C.C.S. Secretary-Manager one of a new breed

Press, 21 May 1979, Page 4

C.C.S. Secretary-Manager one of a new breed

Bob Mitchell, new secre-tary-manager of the Canterbury branch of the Crippled Children Society is a man of vision with a wealth of expertise to put into practice. A 40 year old Scot from Perth in Scotland, Bob Mitchell came to New Zealand in 1954 where he began work as an apprentice aircraft engineer. He was first brought face to face with disability when he and his wife, Margaret, from Glasgow, had to cope with the challenge of their only child Helen who is autistic. Helen is a pupil of the Hohepa School and it was Bob Mitchell’s determination to learn to understand her special needs which opened a completely new horizon for him.

A successful professional career has been the hall mark of Bob Mitchell’s life. From the time he was employed by the former N.A.C., through five years as a member of the works study and product planning team of Alex Harvey Industries, a period as assistant works

manager for Cyclone Industries and a marketing operator with Daily Freightways and finally as a general manager of a building supply firm, Bob Mitchell has had the bit between his teeth. He brings to his job at CCS years of invaluable experience in resource management, in personnel development, in planning and programme analysis. His work has made him fully aware df the reasons behind man’s most important actions in relationships with others, particularly where one group has an accepted upper hand. Bob Mitchell brings to the work of CCS for disabled people a new breadth of visicm which is a direct reflection of what disabled people’s groups nowadays must have — professional guidance and backing. The days when hordes of well meaning, but sadly often poorly guided volunteers were left responsible for the nations disabled people have gone. A new era is beginning to dawn in New Zealand when disabled people like all other citizens demand a proper

voice; one which speaks with the backing of proper planning, professional attitudes and the predictable success of efficiency. Casting off old ways will be no easy task for Bob Mitchell and many like him who are now coming to the fore in working alongside the nation’s disabled people. Institutions and traditional methods don’t take kindly to change, but change they must if the country’s esitmated 200,000 disabled people are to get a better deal.

As well as his work Bob Mitchell has given huge amounts of his time to voluntary work with the Society for the Intellectually Handicapped. He has served two years as the vice-president off its Canterbury branch, chairman of its finance, fundraising and policy committee and a delegate to national conferences. In charge of an organisation with an annual budget of more than $150,000 Bob Mitchell is acutely aware that every cent must be accounted for in planned, progressive and co-ordinated action.

Any State department that thinks disabled people can be left waiting by staff who do not always seem to understand the meaning of new regulations such as the Disabled Persons’ Community Welfare Act (1975) is not likely to gain much sympathy from Bob Mitcnell who firmly believes, as do an increasing number of other New Zealanders, that disabled people must not be shuffled off to the sidelines. The provision of a network of support services, must be the aim of any efficient welfare group. The Cantetbury branch of the Crippled Children Society is no exception in this aim. That it will be able to widen its horizons in a co-operative spirit in the next few years, to match the solid ground work it has already laid down, will fall to Bob Mitchell to plan and stimulate. His task won’t be easy but he is part of a new breed of professional administrators who will stand ground in face of cloudy unshaped plans of enthusiastic amateurs.