KCSPCA BOARD MEETING AND GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
OCTOBER 14, 2013
As usual, these are my notes, reviewed by several who were there, and NOT the official minutes. Our comments are in italics. Public attending: 2 spouses of board members, a man and his daughter (those 2 left early), myself (Catherine Samardza), Sherene Lindo, Doug Beatty, July Wilson, Crystal Sweeney and Diane Marks.
The
meeting was called to order and Paul Davis, the newest member, was
welcomed. President Alex Moore announced
the roll out of the new name and logo (previously discussed and voted on): First State Animal Center and SPCA. This does not change their legal and
incorporated name of Kent County SPCA.
They are doing business as (“DBA”) First State and as DE Animal Care and
Control for rabies, cruelty and dog control.
Mr. Moore stated that the name change was to demonstrate that they serve
the entire state and are not connected to Kent County Government. He also stated that Kent County asked them to
change the name.
(We
have been attending meetings since May 2012; never once when this name change
was discussed has anyone said that Kent County gov’t asked them to change the
name; I contacted Commissioner Sweeney
after the meeting, and he had no knowledge of any such request by Levy Court.)
The
animal control branch and the shelter now have 2 separate phone numbers, but
those numbers are good throughout the state.
The
financial books are being reorganized to separate the shelter from animal
control.
They
have engaged new accountants for the next audit.
The
minutes of the September meeting were accepted.
Treasurer’s
Report
Mr.
Newton reported that they ended the fiscal year with 97.9% of the projected
income ($2.8M); however, expenses came in @ 94.6% ($2.76M), leaving them with a
surplus of $94K. Mr. Davis asked if
there was a published copy of the report for board members; it was stated that
it had been sent out via e-mail, but not yet to Mr. Davis. Ms. Cooper gave him her copy.
The
report was accepted.
Nominating
Committee
The
nominating committee distributed an updated board member list. The three new members from last year have
completed their 1 year period, and automatically were accepted for a 3-year
term. They also presented a slate of
officers for the new fiscal year (same as
last year), and voted to accept the nominated officers.
Mr.
Newton passed around the contact list for members to update their information
before distribution.
Ms.
Kisner reported on the November event at Dover Downs. This event had to be moved when the Sheraton
was leased by DE State University. She
is working on finding corporate sponsors. The hotel is guaranteed $5,500.00. The board went around the table to see how
many tickets (@ $100.00 per ticket) had been sold so far; the total was 40 tickets.
There was a discussion concerning lists of people to call, there seemed to be two lists circulating, for different phone calls; board members were confused as to which list was being discussed.
There
was discussion about the band (previously discussed @ a board meeting). Mr. Davis didn’t understand why they were
having a band, he said he didn’t believe they had ever had a band before. It was explained that the board was trying
something new, hoping to get more people involved. Ms. Kisner said she had a list of events that
used bands to bring in more people. The
band is expensive - $6,000.00 - and she is trying for a corporate sponsor to
pay for them (Kristin and the Noise).
There was further discussion concerning the band (no one knew them, but
Ms. Kisner assured them that it was a well-known band in the area).
There was discussion concerning items for the silent auction. Board members were encouraged to contact restaurants, golf courses and other types of services for gift certificates. All items must be received 11 days before the event.
Ms. Kisner also discussed the transitional ad introducing the new name and logo. Staff will have shirts with the new logo as well.
Executive
Director / Business Plan presentation
Mr.
Usilton gave a PowerPoint presentation that included highlights of:
How did we do?
Animal Control
Organizational overview
Top Issues
Budget
Progress v. goals
Wrap up
One
slide was titled “Serious Issues Facing Us” and included the following:
Politics
Animal Welfare Office
Catherine, Carol and Doug
The budget was listed as $3.270M.
The
executive director reported that a veterinarian called to say that animals
being adopted are healthier now, or adopters are at least aware of health
issues when they adopt.
