What is ASAPA?
ASAPA is the Alberta Society for Asian Popular Arts, a not-for-profit society based out of Edmonton. It was founded 2003 in order to replace the Animethon Society. Since then, it has acted as the guardian of Animethon and has run several smaller events in the Alberta area.
How does ASAPA relate to Animethon?
The short of it is that ASAPA owns Animethon and has final say over all Animethon decisions. However, for management purposes, Animethon is usually given a degree of autonomy once the directors are chosen. Historically ASAPA has rarely over-ruled the Animethon committee.
What else does ASAPA do besides Animethon?
ASAPA has done several anime themed dances since it’s founding. It also assists Empire Theatres in promoting Anime Movies and running small events (such as cosplay) at these movies. However, ASAPA’s main event continues to be Animethon.
Why is this General Meeting important?
The society needs to elect a new board of directors (7 in total) in order to function. Without the general meeting, ASAPA may have to delay a number of key decisions.
What are the problems facing to society?
Since it’s founding, ASAPA has attempted to change it’s bylaws at almost every general meeting held- and each time the bylaws have either been rejected by the Alberta Registry Office or held in limbo. The society is also recovering from a series of political struggles that brought the event to the brink.
In 2008 was a turbulent year for the society which caused the dates for Animethon to change, the then chair of Animethon 15 Nathan Johnston to be removed, and a number of staff members left the organization. Animethon 15 ran on about 20 staff members, while Animethon 16 increased it’s staff to about 35. For comparison, Anime Evolution, which has similar attendance figures, has a staff of about 80.
This has caused a number of heated debates within the society on what to do about the problem. Some have suggested postponing the event by a year, claiming it would give the event time to restructure itself and reorganize. Others claim that a “postponement” will not solve the fundamental problems and lead to the end of the event.
Why is staff recruitment such a problem?
In one sense it hasn’t. Most of the staff of Animethon 15 and Animethon 16 had never been staff in previous Animethons. The number of staff that were featured in Animethon 16 was the largest staff the event has had since Animethon 12. Unfortunately, the event’s attendance numbers have exploded in recent years. Animethon 14′s attendance was estimated at over 4000, Animethon 15 reached 4500, and Animethon 16 was reported at 5000. The problem has been that past efforts simply haven’t met up with demand.
The other problem has been that only certain parts of Animethon have been understaffed. Animethon 16 and 15 had nearly fully staffed Programing and Human Resources Departments, while Marketing remained functional. Public Relations and Site Operations have remained understaffed or non existent. Key positions such as webmaster, have remained vacant for as much as two years. The event may have to turn people away from it’s programming department when it desperately needs someone for the position of public relations department.
And with a lack of staff, it becomes harder to find staff. With directors that are over worked and a slew of emails to go through, it is difficult to find time to find positions for people that want to help but are not sure what they’d like to do.
So is it the end of Animethon?
Unlikely. The Animethon committee had pushed for greater staff and volunteer benefits which has helped recruit more people into running Animethon. Also, a number of reforms such as having art contests for things like the guidebook cover have helped decrease the burden for staff on the event.
Animethon has a number of other advantages. Financially, the event is in the best state it’s ever been. Attendance has increased every year, the vendor’s hall of A16 was sold out and was the biggest vendor’s hall in all of Western Canada.
Finally, one of the biggest problems cited with Animethon 16 was that the majority of the staff were inexperienced. For many of them, it was their first time being staff at Animethon. With most of last years staff returning, this should be a much smaller problem.
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Victor Vargas is the manager and editor of Anime-Alberta. He's the former chair of Animethon 16 & Animethon 15 as well as a former president of BAKA (The Banzai Anime Klub of Alberta)