Carrieann: December 21

- Have two volunteers that are interested in training for "Kids N K-9's"
- However the school that we are supposed to go to has not called me back; probably on break
- Got my library card to hold a volunteer training meeting for "Kids N K-9's"
- Sent in application to Whole Foods to take part in their 5% day

December 8

Carrieann

Here is my 411:
- I am still writing the script/outline for school presentations
- No more takers on school presentations; I'm hoping that they'll surface after the winter break because they need things to keep the kids busy
- Have one volunteer interested in helping with the program; yippy!
- Putting together a plan of attack for blitzing the school for 2009-2010 school year and looking to camps
- As far as grants go, we have one due for Jan 1 dealing with the 2010 calendar/book.

Later!

Melanie

Last time I wrote I probably seemed excited about the chance of possibly getting help from Coke. But guess what? I can't even get the person who they have dedicated to volunteering at Coke, who gets paid to do that and only that, to even respond to my simple email asking for information.
Yet, I get Coke in my face everyday asking me for stuff. United Way, clothes for homeless, pajamas for children, food for Hosea House. Not that these aren't worthwhile efforts. But why am I being begged for stuff now that it's the holidays? Do homeless people have it easy every other month of the year? I'm sick and tired of people who only give a shit when it suits them. We all bust our asses all year long for the most mistreated creatures and get little to show for it. We can't even get our own adopters to take care of their responsibilities. Things get too hard and they come back to us begging--during the holidays. I hate people. Merry f***ing Christmas.

brooke

Earlier this week I got out the last of the 80 raffle letters. We've gotten some great prizes. Most are on the site now and when I checked our P.O. box yesterday we have about 5 more. Those should be on the raffle page by Friday. I worked with Renee a couple of weeks ago to design a foster flyer for Grant Central Pizza. I also finished up a new raffle flyer and am hoping to have some individual adoption flyers (1 pet AARF pet) by this weekend to help generate some adoptions.

Susan and I are also fostering 3 former Dekalb Animal Control kittens and as we have discovered, we get to foster then longer than we had anticipated. One of them has ringworm (and one of us has ringworm) and we have to wait a glorious 6 weeks before they can be cleared to go to their new forever homes or new foster homes. Wheeee!

I plan on updating our adoptable cats and dogs pages by Friday. When I take off the cats we've adopted out in the last two weeks, we'll be left with 4 cats, I think. Emily Feinstein came by LAP on Monday and picked out an adorable kitten to foster. Once we get a picture and description from her, I'll put him on the site.

I think that's all for now. I'll be looking forward to seeing everybody (and kicking ass Lebowski-style) at our holiday board party next month!

Susan

• I have spent a good bit of the last week finishing up grants for Casper's Fund - one to Summerlee Foundation and one to PETCO Foundation. I am also working with Carrieann on some KNK grants.
• Our Dept of Agriculture license renewal application needs to be sent in by mid-December, so Brooke, Stephanie and I have been getting all of the foster and pet paperwork updated and entered into iShelters.
• I have been promoting our raffle to a variety of online places and sending out tickets to folks who buy online.

Melanie

I'm up to the usual: trying to help Casper's Fund people, trying to stay on top of email and voicemail return, and Cash for Critters. I now have three ladies working on the last three areas, so that's a big help. Courtney, our Cash for Critters coordinator, seems to be having trouble finding businesses that want to participate. I think it's because she is looking at businesses that are too large and have recycling contracts with vendors. I'm going to suggest that she look at smaller business, 50-100 employees maybe. Any other suggestions?

I've got some girls from a service sorority that want to help during their spring semester. So if any of you have large projects that need help, please let me know and I'll pass it along.

I did something exciting yesterday. There was a volunteer fair at Coke and I happened to catch my boss as she was on her way there. She introduced me to the person in charge of volunteering at Coke; my boss has been here 30 years and knows everyone so that's good. The volunteer person told me to fill out an app to become one of the Coke sponsered charities. Pretty cool if it happens. But what's more, I got my boss interested in AARF. This could be a real asset. I'll let you know how this all turns out.

November 17: Carrieann

Currently:
- Working on a script for volunteers for "Kids N K-9's" program
- Working on Benfield grant
- Trying to get an intern to help with the "Kids N K-9's" program

India

Donor thank-yous -- Erica, Renee and I have sent out several batches, and are continuing to work on more; please let me know if you'd like to help

DoGood site sponsorships -- Building a list of contacts/businesses to approach about this; again, please send me any you may know of

Relaunch of Fairy Pet Program -- working on Virtual Pet program ideas with board

CHS JHS -- I am in the process of collecting the money they raised from the magnets, and helping them launch their supply drive

Facebook page -- updating continuously

Radio PSAs for foster recruitment and NOM campaign -- meeting with Erica to discuss these next Wednesday

Publicity for Holiday Raffle, Giving Trees, Canine Good Citizen Day

November 7: Carrieann

I am working on creating a program to present to elementary age students.
I am calling the universities to see if we could get an intern to help create the program.

Stephanie

• I just completed our November foster orientation and although we didn't have has many newcomers as I hoped, I do have a home inspection this week for a new foster family.
• I'm trying to get the word out for the next foster orientation on December 6th.
• I'm working on a "kick-off" for our foster potlucks to begin in 2009.

