a downturn in students that want to join the club since we can't do as many activities as we used to due to Red tape (basically we have to give 3 weeks for larger events before they happen, and 2 weeks for smaller events). Thing is we need students to join us as many of our members will be graduating soon. Since I'm an older Millennial my tastes and views on games and Anime are probably vastly different than younger Millennials and Gen Zers.
So what I'm hoping for here is suggestions in ways to get students active in my club? We already do tournaments for various games, so gamers tend to come to us easily but what I'm looking for is the Anime fans. I've seen a lot of students watching it on computers in the library and in the Student union (commons). So any suggestions on how to create events that would cater to the Anime crowd, or something that we can do, other than "Put on Anime" -we've tried to do that and it doesn't seem to get them to want to come to us.
(For the record we're in the states.)
Just so you know things we've tried:
White Day Celebration -covering the Asian Holiday that follows Valentines day
Ghibli movie -found out we need licensing rights, and the school wasn't willing to pay for it since they already had used that upon other live-action movies
Origami day -Did not attract people, or they didn't get the idea of paper folding (would be willing to try that again if we can get someone to teach it)
Maid Cafe -Was a bust due to the school insisting we use the business that runs the cafeteria and no one likes their deserts, also stuck in a corner room so no one saw us.
Anime Days -Gamers will come in and take over the tvs after about an hour or so since the room we use has to be open to the public.
Japanese lessons -Only club members came and we had too many screwing around rather than learning.
I'm open to suggestions, any suggestions at this point. Keep in mind we're not a huge community college, and the vast majority of the school is Hispanic but there are a lot of anime fans, as I've seen them walking around with plushies and various anime on their shirts. Also, I'd like to get girls to join us as the group is mostly dudes and it would be nice to have equal parts women and men in there.
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