Anne Nixon, Patron & Volunteer
I thought I’d be licking stamps when I started as a volunteer in 1983, but the manager said, ‘How long have you got?’ and I said ‘A couple of hours’ and she said ‘That’s enough time to do a program’ so that got me into programming.
This exposed me to the library. At that time, we had absolutely no systems—we were still using LPs. I became interested in getting systems into the library and gradually I moved from programming to working there.
I spend two full days, 9am to 4.30pm, at 3MBS. I really love the library, it has had an extraordinary evolution over the years. Everything is now digitised. We have a sophisticated database and a digital programming system and the two are linked together. All the work on this has been done by volunteers. Ted Mason and Howard Stoney have been two people who have done a lot of this but there are a whole range of very talented people who have worked behind the scenes.
There have been huge changes in 3MBS in the 40 years I have been here. In the very early days, there was a station manager, and the rest of the station was run by volunteers. As we became more sophisticated, we needed more paid staff. There were some very tumultuous times with the volunteers understanding the station was changing and they no longer held the reins.
The first Station Manager who really understood how to manage the volunteers and lead them in the right direction was David Melzer. Also, at the time Adrian Basso who came in as the accountant, was excellent. They, together with Anthony Adair as Chairman of the Board, were instrumental in getting us to Abbotsford—there was a lot of opposition to that at the time.
There has always been fun and laughter. We have the Wednesday warriors which essentially is anyone who is around on Wednesday. Phil Duncan started the baking tradition—on Wednesday everyone involved had to bake at some stage. We devised a cookbook with recipes like ‘No Fat Idiot Cake’ and ‘Geoff’s Devious Delight’ to name just a couple of cakes in the book. This started years and years ago.
There’s a wonderful camaraderie in this place. There has always been, though at times there have been camps and divisions, but I think we’ve largely gone past that now. What keeps us all together is the music