Board Meeting 3-6-2009
Present were Vicky, Ken, Lori, Chemyn, Liz, Helen & Lakshmi
Called to order at 6:35 p.m.
Review of minutes:
Accept – Ken 1st, Lakshmi 2nd
All vote in favor
Secretary Report
Database Summary Feb-2009
$52,114.17
Adoptions $2450.00
Gate $1,997.00
Online Fundraising $60.00
General $1,100.00
Grants $15000.00
In Honor-Memory $60.00
Matching $500.00
Memberships $145.00
Night Tours $50.00
PayPal $40.00
Visitor Center From Whitt $30,000.00
ACH $710.00 2/18
Refund 2.17
Presidents Report
The cougar cage is open and the brats and Tacoma got their cages back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eric’s pool … still waiting for the pool guy to come fix it. He came by and said he would be back in a couple of weeks which was 3 weeks ago
Fred’s pool is done and Jett and Diva’s is starting Monday.
The SOL Letter is out as of last week
We have one more payment on the visitor center and the grand opening will be April 11 depending on board approval
The guy with the lions still has not called me back from Midland
An ad in the ballard street café has been done and in the wylie news and on the tables at the restaurant.
Steph C. is putting together media stuff and I also told Leigh that she could do the same. Both are supposed to send everything to me before they send anything out.
Christina and I started working on ASA accreditation as well as TAOS. To do this our emergency protocols have to be up-dated with a bunch of new information. We still need a little information before its ready.
I got a new sign to put at skyview and the dirt road that leads up to the cats.
Adoptions are done and sent out. Along with T- Shirts and hats. This started a big deal over pictures. We need to enforce the picture policy
We took in two new cougars and hope to let them be with Fred and Kami on Tuesday next week. Lassiter and Sierra are their names and they are both very sweet.
Moses and Otis got into a scuffle but was only one night and I think it was over food. No other problems have been noticed.
Flower beds are in at the visitor center and a huge block of cedar was placed in front of the building. I talked to Patty and she explained that the area in front of it would be filled in with gravel and act as a step.
Flies are all over Lassiter and Sierra and everyone needs to be aware of the problem and know how and what to spray
Medical Report
Malikai has gotten over his eating and vomiting problem but Dinari had to be taken to A&M.
We again experienced some problems with our visit to A&M. Dinari did not get scopped which is why we went there instead of going to Chucks. There was a real stupid mix up in Dinari’s blood work which was the reason the scope didn’t get done. With the test that we did get done they did not find anything wrong with him. We took off a spot on his tail and a skin tab from inside his leg. There has been a lot of trouble getting the boys back together. MAlikai has been really pissed off that Dinari left him. They seem to be doing much better as of today. Getting drugs into Dinari is very difficult. He should have 80mg of pirloseconce a day and 14 amoxi twice a day or one shot of penicillin a day. A&M also found that Dinari has somekind of bladder infection and a bad tooth that they had to pull. The tooth was abcess with dead tissue around it.
Freddie has had a hard time getting adjusted to his new house and has been of and on his food.
Treasurer’s Report
Discussed the credit card machine and the price to operate.
First Data
- 1.85% & 20¢ per authorization
- $249.00 for machine
- $10 monthly fee (tech service, etc.)
- Dedicated line
- No Amex
- Review monthly - could increase or decreas depending on each transaction
- Possible raise entrance fees $1.00 or possibly do something to ask if they would like to donate more toward the cats.
- All agreed to get machine.
Ken will start bringing in a Profit & Loss to each Board meeting.
Husbandry Report
Last meeting I had mentioned that I would be reorganizing the training manual but I could not help myself I made some additions. Especially in the section “Helpful Tips to Set Your Cat up for Success”. I will be giving the additions to the trainers next week.
Tammy Randell has left In-Sync. She trained Jasmine, Iona, Mercedes and was working on behavioral modification with Mohan to overcome the stress he has with visitors.
Mak Ledbetter will now be training Iona.
Bryony Kongabell is now a Cat Companion for Kaiya and Cerella. She has also offered to fill-in on the Enrichment Team for Julie Lain until she is well enough to return. Bryony will then be first on the list when a permanent position opens.
Brandy Holder has left In-Sync, she was cat companion to Midas.
I have purchased a training program entitled The ABC’s of Animal Training – Unlocking the Power of Positive Reinforcement. It consists of 2 DVD’s and a workbook and when the visitor’s center is done we will hold a couple of meetings to share it with all the trainers.
I was contacted via email by Kristy Muir who was offering her help with our training.
While an undergrad at the University of N. Carolina Greensboro she conducted research at the North Carolina Zoo on animal behaviorism.
After graduation she was offered and Advanced Animal Behavior Internship at Disney Animal Kingdom, which eventually led to a permanent position.
After many years at Disney she decided to leave in order to get her Masters in Behavioral Analysis at UNT. She is part of a student organization called ORCA, Organization of Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals. Kristy will only be in our area until mid summer but will introduce In-Sync to other ORCA members that reside here so we will have a permanent resource to get assistance from.
