The following volunteers attended a planning meeting in Wilmington, Massachusetts (Board members followed by an asterisk): Linda Massey*, Peter and Roxanne Ritter, Diane Thomas, Cherryl Rheinhardt, Suzanne Rubins*, Suzanne Smith*, Melissa Wilson*, Beth Croghan*, Michael Lain, Alan Moyer, Pamela Melvin, Keith and Vicki (and baby Evan) Bilafer, Tracey and Garth Chapman, Jen Walsh, Bruce Fuller and Emily Pruyn.

Corporate and Financial Status

Our state application to be a licensed charity and raise funds is pending and should be issued within the next few weeks. Our next step is to file for federal tax-exempt status as a 501c3 corporation. This will allow donations we receive to be tax-deductible. We have about $1600 in the bank with another $250 in recent donations and about $600 in vet bills. The board members gratefully acknowledged the support of several volunteers and board members who have made contributions and sustained out-of-pocket expenses.

After consulting with MSPCA and other rescue organizations, the Board has decided it is most consistent with our charitable purpose to request donations for rabbit adoptions rather than charge a fee. Even though we anticipate being exempt from filing taxes on our income, we must charge state taxes on anything we sell or charge a fee for. However, a donation to support our efforts can be requested when we place rabbits. We can also suggest an amount for the donation and will request $60 for a single rabbit and $100 for a pair.

Melissa stated that her contact at the law firm thinks it is likely our organization will be approved to receive free advice through their pro bono program. We had requested assistance with state and federal filings. They have asked that we prepare a list of specific questions we would like help with in advance. Suzanne R. and Melissa will work on this together.

Adoptions and Other Activities

Since incorporating we have had the following adoptions: Honey and Cuddles, Cordelia, Hosta and Spencer (and Hobble who was adopted shortly thereafter by Alan Moyer) and facilitated two adoptions from MSPCA shelters. Suzanne R. is handling the phone line which has not yet been divided between education and adoption inquiries. So far the volume of calls is manageable and we have had only two "dump" calls. As previously discussed, we are going to include information on "how to find a new home for your rabbit" on the web site, which will first encourage owners to call us to help find solutions to behavioral problems so they can keep their rabbit. Beth and Michael noted that they are available to do home visits to help educate owners and make bun proofing suggestions. We are going to have revised educational handouts in the near future and Suzanne S. has rewritten our adoption contract and petsitting agreement.

Suzanne Smith provided copies of new flyers and thanked volunteers for distributing them around area pet stores, veterinary office and public places. We have run an ad in the Globe which generated several calls and will pursue other advertising options such as the community Tabs. Linda has been registering our web site with several different search engines

Linda and Suzanne S. have been re-designing our web site and everyone agreed it looks excellent. The new background, logos, rabbits and trivia features are very popular. Linda and Tracey will keep the information sections on volunteers and rabbits updated; there are forms on line to fill out whenever you get another rabbit. Things were off line for a while recently but the volunteers section has been restored. Members can access their own section which includes all our filing documents (articles and bylaws), papers such as our adoption contract, petsitting agreement, handouts and flyers, and drafts for newsletter articles, etc.

The members section can be accessed by typing www.rabbitnetwork.org/members, entering Username "HRNVol" and Password "samhrep" (for "Star and Monty have really enormous poop").

Both Suzannes stressed that whenever fosterers have an adoption or can take in another rabbit, they should call one of us so we can decide which shelter is most in need of a rescue or if we have a particular priority. For example, we are short of adoptable males and couples right now.

We want to start doing education tables at area pet stores and need a coordinator to conduct some outreach so they know who we are, notify volunteers of upcoming events, and generally coordinate our educational events. Beth will handle the education Emails and Alan will work on the education calls once that gets separated out on the hotline. Beth and Michael are our fundraising coordinators once we are authorized. We want to have some activities planned so we can hit the ground running as soon as we receive our license; they are going to contact the Ohio HRS chapter to find out more about potential fundraising projects. They had good luck with selling premium items like T shirts.

Diane Thomas agreed to host a yard sale and donate the proceeds to HRN. This will be somewhat smaller scale than the one we did last spring. A tentative date was set for May 20 at Diane's home in Billerica. Anyone interested in donating items and helping out should contact her.

Cherryl volunteered to coordinate our newsletter planning efforts. We already have a volunteer to help with layout and production (Steve Sanderson) so Cherryl will coordinate with him and work on assembling some "content". We have some potential articles including one on a rabbit who survived head tilt and one on administering medication to rabbits. We'd like to get some veterinarians to contribute as well.

Suzanne R. is hoping to set up a shelter outreach program for volunteers to go to shelters, bring supplies/greens if needed, and provide socialization and exercise to rabbits on a regular basis. She has met with Mike at MSPCA/Boston who has also requested educational workshops for their staff and volunteers. She plans to meet with Carmine at the ARL/Boston who is just starting to do outreach with rescue groups. We anticipate that this will take between two and three hours, perhaps once a month at each of the Boston shelters. Further details will be forthcoming.

Submitted by Suzanne Rubins
Secretary, House Rabbit Network