Lisgar's AVA:About

We're in charge of setting up and managing Lisgar's audio-visual equipment at school events. Microphones, speakers, fog, dance lights, and too many other things reach the public's eyes and ears through us. Event organizers submit a double-plus-bureaucratic request form to ask for our help, and we work with them to keep their event at the toppest of notches.

Notable Members

 * Earlier and forgotten co-heads, since time immemorial
 * Hayward Peirce, co-head until June 2011
 * Joe Su, co-head until June 2012
 * Griffin Peirce, co-head September 2011-circa February 2013
 * Jesse Wang, co-head September 2012-June 2013
 * Dmytro Bidnyk, co-head circa February 2013-June 2014
 * Jon Liu, co-head September 2013-June 2014
 * Lucas Zhang, current co-head
 * Will Lau, current co-head

A brief history
Warning: this section is somewhat filled with speculation and light original research. Romanticized, sensationalized, and possibly incorrect information beyond this point.

Decades ago
AVA ran dances and other events and operated projectors. Since then, Studco and other clubs organize active events and projectors come by the media carts, available on every floor in the school. Film reels, transparent slides, and portable projectors from a long time ago come up from time to time, reminiscient of an era long gone.

However, something happened. (And we don't know what.) Some event unknown to modern members of AVA caused its downfall, and respect for AVA evaporated. People saw AVA as microphone slaves. Organizers were mistreating AVA's work: giving little advance warning about events, not thanking the club, being vague about what they needed for their events, and so on. Something had to change.

The Peirce Dynasty (Ab immemorabili tempore-2012)
Fun fact: Joe Su was bribed to work on the Studco Christmas assembly because Studco only asked the day before.

Under Hayward Peirce's rule of AVA, he began to put down more rules and then enforced the rules more strongly. The event setup form now required a week's advance notice. He stood his ground and made sure AVA got the respect it deserved. Starting with Hayward, the club would begin rebuilding its reputation as a cool organization that does cool things.

After Hayward graduated, the younger Griffin Peirce, heir to the throne, took over. Now the focus was on cleaning up and organizing AVA's facilities. Many things in the storage rooms, hidden closets, and dark corners of the school were cleaned out and moved to new places. Cables were sorted into bins and catalogued; old equipment was tested and fixed. (There were plans to replace the storage bins with a new storage system involving pegs and shelves, but this was scrapped.)

A serious case of catastrophic failure between systems led to another club's event left unstaffed by AVA, AVA unclear of the event's existence, and pressure from school administration over the possible disruption of the event. Griffin's disagreements with the school administration lead him to resign out of frustration. Co-head Jesse Wang stayed on board, and Dmytro Bidnyk rose to take Griffin's place.

So marks the end of the Peirce Dynasty.

The Eastern Bloc (2012-2014)
Then Jesse graduated. Jon Liu took his place, now a co-head alongside Dmytro. Since Jesse's rule of AVA, there has been a slight hint of Eastern European influence in the club's culture. George, a former member since Jesse's time, was a fan of Papers, Please, a game that drew its atmosphere from the USSR's business. Dmytro himself was Ukranian, and soon enough, a Serb and a Hungarian became part of the club, too. Soviet jokes became a thing and everyone joked that AVA was being thrown to the communists.

Recruitment became a problem during this time, as few new people signed up. This meant that most of the members were incumbents, and would be graduating at the end of the year. The remaining population in the club would be tiny and relatively untrained.

Jon and Dmytro worked on attracting more attention to AVA, a normally invisible club that rarely gets any thought from eventgoers. Jon formed a website (this one!) and an online form to streamline AVA's already double-plus-excellent bureaucracy. Work began on operating an active event that AVA would host. It has been a very long time since AVA actually hosted an event, and the club was more passive because of that. This new event would be what the club needed to get more recognition and respect; it was the next step to rebuilding AVA's glory.

Asterisk was born as a new event where the audience interacted with the show. It was an attempt to do something unique and rarely-before-seen at Lisgar, taking advantage of AVA's expertise in a new, more visible way. Unfortunately, it was scheduled at an awkward time, not enough people registered to go on-stage, and the draw of the event wasn't clear enough. It probably, may have been, possibly, a bit too ambitious. The show was cancelled with bitterness and disgust, set to return when its ambitions can be more readily realized.

The Oligopoly (2014-)
Lucas Zhang and Will Lau replaced the graduating Jon and Dmytro. Lucas is set on improving coordination and communication between clubs, continuing the great struggle to rebuild and improve.

(This is where we are now.)