Animal Shelter Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Here, we are right on time, so I'll go ahead and call us to order it. It's 06:00 sharp.

Alright.

I don't know if any of you have met Dina yet in person. Dina's can you see her over here? She can wave. Dina's our new liaison, so you guys have been emailing with her. So I'll have her call roll as soon as she waved at y'all. Just wanna make sure everybody knows who she is since y'all will be familiar with her moving forward. So, Gina, if you can call it roll.

Christy Van Vu? Here. Estefan Centeno?

Here.

Doreen Cruz? Here. Doctor. Dory? Here. Brianna Geddes? Here. Bo Kidd? Here.

Nikki Ladkin? And Kate Shaw?

Right here.

Perfect. And then we got a form, so we may proceed. Alright. We got a form. So we'll move to citizen comment period. Did we have anybody signed up to speak? We don't have anybody in the audience here. I don't know if we had anybody online signed up. Nobody? No. Okay. Alright. Easy peasy. We'll move on then to minutes. So consider, approval by motion of the 01/22/2025 meeting minutes. They are in y'all's docket.

So

Brown and Bow. Motion in second.

All in favor? No. No. Just request a correction. Sure. Item eight eight three. It says requested to add treatment to release. We correct that to.

Oh, yeah.

So it's the motion to approve.

Any motion to approve with that? I make a motion to approve. Brianna? Second. Okay. So we will make that edit. Any other? All in favor? Approving? Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Any opposed?

Nope. Alright. So that would

be unanimous. So those minutes are approved. Presentations, we don't have any presentations for this meeting. I think this meeting was gonna be kind of more when we get down into the the discussion stuff. So we're moving along quickly to item six, items for action and discussion.

So we'll just kinda go through these. I think I had requested to put the current program overview and strategic enhancements, which is kind of a broad topic. But I feel like we have some folks on this board now that kinda have, some expertise and, interest in in various areas. And so what I was kind of, I think, looking to do with that was kinda talk about we have some existing programs. We're not reinventing the wheel, Kind of helping everybody on the board understand kind of what it is that we're doing, what our direction is, and see what ideas you guys have or resources that you may have for us to help us enhance those.

So, yeah, so that's kind of what I was going for with that. Okay, Laurie.

So, I mean, I guess

I kinda kinda just give y'all an overview. I mean, most of you know you're a volunteer. Like, everybody knows we have volunteer. We have foster. We have trafficker retirement program. Those are pro and we have a rescue program. Those are probably our big four. We found the Forget Me Not program, which is a owner assistance outreach type program, where we help people with, like, pet bills, pet boarding, kind of just various things that help keep their pet out of the shelters. So, you know, I feel like there's always a lot of talk at ease about having, like, a friends at the shelter type organization. We're we're already kinda doing these things.

We already have some nonprofits that help us, but, like, what are areas where we feel like this is a program we wanna strengthen? How do we get there? What resources we would have in the community? And I guess, TNR, we because we kinda have that separate, so we can kinda do that as a phone. I think the one thing we are really trying to do right now is get our animal transport program through, like, our rescue program, kind of a little more off the ground.

So, like, identifying some shelters maybe up north or in other states, Canada, wherever, that can receive animals from us and trying to one of the problems with transport in some of the bigger cities kind of monopolize the northern shelters. And so a lot of people just go, why don't you just send them up north? Well, Austin, El Paso, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, San Antonio. Like, they're already monopolizing those guys. And so it's like, you know, like, it's without me something that somebody or do you know if somebody in who needed it would wanna help us manage and do that networking? That's a big one. That's what

I talked to you about, like, trying to figure out if we can find a like, start out with one band and kinda go from there. That was another thing that as I'm going through my planning process with my future. Well,

that's one

the big things that I was like, they do that from there, and then I have that resource in a file now. So I need to kinda see what options she has.

Yeah. Think she in Michigan. So

when you say transport, you're talking about both finding the rescue and physical transportation. Yes. Visiting. Yeah. Two parts.

So you have to find a rescue, and then you have to figure out how you're getting them to and sometimes the rescues have, like, their own transport that they already work with, and sometimes we're just having to, like, piggyback them off somewhere else. So and as Brianna, she's going through a whole planning phase. Like, she does that. So I think kind of the the big vision, you know, is that, like, we're gonna have yes. She's gonna have the proper shelter at some point.

We're still gonna work together and and kind of do, like, a coalition approach to animal welfare. So, you know, it benefits us all now, you know, we're in a couple more shelters in at some point down the road to have that coalition and have these things really in place. So that's a really big one. That that one right there would probably need the most help to the shelter as far as game programs and enhancements that we could just like, if we could wave a wand and and figure that out, that would that would be game changing for us. It's just, you know, as you can imagine, it's a lot of manpower and work and emailing and networking and logistics, and we have half a person for our program.

So he's always scrambling. So, you know, if there's people you know in the community that would volunteer to come in and help them just with that networking aspect and finding those shelters and making those connections. And likewise, with our volunteer program, if we one thing we really wanna do is have more of a tiered volunteer program, where we have folks that kinda come in to help with more than just cleaning and feeding and laundry and dog walking. Like, we have clerical things we have with them. So what I like, the dream would be to have almost like a volunteer kinda liaison team, I guess, or, like, a buddy system.

