As the traditional dress-up party of the year is approaching, students are talking about the tickets, preparation and costumes. Although Priscilla Ball takes up quite some time, one thing is certain, it does bring a lot of excitement to campus. This article shares perspectives on the preparation for the Priscilla Ball.
“It’s five minutes to twelve. Section G, press the refresh button NOW,” Jamie Chang was yelling out to his section. the pressure was rising; at noon the ticket sale of the most remarkable party of the year would start: the Priscilla Ball.
This annual ritual sponsored by the Aussie & New Zealand Club was becoming a hyped tradition, and the question remained: was this distracting the student body from other things in life, such as learning teams and cases?
RC sections have been going about it for weeks: how do we prepare for the Priscilla Ball? Not only was the actual party a big deal, but the preparation was everything: from ticket sales to outfit selection- the Priscilla Ball preparation was no walk in the park.
Ticket Sales
The word was out there, these tickets would sell out within 5 minutes; that means preparing a strategy, careful planning, implementation and most importantly execution.
“Preparing for the ticket sale took some thought and preparation, but it was all in good fun.ÿ I divided the section into groups of 4, with each group having a designated ticket buyer who was responsible for bringing a laptop to class on the day.ÿ We also had several “buffer buyers” on hand who would try and snag tickets to cover those groups who were not able to get on the website.ÿ I appointed 2 section-mates to help manage the ticket-buying process, and we developed a system to keepÿthe situation under control and organized.ÿ It was a little stressful when we had several groups without tickets, but it was a great feeling when all the section G tickets had been secured and we could all celebrate and get excited for the Priscilla Ball!” Jamie Chang comments.
Other sections had a different approach: “There was not too much strategy: I had a list of everyone that wanted a ticket and 40 Laptops. When someone got online we worked our way down the list till we had enough tickets. The only complication is that we have a few extra,” comments an RC student.
“It’s not really clear to me on how many tickets were available. I had a sense they were trying to install the fake sense of under supply. I have not heard of anyone who was not able to find a ticket. Because of the buzz created, it did cost more time than necessary to purchase the tickets.”
Appropriate Outfits
Once you get past the stage of purchasing tickets, the next step is to organize section outfits. Looking at the Java Poll maker, it seems that during the past two weeks there were more polls on Priscilla Ball outfits than on anything else. There were at least 500 different outfit themes for the Priscilla Ball. The main concern was how easy is it to get costumes and especially how comfortable will they be. “We have two weeks to arrange all the outfits. It will take up quite some time, as we need to organize outfits for 90+ people,” says Ming Yang, another RC student.
Like at any night out, outfits need to be appropriate. When it comes to Priscilla Ball, appropriate can take up many definitions. “In our section the final selection was between “The girls next door” and “Field Hockey team.” Although one might seem more conservative than the other, you never know until you actually see them.” Ming comments: “With Priscilla ball, nothing is inappropriate. Everything goes. Basically it is a party where everyone puts their guard down.”
Ming brings up a great point: this might be the only time where you get to see future presidents and CEOs walking in 80’s aerobics teacher outfits! Some call it courage, others call it risk taking.but then again the better your disguise the less likely it will be for others to recognize you.
While we prepare for the make-up and shoe size 14 frenzy, don’t forget to read the cases while practicing the catwalk-high-heel walk in front of your mirror.