NSAMO president Mark Latus was kind enough to supply this short
history of NSAMO's presence in Nsamo President Nova Scotia.
NSAMO was founded in late 1992 by a group of anime fans
in Halifax, NS. They'd been meeting informally to watch, swap
and talk anime at home for some time. The group didn't grow
since unless you were a friend of one of them you never heard
of it. Which limited both the amount of material they hadn't
watched to death and all the anime news, gossip and rumour
they didn't all already know? It occurred to them there might
be other anime fans out there they didn't know about and who
didn't know about them in the same situation. Anime was starting
to expand in North America so why didn't they follow suit?
They hit on the idea of expanding and becoming an actual
anime club. The idea was to bring together all the local anime
enthusiasts and pool all their resources and information.
With this accomplished they would be able to begin converting
the heathens to the joys of anime. Ken Thornhill, the most
vocal exponent of organizing a club and the guy who'd coined
the group's name "The Nova Scotia Anime and Manga Organization"
was declared the president of the newly founded club and told
"Congratulations, now go set everything up!"
Since the group had no membership fees it had no budget,
starting a tradition which continues to this day. So finding
free meeting space was the only way to get the group up and
running. Ken discovered that the Akins Room in the Public
Archives of Nova Scotia was available for free use by non-profit
community groups and being penniless NSAMO certainly qualified
as non-profit.
The first NSAMO meeting was held in January of 1993 at the Akins
room of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia which
became NSAMO's primary home until December 2000. However NSAMO
did move around a bit during this period and meetings were
also held in the auditorium rooms of the Nova Scotia College
of Art and Design and of Mount St. Vincent University to take
advantage of their video projectors and large screen. Also
by collecting donations from those who could afford it NSAMO
was also able to rent the local art theatre (the sadly defunct
Wormwoods Dog & Monkey Theatre) and show anime in the
cinema. Which in those days didn't happen otherwise since
the few anime movies around had very limited release and never
made it to Halifax?
Returning to 1993 NSAMO was up and running, now it needed
to get the word out since most of those attending the first
meeting had been part of the informal anime watchers group.
Chat rooms were set up on local BBS's and the word was spread
at the Wolfville based SF Convention Wolfcon VI which increased
the attendance at the second meeting. Since facilities at
the Archives were somewhat limited and as many of the members
were students attempts were made to see if NSAMO could become
an official group at one of the local universities. Unfortunately
these either had policies that campus societies must be 100%
students at that institution or have a certain number attending
that university. With 7 universities in the Halifax region
and a small population base NSAMO could never get enough members
at any single institution to become an official university
society. Which in the long run was probably an advantage as
it meant the group could admit anyone regardless of their
background giving the group a diversity of ages and educational
status?
When circumstances required Ken to move to BC the presidency
passed to Mike Neiforth another member of the original gang.
Unfortunately he found himself frequently unable to attend
meetings and passed the leadership to Steve Browne. Steve,
another member of the original crew, served faithfully and
expanded the group by arranging to hold regular meetings at
Wormwoods Cinema to supplement the Archives meetings. Watching
anime in an actual theatre was much more satisfying than relying
solely upon the TV & VCR setup available in the Archives
Eventually Steve was also forced to move from Halifax and
needed a successor. Most of the original gang were unavailable
to run the meetings on a regular basis so he begins looking
for trustworthy fanatics who had always shown up. He picked
Mark Latus who had been an anime neophyte a few years earlier
and had joined after hearing about the group at Wolfcon VI
(despite the car accident he had suffered as a result of attending
the con).
In May of 1995 Mark took over and has remained as president
ever since. Since no one else is showing any interest in taking
over or agitating for his removal he figures he must be doing
something right so he might as well keep doing the job until
he loses interest in anime. Which seems unlikely to happen
anytime soon? Since NSAMO isn't overly structured the duties
are few and he doesn't find it too difficult to run NSAMO
so he's got no plans to step down anytime soon.
Originally NSAMO's Executive did have more structure and
initially consisted of the President, Vice President, Secretary
and Treasurer Positions. When Mark took over he realised that
while a Vice President was necessary to run meetings that
he couldn't attend a Secretary and Treasurer were irrelevant
for a group that had no money and never took minutes. Since
the incumbents were rarely attending anyway he phased out
both positions and replaced them with a more useful one, Webmaster.