Renee

-I am working with Stephanie to get the foster potlucks started.
-I'm looking for a pizza place to put flyers on their boxes and general restaurants to put adoption postcards on their tables.
-I am putting together a new post-adoption survey.
-I'm looking for groups to pitch presentations for Silver Paws.
-I'm looking into getting pet insurance.
-I'm looking into implementing something along the lines of the Meet Your Match program.
-I'm looking for an upscale grocer willing to allow us to advertise on their carts.
-I'm looking ahead at upcoming dates to plan more events, etc. (June - Adopt a shelter cat month)

Susan

In the next week --

• I am finishing up a grant to the Summerlee Foundation for more Casper's Fund money, specifically for cats.
• I am working on distributing and analyzing surveys from folks who used Casper's Fund with DJ&T funds. I am hoping to submit our renewal application to DJ&T by mid-November.
• I am working with Brooke on the raffle prize collection and with Renee on the Canine Good Citizen program.

October 28: Carrieann

Hey there! What a wonderful meeting! The 2nd school that signed up, backed out because we could not accommodate the whole aftercare program (150 students!). So, we have one school signed up for Kids and K-9's. One is better than none!

Stephanie

Hello everyone!! I hate that I missed the meeting on Sunday, though if you're going to be stuck in traffic somewhere the Smokey Mountains isn't a bad place to be. Here's what I'm working on right now.

• Holding new foster orientation and annual foster refresher this Saturday November 1st. I'm hoping that the Animal Services group will also be able to meet that day.
• Going to start sending out a foster update newsletter through Constant Contact every Tuesday.
• Hope to start working with iShelters and become more familiar with it.
• Taking a course through HSUS to learn more about evaluating pets for our program.

India

Thanks to everyone for a great meeting yesterday! Here's what I'm working on:

Petfinder yard sign distribution -- I'm still looking for more stores and other distribtution locations for these free signs, so please let me know if you know of any

DoGood site sponsorships -- Building a list of contacts/businesses to approach about this; again, please send me any you may know of

Donor thank-yous -- I am expecting the list of 100+ from Susan, and I will divide and send out to Renee, Carrieann, Julie and Erica

CHS JHS -- I will be collecting the money they raised from the magnets, and helping them launch their supply drive

Facebook page -- I'll be starting one for AARF this week

Radio PSAs for foster recruitment -- brainstorming with Erica on this

New marketing of Fairy Pet Program -- brainstorming ideas for this too

Focusing on publicity for Holiday Raffle, Giving Trees, Canine Good Citizen Day, Midtown Market

Brooke

Hey all! I've been working this week on sending donation letters out for our 2008 Holiday Raffle. I have twenty printed out and ready to mail and a total of probably 50 places to send letters. If anybody has any specific places in mind, please let me know. I'm also working on making sure the AARF site is updated daily. 

This weekend I want to focus on updating the Not One More and Silver Paws site. 

Additionally, I have 3 LifeLine pets that I want to bring into the Silver Paws Program. One is a 6-7 year old white German Shepherd named Annie who was dumped at the shelter. The other is a 10 year old Cocker Spaniel named Flower who was set to be euthanized at Dekalb County Animal Services and one of the folks there couldn't bear to let it happen. The third is a 6-7 year old female Maine Coon mix named Fanny. She isn't doing well living with so many other kitties in the kitty motel. 

We also have 5 kittens here from Dekalb who I want to make sure don't go back there to face an uncertain future. Since taking this job with LifeLine, I have been compelled to be in much more of a 'hands on' situation. It's tough to see these very real examples daily of how bad the overpopulation crisis is. I'm determined to make some small difference!

Carrieann

Well, I have slacked on my logic model. I wanted to have it finished by last Friday. I am still working on it. Sorry!

I am working on getting the letters out to Cobb county schools. These will go out by October14. I will try to get these out sooner, but my mother and grandmother are spending the week with me; UGH!

Looking for more grant possibilities. Have a meeting with Susan and Gayle today, at 4.

Stephanie

- I am working on setting a date for my second group foster orientation/foster annual update and making a few changes to my orientation powerpoint presentation.

- I am trying to find fosters to take a few of the available animals we have ready for foster homes!

- I am working on a few ideas to increase the number of foster applicants to the program.

- I am working on the foster active/inactive list to make sure those who are inactive are interested in continuing to foster with AARF. A lack in responses has made me really wonder about this.

Renee

-I am working to set up a Silver Paws presentation at Renaissance Independent Living and researching additional locations.

-I am finalizing the Friend for Life Contest and getting ready to start promoting it.

-I am working on the foster program and Silver Paws program marketing strategies.

-I am finalizing plans for the Pet Blessing event.

-I am about to organize the next cat adoption day.

-I am working on getting a couple of realtors and home-owners groups to include AARF literature/information in their welcome packets to new homeowners.

-I'm trying to find a couple of restaurants that would allow us to display postcards of adoptable pets on their tables.

-I'm looking for partners to participate in the AARF club.

Susan

- I am working on getting a B&B or similar sponsor for the Adopt A Dog Month promotion
- We are almost at the point of reapplying for CF $$ from DJ&T. I'll be doing some participant assessment over the next few weeks, and will have a report that we can use to show supporters.
- I am working with Renee, Carroll and Brooke to update the SP brochures so we can increase awareness/participation/etc

India

Susan, Carrieann and I just met online to review and work on the logic model plan for the Communications Department, including Public Relations, Education and Marketing and Community Outreach; we will meet again in two weeks to finalize.

I am working to get the word out about our October events, including the Howl-o-ween Costume Party and Adoption Day at Mom and Pups, Pet Blessing Oct. 11, Polite Pups seminars.

Action Alerts for humane farming, gas chambers ban, and other issues (need to start adding these to Not One More site).

Working with Brye, head of the Campbell High School Junior Humane Society, on a magnet-selling fundraiser and other group projects, including a humane education presentation they will give to younger kids. They will have a table at the Mom and Pup's event.

Slowly but surely getting Petfinder signs distributed; Melanie found a distribution location in Douglasville; MELANIE -- Will you be able to get the signs for him from Susan?