Like, you have your group of four volunteers that kinda know the shelter and know what's going on. That as new volunteers are coming in, you can kinda buddy up with them, introduce them to staff, find out kind of where their niche is, help them learn those roles. And that way, we can have a more robust volunteer program, and Cindy can even help help with things like the program, what we could call and do check ins or doctor check ins. So that kind of like, there's there's a million things. Like, it's a different hour listing off all the job they can do.

But that that's really something that I really would like to do. Again, we have half a person to run our volunteer program. The other half of her runs our foster program. So we could build her a team of good core volunteers that, you know, are gonna come in and all kind of all volunteers learn your way around. So I get is that yeah. These are the kind of things that, like, these are the enhancements that if we make, takes us to a next level.

So so right now, the volunteering, the entry point is the volunteer orientation.

Yeah. So we don't have the in person orientation Right. Anymore. It's just kinda online. Yeah. And then they'll sign up to kind of come in and do, like, their first day. We're doing our best to kinda, like, pair them up with a staff member. But sometimes we get a bunch of them at one time, and it's like we're trying to actually get cleaning done, and you can't train that many people at one time. So what what I'd love to have is, like, a group of volunteers that are, like, volunteer trainers. Like, they come in. We teach them everything just like we would have staff member. And then when

we have new folks coming in, we have

a volunteer that we can pair them with. If it's you know, some nice staff members, sometimes with volunteers. You know, just starting that because when the staff is so busy, you know, and I'll be honest with you. You see volunteers come and go, and it's almost just, like, a logical thing. Like, if you don't see the same face for two weeks straight, you don't even register that this is a new volunteer because you're so used to you see a face once or twice, then they disappear at their home.

And not everybody it's not

for everybody. You know? And they get in, they realize, oh, I'm getting dirty. I don't wanna do it. So, you know, like, it's there's almost like a psychological wall there for this staff. I think where after two weeks, they're like, well, see you a lot. Who are you? You know? And so now we've noticed that they're here. And we're trying to break that, but a lot of it too is just, you know, having having somebody who kinda knows what's going on. It can walk them around, show them different jobs, help them figure out where their niche is, train them in those areas. You know? And then from there, we have people to call adopters, post adoption, and check on animals, and we have people to call fosters and do check ins like that. Do you

have a a wish list at this point for all of these things, or does that that develop as well? No. We don't have a

specialist. Yeah. Mean, there's there's probably 50 different roles. Like, if you wrote it down, like, specifically and Microsoftically, like, different role. But there's a lot of things from helping with adoption. I would love to have somebody who is kinda like our door greeter who you know, like, they stand up there when people come in and, hey. Are you looking to adopt me? What are you looking for? Oh, let me help you, you know, show you around the shelter. Those kinds of things that we just don't have the manpower to do. So What about? Yeah.

Where's that then? Is that?

Somewhere there. Meanwhile, we do go out. Like, we have a big volunteer group coming in tomorrow. Oh. So many and they do a lot of, like, the outreach events and go to, like, the neighborhood events, things like that. And then yeah. We're doing a lot of volunteer recruitment there, so it's probably happening now. So but so it like I said, it's kind of a more tiered volunteer program where it's not just like they're showing up, we're like, oh, go do laundry or, you know, put some of that phone bringing off the hook or something. So that would be game changing for us, and that even filters into our fostering program. Because Sydney is a one man show on that and see what happens to show.

So, yeah, I would love to build her a team of core volunteers that and help her, one, manage all of that and, two, grow. Because right now, you know, when your spread's so thin, it's hard to grow anything. So those are kind of the core like, when I'm thinking of, like, the programs that we have that if we were able to enhance them tomorrow would make the biggest impacts immediately for the shelter. The forget me not program. No.

How? Love their hands placed. I think we're gonna be able to do a lot of cool stuff there with you guys with the forget me not vouchers and stuff like that. So we're working on that, but that one's just more of, like, an intake diversion with us folks that are coming to us and saying, hey. Surrender my dog because it's a furniture. We can say, oh, let's try to connect you with a trainer or with a you know, rather than doesn't always work, but when it does and somebody's wanting to keep their, you know, out of brick wall and don't know what to do,

it's great. So So, like, temporary housing? Or

Yeah. And temporary boarding. We've done boarding before. We've done a a lot of medical care. We'll get a of lot people coming in to surrender because their animal, probably blood or, you know, something. And so we'll send them. So that one, I mean, was pretty well. They're coming to the shelter. We're just kind of addressing problems with them coming to us there. But volunteer foster, having those programs tiered, and then some help with the just the networking. There's, you know, thousands of shelters around the country that we could be reaching out to and trying to make those connections and, you know, figuring out how do we get on this to you if you want to take that.

So is is fostering a subset of volunteering?

Separate. It's a separate program. Yeah. Volunteering and we have a foster program and a volunteer program. So they're run by the same person, so they kind of overlap. But volunteering is more the hands on in the shelter fostering you know, it's obviously more. So I kinda consider them two different things. But Doctor. Represent. Yeah.

And but like I said, I think I think the first step is if we could build Sydney that team of people that's there to help her and, like, oh, we have too many you know, we just had 42 dogs come in. We need to do some foster plays, helping her prop those plays, get those plays out to the public, you know, doing that networking and helping her do those events in the neighborhood. Like, you know, they'll go to oh my. What's the neighborhood? The over 55 community.

