On December 2, 2007 Suncoast in Pierre Bossier Mall held an Animania. Two days later, Teresa, who worked at Suncoast, heard that the store would be closing in January, and that the Animanias might not continue at FYE. She had met lots of great people and made many friends at the Animanias, and did not want this gathering of anime fans to be scattered with Suncoast’s closing. She resolved that day to form a club for Shreveport anime fans, where they could get together and meet other fans.
Within that week she had built a website for the club, started the forums, made flyers, and begun researching other clubs and ideas on the net. She began handing out flyers at Suncoast and getting the word out. During the next couple of weeks she stumbled upon the “Shreveport-Bossier Anime Meetup”, and decided to attend their first meeting in order to find members for the club. This is where she met Rich, the current vice-president. An impromptu club organization meeting was held soon thereafter, with 10 people attending. Some basic plans were laid out for the club, and initial plans were made for the club’s first chibicon - then called animanias.
On February 16, the club hosted its first Animania at the Broadmoor Branch of the Shreve Memorial Library. The club had also begun to hold a few viewings at the Benton library every few weeks. On March 29 the club’s second animania was held at LSUS, and Teresa knew by that point that she needed help. She appealed to the club for interested people to help her plan things, and an orginazational meeting was held that week, and some supervisors were selected. The club’s organization was not truly established, however, until July, when an important meeting was held at IHOP to select officers. This is when the current officers were selected and the club finally enjoyed some effective organization.
In August the name was changed from the Shreveport Anime Club to the Shreveport Anime Society in preparation for applying for a business license and non-profit status, which would allow access to a number of new opportunities. The club is still growing, with more events being planned and more people helping, and hopefully it will continue to grow for a long time to come.