In the years since NSAMO was founded the internet had undergone
explosive growth and been embraced by anime fandom. Conventions,
fanzine and handout sheets in the local comic book stores
were no longer the way to the reach the anime fans of Nova
Scotia who had never heard of NSAMO. What was needed was a
webpage.
The first webpage was designed and created by James Welsh.
After James moved on to seek employment in the States the
reins passed to Duncan Chisholm. Duncan became the first virtual
member of the Executive after he moved to study in New Brunswick
and maintained the webpage long distance. But after graduating
it was time to move on and he passed the webpage over to Keith
Cheah, who was already NSAMO's vice president which reduced
the NSAMO executive to two.
From 1995 to 2001 Mark's vice president had been the unforgettable
"Rei". After she stepped down a replacement was
needed and Keith stepped in to fill the void. Rei's departure
came not too long after NSAMO was forced to relocate from
its old home in the Archives at the end of 2000.
Having to relocate NSAMO from its old home Mark found another
free meeting space in the Barrington Market Superstore's Community
Room. This sufficed for 2001 but by 2002 problems arose. In
the Public Archives there had been plenty of space so crowding
had never been an issue. The group's membership shrank after
the move from the Public Archives but it began to grow steadily
and by the end of 2001 there were no free chairs at the meetings
and people sitting on the floor. Which didnft diminish attendance
as anime fans are willing to put up with a bit of inconvenience
just so long as there is something new to watch? In February
of 2002 the Barrington Market Superstore ceased turning a
blind eye to NSAMO's overabundance and informed the group
that to comply with fire regulations the size of the membership
had to be cut back. Choosing to keep this as a last resort
the search began for a new meeting space. Fortunately Mark
discovered that the Joseph Howe Drive Superstore possessed
a larger community room which would hold NSAMO's membership
without the need for cutting back so the group relocated there
in March 2002. Some architectural peculiarities meant that
we soon learned to limit the number of daylight hours for
meetings in the summer but we're far from the only group to
have problems with the Community Room's glass wall facing
the sun design. But we learned to adapt and otherwise the
move was successful and glitch free.
2002 was NSAMO's biggest year as membership swelled to an
average of 35-40 people attending each meeting and NSAMO seemed
unstoppable. But as we learned the hard way nothing lasts
forever.
In early 2003 membership declined slightly but remained at
a minimum of 30-35 people per meeting. The community room
was unavailable for April's meeting because of renovations
but at the May meeting a smaller group attending the meeting
as the Community Room reopened. As usual membership fell during
the summer as out of town students returned home but it didn't
bounce back in the fall. Bit torrent, e-donkey and other file
sharing software made it easier to get anime online and hardware
improvements increased filesharing capacity. Additionally
Instant Messaging software made meeting other fans online
simple and virtually instantaneous. Going to a club and physically
swapping fansubbed VHS tapes and talking about anime &
manga became so last century. Membership declined and the
situation wasn't helped by a change in Community Room managers.
While the previous one had been the great to work with the
new one kept double booking the room and kept the TV/VCR cart
locked away making it hard to locate on meeting day. After
the disastrous December 2003 meeting the January 2004 meeting
was cancelled due to booking conflicts and NSAMO need a new
home once again.
In February 2004 NSAMO moved into its new home, The North
Winds Community Room of the Windsor Street Sobeys (2651 Windsor
Street). This meeting room had been skipped as a potential
choice in 2002 because it had a maximum occupancy capacity
of 25 but by February 2004 attendance had dropped below that
maximum. NSAMO membership dwindled slowly but surely until 2005 when
it seemed to stabilize and sailed through 2005 & 2006
with an average of 12-15 attending. In 2007 membership began
to nosedive and looked like the final year for the group but
it revitalized after the reintroduction of the NSAMO Christmas
parties in December 2007. Thought 2008 membership has grown
and while we're a long way from our glory days it seems that
NSAMO might not be done after all.
Nothing lasts forever but it looks like NSAMO's still here
for the long haul, so check us out and let's hope you like
what you see.