Kissing Tree.

Kissing Tree. There you go. That's where I'm at. I was like, what is it called? Events over, like, the same tree for, like, volunteer and foster recruitment. So there's, like, neighborhood events. There's different community events, and, you know, like, it's many of the cities. So we can't attend to every one of them and run our programs every day. So, like, having folks that are willing to go out and do that stuff, make connections with local businesses for adoption of that sort. Like, there's a million things. But I think if we could get Sydney that core group where she has most shelters our size don't have half a person. They have, like, a volunteer team. They have a foster team. They have a rescue team, a behavior team. We have half a person.

So if we could build a volunteer team, That's gonna serve us to where we're gonna be a lot more impactful, and we can have more robust programming, but not just it become a runaway training where, you know, we're just seeing irresponsible.

I Christy, sorry to interrupt. Do you think oh, also, Hazel says hello. Anyway, do you think that well, I have a few questions. A, are some of these roles in terms of networking things that could be done off-site away from the shelter? Because I know the space in the shelter is limited.

Yeah. We don't have a lot of office space. So, yeah, a lot of it can be done. Like, I think when you're talking about, like, the volunteer liaison, we'll call it, you know, like, new volunteer start work hands on training those guys and buddy assistant. You know? Like, those kind of roles would be more in house. But, like, networking with rescues, going to community events, and recruiting for foster and volunteer, that kind of stuff, yeah, definitely. There's sometimes I mean, we don't have a ton of clerical stuff. Mhmm. But, you know, like, we also like, we could use more people to come in and do adoption counseling too if that's their jam. So, you know, kind of a combination, I guess.

Okay. Okay. And then, I don't know if this is the right place to ask it, but, with the APA contract termination, are you guys gonna see a gap in services, or is the county picking up where they left off? Or is you know, I didn't know if you wanted to address that and and talk about the transition with that recent change.

That's fine.

So, you know, like, we're not I don't wanna

speak as to what the county is doing or not doing. I think there's still obviously question marks there for everybody. You know? But our relationship with the county has been the county brings us animals. We take their animals. That's not changed. So it'll be interesting to see how it changes as they get closer to whatever programs they're gonna start. But as of right now, we've not really had a major shift in our relationship with the county or county animals throughout this whole process. So Okay.

Alright. Well, thanks for the update.

Yeah. I wish I or I wish I knew. I've had people asking me left and right. I'm like, I don't know what they're doing. So

I I asked a question. We ended up just about. Do you have some kinds of

vision for the patients? Yeah. Our like, definitely, visions are full full people to fill those those roles is fine on the deal with stuff. So not that we would have a vision.

But, essentially,

And I think the more we can build it now, the more it's gonna help Kyle and Hays County, you know, wherever you guys are going in this. You know? Like, the goal is not to just be like, oh, yep. Go. You know? And then now we're just in our corners. It's to get our services to our communities, but, like, we can have that coalition where, like, oh, man. Kyle just got hit with a hoarding case. How we help them out? You know? Or, you know, whatever. So I was asking. We've got the

same general goal. Yeah. That's why I'm thinking it. Together regardless of If

we can build it now, you know, it's just gonna serve the benefit of all county in the long run. And, like, we have the foundations. We have I mean, honestly, considering the staff that we have to work with to do it, we have more dogs than foster, like, year above well above what the average is for, like, number of dogs and birth cats during our foster program. So we're it's pretty robust. We could make it a whole lot better if we have kind of dedicated manpower and not just yeah. I can't just put, like, you know, fly by night, get your first day volunteering. Yeah. Call for fosters. Oh, you have no idea what to say to them. You you know, you don't know how to answer their question.

So I would like to build a team of, like, really cool volunteers that are well trained and not they can bring other volunteers. They even thought that thought by supervising volunteers coming in. You know, Cindy needs the team. Nick needs the team behind them. You know, just to help with just the sheer amount work that is behind the job and keep up with all of that.

You know? So what we find with having half a person is like, particularly now that it's kittens even, Sydney's focus is gonna have to shift almost a 100% to foster because she's gonna have a billion baby kittens in foster that the fosters are calling them, you know, are calling for all hours of the day and night with question. So her focus shifts more primarily to that and making sure that those animals are getting what they need and are getting what they need and question the answer. You know? So volunteers kinda get pushed back burner during those kinds of seasons.

So I'd like to end by having with that. I mean, I don't think I don't know if there's a decision to be made on it tonight. I wanted to make y'all aware of it, though, because I know, like, we I feel like, again, we kinda have the same conversation of, well, we just need to have a nonprofit partner that does what we're doing these things. Like, how can we support what we're already doing? We've got pots on the ground.

We've got cows. We've got nonprofits in town that, you know, help the shelter if we need some of the transport costs or crazy surgery or, know, whatever we thought was just not gone for the day or, you know, we've got emergency. So I don't think it's about building for what we already have. I think it's building what we have better. So stuff to think about, like, as we encounter things and if any of y'all have time to just

what what would be the suggested natural action steps? If Somebody to talk to me or somebody to

talk to Sydney or what what would move

it forward from discussion to

the next step? Finding a willing participant. One we can find one willing person to pay, Sydney. This is your person. She's gonna you're gonna start training her and help you with whatever you need, and then, you know, let's start with trying this person to go recruit more volunteers for you. You know? So it's it's finding one willing we find people willing to volunteer. We don't find a lot of people who are really willing to do those full analysis. Like, people, they wanna come walk dogs, and they wanna do laundry. They wanna, you know, kinda work hands off.