The
KCSPCA should support their loyal employees – 5 years in a non-profit is a long
time. Many times a non-profit spends a
lot of time training an employee, and they then leave for another job.
Kent
County Levy Court has offered customer service training; the animal control
officers have already attended.
It was reported that HSUS (Humane
Society of the United States) is doing a study on TNR. The executive director said that "people don't want to see cats on the
side of the road. They don't want to see cats killed."
(I haven't checked with HSUS on this. If it's true, we
don’t really understand WHY HSUS is doing this; not only does Alley Cat Allies
have 20 years of field work and research on this, Professor Smith (Widener
College) reported at one of the Animal Welfare Task Force meetings that 2
universities have also done independent studies of TNR.)
(And
last, nowhere in this presentation or synopsis of “how we are doing” mentioned
that, within bare weeks of taking over the Kent County contract, there were
already two complaints filed with the County Administrator.)
Mr.
Usilton finished by saying with animal control “we protect people from animals”
and with the SPCA “we protect animals from people.” He said that it is a conflict, but that they
manage to be in the middle.
There
was discussion concerning microchips; Mr. Usilton stated that they had picked
up a dog that had a microchip that was from Faithful Friends, but that they
didn’t register the owner. This led to
an explanation of how the microchip process works, and that it costs money for
the adopter to register. It was stated
that the KCSPCA has records identifying adopters with the chips, even if the
adopter doesn’t register with the service.
(KCSPCA
posted about this on their FB page, stating that Faithful Friends could not be
reached and then couldn’t identify the adopter.
This subject was also discussed at the Animal Welfare Task Force
meetings. DESPCA stated that they have
records concerning adopters as well; I checked with Faithful Friends, and they
also keep records of adopters/microchips.)
Ms.
Hamilton asked if the other organizations take in the animals that the KCSPCA
does – alligators, boa constrictors, racoons, coyotes, bats…..Mr. Usilton
stated that the KCSPCA contacts the appropriate wildlife rehabilitation experts
and the animals are transferred.
Mr.
Usilton said he is working with a Business English class at the University of
Delaware, developing projects on how to expand the KCSPCA reach.
Programs
are being modelled – how to work with dogs that don’t walk on a leash, haven’t
been in a home, behavior modifications.
These are programs that they don’t have time for at the shelter.
(There
was more, including statistics, but since most of us – including the outside
auditor contracted by NCC - cannot reconcile those statistics, I won’t bother
listing them here. The quarterly statistics are posted on their website, for
those who want to try to figure it out.
If you can tell us what “documented in field but not in shelter” means,
PLEASE contact us.)
It
was announced that there are about 75 spots for spay/neuter through Project
Purr, and that the KCSPCA has applied for another, similar grant to target
another zipcode area.
Old
Business
– NONE
New
Business –
NONE
President
Moore suddenly asked Mr. Newton if they had a quorum for business at this
meeting; Mr. Newton said there was a quorum, and it would be reflected in the
minutes.
(Just
being snarky, here, but most organizations determine the quorum BEFORE they
reach the end of the agenda….)
Motion to adjourn made and carried.
FOLLOW
UP INFORMATION:
A)
Since this board meeting, there have been two news articles that should be
noted for the errors: Delawareonline
stated that Kevin Usilton wrote the original grant for Harrington’s Community
Cats program. This is not true (and I
checked with Harrington). We don’t know
where DEonline got this info, but the KCSPCA was not involved in the Harrington
Community Cats program. And in a recent
Cape Gazette article, it states that KCSPCA provides barking-dog enforcement
for NC and Kent Counties. Again, not
true. KC Levy Court specified that
barking dog, which comes under the KC noise ordinance and NOT Title 9, should
be reported to KC Planning.
B)
Regarding the two complaints – as expected, in one case the complainant was
described as a known problem, and the other was just wrong (he asserts his dog was picked up from his 54 acre property, they say it was from the neighbor's property - but he also says the address portion on the ticket was crossed out).
