Community House - Community House 44 Cass Street

An excellent venue in central town for community events.

Excellent opportunity having so many different organisations under the same roof - makes it a lot easier to find what you need or make connections with the right organisation.

Great place to find what you need in the community.

Approximately six months before community house was due to shifting into their new premises I was talking to Mary the manager (not her real name), and we had made serious inroads towards guaranteeing a room for one night a week long term hire. Main Points: •I continued to keep in touch via phone and visiting Community House (I will now refer as CH from now on) confirming all the way with Mary that things were all right and we would be secured a room to run our classes. •Mary even kindly invited in to the new building well before opening so we could gauge the size of the room, we were euphoric with room and building, everything you could hope for with the room, price, and nights we wanted and confirmed long-term booking that we required. •Finally, we started the classes, and we were enjoying the location and the very professional facilities. Around this time Mary was off with a broken ankle time, (which I was unaware of) within two weeks of all of this was when things turned terrible with other groups showing up during our class as main building was locked and I would have to stop and let them in. This went on for a few weeks, I just thought a few early teething problems, and we can put up with as you know it will sort its self out eventually. •I e-mailed CH of these issues, and they replied apologising and promising to resolve the issue. •Five days later their Chairman, John Driscoll emails, stating that “the other group should be having our room (apparently booking problem) and this room will no longer be available to you effective immediately.” No phone call, no alternative offered, a rather abrupt way to talk to a client •I went to see CH while informing our members that the meeting is on hold until further notice, I went in to CH and spoke to the staff, and they offered another room ( I will say that I had to push very hard for that as they were not overly wanting to help and were now blaming the Manager who was off work). I e-mailed CH to confirm I was happy to oblige as the other room would work so long as if we could adjust tables. •Chairman Driscoll e-mailed the next day advising “this room was now no longer available (decision made by members of the board) outside of normal hours, apologising for the inconvenience and now suggesting the original room on different dates, and I do hope you can find a suitable venue If we can't accommodate you.” I was flabbergasted as they had offered the change of room to me, and now they changed their mind again with no phone call again, and weak attempts at saying we're sorry and a very flippant take it or leave attitude. •I e-mailed back I am surprised by the continuing changing of rooms and dates, I asked him. John can the board confirm all available nights that will be free for the rest of this year and until further notice. •He emailed back the same day stating “Unfortunately we cannot give you a list of nights available for the year. (He goes on further) “We cannot commit to a full year booking for any other evenings as we have bookings for throughout the year and into next year. Department of Correction has rooms available for rent, perhaps you could check with them.” In Conclusion, the conflicting information that was feedback to me after the former manager was gone, and lack of any idea what was going on there should be enough to scare you off, however, the totally unprofessional way of dealing with their mistake, not mine and blatantly very obvious they didn’t give stuff about our class or further meeting. Their front reception staff quite happy to blame somebody that wasn’t there (the manager, yet to become a former manager) shows unprofessional-ism. So did I get offered a refund or discount for this tiresomeness experience you must be wondering NO, not even a cent. I am quite convinced that the booking wasn’t the real issue for CH and that we didn’t fit in with the Driscoll or the members of the CH Board profitable long-term vision. A disappointing end to a disappointingly run place

The community house was great, they have polite kind helpful people there, it was great to see different businesses together under one roof, everything we needed help with was all there. So thank you for your great service and your time team. ??

Very busy place. Set out well for all community services.

Lady on at reception kind helpful efficient Didn't have to wait long for my meeting

Modern and spacious rooms.central cbd but could with a few more public parking spaces.great venue