It's even hard to find volunteers who want to do, like, the customer service aspects of things because people. You know? Yeah. You know? Like, they're like, I'm

I'm just asking people.

But, you know, it's hard to find volunteers to help with those aspects. And then, you know, like, Cindy's on call twenty four seven because if a foster kid has been scratching in the middle of the night, nobody didn't breathe there handy dandy. What to do if your kid is scratching? They're calling Cindy. You know? So having volunteers and, you know, responsibility and even take them on. It's such a twenty four seven thing. Volunteers it's hard to find volunteers who wanna live and breathe it with you, and that's almost what we're looking for. It's who's gonna, like, live and breathe this with us.

Are there any liability issues with the barriers to those? I don't

think so. I mean, I'll go on and share. We're not gonna put anybody out in the atheocrop, you like, know, talk or anything like crazy. But I

was thinking about, you know, some people giving advice to other people. You know, that kind of get lost in the weeds sometimes. It can. Yeah.

So we have kind of for that. Like, we're not giving doctor can give medical advice. She's the only one. We're somebody who can translate doc's medical advice, but any medical advice we're getting, that's come from our doctor. Right.

Yeah. Like, our doctors like, we have a baby kitten protocol. So, like, if a kitten has a low blood sugar in their dumpy, like, what do you do? And that's from our doctor. You know, we'll hand it to him so she doesn't have to take every single phone call, and they have it, you know, obviously, in the middle of the night. But yeah. Like, we're not yeah. We we don't want anybody, like, giving medical advice other than, like, what's existing or, like, go to that right now. It's

your medical.

Know, that's real bad. Go to the doctor. So but we and we would train them on kind of how about those conversations. So but kinda

Yeah. Let's let's just say number, but I'll just kinda understand. Yeah. Yeah. Only owner is involved. Right?

So anything you're only dealing with this is gonna

be

like, oh, you must do that. Like, don't ever go on the Facebook yard sale pages and look at people getting better advice. Don't. It's it's do. Yes. You have a coconut. No. Cannot diagnose or prescribe. Yeah. No. But they do. That's what they teach in that text. But that is the end. Yeah. Like, oh, yeah. Like, you see some of that. Like, no. No. No. So, like, it is kind of more of a, like, scripted here's what the protocol doc is really good about. We have, like, SOPs and protocols for almost everything.

Like, when this happens, what you

do is that what you do. So how I was thinking of everything. It's it's gonna be weird. They'll never come in, but that's pretty good about happening for all of this stuff. Cool. So, yeah, like I said, I don't know what we'll accomplish

with it tonight. I just kind of wanted the you guys to be aware that these are the things that we are actively trying to work on. If y'all can contribute, if you know somebody who who wants to help, or just if you're talking to and they're asking what we need, like, those are the conversations. Like, those is kind of what we need right now. So does that kind of make sense? Yeah. Yeah. K. Any other? Cool.

So then we'll move to TNR, which kind of falls kinda in the same thing that you would kind of requested it specifically. So, that's another one of those programs we are looking to in camps. Kinda letting Cal get settled in. We're gonna see kinda where y'all can go with stuff once you, you know, it's just you got a bigger operation, bigger bearing, all of that. So in partnership with them, plus we have Doctor. Drury. My vision for TNR is I want targeted TNR. I don't I just willy nilly, I fixed one cat in this colony and one cat 20 miles away in this colony. It's not really I mean, it's great. We fixed that cat.

It's not solving the bigger problem. So I think as we transition more to San Marcos being its own shelter, we're gonna have a little bit more capacity do that. Because right now, we're keeping doc pretty the lead with surgeries just with, like, intakes. But the goal at some point, likely as we transition to having our own business with Sam or disability for Sam's breakfast animal. I would love to having this as a part of growing that volunteer program.

Yeah. And be like, okay. We have 200 calves on this neighborhood. We're gonna trap 200 calves on the. Whatever we can do, and just shut the faucet off over here, get the community support in that neighborhood. People know what we're doing. They know why we're there. They're gonna maintain it, and let us know when new cows are showing up, and then we can move to the next area. So that's kind of the vision for. I think that's a big program that's gonna require probably some grant funding and some other stuff.

So I think it'll be more down the road. Right now, we're just jumping through our deals, trying to take everybody to take on the levels. And it's like, we can't do anything, but we hate those. Like, that's all we have time to do. But that's kind of the I don't even wanna say long term. At this point, it's not even really far away that we're gonna be at that point. That's kind of the longish, shortish term. But if it

becomes kind of time for when when we get everything to summarize that, then you would be focusing on targeting maybe it's within some Right. Then I

could target changing. Right. It would change it. Yeah. But right now, I think it's just, like, logistically, it's impossible for us to, you know, like I said, go out. You guys have kind of been doing that over at Powell. I don't know if can see Lauren. I'm pointing Lauren. Powell has kind of been going out and doing some targeted stuff, and Lauren's gotten with me and kinda asked, like, okay.

