Mike Clemson, himself a former CVS Chief Officer and 30-year
veteran of the CVS movement, paid tribute at the NAVCA AGM to
Michael Newstead who is due to retire as Chief Officer of Bassetlaw
CVS:
"I feel very privileged to have been asked to say a few words
about Mike Newstead, who is retiring after 35 years as chief
officer of Bassetlaw CVS. This is almost certainly the longest that
any chief officer has worked for one CVS.
However, the length of time is not necessarily an endorsement. I
remember a youth worker whose boss was trying to get him to sign up
for a training course, saying "I don't need that, I've been doing
the job for 15 years". To which his boss replied "wrong, you've
been doing the job for one year repeated fifteen times, and it was
a bad year at that".
That's not the case with Mike. He commenced with Bassetlaw CVS
in an era of development of what is now called the third sector.
Many areas were without CVS, but where they existed, they were
proactively establishing new organisations to meet a variety of
social needs. He took it through this phase in the 70s, through the
80's when many of us ran massive Manpower Service Commission
schemes for unemployed people, and the rest of us used these AGMs
to argue that we shouldn't; through local government reorganisation
and then ChangeUp, and the culmination of the third sector's move
into the premier league, with all the demands and expectations
following from that.
Mike will tell you that in these 35 years, he hasn't done one
job but many, because a snapshot of the CVS every three years would
show a continually changing and developing organisation. To my
knowledge, Mike is virtually unique as a chief officer in not only
having the skills to cope but also to anticipate and take advantage
of the constant stream of new challenges over this period of time.
That he will leave behind a CVS firmly based in the local voluntary
and community sector reflects his overriding concern, which is as
strong now as when he began, for the myriads of small groups in
this largely rural and diverse area.
That's Mike the chief officer - as you know, in the world of
successful networking, the personality has to complement the
professionalism. Mike has always exuded enthusiasm, commitment and
open-mindedness. He is a person of principle and integrity, whose
values reflect all that is good about the CVS network. He is a
statesman of the movement. For all that, he was as capable as the
rest of us of being terrified by two formidable CVS activists of
the past, called Audrey and Maureen, from Scunthorpe and Liverpool
respectively, who used to come and shout at us at these
conferences!
My other memory is of Mike being a strong supporter of CVS
regional meetings, and he insisted on being allowed to continue
attending the Yorkshire meetings, which were legendary in the 70's,
being three day events at hotels at the seaside. We formally agreed
that the title of the regional meeting should be changed to
Yorkshire, Humberside and North Nottinghamshire just to make this
possible.
I used to ask Mike whether he didn't feel it time he moved on,
and always got the same answer, delivered in his own inimitable
style - "but Michael (he always used to call me by my Sunday name)
there is so much going on, so much to do, so many challenges
..."
I'm sure that Mike will have prepared his retirement portfolio,
and will be looking forward to the next phase of his life with the
same purpose and enthusiasm which has characterised his 35 years as
a CVS Chief Officer at Bassetlaw. Enjoy it Mike, because you
deserve it."
Mike Newstead says:
"It was a most pleasant surprise, at the recent NAVCA Annual
Conference, to receive recognition for my (nearly) 35 years as
Director of Bassetlaw CVS. I suppose I should have sensed a plot
when I was aware that Mike Clemson was in the room!
Contrary to reports I actually retire in June 2009 with an
event, during the evening, at Retford Town Hall in North
Nottinghamshire to which I would be delighted to see people I have
known in the CVS world (in some cases) for a long time (details
will be at www.bcvs.org.uk
nearer the time).
I am particularly pleased that, thanks to Bassetlaw Primary Care
Trust, there will be a three-month 'cross over' period for the new
Director designate. Hopefully this will lead to a seamless
transfer."