Vision of Anime History

Vision of Anime (VOA) was formed in the Summer of 1999 by a handful of devoted anime fans in the Milwaukee area.  On September 24th, VOA held its fist public video meeting at Lost World of Wonders. There were about 10 people there, mostly friends who had contributed to VOA's conception and one new person showed up. Most people stood around talking to each other, setting the stage for years to come. This was the night where VOA signed up it's first new member.

In October, membership increased to 5-10 people, and our logo was voted in by those members, out of a rather large selection. At first the logo was a black and white hand sketch by local artist and anime fan Nick Katzfey, after a little colorization on the PC, we had what we have today. Nick's artwork is also commonly featured in our newsletter.

In December, we held our first social. It was a potluck held at the pool house for the apartments where Cynthia, our Secretary/Treasurer, lives. They had pizza, popcorn, and other things, and had a little party. That night at the video meeting, the title for our newsletter was voted in.

After that, things kept on rolling. We added some more members and put a featured artists section on the website. We purchased a VCR, held another social in August. This one we held at St. Alphonsus Congregation in Greendale. This one was a blast! We had free pizza, a game room with fuss ball, pool, and air hockey, as well as a downstairs TV showing videos and an upstairs TV showing DVD's.

That summer, we had some location troubles, due to the 8th Note being closed down for summer break and Lost World no longer available for meetings. We usually managed to get a room somewhere in the University Union, though we usually ended up starting late, and attendance dwindled a bit too. Once we did have to go to Tim Davis's apartment to watch videos, but that was actually pretty fun, so it wasn't a bad thing at all. Now that school is back in session, the 8th Note is available again, and attendance is going strong.

In June, a new officer position was created of Vice President, and filled by Tim Davis. In July, our president, Robin, announced she was getting married and moving to Pennsylvania. So we wished her well, and Tim took over running the club until the elections in September. During the elections we acquired a new face as our new president, Peter Zimmer.