What neighborhoods do we need

to go to? You know? So so that's great. I guess that's a head start, but I I would. Like, my my goal at some point when we can get our breath just a little bit on intake is we're gonna shut the faucet off with cats. Cats don't need to be in shelters, so we shouldn't have this problem. Like, we have a solution for them. I think we just need to very strategically and aggressively execute it. And that way, it's not so not to come into the children. We don't have generation after generation of babies being born and dying and journey, you know, and all the terrible things about them. So, you know, I'm trying to I've been trying

to survey people, like, using the management companies for the individual, like, mobile home subdivisions, and my response is for them. We're gonna have to serve people. Looking for answers because I'm trying to find out who's feeding and who has cats on the cats because that's we get people who don't think we have them feeding areas in a certain area.

Yep. All those cats are very well fed. They are okay.

We probably need less stations, like, as the wildlife. So well, yeah, I'm trying to I'm I've been mapping it out with Google Maps and doing that stuff, but the responses aren't very Great. The surveys that's I've been having in it, so we understand.

Yeah. So, yeah, we're gonna should we take that get.

So what we did in a little bit of town that Tim and I worked out together, We went in, and I got, like, yard signs. And so, like, the mobile home parks, those are always your areas where we just have a lot. Like, always your starting points with TNR. Yeah. And that's where I've been. We would put one in the office, and we'd put a few up. We'd get permission from management. We'd put them up. We'd have management send out, like, a whole just a one page, like, hey. You're gonna see us in your neighborhood. Here's what we're doing. Here's why it's gonna help you. Here's why you can help us. You know? And then we were out there every day, literally just didn't we didn't have, like, volunteers changing up.

We just lived in this neighborhood tracking house for, like, a year. So but, I mean, it was a lot of just talking to the people. Like, hey. Here's what we're doing. We got our flyer here so you can help us. That's why it's great. But you know? And by this time we were done, and there was, like, no kittens. And if people saw a cat without an ear, we were getting a phone call, and they were coming to get a trap, and they were trapping it, neutering it, and they would get it and recover it in their house. It was great.

But it was because we were methodical and targeted. Like, we didn't even worry about this neighborhood. We are gonna go until we have bought every cat in this we we had a map. Like, we have a map at the city, and we, like, sectioned it off by zone and numbered them kinda in the order of where the most caps were. And we used formulas and, like, head count it and have, like, a target is 200. And so we called it the war room. And so we would just know, if we're gonna go in Zone 1 until we get 200 cap from them, we'll reassess and see if there's more or if we think we got them. And then when we finish there, okay, now we're going to Zone 2, and it took

us, what, about year and a

half, two years.

It took us about a year, two years, but a lot of discussion public I mean, they heard the word marine. And we got we got a grant. Yeah. We got a grant for it. Yeah. We got the word.

I even put in the survey, do you have pets that and being like, I'll I'll get you a voucher for your inside pet too Yeah. Along with doing

the T and R hours outside that didn't get

sure. Survey. Yeah. Like, anything that goes to people's email.

It could be, our somewhere that's you get a lot of people like, oh, they're $4, but if you do, like, black sale, we're like, oh my god. It's a sale? It's all about some of the how you were in. Okay. That's how we got to the people. People. Said free in the trailer park. They were like, oh my god.

99% of people on the planet have so much spam email that they don't even look at an email unless they, like, even like their personal emails, but they open up a thousand new emails. So, yeah, I feel like email not email surveys anyway. But that's been the vision for where we're trying to go. I know you would kinda put the item on there. So I don't know if you that kind of. Well,

yeah. Do you

wanna did you have idea? Well, it was

a couple of other things. Yeah. Targeted for sure. San Marcos, Macro Gardens, Victory Gardens, Forest Edition, and Dunbar with the real. And what what I what I personally found is that some of the barriers biggest barrier is transportation, people being able to physically get to and from location.

That's been a big barrier. In general, colleagues and and pals, they work fantastically. They're dedicated. They pick up their animals. You know? I think if there was a committed public t and r day, if the shelter was able to do something like that, just to see it. I don't think that was that's gonna be really good.

I see it, like, flashing. I'm pretty blessed. Hey. Today, we're doing this.

Something realistic, though, was, like, you know, we're, like, averaging.

Oh, no. Feel like you're partnering with somebody in the house to go about, you know, just

Don't know if, like, they're dedicated TNR. I just don't know how realistic it is. I don't know how

realistic it is during the summer, Tony.

I mean, it's that's only if you would have learned

to be three months ago, I'm like, we've got all the 20. But now I can see Yeah. But, I mean, I think it's gonna take us that long to figure it out. So that's how long it takes to figure it out. I think my biggest problem is gonna be I sent Christy all the numbers on how much it's gonna cost to do each cap.

Or, you know, like, catheter and, like, the with the suture, drape, all of that kind of stuff. It's it's very doable. But I think figuring out who's gonna check all these people in, who's gonna, like, make sure all these animals leave and stuff like that, We're gonna need recognized as as doing that kind of work. I've I've been looking in the whenever officers have showed up, when people call law enforcement on me, they've known the officers have known the system. I've never ever any trouble because of that.

I think that I think perhaps people are trying to be so worried about going to places if they're not sure what the legal requirements are and legal constraints are. Was also interested in thinking about options for non state cats than on the T and R candidates Put some of the ones who come for the situation, like a death or whatever, and they're socialized and how what kind of especially with ones that they have, what can help support, getting those out to us. Like, there's a waiting list for adoptions of those kinds of animals. San Antonio And FaroCat Coalition has a backyard homes program where they match those kinds of folks that are looking for it. As a residents or businesses or whatever, Boston Center has.

