Honorary Life Member – Mike Everett

See list of Honorary Life Members and Friends of the Morris Federation.

Mike Everett – Honorary Life Member (2024)

Nomination by Fee Lock on behalf of The Morris Federation Committee at our AGM in 2024:

Mike Everett held the post of Archive Officer for 21 years
(2004-2024). 

It’s always incredibly difficult to write a nomination for achievements gained in a role on a committee when the whole purpose is team working, collaborative thinking, and making the whole greater than the sum of its parts, however, Mike has the most extraordinary set of skills and a level of consistency which belie his calm demeanour. 

He first came on to the committee as Archive Officer in 2004, taking over from Adrian Williams.  The principal requirement for an Archive Officer is having a house large enough to take all the paperwork, books, videos, and despite a house move from Suffolk to Nottinghamshire, managed not to lose a single sheet of paper from the archive.  This may not sound too great an achievement until you try it yourself! As Archive Officer he’s kept an eye out for new and relevant publications – some really quite obscure.  

I’ve always found myself grounded by his quiet but all-encompassing determination to keep the subject matter on track, an essential skill when dealing with the excitable and esoteric individuals on the committee (of whom …!)  [edited for transgression!] Time and again I’ve found myself brought down to earth by Mike’s surgical-like analysis of tiny exactitude, when we all realise that we’ve wandered off the point and are wasting the membership’s time with irrelevancies.  And if you’ve ever been on a committee without that person, then you’ll know just how essential he is! 

During his time on the committee, he has advised and contributed far beyond the Archive Officer’s remit being a reliable source of knowledge and experience in areas from event running to proof reading and much more beyond that. 

I’m proud to have worked with him for so long and am very pleased he’s agreed to stay on as a Co-optee.  He is quite extraordinary, and the Morris Federation would be poorer without his being in it.