2003 S Manager - Animal Protection Society of Orange County, Inc Interim Mngt & Operation Services for Orange Co Animal Shelter

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VOLUNTEERS One of the pillars of successful animal shelters is the community volunteer base. The HSOC, in full recognition of this reality, will from its inception, as the operator of the Orange County Animal Shelter, make recruitment and training of an active and committed volunteer corps a priority. Over the past year, it has become evident that there are many citizens in this community who are passionately concerned with animal welfare. The HSOC is open to learning from, listening to, and working with members of the community who wish to mobilize their passion and concerns in the form of volunteering. Volunteers give of their time and effort with no expectation of remuneration. However, there are valid expectations on their part that volunteer tasks will be clearly specified; that they will receive detailed training in performing all facets of the volunteer tasks; and that staff and leadership of the shelter will recognize the volunteer efforts and contributions. At first, the HSOC will have staff members and leadership perform the volunteer training. This training will occur at both group training sessions, and in a one-on-one context. After sufficient time has passed for volunteers to accrue enough experience to become trainers themselves, they may take over some of the training. Areas of shelter operation for which volunteers will be solicited include adoptions, cat room attendants (cage cleaning, feeding), kennel attendants (cleaning, feeding), dog walking, office tasks (e.g., mailings, assembling adoption packages), grant-writing and fundraising, and community relations (e.g., greeters at the shelter, educators in the community). Volunteer tasks will be performed primarily by adults (18 years of age and older); however, we recognize that school-aged children often wish to donate volunteer time to the animals, and there are some tasks (e.g., cat room and kennel attendants; some office tasks) which are appropriate for children provided they are supervised by at least one adult volunteer or staff member. The above discussion of volunteers has referred to those individuals who decide, autonomously, to give of their time and effort to the animal shelter. We will also have community service volunteers. These individuals will be treated with the full amount of respect accorded other volunteers. We will try, as best as possible, to pair community-service volunteers with the tasks they will enjoy the most; this will benefit not only the community-service volunteer, obviously, but also the animal shelter, as an individual performing a task they enjoy will be more careful and efficient and will also present a more welcoming face to the general public. Since the volunteer base has declined significantly, our challenge will be to recruit old and new volunteers, including those who used to be employees at the shelter. (Former employees, if they received a favorable send-off, are often happy to continue to stay involved with animal welfare through volunteering.) We recognize that the immediate priority of the HSOC will be staff hiring and training. Once staff are in place and have been trained, volunteer recruitment will begin. Volunteer orientations, word- of-mouth, announcements in newspapers, letters to editors, announcements on WCHL, public invitations to board meetings, announcements at local churches--all of these mechanisms will be used to attract volunteers to the new organization. We will begin such announcements in all these venues immediately upon awarding of the contract. We will welcome former APS volunteers and employees, of course. 20