Out and about with Sandra

Photograph: Sandra Budd Chief Executive

Message from the Chief Executive

Hello everyone, it is my pleasure to give you a quick update of what we've done in the last few months and how things are set to progress for those ahead.

It's amazing how the year is passing as we get closer to summer and begin finalising our projects. Looking back on the last few months, which have been very busy for us all, we've made some great achievements.

You would know by now that we are changing the way we provide our services, so that we can offer you individualised care based on your needs. We have put a lot of effort into this and as we transition into these changes, I'd like to say that we value your feedback.

This will help us to learn and do things better.

A recent piece of news we are proud of is that, for the very first time, two of our members participated in this year's Aspiring Leaders' Forum. The forum was hosted by Members of Parliament in July with a focus on encouraging young people to be better leaders – something we strongly believe in too. You can read more about the forum on page 10.

Another key milestone is that Blind Week is set to look bigger and better this year. We are holding a street campaign as well as encouraging the community to get behind us in various other ways. We are quite excited about this year's theme – a celebration of our 120 years of service. We are also using Blind Week as an opportunity to raise public awareness about blindness challenges and some of the services we provide. The full story is covered on page 8.

Photograph: The faces of this year's Blind Week campaign: Nicholas and George, plus his guide dog Georgie.

In amongst all of this work, you'll be pleased to hear the Cassette to Digital (C2D) project is tracking along well. Now that the pilot phase with the new digital players is complete, we are rolling out more players each month. The number of book titles in our digital library is also growing.

As we come closer to year end, I would like to reiterate that we have spent this year understanding and analysing the way we do things and then developing new ways to do things better. For us, it's about living our vision of providing a service that is of value to you as an individual.

Warmest regards,
Sandra Budd
Chief Executive

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