Small Victories is closing - until a new director is found

Comme toujours, un version français sera disponible dans un bref delai. :-)

OK, since this posting is going to be a shock for a few people, I want to state upfront my intentions, as the leaving director of this organization:

• I will still take in abandoned rodents, found outside, injured or frightened, and rehabilitate them. I may request fosters to help with this in the future.
• The animals presently at Small Victories will remain up for adoption and be processed normally, as if we weren't closing. They will not be passed to other shelters or given away. (Although I am reducing the adoption fee on the bunnies, but still in line with the fees for sterilized refuge bunnies.)
• I will still take phone calls from the public and our members and adopters.
• I will still honour fostering and adoption contracts: if you can't keep the pet you fostered for or adopted from us, I will take it back. I hope this only happens in emergencies, but I will accommodate as best I can.
• I will still stay in the loop and refer people to the shelters, and to rescuers and rescuees that I know about, to help shelter pets make it into good homes.
• The website will continue to exist, though after our animals are accounted for, some content will change to reflect that we don't do adoptions anymore.
• Donations of cash and supplies will be accepted, and fundraising will continue (such as the garage sale) to pay outstanding bills. After all animals are placed and the bills are paid, fundraising may continue to have a Small Victories Spay Fund to help shelters and rescuers spay potentially pregnant females, to alleviate overpopulation at the shelter, and hopefully increase adoptions (the feature - benefit principle). Surplus funds can be used to neuter aggressive males.

As for the future for Small Victories:

• A board of directors (BoD) will be set up with 3 members, who will all get two common e-mail accounts (smallvictories.info@gmail.com, petitesvictoires.info@gmail.com) so that members of the public can still communicate with us in english and in french (PetFinder e-mails will still come to me). Also, they'll get the password for the MySpace page, though I only log into that every two-three weeks or so.
• The BoD will also each get a Blogger invite, so they can post to the Mooshika/SV-PV News page at any time.
  
• Foster homes with equipment from SV-PV will be logged as having a "Foster kit." Foster kits can be returned to me. Foster kits can be used to foster for the SPCA or for foundlings or emergencies. Foster kits shouldn't leave the home, though, unless by request of the BoD or me. I need to keep track of these goods.
• We will still have an Adoption Clinic kit. This kit can be used at an adoption clinic to help a rescuer raise awareness, educate, and find homes for rodents. We do not have a banner - but we may procure a blank sandwich board, which helps point the way to the clinic.
• We will make available (as I always have, but haven't publicized) our humane (live) mouse and rat traps for anyone needing to trap a domestic rodent or relocate problematic wild rodents. This will be on a deposit-and-donation basis.

The BoD is therefore a way maintain Small Victories' place and resources, for everything the public needs, but only what the public needs. But the BoD has a strategic reason for existing, too:

• The BoD will also get an electronic copy of all the data I've used to run Small Victories. They will be able to review my work and my ideas, and thus form their own opinion on what the endeavour entails and what it needs to be even more successful (not that it hasn't been: I've had to learn a lot of skills, and sometimes I get overwhelmed, but saving over 100 lives over three years has been really rewarding, and the support of you all says yes, too!).
• Ideally, the BoD should also have an awareness into what animal welfare events and issues are happening in our city, province and industry (ya gotta look at it as an industry, even if you're idealistic). Ideally, they should be aware through reading, not doing. The role is active only in research, in order to conserve energy and spirit, to have a big picture, to keep doors open, and be effective at recruiting a new director.
• Regarding the new director, who will come out of the mist like a legend: the greatest challenge I have faced is breaking into the french market. So, anyone who is francophone (22% of our website traffic is from France and Belgium, so we are having an impact over there!) or culturally bilingual can come forward at any time and meet with the BoD to see if running Small Victories is for her or him. The prospective director will get an overview from the BoD, and can form her or his own views of what needs to be done. I would suggest that directors have terms of at least one year, but a limit of three. That is the extent of the work I've done (3 years), and I am ready to face new challenges. Plus, new blood makes an organization thrive.
• If and when a new director is found (one who can take in small animals, or not - direct animal fostering is not a requirement for the job, but it helps) Small Victories will be prepared to reopen by registering as an OBSL/Non-profit under a new logo, and I will gladly be a member on the new Board of Directors, up close or at a distance (as I may be elsewhere in the world).

This strategic, shared BoD role will guide Small Victories into the future, or, if reopening doesn't come to pass, then at least BoD members can write excellent blog posts and letters to effect change in hearts, minds, policies, and hopefully, laws.

If you want to be part of the BoD now or in the future, please let me know. Otherwise, I look forward to your thoughts, as always.

Most importantly, thanks for being there for the animals.