And so we have our ones where we're

like, oh, okay. This one's gonna need, like, a really pushy like, you can't just expect it to live in a barn and be a wild. I think it's gonna need a lot of extra support. So, yeah, it's hard to find

a doctor for it. But but is that something that could

be strengthened? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Just the the marketing, going to businesses and, hey. Do you need those? You know, we've got flyers. We've got all of that stuff. I don't have anybody go and take them up every week, you know, and refresh them because they got ready to go on the court. You know? Change them out because they did the different group of cats. You know? So I think a lot of that a lot of what we need to do comes down to we've got to be able to build our volunteer program more robustly and more tiers where we have people. But, yeah, we have a whole team of volunteers that we train them now. They know what they're doing. They're checking these animals in for surgery. People are coming to pick up. They're checking them out. They're doing the paperwork.

They're getting the medical records ready, So

we could build, like, that church, yeah, we could do a whole lot.

Yeah. And I So that would be another subset of the volunteering. I think

that's kind of the first step to being able to do the in house high volume for the public where people are trapping, bringing them to us, like, one day a week. That would be the first step if we've got it and I'll hire people too shelter is not gonna be closed. Intake is still gonna have animals coming in. Animal patrol is showing up at the door. The doctors are coming in. You know, like, all of the normal day to day things are still gonna be happening around us. So, yeah, it could be, like, okay. How do we if that they thought staff do it, but we're gonna need more than two people. You know? So So would you see

that then as the team, think, being another specialized thing on volunteering So it's a structure of. Would be.

Yeah. Like I said, they're probably 50 jobs. Yeah. TNR is trapped, but, like, other that's trapping, helping at surgery, clinics, transporting, whatever. Yeah. TMR, like, volunteers that kind of specialize in that area in various capacities would definitely be a part of it. So I

but after the TMR position. Volunteers. So

but a lot of like, there's so much of what we wanna do it. You know? Like, we're exhausted. So, you know, it's like,

sometimes the things you wanna

do can go by the wayside, and you're just trying to hold on for dear life every day at the shoulders.

I understand. Yeah. I'm talking about

So it's like, know, build money to I can send you like, yeah, I can send you a list of because I need like, you can think of of almost anything that we do for a like, you do as a volunteer or, like, as an advocate out in the community, need a volunteer to do that. Yeah. We need multiple of them to help us do those things. So,

you know,

there's very few areas of the shelter that I was not. They all know a volunteer thing over there. You know what I mean? They're very few. So, talking with, to them, counseling with owners if they're coming in to surrender and really having those conversations.

But those are the harder jobs to find volunteers. It's it's not

the happy stuff, and so that's what I would like to build, that core group of volunteers that It's milky. Oh. You forgot another baby? I didn't know she was here.

She's talking. I was like, I was like, yeah.

The baby. So does that but, yeah, like, I mean, basically, we just need a whole lot more people to get all of them. And we can't we can't hire them. I just wish I could have them on me. Yeah.

So, yeah, we are going here. Yeah.

Mean, that that's really helpful at the same time. The the the dog as well. You can't really see him. You know, when you try to put it all together in your head. Yeah. Bit of threat to the stuff. The

vision observing chaos is coming through the gap. Sometimes.

You know? I don't know. I mean, I I think anybody who's reasonable to stand back every moment of the the sheltering process with, you know, people out is doing what they can with what they can't. So so, yes, I'm sure it gets crazy. And let's focus more. Yeah. So, anyway but so it's very helpful. Thank you.

Yeah. I just had it.

The biggest I think at the the first thing of all of these that we volunteer volunteer, and then, of course, foster is gonna kinda go hand in hand with that as well. The volunteer, even that one effect, foster. Yeah. So, like, building that volunteer program, you can just find one person who just says, Sydney, I'm here to help you. What do you need Here and you know, like, okay. We're gonna call these officers for her, or I'm gonna help these new volunteers. You know? And and they're gonna find that next volunteer that they're gonna take out of their wing, we're gonna build that team that way. So k? Anything else on that one? Y'all are quiet over there online.

Can't can't unmute myself fast enough. But, yes, just listening and yeah. All sounds like good discussions.

No questions.

So the third one was kind of the nonprofit partnerships. I kinda touched on that. I don't remember who, like, kinda specifically requested. Was it you think yeah. Three months in between meetings, I guess, less than them. I

did bring this up, but in all honesty, if if in the interest of time, we need to table this and wait till the next meeting, that's fine too. Yes. Yeah. I mean, if if you wanna talk about the nonprofit contributions in terms of how they're working with the shelter, that's great. If you want to save it for the next meeting since we've spent some time on this first part, then that's fine too.

On it. Our two main local nonprofit partners are gonna be Powell, and then Paws on the Ground. Those are probably the things that we work most closely with. So paws on the ground. You know, if we have a transport to Canada, we need to raise money for the transporter or boarding.

They'll usually, you know, fundraise and pay for those things. Or if we just need something around the shelter that, you know, some kind of supplies or something, they're there for all of those things. And then house or for, like, the medical, you know, and then just kinda helping us with, like, our intake diversion, community resources, those kinds of things. So, yeah, I mean, neither one is called friends of the San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter. They are both friends of the shelter.

