Arts Council

Arts Council was brought up, re-digested and brought up again. People felt it was necessary to repeat things to repeat things to repeat things. Had I not been to earlier Exec meetings I would have got the impression that they were trying to bore me to death, so I'd never return to plague them with my articles.

Steve Underwood was strongly against going into an incorporated Arts Council. Steve is grossly dissatisfied with the Arts Council performance up to date and is dubious as to whether it will improve with time. His idea is to get to hell out of it in March '78 (the earliest possible.) If it does improve — what's stopping us from applying for re-admission. Andy Moore-Jones argued for staying in and if it craps out we can drop it. If we pull out now it's likely the whole thing will collapse and then we'll have nothing to re-apply for. Steve asked if this wasn't what we've already got. He believes it would be a damn sight easier to get out at this stage than if/when we plunge into an incorporated body. Moore-Jones thought thus was rubbish but had difficulty articulating a clear argument.

Underwood: "What do we get for our $3,000 (or $2,500) — people selling us things."

As far as value for money goes, Arts Council is a bit of a disaster. We pay to be in Arts Council and then we pay again for acts like Country Joe. To Underwood it made little difference whether the set up was Incorporated or not.

The question of participation in Arts Council is a very important one and obviously one which the students should and did decide. Both sides of the argument were not presented at the exec meeting and thus they do not appear here.