HRN Volunteer Meeting Minutes – 10-24-04 @ 2:00pm

Attendees: Kate F., Amanda, Shannon, Carol, Cherryl, Kathy, Ahsan, Diane, Katherine, Missy, Helena, Melinda, Suzanne, Astrid

 

Current Status and Action Items:

• Adoptions 102 Adoptions this year; this is down from (@140) last year.
• Current Items for Sale and for fundraising:
  • Sweatshirts
  • Calendars
  • Recycled Ink Cartridges
  • Baja Fresh Fundraiser
• Adoption Advertising
  • Business cards
  • Veterinarian offices via bulletin board postings
  • Websites– are there any additional websites where we might add or request to add our link?
  • Via E-mail
• Finance – currently seeking a potential central shelter site; this brings up a few issues:
  • Rent money – we are almost there in terms of rasing adequate funds.
  • Is there enough volunteer staff for feeding foster rabbits, cleaning cages, adoption visits, etc?
  • Site location – keep aware of potential locations in your town; is there any town looking to donate land that we may take advantage of?
• Newsletter
  • It was decided that we would delay posting newsletters on the website to be fair to paying members. (Member benefit)
  • Articles will still be posted so we can get information out.
  • How can we enitice new members?
    • Should we discount merchandise for members only? How would we do this on the website?
    • Should we send out free item as small gifts?
    • How can we compete with sister organizations? is this hurting our membership numbers?
    • Should someone that adopts from the organization get a discounted membership as further incentive? If so, can we add this to the membership contract?
      Carol has agreed to work on a revamped adoption contract
    • Can we discount the adoption donation for someone that adopts and later decides to adopt a mate for their rabbit?
• Website
  • Should we re-design the main page to add items for sale?
  • It would be nice to add an icon on the main page to our Gift Shop using a picture of an item for sale
  • Possible add a menu bar with links, including one to the Gift Shop
  • We should mark updates on new or updated articles so people notice them.
  • Can we add a reminder to the website, or to letter following an adoption, to recommend adopting a mate for your single rabbit?
  • Reminder to see Suzanne if you do not have access to the members-only portion of the HRN website and would like to…
• Education
  • This year we were represented at 23-24 events; this number is more than last year
  • These events are geared more toward education than for adoption, though some adoptions have resulted from exposure at these events.
• Hotline – Need more volunteers. Diane and Kate F. have agreed to split time on the weekends.
• Discount Spays/NeutersAlliance for Animals – please note that they are offering discounter spays and neuters for those who might seek this information from HRN
• Craft Fair – This will take place Nov 20^th at the Elks in Woburn. Carol is coordinating this effort; please see her with any items you wish to donate.
• Advertising
  • Can we come up with some sort of wave file with an Easter message to forward via e-mail?
    • There are suggestions to do 2 videos. One would contain an Easter message; the other would be a message pertaining to the Williamsport rabbits
    • Are there any volunteers to coordinate this effort; or people with the experience to put this sort of thing together? Shannon has worked on something like this previously. Cherryl has an idea about a message for the Williamsport buns?
• Bunderground RailRoad – This organization transports rabbits for adoption between locations. If any volunteer are interested in helping with this, they should contact this organization.
• Volunteer opportunties
  • Hotline
  • Silent Auction
  • Grant Writing
  • Cage Cleaning – can we set a schedule, or appointments?
• E-mail List Discussion – Are the current e-mails distributed too widely, or do members feel the content distributed is appropriate? Most members suggest this is appropriate, though perhaps new information such as announcements should be tagged that way either in the e-mail message system, or by using the text “announcement” in the subject line. This distinguished announcements vs chat.
• Shelter 4 Shelters – This program may be something helpful for HRN to participate in to help fundraising for shelter funding.
  • Program seeks employer donations for items that could be helpful to participating organizations.
  • Donations that are acquired are then distributed, or swapped, as needed via each groups’ wish list. This could help HRN to get donated food, stationary, etc.