Good morning, everyone. When I started 2 ½ years ago, I pledged to yo

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Good morning, everyone. When I started 2 ½ ... I have kept that pledge, whether the news was good or bad. As you may ..
Good  morning,  everyone.    W hen  I  started  2  ½  years  ago,  I  pledged  to  you  that  I’d   always  tell  you  the  truth. I  have  kept  that  pledge,  whether  the  news  was  good  or   bad. As  you  may  know,  over  the  past  few  months,  we’ve  been  evaluating  every  part  of  the   Foundation’s  operations. While  this  evaluation  has  been  taking  place,  I  know  that   rumors  have  been  flying. I  know  this  has  caused  anxiety.  I  know  that  it  has  been   stressful. I  am  sorry  for  that,  and  I  want  to  thank  you  for  your  patience. I  felt  it  was   more  important  to  be  very  thoughtful  and  methodical  about  how  we  conducted  this   examination  than  to  do  it  quickly  or  give  you  partial  information. This  is  about   peoples’  lives  and  the  life  of  the  Foundation;  it  is  too  important  to  r ush. Today,  I  want  to  tell  you  where  we  are,  how  we  got  here,  and  more  importantly,   where  we’re  going. You  are  going  to  hear  a  great  amount  of  detail  this  morning.    I  wanted  to  walk   through  this  detail  with  you  first.    W e  are  a  community  of  wonderful,  dedicated   people.    A nd  while  this  information  will  almost  certainly  become  public,  I  wanted  you   to  hear  it  directly  from  me. Our  goal  must  be  to  find  a  way  for  us  to  continue  to  tell  America's  enduring   story. This  means  that  we  need  to  focus  on  our  core  educational  mission  -­‐-­‐-­‐ the  

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Historic  A rea,  the  Museums,  and  Educational Programs. These  are  the  r easons  why   people  come  visit  us,  it  is  why  they  care  about  us,  it  is  why  they  support  us. And  it  is   why  so  many  of  us  have  chosen  to  work  here  and  even  make  our  careers  here. But  to  be  able  to  continue  to  tell  our  story  r equires  us  to  be  financially  stable  and,   sadly,  that  stability  is  threatened  unless  we  take  decisive  action. Only  financial   stability  will  allow  us  once  more  to  focus  on  what  we  do  better  than  anyone  else  in   the  world  – share  A merica’s  history  and  deliver  outstanding  guest  experiences. But  please  understand:  This  is  about  much  more  than  one  organization’s  financial   stability. The  fate  of  Colonial  W illiamsburg  will  have  a  massive  impact  on  the   surrounding  community  – economically,  culturally,  and  otherwise. This  is  why  I  have  invited  to  be  with  us  this  morning  members  of  our  Board  of   Trustees,  the  City  Council,  state  officials,  r epresentatives  and  administrators  from   James  City  and  York  Counties,  and  business,  education,  r eligious  and  health  care   leaders  from  our  community. The  Foundation's  future  success  is  our  collective   responsibility,  and  I  thank  our  elected  representatives  and  community  leaders  who   are  here  with  us  today.   But  as  important  as  CW  is  for  the  local  and  r egional  communities,  Colonial   Williamsburg’s  mission  has  an  even  larger  impact  on  our  Nation. What  we  do  here  -­‐-­‐ bringing  history  alive  and  telling our  story  -­‐-­‐ helps  A mericans reconnect  with  our  history  and  cherish  it  as  much  as  we  do. It  is  a  message  that  our Nation  needs  today  more  than  ever. Colonial  W illiamsburg  has  played  this  r ole  in  the  past.  It  is  the  r ole  we  will  play  far   into  the  future,  provided  we  make  the  r ight  decisions.

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CW  and  our  special  r ole  all  began  with  Dr.  Goodwin  and  Mr.  Rockefeller.    They had  a   vision  to  r estore  and  preserve  a  city  that  would  serve  as  the  world’s  greatest   argument  for  why  our  founding,  our  freedom,  and  our  past  matter  to  present  and   future  generations.

