Swinburne Anime and Manga Society (SAMS) celebrated our 1st year anniversary on the 21st of September. And to top it of, we celebrated our anniversary by having a grand dinner at Rakutei Japanese Restaurant, Crown Square, Pending, Kuching!

The almighty Russian Empress! (Upgraded from Princess)

It has been one year, and this is the reward of our diligence and perseverance. Many have not heard the full story yet. Let me start from the beginning…

Somewhere in April -June 2006, Stacy aka [Tenma] and I planned, over MSN, to form an anime club in Swinburne. At that time, I was only about to join in the next July intake. However, after getting used to university life, I met up with Stacy once more, gathered a bunch of anime freaks, and we formed SAMS. [Jessie], [Nerdrazor], [Swatwolf], Keh Shiun and Sze Miang were the first few members (and still are XD). And after completing the necessary paperwork, I took our case over to Student Council. The President, Mr. Saad, was pretty casual about it. And so was Student Admin. Then, a period of about a month followed, with me diligently chasing down Saad and Mr. Ismail to ask about the approval of the club. Somewhere around 21st September, the secretary of Student Council called me up to ask me to get down to council to settle some things up with them and Student Admin. The rest is history.

President and Vice President

Written on our constitution is the date of our founding. And honestly, I do not think that’s the actual date of the anniversary, as we had our first meeting way before that. XD However, true to legality, 21st of September has and will come to serve as the point where SAMS was officially approved by Swinburne, and ready to take on the world!

Ready to take on the world with our yukatas!

Many things have happened since, and SAMS has grown to include a membership of 45 active (and wacky) students, a website of it’s own, activities here and there, and tonnes of photographs. From the time of the AGM, SAMS has held about 10 major activities, not-inclusive of weekly meetings and informal gatherings. We’re a huge bunch, and a very close and fun bunch at that. Otherwise, we just short of money, that’s all^^ (Please donate at the PayPal link at the sidebar – wait, I haven’t set that up yet!)

Looks funny!

The night was a special one, where everyone had to don their smart shirts and blouses, manly ties (including [Ryuten]) and pretty scarfs ([Tenma] only). And some of the ladies went for the courageous style, putting on yukatas. I understand it’s a bit hard walking in those, so yea. We started off schedule, speech and activities took longer than expected, and even [Intel]‘s food disappeared. But it was fun, glamorous and hilarious. Joseph and Kimberly roused the crowd to become a spectacular audience. I lol’ed my way through when they were playing the jokes on me. And the photograph taking… I think everyone enjoyed taking photos! (And looking at Blanc and Saber of course XD) Here’s a run through of the night, photographs galore:

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And if you like, you can continue looking, as there’s about 200++ photos in the gallery.

Here’s my final thanks to all the members, sponsors, Rakutei and organizing committee for attending and making it a memorable event in SAMS history. You guys are great people, and here’s my appreciation to you all!

May the force be with you.

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