MINUTES FOR GFNC BOARD MEETING – FEBRUARY 7TH, 2010
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT-
Dan Griffin, Karen Kemp, Bonnie Searles, Rick Montgomery, Linda Landry, Andreas Moser, Randy Barrow, Shirley Skelton, Sandy Lucas
STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT-
Blanche Fedor, Wayne Lambert, Scott Hanson
GUESTS PRESENT-
John and Cathy Riopko, Debbie Hatley, Christina Newsome, Denise Young, Jean Colgrave, Linda and Woody Cummins
ABSENT-
Lory Hartmann, Alisha Navarro, Barbara Brooks
WELCOME-
Greeting from Dan, what a good year 2009 has been for Greyhound Friends.
Dan has approached TGS (Triangle Greyhound Society) concerning having a member of their group serve on our board and a member of our group serve on their board being as the groups work so closely together. Dan has motioned that his wife, Barbara Griffin, be able to serve on the TGS board and all members confirmed. In return, Dan recommends that Christina Newsome be allowed to serve as the TGS member on our board. Christina is very active in both groups and would be an asset to the GFNC board. She will take it back to the TGS board for their consideration and approval.
SILK APOPTION "ISSUE"-
There has been much discussion and concern over the adoption of one of our male dogs, Silk, to a family that was not approved on their first application. Silk had shown high energy and toy aggression at the kennel. Therefore, when the family that applied to adopt him had a young child and was getting ready for a cross country move, some of our volunteers felt it would not be the best placement for him.
However, the family made an appeal to the board president, Dan Griffin, to reconsider their application. After speaking at great length to the parents, driving out to their home, and making a two hour plus home visit, Dan was satisfied that this family had the experience and where withal to handle Silk with their young daughter. He was then placed with their family for his forever home. This raised concerns with some of our adoption counselors that had originally denied the application. Dan communicated his decision with the adoption counselor and two other board members. A letter was sent to the board by an adoption counselor not directly involved raising concerns regarding Silk’s adoption. It was discussed at length at the board meeting.
Our conclusion is simply put that Dan is a responsible and caring member of the board and took the time to investigate the situation further, and he made an informed decision regarding the placement of Silk. An email was presented from the family that adopted Silk, and it appears all is well in the home, the move is complete and everyone has settled in to their new surroundings. The board also agreed that verbal communication would be the best route to pursue when concerns and/or disagreements arise. Email is not an acceptable form to resolve such issues, as it causes too much confusion and miscommunication of the content.
NEW VOLUNTEERS-
This is our #1 concern going into 2010. There is too much responsibility put on too few volunteers to cover turnouts and weekends. We need to be working towards recruiting new GFNC members to help support our volunteer team. A few suggestions were made:
1) Adoption Counselors will make a big push to promote volunteering at the kennel to all new greyhound owners.
2) Blanche Fedor, Rick Montgomery, and Barbara Brooks will compile a list of volunteer descriptions so that we can send out broadcast emails to all of our GFNC members, encouraging them to get involved in different ways out at the kennel
3) A brochure will be put together of this information as well, to be passed out at meet and greets, events, Beach Bound Hounds and Mountain Hounds.
4) A booth for volunteer information and opportunities will be set up at the open houses so that we can approach greyhound owners that visit the kennel on those weekends.
WINE TASTING EVENT
This event will provide an opportunity for GFNC to reach out to new people regarding the mission of our rescue. It will be held at Misty Creek Vineyards in Mocksville (Farmville), NC on February 27, 2010 from 1pm-4pm. It is an invitation only event and we have been invited to bring 50 of our members and some of our greyhounds that are up for adoption. It was decided that Wayne and staff will select five dogs to attend the event and Scott will bring them out in the GFNC van. We will have donation coats for them as well to help collect some donations throughout the afternoon. More details are available on our GFNC website.