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The  Foundation’s  core  mission  since  Rockefeller  and  Goodwin  has  been  built on  three   key  pillars:  the  Historic  A rea,  Educational  Programs  and  Museums. They  are  why  all   of  us  want  to  work  here.

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That  vision  and  that  mission  led  to  r emarkable  growth  and  r elevance.  The  world  beat   a  path to  our  doorstep.   In  1 976,  our  attendance  peaked  at  almost  1 .3M  ticketed   visitors.

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Our  success  in  the  1950s,  1 960s  and  1 970s  as  the  leading  living  history  museum  in   the  world  led  the Foundation to  establish,  in  1 983,  the  Colonial  W illiamsburg   Company. The  idea  was  for  the  Company’s  for-­‐profit  businesses  -­‐-­‐ hotels,  r estaurants,   retail,  and  golf  -­‐-­‐ to  subsidize  our  non-­‐profit  educational  mission.

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Unfortunately,  the  r eality  has  been  very  different. There  has  not  been  a  single  year   since  1983  where  the  Company  has  made  a  profit. So  instead  of  the  Company   supporting  the  core  mission,  the  Foundation’s  endowment  has  had  to  subsidize  the   Company’s  losses  and support  the  costs  of  our  core  mission  as  well. The  Foundation’s  financial  burden  from  these  commercial  losses  has  been   compounded  by  our  debt.

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In  the  years  before  Jamestown’s  400th anniversary  in  2 007,  the Foundation borrowed   funds  to  make  substantial  improvements  to  our  Hospitality  facilities  and  to  r enovate   the  Visitor  Center  to  accommodate   the  level  of  visitation  we  expected. The  amount   of  money  we  borrowed  was  based  on  assumptions  about  visitor numbers  and  hotel   occupancy  r ates  that  didn’t  materialize. Some  of  these  projects  also  had  significant   change  orders  and  cost  overruns,  so  we  borrowed  more  money,  which  further  added   to  our  debt. This  debt  was  also  used  to  fund  annual  operating  deficits  that  were   generated  in  Hospitality  and  other  operations  during  the  seven-­‐year  construction   period  that  ended  in  early  2 007. By  the  end  of  last  year,  2 016,  our  debt  stood  at  $ 317M,  with  due  dates  coming  very   soon.

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Finally,  during  the  past  decade,  times  and  tastes  have  changed  in  ways  that  affected   us  and  many  other  historical  sites  and  museums.   Less  history  being  taught  in schools. Less  money  for  school  field  trips.   Changing  technologies have  r evolutionized  the  way  people  of  all  ages  process  and   learn  information  and,  frankly,  in ways  that  are  not  always  helpful  to  the  guest   experience  and  to  CW. Americans  are  taking  much  shorter  vacations  than  before.   The  2 008-­‐09  r ecession  has  meant  less  discretionary  income  for  millions  of  A mericans   to  spend  on  places  like  CW.  

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The  cumulative  impact  of  these  decisions  and  trends  has  been  declining   visitation. We  now  attract  about  half  the  visitors  we  did  3 0  years  ago. Over  the  past  decade  and  a  half,  the  Foundation  made  decisions  that  did  not  fully   account  for  this  declining  visitation. As  a  r esult,  our  annual  budget  grew  out  of   alignment. In  other  words,  we  have  been  spending  far  more  money  than  we  have   been  taking  in.   We  have  been  living  beyond  our  means  – and  doing  so  for  quite  some   time  now. To  put  it  in  concrete  terms.......

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In 2014,  the  Foundation  lost  $ 176,000  -­‐-­‐ every  day. Last  year,  the  Foundation  lost  $ 148,000  -­‐-­‐ every  day.     That’s  a  huge improvement,  more  than  $ 28,000  every  day,  and  more  than  $ 10M   worth  of  improvement  in  just  two  years.    But  it  is  not  enough.   These  losses  are  not  acceptable.    A nd  they  are  not  sustainable.

