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3.     Arts Faculty Society - why I went to my first meeting [1969]

In my first year of university I was drifting around with a group of friends who were involved in the Arts Faculty Society. I did not know what that was at the time.

There was somebody that I had a real crush on. His name was Paul. He was about to finish university and I was half way through year one.  He was in this group of much older students who used to go to the meetings and one day somebody asked who was coming to the meeting and I was looking longingly at this young man so I followed and said I would come and see what it was all about. I sat in the meeting and said a couple of sensible things apparently and gazed at Paul.

I did this a few times until the end of the year and was then approached about taking on an office bearer’s position because most were leaving Uni and they had to hand over. So that’s how I got involved in the Arts Faculty Society, later becoming President.

I was active in the group for the rest of my university career at the NSW University. I organised conferences, went to conferences interstate with groups of students and also organised the Arts Faculty Society Ball for 2-3 years, blowing up balloons, selling tickets, organising lighting etc and had a lot of fun.

I had a key to an office, one of the portable buildings at the bottom of the Basser steps. I was lucky to be given a car sticker for the Arts Faculty Society so was able to take my car, which at the time was my mother’s ex car, into the university and give people lifts up and down the campus. I became very popular as I could save people that walk up the steep stairs. It was all great fun but it started probably because of my crush.

4.     Lighting at the Arts Faculty Ball

It was quite a task to organise the Arts Ball, held every year in the Round House at the University of NSW. Mood lighting was becoming a very popular and necessary piece of entertainment so I contacted a lighting company and got quotes. I think the name was the Electric Light Orchestra and they gave me a reasonable quote. They had a standard and a strobe lighting show so I booked them for both.

On the night of the ball they did not bring their strobe lights with them, or they broke down or something. I kept going over to them, asking them where they were and they kept saying they could not use strobes that night. They said they had broken down or whatever excuse they used. Of course I was very disappointed with this as it wasn’t what I had asked for and it wasn’t what was agreed.

When the time came when they gave me the bill, I went away with it and did not say anything. I was obviously quite annoyed about the service we did not get and talked it over with some colleagues in the Society. We decided not to pay the entire bill, just to pay for what we got. This began a war with the man who ran the lighting company where he was harassing me, following me around and yelling at me at the university and asking for his money.

Ultimately, he started ringing me at home and abusing me but I got very stubborn and in the end my father intervened and took the phone calls and told him the police were going to be contacted if he continued. He backed off and I learned something then. It is scary but you can hold your ground on these issues.

Anyway, running a ball or any big event is not as easy as it looks and I have certainly run a few functions since.