[violaine]

On 2/16/10 3:10 PM/tuesday
Hi all,

The Commissioners meeting this morning didn't go exactly as planned (but it never does, right?!). Me and X were in attendance. During "wishes to be heard", I asked the commissioners if they were [Chief ACOs] boss and oversaw "general shelter operations" and they agreed.

I then led into some questions that I knew they couldn't answer very well since they truly have no idea about what goes on in the shelter. My intent was to follow up my questions with a request to hold a public forum so that [Chief ACO] could answer everyone's burning questions. The Commissioners actually attempted to give very vague answers to the questions that I asked, and told me that my questions would be best answered at the meeting that I have with Chief ACO and Commissioner this Thursday [later today]. I told them that was fine, but that I still thought it would be most effective to hold a public forum so that EVERYONE could ask questions. Commissioner X spoke up and told me that public forums like that typically turn into a bunch of angry people just "beating up" on the person answering the questions for the public. He said that he didn't think it was a good idea, and that he wouldn't be able to give me an answer about the public forum at that time. I took that as a "NO" for getting a public forum.

X and I did stick around to hear X Commissioner report on the decision regarding which organization would be used to assess the current state of the shelter. X Comm. said that he's contacted several local/state organizations but that no one really wanted to get involved with it because of the drama surrounding the shelter. He said that he's got a few national organizations that would be willing to assess the shelter but that they charge a fee - he didn't mention who the organizations were or what the fee would cost. He then asked the commissioners if they thought it would be a good idea to contact several reputable local vets to assess the shelter and the commissioners agreed that it might be something worth looking into. My opinion is that local vets know how to run a for-profit vets office, and have little to no experience in how a shelter should be operated... but this is still better than the original idea of bringing in the State Board of Animal Health. I think that someone within Humane Society needs to take charge and compile a list of organizations that could fairly assess the shelter. I just don't think that X Comm. is really qualified to chose the best organization for the job and needs some guidance. Maybe Indiana Welfare Sheltering Org. could assist us with this? [see below response].

The last important detail at the meeting was that Chief ACO has requested new laptops for all of her AC officers to carry with them while they're out on patrol in their vans. They apparently already have laptops but they are 5 years old and the batteries don't stay charged in them, so rather than replace the batteries with new $150 ones, she would like $9297 to purchase new laptops. They mentioned that this could possibly be paid for with money from the shelter's donation fund. Also, keep in mind too that she's asking for new laptops with the knowledge that the Commissioners are looking to reduce the number of people she has on staff.

Any thoughts on all this?

[response]

Hi all!
Below are the main two evaluations from national organizations that I know of. B. gave the information to X Comm. and told him at the time it would cost him money. I agree the contacting a vet is not the way to go. Vets and animal shelters are two totally different things. There are vets out there that specialize in shelter medicine, but not necessarily shelter operations. Your average private vet does not have the background in sheltering needed to really do an evaluation of the shelter in it’s entirety.

Shelter medicine vets would come into play to just address health of the animals in the shelter and typical shelter medicine issues such as kennel cough, upper respiratory infections in cats, protocols for highly contagious diseases such as parvo, etc.

American Humane Shelter Evaluation:
http://www.americanhumane.org/protec...er-training-ev aluation-program/

HSUS Evaluation:
http://www.animalsheltering.org/prog...ation_program/

X Comm. has yet to answer my email asking him what his timeline is for getting a basic informational report to them. I’m a little confused that he would tell the commissioners that others don’t want to help. We offered, just not willing at this point to go in the shelter because we probably wouldn’t get the info we needed anyway. The report we are willing to give him would however be very helpful for him to educate himself. There are also shelter self-evaluations questionnaires that they could use to get an idea of where they are what they need to do. Probably not best to have Chief ACO answer the questions, but it could be eye opening.

Maybe one of you can contact the above two organizations and get the info about how much evaluations would cost, what it would take, etc. They both would do an awesome job. Possibly a fundraising opportunity to have the community ban together and chip in the funds to purchase the evaluation?