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So  where  has  this  money  come  from  to  make  up  for  our  losses?   How  are  we  able  to   stay  in  business  and  pay  our  bills?   The  answer  is,  our  endowment.   
 Cultural  institutions  like  Colonial  W illiamsburg  – and  colleges  like  W illiam  &  Mary,   museums  like  the  Chrysler  in  Norfolk,  and  historic  sites  like  Mount  Vernon  and   Monticello  – are  not intended to  make  a  profit. They  are  mission-­‐driven,  and  they   typically  lose  money  on  their  operations. That’s  why  an  endowment  is  so  critical.    It  is  a  type  of  savings  account.      W e at   CW, and  at  these  other  institutions,  withdraw  funds  from  our  endowments  each  year   to  cover  critical  costs  of  operations,  personnel  and  other  expenses.   Without  an   endowment,  we  couldn’t  pay  all  of  our  bills  to  support  our  people  and  programs.   
 So  the  key  question  is:  How  much should we  r esponsibly  withdraw  from  our   endowment? Standard  practice  is  about  5  cents  for  every  dollar,  or  about  5  percent  a   year.  The  remaining  9 5%  needs  to  stay  in the  endowment,  to  be  invested  and  gain   interest. Otherwise, we  drain our  endowment  pretty  quickly. And  that has  been  the problem facing  us. In  our  case  -­‐-­‐ because  of  our  annual  losses   and  debt  -­‐-­‐ we’ve  taken  out  much  more  than  5 % a  year,  starting  in  2 001.   In  some   years,  we  have  taken  out  more  than  1 2  % -­‐-­‐ which  of  course  means  less  money   to be invested and  gain  interest  that  can  support  our  core  mission.

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In  total,  in  the  decade  before  I  arrived,  we  took  $ 600M  from  the  endowment.    This  is   more  than  unhealthy.   As  you  can  see  from  this  graph,  it  is  unsustainable.  If  we  keep   doing  it,  we  will  go  out  of  business.   We  cannot  let  that  happen. This  was  the  financial  situation  we  faced  when  I  started  at  CW  two  and  a  half  years   ago.   Honestly,  these  financial  losses  were  daunting,  almost  overwhelming.   It  was   clear  to  me  that  if  we  did  nothing,  these losses  would  lead  to  mission  failure.  

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So  two  and  a  half  years  ago,  I  started  by  looking  at  the  Foundation's  existing  business   structure,  to  see  where  we  were  losing  money  and  to  see  where  we  might  make   money  if  we  made  some  prudent  investments. 
 We  decided  to  see  if  we  could  fix  the  financial  challenges  by  taking  some  incremental   steps.    In  other  words,  we  tried  to  make  the  existing  Foundation  work  better  – more   efficiently,  less  costly,  more  profitably. We  brought  in  world  class  experts  and   consultants  to  help  us,  including  McKinsey,  A ccenture,  Geller  Capital  Partners,  Ernst  &   Young  and  A .T.  Kearney;  many  offered  their  services  to  us  free  of  charge.     We  tried  new  things,   like  uplighting  the  Historic  A rea,   placing  a  skating  r ink  next  to  Merchants  Square,   starting  a  colonial  musket  r ange,   opening  the  Liberty  Lounge  and  embracing  our  military,   introducing  Liberty as  CW’s  mascot,   and   celebrating  haunted  Halloween  on  DoG Street.

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We  also  made  prudent  investments  in  our  hotels  and  r estaurants.   They  are  valuable   assets.   We  cannot  let  them  deteriorate  or  else  they  will  lose  their  value.   We  need  to   maintain  and  operate  them  efficiently,  with  proper  maintenance,  so  they  can  make   money  for  the Foundation  or  they  can  retain  their  value  if  we  decide  to  lease  or  sell   them  in  the  future.   
 The  good  news  is  that  these  efforts,  and  your  hard  work,  improved  our  financial   performance  by  more  than  $ 10.4M  over  the  past  two  years.  

