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Hi- I'm Chris Mathieson, CEO Vicdeaf. As I have reported previously, Vicdeaf engaged
a consultancy company, Ernst and Young, to review our office needs into the future.
This work has been completed and EY has provided us with a report outlining independent
recommendations to the Vicdeaf Board of Directors. We have carefully considered our needs into
the future including the positives and negatives of our Albert Street office, and in particular
the feedback we collected from the community, staff and other stakeholders. As a result,
the Board agreed that our Albert Street property does not meet our needs into the future so
we will continue to work with Ernst and Young to explore our options which include selling
Albert St. This is likely to be a long process and even
if we sell Albert St we expect to remain in the building for between two to five more
years. If we move, we want to make sure we find the right office to move into, one that
will meet as many of our needs as possible. Ideally we would like to stay within five
kilometres of the city centre and we intend to invite and encourage those Deaf-specific
organisations that are currently tenants in our Albert Street building to move with us.
We will also invite other similar organisations to think about doing the same, in part to
help us create the Deaf hub that feedback from the community consultations has highlighted
as being really important. We have many other important decisions to make and
will continue to consult with you along the way, including the development of our next
strategic plan for 2015-2020. This is a really exciting time for Vicdeaf, but
I understand that for some of you this may make you feel concerned or uncomfortable.
Please contact us if you would like to talk about this decision further,
and I look forward to updating you again in the not too distant future. Thank-you.