There’s Something Rotten in the State of Animethon
During Animethon 17, staffers boasted that this year’s attendance had surpassed that of Animethon 16 by over a thousand. Everyone was ecstatic at the news as the new revenue would ensure the future of the event for years to come. But just as people were thinking of Animethon 20, the same staffers started saying that the attendance increase was much less, maybe only an increase of 100.
More questions were raised about Animethon’s attendance when vendors started complaining that there felt like less people were going through the vendor’s hall. Several people commented that the halls of MacEwan University felt lighter then in previous years. People began whispering that there actually a drop in attendance, maybe as much as 500 less patrons then in Animethon 16. Animethon has not released any official attendance figures, but there have been other dark indications.
Over the last few months, Animethon has been acting strange. There was no gripe panel at the end of Animethon 17, a panel traditionally held since Animethon 11 that allowed patrons to share their concerns in person with the directors of Animethon. The Animethon website has not been updated since before the event. No announcement has been made about the dates for Animethon 18 and there have been no calls for directors for Animethon 18.
Then there’s ASAPA (Alberta Society for Asian Popular Arts), the not-for-profit society that manages Animethon. For almost a year now ASAPA has not sent out any minutes, a record of decisions made by the ASAPA board, to its members. Since ASAPA’s founding, the minutes of meetings have been sent to all members automatically, but current ASAPA President Jared Samborski has argued that, under his interpretation of the society’s bylaws, these minutes will only be sent out when members ask for them in writing. However, even when members have requested the minutes in writing, no ASAPA minutes were made available.
When all of these things are taken into account something seems very wrong.
Is There Method in this Madness?
Every year there is a rumour claiming that Animethon is finally going to die. During Animethon 16 there was the rumour that Bandai was going to sue the society into oblivion, before then Animethon 15 had rumours stating that former con-chair Nathan Johnston was going to destroy the event. Each year the event sounds like a Shakespearian drama is taking place, but normally it is just rumours spread by people with wild imaginations and embittered staff.
This isn’t to say that Animethon hasn’t had real problems. The event has been plagued with a variety of issues for years, many of which haven’t been resolved. But the closest debate the society came to actually shutting the event down came when then AMV coordinator Vlad Pohnert and then ASAPA President Nik Ekonomakis pushed for Animethon 17 to be postponed till 2011. Even then, the postponement was motivated by a desire to give the event more time to fix its problems, not cancel it. People would speculate that the event could die at any moment, but realistically the only way the event would shut down was if the society went bankrupt— which is why the current speculation now seems more credible.
Financially ASAPA hasn’t been doing well. Last year’s Edmonton Halloween Dance was a financial disaster, the latest in a long string of Edmonton Anime themed dances with a poor attendance. A Taste of Animethon did manage to get a fair attendance, but also resulted in a financial loss for the society. Then there are the other expenses ASAPA has had to incur over the year ranging from equipment purchases to legal fees, all of which picked away at its savings.
Almost certainly these gloomy financial results affected Animethon 17. Usually, every Animethon adds something to the event. Animethon 15 greatly expanded Artist Alley and featured both card & console gaming rooms. Animethon 16 then added a Lan Gaming Room as well as a Saturday night concert. But Animethon 17 didn’t expand, it actually shrank.
This year’s Animethon eliminated all overnight viewing rooms from the MacEwan Residence. It also didn’t issue any badges or lanyards to day of attendees. Instead patrons buying a 3-day pass were expected to wear a gold colour wristband over the entire weekend. On top of that, at-the door prices for 3-day passes were increased to $40.00. While a positive face was put on all of these changes, evidence suggest that money had become an issue.
But Animethon has faced challenges like this in the past. Usually when Animethon is in jeopardy, the community comes together and works towards a solution to make the event work. But for that to happen, ASAPA would need to inform its members and the Animethon staff, something that hasn’t happened yet.
The Rest Could be Silence
The reason for Animethon and ASAPA’s continued silence on the issue is because of the reforms put in place during Animethon 17. Vlad Pohnert, chair of Animethon 17, pushed through a number of measures to tighten control on information. Previous Animethons were plagued with rumours and staff would witness the fights between various Animethon directors. To deal with this, Mr. Pohnert enforced that certain issues would only be discussed in “director only meetings”— meetings where staff and the public were kept out. Outside of these meetings directors were expected to keep up a positive opinion about the event, and keep the staff in the dark about any disagreements within the committee.
This has worked in conjunction with Mr. Samborski’s policies in running ASAPA. In addition to not sending out any minutes about the ASAPA board, the society hasn’t announced the time and location for ASAPA meetings. These meetings were once open to all ASAPA members, but for the last year the only meetings ASAPA members have been informed of were elections or meetings that had special resolutions that needed to be passed.
These reforms have certainly succeeded in making Animethon look better. There have been very little negative comments about Animethon 17 and some staff commented that the event has been run much better in compared to previous years. There’s been no public dispute between directors, no issue that seems to have divided the committee, and certainly no indication that everything is about to collapse— which is a problem.
Right now the actions of ASAPA and Animethon indicate that there is a very serious problem, but the rhetoric makes it sound that Animethon 17 was a major success. Even if there isn’t anything wrong, that means Animethon should get its act together soon. Usually the directors for Animethon are chosen by mid-October with most key staff positions filled by the end of December. This means that if Animethon doesn’t open up applications for directors soon, it risks falling dangerously behind. Considering Animethon 17 was late with everything from sending out the vendors package to announcing the guests, falling behind isn’t a wise move.
The only thing that is certain is that this Sunday ASAPA is having a by election for two positions. ASAPA members were only given two week’s notice, strange considering most elections are given a full months notice. It’s also stranger when you consider that quorum is important and members actually need to attend if there’s going to be an election at all. But hopefully some of these important questions will be answered.
Then again all of this is speculation as ASAPA and Animethon have not said anything definitive on the future of the event. If everything is fine, then it would be prudent to shed some light on the state of the society to Animethon staff and ASAPA members. But if there is a problem, then it’s in their best interests to let the cat out of the bag so people can come together and try and work out a solution. Otherwise this might be Animethon’s last act.
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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)