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During  these  past  two  years,  we  also  r einvested  in  our  core  educational  mission,  to   the  extent  we  were  able  to  do  so  because  of  our  financial  constraints.   We  introduced  new  and  innovative  programming  in  the  Historic  A rea  – a  Kids  Dig,   new  Nation  Builders,  ox  cart  rides,  the  Playbooth Theatre,  “Journey  to  Redemption”   and  much  more. These  efforts  helped  r everse  a  seven  year  decline  in  ticketed   visitors  -­‐-­‐ and  you  may  have  seen  yesterday’s  Virginia  Gazette  stating  that  visitation  is   up  1 0%  this  year. After  years  of  neglecting  basic  maintenance,  such  as  painting  our  Historic  A rea   buildings,  we’ve  eliminated  the  backlog. And  our  donors  r esponded  to  this  r enewed  focus  on  the  core  mission. We   significantly  increased  both  our  number  of  donors  and  the  amounts  donated.   Our   Annual  Fund  set  a  new  r ecord  last  year  for  gifts  r eceived.   We  were  able  to  r aise  the   dollars  needed  to  finally  expand  our  Museums,  thanks  to  the  generosity  of  our   passionate  donors. This  is  substantial  progress,  and  we  should  all  feel  proud  of  what  we've   accomplished.   But  as  substantial  as  it  is,  it  is  not  enough  given  the  size  of  our   financial  challenge.   We  are  still  spending  far  too  much  money  on  our  internal   operations.    W e  are  still  losing  far  too  much  money  with  some  of  our  commercial  

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businesses. 
 So,  we  have  to  move  beyond incremental  steps  in  order  to  preserve  our  commitment   to  our  core  mission.  W e  have  to  fundamentally  r estructure  the  Foundation. What  does  that  mean?

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Well,  first  of  all,  it  m eans that  there  are  no  simple,  easy  solutions  to  the  financial   situation  we  find  ourselves  in.   I  wish  there  was  an  easy  answer  – but  there  isn’t. It  m eans that  doing  better  to  the  tune  of  $ 10.4  million  in  financial  improvement  over   the  past  two  years  is  not  enough.    It simply  won’t  get  us  where  we  need  to  be. It  m eans that  unless  we  take  more  decisive  action,  we  will  drain  our  endowment. It  m eans that  while  our  donor  base  is  growing,  no  single  donor  is  going  to  give us   $100 million. It  m eans that  while  we  can  and  will  market  CW  aggressively,  we  cannot  expect  a   return  to the  days  of  1 M  ticketed  visitors  anytime  soon. It  m eans that  there  is  no  taxpayer  bailout  on  the  horizon. Budgets  are  tight  in   Richmond  and  W ashington.     And,  as  you  know,  we  r eceive  no  annual  state  or  federal  dollars. This is  why  I  strongly  oppose  a  new  admissions  tax  and  increases  in  the  meals  and   hotel  taxes  that  would  make  our  task  even  more  difficult.    It  is  why  we  explored  the   possibility  of  r aising  r evenue  by  placing  a  fence around  the  Historic  A rea.    It  is  why   tomorrow  I  will  be  formally  asking  the  City,  and  York  and  James  City  counties  for   temporary  tax  r elief.      

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Having  thought  about  this  issue  with  the  senior  team  for  much  of  the  past  two  and  a   half  years,  having  carefully  studied  our  situation,  having  consulted  with  leading   outside  experts,  and  having  talked  with  many  of  you  in  this  r oom,  in  the  local   community,  on  the  Board,  and  among  our  donors,  I’ve  concluded  that  there  are  r eally   only  two  options  going  forward.

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One  option  is  “Stay  the  Course.”   This  means  that  we  continue  to  make incremental  changes  and  hope that  we  can   stabilize  our  finances.     But  hope  is  not  a  plan.    W e’ve  tried  incremental  change  for  the  past  two  years.   We   know  that  this  option  will  r esult  in  continued  layoffs and  the  steady  elimination  of   popular  programs  -­‐-­‐ death  by  1 ,000  cuts. But what  Stay  the  Course  r eally  means  is  this.   It  means  we  continue  to  drain  the  endowment.    It  means  that  we  r un  out  of  money,   and  Colonial  W illiamsburg  no  longer  exists – not  decades  in  the  future,  but  within  the   next  decade. Actually,  within  the  next  few  years.   I  know  for  many  of  you  the  financial  information  you’re  seeing  today  comes  as  a   surprise.      It  may  even  seem unimaginable. But  the  numbers  don’t  lie.     Staying  the  Course  will  r esult  in  mission  failure,  gradually  at  first,  but  then  inevitably.  

