October 20, 2020 Board Meeting
In Attendance: Palestina Baronas, Jenna Beauchesne, Lesley Braga, Dawn Lewis, Rachel Minnie, Suzanne Trayhan
Suzanne suggested changing the meeting to meet at 8pm versus 7pm. This was unanimously agreed upon.
Review of July 28, 2020 Minutes:
Suzanne presented the July 28, 2020 minutes. No changes needed to be made. Minutes are approved.
Financials
While our receivables have increased by $16k more than last year expenses are up drastically. As a result, our net income is down.
Expenses are up because the cost of spays & neuters are high this year. Expenses under $250 are approved by the finance committee, anything larger has to be approved by the Board. Medical bills don’t need special approval but should be run by Suzanne or Palestina so buns don’t unnecessarily go to the ER.
Adoptions
This has been a record year for us: 502 adoptions as of October 18th.
Fundraisers
Flatbread went really well, we made $2706. Buying tickets online was popular.
Giving Tuesday is a huge deal and we need to get the word out on it. Our goal for this year’s Giving Tuesday is $8,000. We will emphasize how much more vet bills were this year. The Development committee will come up with language to articulate the 200% growth in vet expenses this year. Rachel will take the lead on this.
T Shirt sales went great! We raised $1300.
Calendar sales are going well, we’ve sold over 100 so far.
The auction just ended, we raised about $850.
The Virtual 5k went great – we made just over $4,000.
We were selling decals over the summer but the volunteer who was making them disappeared, Suzanne is trying to figure out who did not get them to refund their money.
Development Committee Update
Pumpkin Decorating Contest – this is being put together by Rachel & Jenna. This is not a fundraiser, it’s more of a social media event. Penelopads donated the prize.
Scavenger hunt – Dawn and Jenna are working on it with the goal of having it done towards the end of November. We need to figure out what the prizes will be. Palestina will see if we can get Oxbow to donate stuff.
Spa Days – The 1st of the north shore one was done and raised $1020. The 2nd one is this saturday. The people coming to this one are different from the people who went to the big ones. After COVID we will do 2 big spa days and have mini spa days a few times between the big ones. Palestina scheduled the South Shore spa day, it will be run by Devine on November 8th. It will be $15, instead of $20. Dawn will send an email to HRNvol asking for 1 volunteer from 11-2 on the 8th.
Bingo – This will be held on January 23. The upfront cost for the prizes is $1200. The host, DeAnna, takes 18% of the ticket sales.
Development committee will now be monthly instead of quarterly. At the next meeting they’ll discuss “Holiday Shop”, holiday photos, and t-shirt sales. NEHR does a secret bunny santa, we need to do it on FOHRN, Elfster is the site Palestina used in another group, this will also be discussed at the next meeting.
Regular annual fundraisers: A Plush is Enough at easter time, calendar sales, t-shirt sales with the year so it’s exclusive, The 5k (we might host this in person at the Bunny Hop) regular full and mini-spa days, Flatbread, online auctions.
The committee is also thinking about the 20th anniversary party and Bunfest 2022. It is looking for volunteers for this committee, Lesley will post on volunteer sites to find some people.
Grants
HRN received a House Rabbit Society emergency grant for Independence day bunnies for $1,000.
Suzanne is going to submit a second HRS grant for the Linden rescue next week.
Suzanne sent in final grant reports for the Petco Grant and MAC grants.
Suzanne submitted a new grant application for Petco.
We had volunteers send in nominations for Oxbow, Tractor Supply and Petco Holiday Wishes. We did not get the Oxbow or Tractor Supply grants. There were 6 entries for Petco Holiday Wishes- will find out around Dec 1 if we won it.
We don’t qualify for the Petsmart grant.
Shelter
The shelter is still closed, we haven’t had enough bunnies yet to make it worth it. We discussed opening the shelter with only 8 to 10 bunnies and 2 shifts to keep volunteers safe. Jenna has offered to take care of shelter scheduling. We also discussed doing virtual speed meetings with the shelter because of the poor air circulation. Speed dates can be done virtually with the person watching on their phone in the parking lot. Suzanne is going to talk to Deb and Maureen about that option. HIring a shelter manager is on hold.
Donation management/outreach
Abbey sent out an email appeal that raised almost $4000. Anyone who donated in the last 2 years but not in the last 6 months and didn’t respond to email will get something in the mail. Rachel has offered to take this on for a while to see how to tackle the system best.
Foster Committee
The committee has been established, Franny McKeever, Lindsay Franklin, and Palestina Baronas are on it.
They want to manage the “one and done” foster homes because it’s a lot of work to add them and get them set up.
Palestina created a Facebook group for active foster homes to create unity and to rely on each other with wants/needs and questions.
The committee is bringing back some things they liked before, including some documentation that is posted on volunteer central.
The foster home application is ready to go.
Norwell, Eastham, and Ipswhich vets are up for regular spays/neuters but Bolton is on hold for 3 weeks, they had to close for COVID.
Rachel and Palestina are working on an intake form. Suzanne will create an intake@rabbitnetwork.org to see all the form data.
Hotline Report
There are some new hotliners: Ellen Kushner, Kate Collins, and Same Faso (return).
The summer was BUSY with almost 200 applications in just the month of September.
Lesley started a monthly report with some stats – the number of applications, approval rate, and the number of days between submitting an application and adopting. The report is emailed to the hotline volunteers and the board.
Lesley inquired about sharing our Do not Adopt list list with other shelter. Some of the smaller shelters may want to but the bigger ones likely won’t.
Spay/Neuter Van
Jenna has put together a lot of information about what will be needed for a spay/neuter van. The van will cost over $200k. She was wondering about the 5 year plan because getting a van will impact the plan to buy a shelter. A van will help us get our own spay/neuter schedules under our control and will streamline the process for us. Suzanne pointed out that even when we do open a shelter, phase 1 would be just the shelter part. Phase 2 would be the hospital. The van will still fit into the plan to open our own shelter.
To help fund the cost of the van and its upkeep we will reach out to other shelters to offer to do spays/neuters at a special rate.
There is one on facebook for $210K, we should reach out to see if we can get it at a discount. We can start a kickstarter to raise money for the van.
Outreach
Jenna has submitted a video for the PetRock fest.
We have registered for VegFest, Jenna will be working on this.
Jenna is looking into other virtual programs that we can exhibit with.
Medical Cases – Palestina asks about the medical cases on the website. Suzanne will add a couple of buns that are missing from that page. She will try to make the page look more user friendly.
IPads – we’ll ask for donations in early January when people may have received gifs.
Hiring a Development Director
We would hire someone as a 1099 (contract worker) for 10 hours a week to get us into a donor management system; we are currently set up with Give Box for the donor management system.
Rachel offered to try to get the donor management system organized. She asked about membership levels, the development committee will discuss. It would be good to have an annual appeal set up for April.
Rachel suggests the monthly donations. She will look at Gve Box to see what she can do. Palestina suggests pairing with businesses that can offer special discount codes or something similar for members.
Meeting adjourned.