Our members have voted two new trustees onto the Board of Cambridgeshire Deaf Association. Caroline Bickerton and Nikki Pasek were elected at our Annual General Meeting at Nene Park, Peterborough, on Saturday 10 October, after the Board co-opted them earlier this year.
One of them knows CDA better than almost anyone. As Chief Executive Andrew Palmer put it to members: “Caroline is CDA boss number five, and I’m CDA boss number eight.”
Caroline Bickerton: back where she started
Caroline, then known as Caroline Taylor, worked at CDA from 1986 until 1992 as centre organiser and community worker, running the charity long before it had a Chief Executive. Back then CDA was a very small organisation, based at Hope Hall on Romsey Terrace in Cambridge. At the AGM, our Chair Fil Kamps reminded members that Caroline was there at the grassroots of the organisation, and gave it the name we still use today.
Since then Caroline has become well known to the deaf community, both here in Cambridgeshire and across the country. She has worked as a freelance BSL/English interpreter since 1992, including at senior level in the NHS. She set up DeafView Counselling, a fully accessible psychological therapy service, and has worked as a counsellor for the British Deaf Association, SignHealth and Hearing Link. She also set up a support project for families with deaf children at Cumbria Deaf Association, and has been on the organising committee for DeafZone at Glastonbury since 2016.
In her application, Caroline described more than 50 years of working with the BSL-using deaf community, with people “from birth to 100”, including people with acquired hearing loss and deafblind people.
“It was a very small organisation at that time, which has grown over the years. And now it’s got so much influence, so many people involved. What I can offer is my experience through 30 years of different organisations, different interpreting jobs around the country, meeting different people from different deaf organisations and the deaf community. I hope I can pass on a little bit of that experience to help the future development.”
Caroline Bickerton
Nikki Pasek: 30 years in local communities
Nikki has spent 30 years working in local communities. She was Head of Supporting Businesses and Communities at Cambridgeshire County Council, and has held Chair, Non-Executive Director and trustee roles, including as a patient representative on the governing body of an NHS organisation.
Nikki has profound hearing loss. She has been learning BSL at CDA for the past three years and recently completed her Level 3 course. She also helped secure funding from the Office for Product Safety and Standards for BSL Consumer, a website that explains consumer issues such as product safety and scams in BSL, built with Deafway and Bolton Deaf Society.
“About 15 years ago, I started to lose my hearing and I now have profound hearing loss. Through learning British Sign Language through CDA, I started to learn more about the deaf community and I really wanted to get involved, join the organisation and support local deaf communities.”
Nikki Pasek
Thank you, Fil
The AGM was also a chance to thank our Chair, Fil Kamps, who will step down in December. Fil has new work commitments and is also a trustee of UK Deaf Sport. He has been on our Board for seven and a half years, and has chaired it for the last three or four.
During Fil’s time on the Board, CDA merged with Cambridgeshire Hearing Help, nearly tripled its annual turnover to £1.5m and was rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission twice. He also led the Board as we built CDA for Life, our strategy for 2025 to 2029. Fil has never lived in Cambridgeshire. He was living in Kent when he joined and now lives in Lincolnshire, but he has always made the journey for our events and Board meetings, all as a volunteer.
Andrew Palmer told members:
“What I like about Fil is he’s a friendly guy, but he’s professional and he’s direct, and he has his expectations. That’s a lovely mix, because essentially he wants the best for the deaf community here. He praises me when I do well, and if I don’t do well, I know. He encourages the board to ask questions and to make sure the deaf community are represented in the trustee meetings. I’m getting a salary to work here. I need to feel the pressure from the deaf community through the trustees, and Fil’s done a great job of that.”
Andrew Palmer, Chief Executive
Ky, one of our longest-serving staff members, spoke for many in the room:
“Most of the past chairs have been hearing. But Fil, he’s been the best one, because he’s always been involved in the community. He comes along to parties, funerals, events, everything. The community is definitely going to miss you, because you listen, you’ve got a good heart, you listen to the member feedback, you sign to it as well, and everyone feels a real strong connection with you.”
Ky, CDA staff member
Fil said:
“CDA will always have a very special place in my heart. I never actually lived in Cambridgeshire, but I’ve always come down to the events and the board meetings. It’s been really nice to serve and contribute in my own way, and I’m going to miss that a lot. We will find a strong chair to come in, to make sure, alongside our current board and the two new members, that the charity has a really bright future.”
Fil Kamps, Chair
Could you be our next Chair?
We are now looking for someone to take over from Fil. You do not need to be a member of CDA, a BSL user or an experienced trustee. We are looking for someone with a link to the deaf or hard of hearing community and a passion for helping others. The role takes around a couple of hours a week on average, and there is no closing date.
If you know someone who would make a great Chair, please share this with them.
