User:Aremisasling/Otaku Anonymous

Otaku Anonymous is an anime club in Eau Claire, Wisconsin notable for founding the Anime Appreciation Society at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire as well as No Brand Con, the current largest anime convention in Wisconsin.

History
Otaku Anonymous began as a group of university students and a few community members who met on friday nights in the residence halls at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. It began with only a handful of members and grew over the years to a regular membership of over twenty individuals. As time went on, it developed into more and more of its own entity above and beyond just a group of friends.

In 2001, Otaku Anonymous was asked to act as convention support staff at West Con 5, the fifth and final year of the now defunct anime convention held at Wausau West high school in Wausau, Wisconsin. Otaku Anonymous' membership included a number of individuals with experience as volunteers at other conventions as well as student organizations at UW-Eau Claire. Also in the group that year was a former con director of West Con, Kevin Tambornino. After a professional showing at the convention and with the end of West Con, some of the core members of Otaku Anonymous decided it may be a good idea to keep an anime convention going in Wisconsin.

However, as Otaku Anonymous wasn't a formal student organization and sites off campus were unaffordable, it was decided that an official organization needed to be created to allow access to university resources in order to operate the convention. Since Otaku Anonymous was clearly not a typical student organization, a new organization, the Anime Appreciation Society, was started on campus by Otaku member Terence Clark.