So I don't think we need a third friend of the shelter. I think we need to support kind of the existing stuff and figure out how do we collectively and as a group who's uh-oh. Did we and as a group who's interested in, this bolster all of that. So that's kind

of my two cents on it.

Okay. Thank you.

Anything alpha number of those formal relationships? Yeah. Contract. It's yeah. So yeah. Well, how should we have

a contract with for, like, medical? Like, if they're performing medical for the shelter, like, a shelter animal so that we can pay them on a PO. But on the ground, you know, it's just that they're a five zero one c for you to support shelters. So

so, yeah, that one's not like a contract. So it's not something that has to be Not

for, like, a partnership like that. You know? I mean, guess I you could, like, a contract, but they're more they're making, like, a payment to a transporter as a nonprofit. You know? So

I think the wording that they think contracts are more restrictive than we do. And so

So the relationship required.

Moving on.

Okay. So quarterly reports, we'll be pulling that up report. I provided you guys our quarterly statistics and our euthanasia reasons for the quarter. We kinda have to find them, so it's a little easier than having three pages because they just do a page a month on the euthanasia reasons. But they're in your packets.

And for anybody online, those are also available, on our website, the, monthly statistics, monthly euthanasia reasons, and then our quarterly statistics. So I can probably spare reading them to y'all, but if you don't want me to, I guess I can. Kind of biggest will be the biggest thing, the biggest takeaways from it. Intakes work for it. It's not good.

This is actually, like, when we're under a thousand, I'm like, whoo. That was an okay quarter. But we also were just coming out of winter. So this we're gonna be in, like, the real baby season on this next quarter, so that's gonna skyrocket. So don't think that we just got lucky or something there. That's not what happened. So as usual, primarily strays coming in, elder surrenders, and these animals go through, you know, kind of drops in the bucket when you compare to the stray intakes. So out of 875 intakes, 600 of them were straight. That's a pretty good percentage. Our outcomes were good.

I think our outcomes actually outpaced our intakes almost. We were, like, net in net. So, so that's good. So we're still balancing out to the above 90% wide outcome. So, general shelter update?

I don't know. We have

a new animal shelter supervisor. Y'all met him at the last meeting, but that's happened. Think that just he had just started at the last one. So, we're kind of now back to a place of for the first time in a while being fully staffed. So, we are kinda working on catching our breath from that period we had where we were really understaffed and just kinda getting everybody up to speed. It takes time. It's a big program. So but, I mean, we're not

We're just gonna have a little winter months. Those are a

little slower for us. Still struggling with space. It's better. We're not 200% full anymore. We are still always over a 100%, though, which is bad. But, we have made some pretty good progress in the areas of just kind of bringing the shelter population down and, you know, our capacity for care is not spread quite as bad anymore, but it's still a work in progress there. So, it was all this time Most of our shelter update, I think. So that's all I got there. Can I ask you a question?

Yeah.

Have you seen any distemper or parvo in this past quarter?

No. We haven't seen any yet from, like, dogs. Okay.

Great. Knock on wood. Yes. Knock on wood. Box or something that was

good stuff, but, you know, not in on the canine population.

Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you.

Okay. Good news. So cool. So that was the last eight. Thank you.

Could you remind me what? Oh,

yeah. That's, like, where sometimes it's the owner was arrested or the owner was taken to a hospital. Sometimes we'll have a domestic violence kind of situation. So kinda just so like, we know this is an owned animal. We know we're gonna have it hopefully just very temporarily, and we're just holding it until this person Okay. Or is up you know, like, they're being arrested, the dogs in the park doesn't know where to go. So, yeah, that's kind of Right. Those kind of things kind of fall into that. And, normally, it's either the owner requested or, like, an emergency detention or owners Yeah.

Cool. I think

okay. Future agenda item, this is what we wanna talk

about. Next time.

I put a lot on this one, so I'm gonna not see that feeling in this.

So I'm like, not not not not for

Do you think thinking with the kind of liaisons? Would you maybe over the next few months be able to do any kind of update with, like, kind

of how things are progressing with these and their programs, or are you really even getting info? Well, we certainly do what gets

passed on. So we want to put it on the agenda. I mean I can always say a note to report. Yeah. You know, at this point, all I know is what's on record.

You know? So Yeah. I think we're we're going to there was a a meeting yesterday. We got animal prevention according to animal awareness recognition, which is nice. I was able to give a few comments to thank all the protection of our offices to house and one of the Hays County Health.

Yeah. I'm sure there's. There might

be something else to Yeah. So there was a there was a presentation given

know as much as everybody else. You know? So That was I

guess that's the major thing. I think coming back as the. Well, I think that's.

To know, like, if, you know, it's moving

that should be.

I that's probably the biggest thing affecting the.

I guess the answer to that question, where we're at. And I are having those discussions with our plan.

Well, I guess we probably need to vote on those.

Vote on all three of them at the same time.

Okay. We had a case county update. Update. And if you do update, yeah, just for the next agenda.

Just if you do if we are voting, will you just recap it for us, Christy? Because you're pretty much the only person we can hear on Zoom.

Well, I'm a loud talker. That's

fine. I know. That's good.

