Meeting Minutes 10-29-06

Attendance: Joan Taylor, Maysoon Hamdiyya, Corinna Preuschoff, Barbara Foye, Liz Orenstein, Matt Miller, Shannon Cail, Kathy King, Ahsan Enver, Rachel and Peter Cama-Lekx, Sharon Reebenacker, Tricia Hart, Tom McDonald, Suzanne Trayhan, Diane Mayer, Linda Massey, Helena Chaikin, Cherryl Reinhardt, Bruce Fuller, Melinda Neyland, Erica Worthington, Andy, Stephanie Lubkowski

Adoptions: 117 so far this year, but they’re tailing off. Other groups are down too for unknown reasons.

Newsletter: New articles are always needed and should be sent to Rachel or Maysoon. Shannon continues to handle production duties.

Bunsitting: Barbara Foye is the new coordinator. We always need volunteers who are willing to board rabbits, as we aren’t insured for caring for rabbits in their own homes.

Ed. Days: We have done 34 ed. days so far this year, with more being planned. We have more requests than we can fill, so we need more people who are willing to gain enough experience to run an ed. day. Tricia and Tom will look into setting up an education event at the Topsfield Fair.

Web Site: Hits are down but the reason isn’t known. One possibility mentioned is that search engines have changed search criteria. There has been some success with rabbits featured in the blog getting adopted, so Liz has requested that more people get involved with posting. Contact her if you’re interested. We also have a members-only site (rabbitnetwork.org/members). Email Suzanne with any updates or if you need access info.

Hotline: Duties continue to be shared among a group of volunteers. People sometimes have to drop out for various reasons so more help is always needed.

E-mail Lists: We continue to maintain three different lists: HRNVol (for HRN business, low volume), HRNChat (more social and higher volume) and HouseRabbitNetwork (for public announcements about HRN, about once a month). Maysoon is now updating the announcements list.

Press Releases: Rachel is now handling press releases. A number of local papers have been publishing them.

Fund Raisers: The Yankee Candle sale earned $1400. WalMart gave a matching grant of $1000 thanks to Tricia’s efforts. Flatbread night will be Nov. 28. Everyone needs to hang flyers to promote it. Some prize donors may want a copy of our 501(c)(3) letter; get this from Suzanne. Erica has offered to handle the yard sale again, next spring at the Brighton Petco. Goodsearch: HRN earns money every time someone does an internet search using Goodsearch. We need to publicize this. One suggestion was to put a link on our home page.

Grant Writing: Liz O. has offered to handle grant writing duties as she has taken a grant writing course.

Treasury: Katherine has been handling the books. She could use a second person to help out since she just had a baby.

Misc: Barbara has offered to update the tri-fold brochure. Tom needs people to send him photos so he can update the PowerPoint presentation used at ed. days. Contact him at tpmii@comcast.net.