House Rabbit Network Meeting of the Board of Directors
Minutes 11/2/2021
8:30 pm start via Google Meet
In attendance: Dawn Lewis, Suzanne Trayhan, Rachel Minnie, Palestina Baronas
Minutes from July 27, 2021 meeting were approved.
Quarterly report was presented and accepted.
Update to adoption numbers: Due to changing software we do not have an exact count at the time of the meeting, but know we are down from approximately 530 adoptions as of this time last year.
RHDV2 Update: Only RI and CT are current New England states with vaccine approval. We are continuing to push advocating. Once vaccine is approved, HRN may want to consider working with veterinarians’ offices to establish clinics. Names of vets and office for contact given. Name shared of advocate who may also be interested in helping to assist. At this time there are still 10 states left to pass vaccine approval.
Oxbow Update: Current contest involves social media and uploading pictures of small pets to Instagram. Several HRN supporters have voiced an interest in participating.
Fundraisers:
Tarot readings:
Sold out and were very popular. Will consider doing this in the future if the volunteer will donate her time again. The drawback is the cost/time and energy involved for the volunteer does not net us a large profit.
Run for the Buns:
89 participants. Good idea to get people to sponsor- will consider in the future giving gift/prize to person who had the most amount of sponsors. Merchandise is still being sold. Metals did not sell as well this year. Palestina expressed that merchandise was hard to find on website- possible to put on sign up page so that it is not as easy to miss next time? Can we consider doing bib numbers next year? Also, we might consider combining sign up with shirt next year.
Shirts/Sweatshirts in future: Will consider bringing back earlier “Got Buns” clothing this coming summer.
11/30 is Giving Tuesday. We will focus on the number of surrenders in our campaign this year and set a higher goal. We will do our Facebook Fundraiser and put on web page.
There will be no Holiday Market for the 2021 holiday season.
Bingo will be happening on 1/29/22 via DeAnna’s Zoom link.
Calendar Update:
We might need to place another calendar order. We had 250 total to start (should sell out in a few weeks). Palestina asked about selling calendars at Devine- a drawback might be the possibility of people assuming they are a free item.
Shelter Update:
1/31/22 move out date from current location. Currently looking at properties. There is a donor offering to buy space and rent it to us and this is a possibility for the near future.
Education Update:
The video made for Vegfest could modified for our general use
Foster Home Update:
Lindsay and Allie stepped down from the committee (committee is Pam W and Palestina). Our returns number is steady and some of our foster homes may be feeling some burnout. Speed-dating again is decreasing the number of bondmates returned though.
Development Director:
A name was offered as a possible lead for this position and contact will be made to assess the individual’s interest. Suzanne will follow up on this.
Meeting adjourned- to reconvene in February