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But  there  is  another  way  forward.    O ption  #2  offers  us  a  different  future. During  the  past  six  months,  the  senior  leadership  team  worked  tirelessly  to  develop a   plan  for  success,   which  I  presented  to  the  Board  in  A pril,  and  which  the  Board   endorsed  unanimously.   Importantly,  members  of  the  Rockefeller  family  who  have   served  as  Colonial  W illiamsburg  Trustees,  and  who  have  given  so  generously  to  the   Foundation  over  the  past  decades,  publicly  support  this  option.   I  call  it:  Back  to  Basics.   This  pathway  places  the  Foundation  on  stable  financial  footing   so  we  can  r ededicate  ourselves  to  our  core  educational  mission. Over  the  past  two  years,  we  have  done  everything  we  could  to  make  the  situation   better,  and  we’ve  shown  improvement.    But  unless  we  take  more  decisive  action,  and   take  it  now,  we  will  drain  our  endowment.

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Here  is  what  our  endowment  would  look  like  under  each  of  the  two  options  I‘ve   mentioned.      I  think  the  choice  is  clear. If  we  implement  this  plan,  we  can  stop  bleeding  the  endowment  and  allow  it  to  grow   again.     If  we  implement  this  plan,  we  can  stop  the  cycle  of  job  cuts  and  program  eliminations   and  r each  financial  stability  by  2 019.     If  we  implement  this  plan,  we  can  r einvest  in  our  people  and  programs.     If  we  implement  this  plan,  we  can  save  the  Foundation.

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Before  I  share  the  plan’s  details  with  you,  I  want  to  ask  you  first  to  pause  for  a   moment  and  imagine:  What  could  we  accomplish  at  CW  if  we  solved  our  financial   problems?   A  few  weeks  ago  I  met  with  our  r ecently  established  Compass  Team  made   up  of  employees  from  across  the  Foundation.    W e  brainstormed  about  what  we   would  like  CW  to  do,  or  do  better,  or  stand  for.   Without  our  current  financial   constraints,  how  could  we  rededicate  ourselves  to  our  core  mission? Here  are  some  of  the  ideas  they  came  up  with: • More  and  better  programs  in  the  Historic  A rea • More  costumed  interpreters • Child  day  care  for  employees • Summer  camps  that  teach  history • More  affordable  ticket  prices  to  allow  more  families  to  come  and  visit  with  us • And  my  favorite:  Helping  lead  a  national  conversation  about  citizenship  and  civic   engagement I  am  sure  that  you  can  think  of  many  more.   The  point  I  am  trying  to  make  is  that   financial  stability  would  allow  us  to  think  big  again  about  our  core  mission,  even  to   dream  about  what  we  do  here,  how  we  tell  our  stories,  and  how  we  can  make  the   guest  experience  even  more  memorable.     Here  are  two  big  ideas  I  want  to  announce  and  commit  to  today. Each  one  is  

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consistent  with  r ededicating  ourselves  to  our  core  educational  mission  -­‐-­‐ and  my   desire  to  invest  in  our  dedicated  employees.

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First,  I  plan  to  double the  number  of  teachers  we  bring  to  CW  next  year  and  continue   to  expand  our  Teacher  Institute  to  bring  teachers  from  underserved  communities  to   learn  with  us. This  will  be  a  fundraising  priority  for  me,  and  for  Jim  Thomas  and  his   team  going  forward. Second, I  want  every  single  costumed  interpreter  in  the  Historic  A rea  to  r eceive  a   professional  certification  from  the  National  A ssociation  for  Interpretation. Ted  Maris-­‐ Wolf  has  been  working  with  the  National  A ssociation  to  develop  a  customized   training  program  for  our  interpreters  which  will  be  starting in  the  next  few   weeks. This  isn’t  cheap. But  investing  in  our  interpreters  is  the  smart,  r esponsible   thing  to  do.   I  will  personally  r aise  the  money  to  fund  it.