She if we would like to be part of her thesis by training one of our cats. She is well know and offered to try and get our name out there in other publications. She came out on Sunday March 1st and was very impressed with our facility, how well adjusted, calm and happy our cats were and how advanced our training program is.
Volunteer Coordinator Report
Met with the following potential new volunteers met with since last meeting:
Nadia Arts – had to leave after we finished packet, will bring release form in later
Leslie Biskamp – “aunt” of Lassiter and Sierra, interested in daily operations, admin help,
available Mon, Wed
David Dar – interested in daily operations and construction help, available Mon, Wed, Sat
Teri Hall – daily operations, events, construction, available weekends
Matt Prior – daily operations, events, construction, available weekends
Jennifer Vincent – interested in daily operations, available most weekday mornings
Other:
Volunteer meetings 3/14 at 10am and 3/16 at 6pm.
Spring Clean-Up day 3/28. The Volunteer Center of North Texas is going to try to bring some people to help, and I’ll ask all volunteers and supporters as well.
Discuss Visitor Center staffing: ideas for signing up for visitor shifts (separate google doc?); shifts 11am-2:30pm and 2:30pm-6pm; any particular people we do or do not want to invite to help in the Visitor Center? What do we still need for the Visitor Center – bookshelves (Ikea?), display cases, books, etc?
Jake wants to help me make training videos, will also ask him to help get some short video clips for our mtdn profile and wishes.
We should vote on the options for our wishes on mtdn.com. Can we add the link to our general newsletter and website? Jon Biel suggested also using Facebook and MySpace. He also mentioned that we can update our blog on mtdn.com, then e-mail that link to everyone when we have news, rather than just e-mailing them the news. That way, they will click on the link, see our blog with the news, but also see our wish list!
Discuss possible promotion of Volunteer Trainees to Volunteer level:
(those with at least 3 months of regular volunteering)
Karen Landgraf - since May, 57 hours
Stephanie Lester – since Nov, 92 hours
Rayni Thomas – since Nov, 71 hours
Linda Schilz – since Nov, 45 hours
Mak Ledbetter – only since Jan, but has 178 hours
Discuss possible promotion of Volunteers to Senior Volunteer level:
(those with at least 6 months of regular volunteering)
Dena Rodrick – since 1/26/08, averages 6 hrs/month
Denese Davis – since 5/3/08, averages 15 hrs/month
Janice Boroughs – since 5/17/08, averages 8 hrs/month
Laura Carter – since 5/31/08, averages 12 hrs/month
Events
Postcards have been created and to be mailed out to area. 2,500 labels needed.
Lori ordering more shirts.
Still having problems with fundraising from Chili’s. Lori will call Brinker International (parent company)
In-2-It (Quicken Books) – not sure if this is correct. This company wants to have a picnic here in the summer with 600-800 people. We provide food. Discuss the parking issue, cleanup, too many people at once for the cats. Potential lawsuits, etc. All agreed not to do.
Easter volunteers – plain tan t-shirts w/labels that Helen will print out (done).
Media Report
Stephanie – going strong with ideas. Doing a great job per Vicky.
Lee and Bryonie (sp?) haven’t done much.
Working on contingency plan for emergencies.
Website – discussed redoing wbsite. Actively find someone to do & setup the go to Dawn and ? (forgot his name) that they will not do.
Ben donated an endoscope 11.7 cert. & 5’7” long. Can purchase at reduced price one with a camera that will hook up to a TV or computer and records on DVD. Regular price is $40,000 but can get for $5,000.
Public Relations
Broke out report to show where people have heard about us. Will continue to do so. Everyone MUST ask how they heard about us and if the people did not put on sign-in sheet they Visitor Center personnel can enter.
Education Report
Will speak with Wylie Rotary Club and the Wylie PTA wants us to give a talk at one of their meetings.
Spring Break flyers are being handed out. Will check on distributing to Lovejoy and Rockwall schools.
Discussed Facebook and MySpace. Lori will set up Facebook and Lakshmi will check on MySpace. She has family members who are very knowledgeable on computers.
Misc Topics
Visitors – April 11 open, have someone at gate to show people where to go sign in for the egg hut
1 payment left to make on visitor center
No construction report
Per Vicky – work being done on bobcat cage - fire hose platforms being worked and ramps in small cats. All looks good.
Cody and Cherokee need more time with Sassy.
Wed Lassiter and Sierra will be put together w/Freddie and Kami during the day to see how they do (obviously this has been done and going well….)
Plants too close to visitor center.
Marvin did drawing and Vicky needs to draw in her “dream cages”. This will go up in Visitor Center.
Need wildlife books. Discuss various places to buy.
Discuss shelving that needs to go into visitor center to hold books and misc. items to sell. Have a 10’ a d 15’ wall space to work with. Discuss various places to go to see if someone will donate.