House Rabbit Network

Minutes of Board Meeting

Online: March 14, 2023

In attendance: Suzanne Trayhan, Rachel Minnie, Pam Chatis, Rich Whelan; also in attendance were Suellen; Jean Player, secretary

Nov 28, 2022 Minutes

Reviewed and approved.

Financials

Suellen reported that she won’t have the final version of budget vs actual data until the audit and tax returns are done. HRN has been fortunate with net income totals, which gives HRN the buffer to hire.

Shelter Clinic

Proposed budget seems very high. Suzanne would like to see a second opinion.

Adoptions/ Hotline

The board discussed the interview adoption process and what happens when an interview doesn’t go well, particularly whether the interview or the interviewer appears too strict. The board acknowledged “both sides” of the strictness issue: there have been candidates who made a strong favorable impression but then they returned the bunny, and there have been candidates whom interviewers were not sure about they turned out great. Rachel and Suzanne will discuss recent concerns offline and then loop Alice in.

The board also discussed the recent drop in the number of adoptions and that COVID factors will affect comparison of data over recent years.

Hiring

The recently hired bookkeeping firm did not work out. Suzanne will post the bookkeeping position again. The rate is $23-$25/hour.

The board also discussed hiring per diem shelter staff versus hiring a second full time person, particularly when it came to flexibility. The per diem rate would be $15-$17/hr, with the goal of hiring two or three people.

It was noted that Julie has been covering open shifts well. We do need someone to cover whenever Julie is absent or on vacation.

Fostering can use management. Foster record keeping needs a lot of improvement. Suzanne would like to offload some of the work she is doing. She would like time to work on general operation issues like utility providers for the shelter.

There was discussion about seeking a development director. It is of equal priority to hiring a second full time shelter person.

Board Administration

As this is a working board, when the board gets larger, it gets harder to get things done.The ideal board size is 7-9 people. The organization has struggled to find people who have valuable skills and connections.

Suzanne advised the board to send recommendations for board members and treasurer to her.

Review of the Quarterly Report

There have been mistakes in adoption data entry. Corrections are time consuming.

There was a discussion about adoption rates and other adoption places and different policies.

The board reviewed the summary about the fundraisers.

Bigger spa days were harder to run. Smaller, more frequent spa days provide a great service and are a great fundraiser. Dawn has been asking about a Spa Day in Boston or South Shore because there are people interested who cannot get to Westford. Pam will talk to Palestina.

Possible venues: Hansen Grain; community spaces; vet offices that  are closed on Saturdays. 

Suellen is resigning the Treasurer position, effective June 1.

Private bonding sessions, by appointment.

Online bun sitting system is going well.

There was a discussion of bun sitting rates of singles, pairs, trios.

There has been difficulty in fulfilling bunsitting requests but there is no concern about losing prospective clients. Rachel will talk to the coordinator about the number of requests received versus fulfilled.

There was a discussion of the HRN membership levels. Anecdotally, members did not seem to care about merchandise perks.

The shelter is running smoothly. New volunteers working out well.

Sara Christiansen has been working diligently on correcting data entry, and she’s put in a lot of hours.

There was a discussion of the Marion and Richard Graham Foundation and about the volunteer who has done some grant writing but she is not good about following up. Grant inquiries should go to Suzanne.

RHD

Until there is a case in MA, we won’t know how the state will react.

Next Meeting, May 23