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We  can create  a  r emarkable  future  for  CW,  a  better  future. But  only  if  we  have  the   financial  stability  that  allows  us  to  dream  big. If  we  are  going  to  r ededicate  ourselves   to  our  core  educational  mission,  then  it  means  that  we  can  no  longer  do  everything   the  way  we  did  it  in  1 976,  or  1 986  or  even  2 006. When  our commercial  businesses  continue  to  lose  money  year  after  year,  we  can’t   just  keep  them  because  we’ve  always  done  it  that  way.  We  can’t  continue  with   business  as  usual.   Every  dollar  we  spend  to  subsidize an  unprofitable  commercial   business  is  a  dollar  we  could,  and  should,  be  dedicating  to  support  the  Historic  A rea,   our  educational  programs  and  the  Museums.  

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So  we  have  examined  every  single  unit across  the  Foundation  to  see  where  we  could   save  money  or  grow  r evenue. No  department,  division  or  program  has  been   immune. This  starts  with  the  O ffice  of  the  President. Since  I  began  in  2 014,  we  have  frozen   salaries  and  we  have  fewer  Vice  Presidents  than  before.     The  r eason  for  this  comprehensive  approach  is  precisely  to  avoid  having  to  do  this   again  in  the  near  future.    O ur  plan  to  stabilize  the  Foundation’s  finances  will  get  us   out  of  the  cycle  of  layoffs,  gradual  decline  and  death  by  1 ,000  cuts.    O ur  plan  can achieve  financial  stability  by  2 019. Let  me  give  you  one  example  of  necessary  cost  r eduction.

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The  Kimball  Theatre  has  not  been  profitable  from  at  least  1 999. This  past  year,  the   Kimball  lost  $ 782,000. For  that  amount  of  money,  imagine the  number  of  museum   exhibitions  we  could  stage,  the  number  of  teachers  we  could  bring  to  CW,  the   number  of  historic  sites  we  could  r enovate,  the  number  of  Historic  A rea  programs   and  costumed  interpreters  we  could  add.   I  love  the  Kimball  theatre;  I  know  many  of  you  do,  as  well.    But  we  will  be  closing it  on   July  6 ,  after  we  fulfill  our  commitments  for  July 4th, and  we  will  explore  all future   options.   Our  goal  has  to  be  saving  the  Foundation  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  that  can   be  r edirected  to our  core  educational  mission.  

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If  our  future  focus  is  going  to  be  on  the  core  educational  mission,  what  does  that   mean  for  our  commercial  businesses? We  only  have  three  options: i. Sell  the  businesses. ii. Run  them  better  ourselves,  or iii. Outsource  our  businesses  to  someone  who  can  r un  them  better  for  us

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After  much  deliberation  and  consultation,  we  believe  that  outsourcing  offers  the   Foundation  a  way  to  r un  certain  of  our  businesses  more  profitably. So  I  am   announcing  today  that  the  Foundation  will  be  outsourcing  our  golf  operations,  all  of   our  r etail  stores,  much  of  facilities  and  maintenance  operations,  and  the   management  of  our  commercial  r eal  estate. Once  we’ve  finished  here  this  morning,  there  will  be  meetings  of  each  division  where   supervisors  will  go  into  details  and  answer  specific  questions  about  how  we  will  move   forward. But I  want  to  assure  you  that  as  we’ve  entered  into  the  outsourcing  agreements  with   these  vendors,  our  #1  consideration  was  that  our  employees  be  treated  with  r espect and  with  dignity. After  a  series  of  tough  negotiations,  I have  r equired  each  vendor  to   retain  every single  qualified employee  in  these  four  areas  for  at  least  one  year. These  employees  now  can  decide  if  they  want  to  work  for  these  vendors.   If  they   decline,  they  will  r eceive  a  CW  severance  package,  along  with  an  unprecedented   menu  of  outplacement  services. But  even  if  these  employees  decide  they  do  want  to   work  for  these  third  parties,  they  will  still  r eceive  the same  severance  package  from   CW.  

