MACSPRO had a board meeting on January 3rd and thanks to the efforts of current volunteers and survey respondents we have concluded we will keep MACSPRO in operation! To accomplish this, we are taking a two-phased approach: 1) we will manage adoptions carefully to ensure we do not take in dogs that are beyond our resource capacity to support until we expand our resource base (of both volunteers and financial resources), and 2) we will take a number of steps to both increase resources and to manage resources more effectively. This may mean that we take in fewer dogs for a short while (hopefully no more than 2 or 3 months), so that we can organize to be able to handle more dogs in the future.
Our first step is to form three key committees to help us shape the future of MACSPRO and we now ask you to spend a couple minutes considering becoming part of one of these new committees! Your time will directly impact this excellent breed of dog that we all love so much and your efforts will be meaningful. Please consider joining a committee by sending us an email stating which committee you feel is best suited for your interests and we will find the right fit!
The three new committees are described below:
The Outreach Committee:
This committee will be responsible for coordinating upcoming events, broadcasting these and pei-related news to our community, and managing our social media. We’ve recruited some bright and talented volunteers to make sure that our community at large is updated regularly as we progress. Ideal volunteers for this committee would be people with a great understanding of and experience with social media, event planning, and other forms of communication. If you are interested joining in the outreach committee, email outreach@macspro.org
The Finance Committee:
This committee has been established to including fundraising, grants, and donor development. MACSPRO is 100% run by volunteers and maintaining financial health is crucial. We have a current donor base but we realize we need to do more to cultivate and grow this base. Additionally there are local and national organizations that offer grants to rescues just like us and we need more efforts to take advantage of as many of these opportunities as possible. Ideal volunteers for this committee would be people with professional and/or volunteer fundraising experience. If you are interested in joining the finance committee, email finance@macspro.org.
The Volunteer Committee:
This committee has been established to better manage our most important resource – our volunteers! By focusing on better recruiting and more efficient managing of our volunteer base, we plan to match time and talents to the appropriate tasks and to spread our important work over a broader volunteer base. We also arrange for the transports of many dogs each year from outside of the MD/DC/VA metro area and this committee will oversee that. Ideal volunteers to help us here would be those who have experience in recruiting volunteers and have project and people skills to match resources with tasks. If you are interested in joining the volunteer committee, email volunteer@macspro.org.
It is important to emphasize that in addition to staffing these committees, we also are looking for people who may not want to be involved in a committee, but who still want to be involved with MACSPRO, including those who may be limited on time and those who can offer “seasonal” assistance for when things get busier than normal.
We again thank all of you who support us and those who gave us feedback to our survey sent last month! We hope you will consider joining a committee and cheers to another year of continuing to save shar-peis!