MUZZLE POLICY
The kennel has had in place for a significant period of time a policy regarding muzzling your greyhound (s) when you are visiting or working at the kennel. It has been brought to a board members attention that this policy is not currently being enforced. It was discussed and supported that the current policy is in place to promote a safe environment for all of our pets and visitors. Therefore, anyone visiting or working at the kennel is required to muzzle or leash their dog at ALL times. The staff will enforce this policy going forward. There will be signs posted reminding people of the policy and the staff will make available a few muzzles for someone to "borrow" if they forget to bring their own when they visit.
CONTINUING EDUCATION AND TRAINING-
Randy Barrow has offered to begin education and training sessions for volunteers and group members once again this coming year. The training will consist of workshops with Randy and a special speaker. It was discussed that some of these workshops could be done by video or "You Tube" format so that out of area members/volunteers could benefit as well without making a trip to Oak Ridge. Randy has set the first session for Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 6:30 PM at the kennel in Oak Ridge. Further information will be passed out closer to the date regarding topic details.
LICENSE PLATES-
This topic was visited again this year for 2010. Many members have requested their application monies back, as it has been several years and we are yet to reach anywhere close to our 300 applicant mark the state requires for activating the plates. We only have about 50 applications paid at this point. It was discussed to abandon the effort, but finally decided that we will keep it on the agenda for six months. It was encouraged that all board members promote this at any event they attend. Dan will send a broadcast email giving the cut off date for application as June 1, 2010.
FINANCIALS
Sandy Lucas presented financial statements to the board; a copy had been emailed in advance to board members. As of year end, we are financially stable. Our veterinary bill to Lawndale Veterinary is paid up to date. Over the last four years, Sandy and our staff have been able to manage the budget which has enabled us to cut our expenses, keep the veterinary bill current, and maintain a healthy balance in our account. It was advised that if there were any questions regarding the details of our statement to contact Sandy directly for more information.
SATELLITE REPORTS
Rick Montgomery-Charlotte
Rick and Lynda have received a great deal on decals and they brought some with them to sell at the kennel.
Greytwear- Lynda advised us that she has been working with the owner of Greytwear and that they have a program that would enable us to alleviate the need to stock merchandise available at the Boutique or the website. We would be able to show Greytwear items on our website and when a consumer orders an item we would get 30% of the sale. Greytwear will do all the shipping and handling of the merchandise and the kennel will only be required to pay its portion to Greytwear. Denise Young and Sandy Lucas will discuss the logistics of this further to see if it will be cost effective to handle sales this way with Greytwear or if we should just continue to stock certain items.
Mountain Hounds- has officially gone international! The dates are June 3-6, 2010.
Barbara Brooks-Wilmington
No formal report was presented, but we all now how much Barbara and her crew do in their area. Barbara sends out frequent emails updating everyone on their happenings and, per Wayne, she has reported that adoptions are slow right now. Congratulations to the Wilmington crew, as their greyhound float won first place in the Christmas Parade!
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 4:00PM
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Open house dates are set for May 1, 2010 and October 23, 2010.
Raffle Tickets Denise Young suggested that we reconsider mailing raffle tickets out to the mailing list. Our raffle ticket returns have been significantly lower since we stopped doing the mass mailing. There was some discussion regarding the price of the printing and bulk postage outweighing the return of the raffle ticket proceeds. It was then decided that we will advise on our website/email that if you are out of state/area, to send an email with your address and we will mail you the hard copies. It was also suggested by the Montgomery’s that we stagger our prices for the raffle tickets to generate more interest. For example, our tickets are $5 each; we could offer 3 for $10 and 7 for $20. It was also decided that we would break up the $500 prize into two prizes to give people a better chance of winning. Therefore, we will draw 3 prizes at the May Open House:
- A trip to Mountain Hounds will be drawn at 3pm.
- The $200 cash prize will be drawn at 12pm.
- The $300 cash prize will be drawn at 3pm.
Summer Board Meeting - it was agreed that there should be two board meetings annually. We will discuss a date to meet this summer.
Adoption Contracts - per Dan, he is having our counsel, Charles Calkins, who has helped us in the past with legal issues, review our current adoption contracts with special emphasis on our many varied fostering situations and the impact on GFNC. We want to verify that our contracts cover all circumstances that could arise in the case of adopter’s returning their greyhounds.