News from Sooz

From HSDC CEO, Susie Burdick

Hello from Your HSDC Family!

As part of the HSDC family, we want to keep you informed of our health and stability during these challenging times.

In Chinese, the word crisis is written with two characters: danger and opportunity. We at HSDC have chosen to identify, prepare for and mitigate the danger or risks, and explore opportunities, develop new partnerships, and focus on the core and excellence of who we are.

We began with an intensive look at every potential risk and opportunity we could identify in six categories absolutely critical to our success:

• Community - our clients, donors, partners and friends

• Workforce - our skilled, motivated and professional staff and volunteers

• Business - our LEAN*, efficient and productive operation

• Image - our culture and reputation for top quality services and programs

• Fiscal Performance - maximized income generation with minimized expenses

• Strategy - our ability to chart our course to be successful

All of the categories above need to be successful in order for us to deliver the best services, programs and products. Once risks and opportunities were identified and planned for (HSDC Risk & Opportunity Management Plan - adopted by both the Board of Directors and staff), we began to strategically reach out to other nonprofits about partnerships and resource sharing. We re-evaluated our relationships with our vendors and how we could transition them from transactional to strategic partners. We reforecast our budgets to better align with the changing economy. We renewed our commitment to the strength and efficiency of the operation of our business. In addition, we are working with other nonprofits to strengthen the nonprofit sector in these times of increasing demand and unpredictable resources.

At the Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center we have chosen to meet these challenging times head on and with our usual "can do", positive attitude. We have learned a great deal over 72 years of HSDC. Combined with the incredible and thankfully continuing support and engagement of friends like you, we are navigating these times effectively. We're planning on at least 72 more years.

I will continue to update you on our progress on this journey and encourage you to utilize hsdc.org to stay informed and involved. We look forward to seeing you and continuing to work with you. Whether we cross paths regularly or not, we know that we are a family. And families have the most uncanny ability to get through challenges together.

Thank you for your partnership, your support, your recommendations and ideas, and for your continuing and future active involvement with HSDC. We serve a great mission and we do it together.

All my best,

Susie Burdick, CEO

*HSDC is in its 2nd year working with Boeing on process improvement and efficiency called the LEAN model.