Oh, yeah. We were just talking about at the next meeting. Kyle, Hays County, and Buta are all kind of figuring out their trajectory. So maybe, like, just having an update from them on just kind of what's going on with theirs, kinda how we're interfacing with the shelter and and with, you know, helping them with their progress, that kind of stuff. So Mhmm. That kinda so, and I think we were just gonna vote because I guess it would probably be three separate, like, under presentations. They all have to do, like, a slide show or anything, just, hey. Here's what so, like, three separate items, but, like, one for Kyle, one for Hays County, one for Buda. So the Okay. Are we good with adding all three of those?

Okay. Okay. So it well, I guess we'll vote then.

So is there anybody oh,

well, I need a motion. Oh, yeah. We need a motion in a second. We gotta have our. Got those three. Oh, agenda items. Moshe, I think

she needs to go. Uh-oh.

It's okay.

It's okay.

Motion second. Who who is the second? Nikki. So, okay, so all in favor? Aye. Aye. None opposed? Okay. So that's how this chat. Anything else you wanna talk about? Have a meeting. Okay.

That's what happened. It's getting

Oh, I'm sure I'll have more things, though,

and we'll talk about by then too. Three months is, like, what's gonna

be happening then. Okay. So cool. Then if we're good there, I'll move this on to question question and answer session with the present public. Do we have anybody online? We don't have anybody in house. Anybody online with a question? Okay. I think SG has their hand raised. I'm gonna go ahead. Yeah. We'll just unmute y'all and kinda go down the list.

Hey. Hi. Thanks. So as far as the current administration wreaking havoc on migrant populations, has anybody posed the question that we'll see an uptick in abandoned animals? And if we see that, do we have, you know, resources for that extra load?

And I'm disappointed to hear that the county from what I understood you saying about county not really jumping in or anything, would it be helpful for citizens, voters to push on Hippolito? You know? And if so, you know, what would be some items to ask him about? You know? I'm happy to I'm happy to make a call and say, you know, hey.

What what about this? Because, I mean, I've seen, you know, posts where there's abandoned dogs and things, and and I've also wanted to see more from the county on that. And, and so is the plan still are there are is each city going planning on having its own shelter, or is the county going to have a shelter? And, also, shout out, I have noticed Buda has been posting, the shelter animals as well recently. I think that's great.

And I think the public responds really well too when the police department posts items. Not everybody goes to the animal shelter page. I'm kind of putting a lot out here. I'm just trying to be quick. And one more thing, like, as a volunteer, when I when I was volunteering more, it can be hard to find your way because I know you guys are so busy.

It's hard to just kinda go in and be like, hey. I'm just gonna go do my thing. You know? But people try to everybody has different strengths at different times, and I feel like I've tried to help online some, but there are some people that are a lot more dominant and aggressive, and it's a real turnoff. And I know that they've turned other people off, so I don't know if there will be a way to say to those more aggressive people that portray themselves to be, you know, leaders in that area to say, hey. You know, make space for other personalities.

So But

but on the volunteering stuff, we are busy. Oh, yeah. I hope we can go kind of a tier where we have kind of more of a buddy system for volunteers coming in.

Yeah. For sure.

A lot there. And most of I was jiving on it. Most of the questions that you've asked, we can't really discuss much because none of those were, like, agenda items.

Okay. That's cool.

Something that we can discuss. I would definitely yeah. I mean, it's, like you know, honestly, like, on some things, we just, like you know, we just don't know some of it. You know, there's so many unknowns, like, with the the migrant situation. And

Yeah.

So luckily luckily, we're adaptable. But but yeah. No. And I I hear you on all of that. I really do.

Yeah. Yeah. No. I I yeah. And that's cool. I don't necessarily expect an answer. I just I thought, you know, if you add it to the queue or something, I'm I'll be at your next meeting, and I'll probably go in person next time because it is it is hard to hear. One thing hunt oh, they do down in San Antonio, you've probably seen that somebody goes in and they they put it on TikTok. They put the animals on TikTok. They go, kennel to kennel. And I think that's pretty successful because it catches the attention of rescues in other states and other people. So then they connect with a rescue to pull that dog from that shelter.

Unfortunately, as a government shelter, we are not legally able to use TikTok. A volunteer can put animals on their personal TikTok.

Right.

But as the shelter, we can't legally have a TikTok.

Yeah. But, I mean, that could be another volunteer activity possibly for somebody.

Marketing, definitely. Like, there's a million Yeah. Animals is a big part of of it. It. So, yeah, any anything you're kinda interested in or if you know people who are interested, we have we have a million jobs that we could put them with. It would be more interesting than laundry. Cool. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else? I don't see any other hands up, but Barry or Kelly, any questions? If y'all put your hands up, I can allow you to talk. I know you're muted right now. Yeah? Well, if y'all have questions, y'all know where to find me. Oh, yeah, Cherry. Oh, wait. Go ahead, Cherry. You there, Sherry?

Sherry, can you hear? Maybe she's having difficulty.

Take off mute you, Sherry, and then if you sorry. No. We can unmute you again.

Yeah. I don't Okay. Alright. So maybe she grows up or something. Okay. So, well, I guess then we will call back in with a question and answer. Question, so looking very emotional for. Brianna. Oh, you know what? No. It's I'm not.

Was. I the one who's coming back.

Okay. So I will adjourn us then at 07:07AM. Oh, she's learning to get

a little over now. Alright,

everybody. Thank you for coming.