Early 1991 I was asked to put my name forward to be a part of the committee of the NSW Square Dance Society. Jan and myself decided to attend the AGM in March, where I was elected as Vice President. We had regular monthly meetings at various homes and venues. In September I was elected as President as Alan Hansford was stepping down from the position.

Once elected Jan and myself decided to get around the clubs and let the dances know the objectives of the Society and to encourage membership. This involved attending all Sydney clubs at least twice a year and attending club’s special nights as well as dancing at our club the Wanderers each week. I was very fortunate to have a mentor in our club, Bill Rolph (Bill was a former President) whom I could ask for advice at any time.

My job required me to visit country areas. As I was travelling long distances, Jan was able to accompany me. This allowed us to drop in on many country club dances.

The Society continued to hold a dance on every 5th Saturday with selected callers. Themes and decorations were designed for all these dances, and I was very fortunate to have a great committee to carry out all these duties. We held the 40th Anniversary Dance in 1996 which was held on the Central Coast where over 500 dancers attended.

We were having trouble in getting a convenor and committee members for our yearly State Conventions, still the same today, so we paid visits to various Sydney and country clubs to talk to dancers or callers and ask them to take up the roll of convenor or become committee members. At the time State Conventions were run with no real guidelines to date so with the help of Alan Hansford, Bruce Clark and Cec Wilcox we went over all the minutes from previous State Convention AGM and formulated a constitution for the running of State Conventions which was formally accepted in 1996 at Wellington. Alan Hansford, Bruce Clark and myself became very involved with the State Conventions whilst I was President and we were given the name of “The boys from the city”.

Many meetings were held at our house dealing with updating the NSW Square Dance Society Constitution, reviewing the South Pacific Square Dance Review rules of operation and costing and the State Convention Constitution.

Nationally, in 1996 our son Andrew came up with the idea of a national square dance web page so that anybody could see what was happening and where to go in Australia square dancing. Many hours were spent setting up the rules to be able to allow the web site to work. The rules were accepted at the 1996 National Convention in Launceston. During the National Convention in Launceston the late Gary Brown, the late Adrian Brown, Andrew and myself sat together with plans suggested by Adrian and Andrew for a Youth Council. Gary and I along with Adrian and Andrew formulated the rules to which the Youth Council would operate. These rules were accepted at the 1997 National Convention in Newcastle. The web site and the Youth Council have been further developed and are now under the control of the National Square Dance Society of Australia.

We were fortunate enough to have a dancer in our club who arranged for me to meet with the organisers of Seniors Week in Sydney. As a result, we were able to hold two promotional dances around the forecourt of the Opera House and the highlight was that in 1996 we were invited to perform at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in the Premiers Concert during Seniors Week with Mary Schneider, John Schuman, Dianna Hammond, Kamahl and Smokey Dawson.  It was arranged for Tedda Brooks to call and two sets of Guys and Dolls dancers.

In early 1996 we received a phone call from a Japanese cruise line asking if we could teach passengers on the cruise ship Asuka between Brisbane and Sydney section of their world cruise. We accepted and arranged for a caller and a square of dancers to go. Then in 1999 and 2000 we received a similar request but this was for a cruise from Cairns to Sydney, we accepted and arranged for a caller and a square of dancers to go.

To move away from paper membership records and paper receipts in 1994 I designed a database for recording membership details and laminated cards as a confirmation of membership and payment. The database also included club contacts and Review lists for clubs and address labels for Review distribution.

We had two large banners made for outside promotion and the first time we used them was at a dance at Darling Harbour where we tied them to wire fencing on the edge of the dancing area near the edge of wharf. The dance was in full swing when a gust of wind came up and the banners and the fencing went into Darling Harbour water. On the following Monday we approached the Darling Harbour Management to get permission to dive and retrieve the banners, after some toing and froing we were given permission to recover them. Many thanks to Vickie Dean and her brother for the recovery.

To further promote the Society, we organised for bumper stickers to be printed and distributed. From this it was thought that a phone number should be used so contact could be made to a real person to gain club information. The 1800 number was thought to be the best way to go so I arranged for a 1800 number to be connected. This was originally for NSW but has since been extended to be used nationally and maintained by the National Square Dance Society of Australia.

The NSW Callers Association approached the Society with the idea to further promote square dancing by using a PR Company and to arrange to bring out the President of the Callers Association of America. The PR company arranged radio interviews and various other engagements.

Due to being elected as a Co-Convenor with Bruce Clark for the 42nd National Square Dance Convention I did not stand for re-election in 1999 and stayed on as immediate past president for the next 12 months.

Jan and myself had many wonderful times whilst I was president and could not have successfully fulfilled the role without a great harmonious committee and the backing of Jan. We are still involved in many ways with square dancing both locally and nationally.

Both Jan and I were made Life members of the NSW Square Dance Society at the State Convention in Corowa in 2007 for our contributions to Square Dancing.

Nationally in 2010 I was entered on the Roll Of Honour for the National Square Dancing Society of Australia. Along with Alan and Pauline Hansford for our contributions to Square Dancing.