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Regrettably,  some  employees  in  other  departments  will  leave  the  Foundation.     
 No  one  likes  to  see  a  colleague  or  a  neighbor  lose  his  or  her  job. It’s   upsetting. It’s   painful.  This  is  why  the  Foundation  is  offering  an  extraordinary  level  of  assistance  for   those  employees  who  are  leaving  us.    W e  will  do  everything  we  can  to  make  this   transition  less  difficult.   Every  employee  leaving  the  Foundation  will  r eceive  severance  -­‐-­‐ one  week’s   pay  for   every  year  of  service  with  Colonial  W illiamsburg,  up  to  a  maximum  of  2 6  weeks. In  addition,  employees  who  are  leaving  the  Foundation  in  June  will  r eceive  an  extra   month  of  their  current  health  care  benefits;  in  most  cases,  insurance  coverage  will   last  through  the  end  of  July.  It  is  common  practice  to  either  stop  coverage   immediately  or  end  coverage  at  the  end  of  the  current  month,  but  extending   coverage  was  the  r ight  thing  to  do. Finally,  CWF  has  brought  in  Lee  Hecht  Harrison,  a  national  leader  in  the  HR  field,  to   help  our  employees  find  the  next  stage  in  their  careers.  W ith  Lee  Hecht  Harrison’s   assistance,  CWF  will  offer  a  3 -­‐month,  onsite  Career  Center  offering  personalized  daily   coaching,  including: (1)  Resume  writing  workshops;

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(2)  Interviewing  strategies  and  techniques; (3)  Building  and  effectively  communicating  your  experience  and  skills; (4)  Connecting  you  with  prospective  employers  and  r ecruiters The  Foundation  cares  about  its  employees  -­‐ those  continuing  with  us,  those  who  will   be  working  for  an  outsourcing  firm,  and  those  who  are  leaving. Despite  the  Foundation’s  financial  challenges,  we  have  gone  the  extra  mile  to  help   our  employees.      W e  have  tried  to  do  what  is  r ight,  for  our  employees  and  for  the   Foundation.     As  one  final  example  of  this,  as  part  of  this  r estructuring  no  costumed  interpreter  will   be  leaving  the  Foundation.

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Ladies  and  gentlemen:  We  now  have  a   plan  to  save  the  Foundation.   We  want  to  do  this  once. We  need  to  continue  telling  America’s   enduring  story. Throughout  this  process,  I  have  thought  a  great  deal  about  the  impact  these  changes   will  have  on  our  colleagues  who  are  most  directly  affected  today.      But  I  have  also   thought  long  and  hard  about  my  r esponsibility  to  all  of  our  other  employees,  to  our   community,  to  our  donors,  to  our  mission.   We  must  make  these  difficult  decisions  because  there  are  no  easy  answers  and  time   is  not  on  our  side.      Because  as  difficult  as  these  decisions  are,  it  would  be  far   worse for  the  future  of  the  Foundation,  and  everyone  who  works  here  and  who  cares   passionately  about  it,  if  we  did  not  take  bold  action  today. Because  ultimately,  doing  nothing  or  continuing  business  as  usual  would  mean  the  

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end  of  this  special  place and  our  mission.      It  would  mean  the  end  of  the  vision  that   Dr.  Goodwin and  Mr.  Rockefeller  shared  over  9 0  years  ago.    None  of  us  here  today,   and  none  of  our  hundreds  of  thousands  of  supporters  around  the  country,  want  to   see  that  future.    None  of  us  is  willing  to  accept   it.     This  is  a  very  tough  day.    They  don’t  get  any  tougher. If  there  was  any  other  way  to   save  the  Foundation,  I  would  eagerly  have  taken  it. But  there  isn’t. For  the  first  time  in  years,  we  now  have  a  detailed, comprehensive  plan  – and  an   opportunity  – to  r eturn  the  Foundation  to  stable  financial  health  by  2 019.    A nd  to   imagine  a  much  brighter  future.    O f  all  the  information you’ve  heard  today,  that  is  the   one  I  want  to  leave  you  with:  For  the  first  time  in  years,  we  have  an  opportunity  for   sustained  success.      Now  we  need  to  seize  it.  

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