SEVA GRREAT Board of Directors

in our last issue we introduced you to the four officers that are part of the Board of Directors of SEVA GRREAT. Now it’s time to meet the rest of the voting board. The SEVA GRREAT Board of Directors has eleven voting positions. In addition to the four officers, there are five coordinators who run the operational areas of the rescue and two who are Board Members at large, who oversee an area that the board has determined to need special attention. Coordinators can serve indefinitely, and new ones are recruited and selected by the remainder of the Board. Although there are no positions open this year, let a current member know for future consideration.

let’s first look at the positions that most often come to mind – Intake, Foster, Medical, and Adoption – the cycle of life that our rescue dogs go through. officially, the board members’ title is Director, but we call them Coordinators, and ‘coordinating’ is what they do best.

our intake coordinator is Julie Mercer. She is the first to deal with a dog that is coming in. Whether it is an owner surrender or a shelter or humane society making the call, Julie has the first interaction. She usually talks with whoever is giving up the dog to get a preliminary sense of the dog. Although we take most goldens that are available, there are a few things that cause us to say no, a bite history being the most common. Because we cannot adopt out a dog with a bite history, we cannot take them in. As soon as Julie knows about a dog, she begins to work with our foster coordinator. She asks either the owner or the shelter to complete an intake form to get as much information about the dog as she can so that we can match the dog with the best foster home.

And by ‘we,’ I mean our foster coordinator, Jane Krom. Jane is a matchmaker extraordinaire. She uses the information captured through the foster and adoption

SevA GrreAT by Sharon leeman Board of Directors

applications and the home evaluations to work her magic. Jane knows who is already fostering a dog, who has paused on fostering and until when, and what type of dog a foster is able and willing to take. our fosters love dogs and often have one (or more) of their own. She often transports the dog so she can see the chemistry between the family dog and the foster dog. often, she needs a home where there are no other dogs (we could use more of these!). She begins the process of calling the families that fit the dog until she arranges a foster home for that dog. once a dog is scheduled for intake, she or Julie will make the appointment with one of our participating vets for the intake exam. Jane works in tandem with our medical director to assure the dog has the veterinary care that he/she needs. once a dog is ready for adoption, she coordinates with the foster family to generate a bio on the dog and produces the ‘available dog list’ and sends it to the home evaluators. Bringing in the Turkey dogs is not specifically a requirement of the foster coordinator, but Jane took it on when she was president and has continued in that role since. The coordination and paperwork that entails needs an article of its own, and to make life more interesting for Jane, it changes repeatedly and rapidly.

The medical coordinator is one of the Board Members at large positions mentioned earlier. our medical coordinator is Beth Rodgers and are we ever glad to have her! Beth is a nurse and professor by trade so she has extensive knowledge in the medical field. To enhance that even further, she has researched and studied goldens for many years.Whatever the dog’s situatio, Beth works closely with Jane and oversees all the medical needs of the foster dogs from standard things like an intake exam, microchipping, and an update on vaccinations to mid-range issues like spays/ neuters and unfortunately, treatment for heartworm positive dogs. The toughest part of her job are the serious cases. For example, we just had two dogs in one week that required surgery and spent several nights in the ICu as well as several weeks on restricted activity. Beth would say her job can range from uplifting when the results are good to devastating when they are not. She also writes our medical blog.

our adoption coordinator, Chris Walker, is involved from the first time a potential adopter applies until the dog finds his/her forever home. She processes all applications and responds to all applicants, and she also puts out the request to the home evaluators (HEs) to find someone to visit the family and do the home evaluation. The home evaluations are the first step in a family becoming an approved adopter. When a dog is posted for adoption, she collects the names of the interested families and sends all the HE reports to the foster family for consideration. She is the liaison between the foster coordinator, the foster, the HE, and the potential adopter, keeping everyone informed of the status of the dog. once a dog finds her forever home, the HE collects the adoption fee and sends the check and adoption contract to the rescue, but Chris maintains all the adoption records – applications, HE reports, and adoption contracts.

There are other coordinators who oversee key areas. Jacob Kay is our membership coordinator, and he is the longest serving member on the board, so he also often acts as our informal historian. He processes all membership applications and maintains the database for all things that relate to membership, like who is eligible to vote for

board members and who can approve changes to the bylaws. He also maintains databases of all volunteers, adopters, and donors, and it is a large database thanks to the generosity of our donors. Although not a specific requirement of the membership coordinator, Jacob also issues the blast emails you receive as he is the one who best understands how to segregate the various distribution lists so that everyone receives the information they need.

Mimi Wormeley is our volunteer coordinator. No non-profit can run without its volunteers, whether it is foster families, home evaluators, or those who attend and work our events. When you volunteer to work with SEVA GRREAT, the first thing you will receive is a welcome email from Mimi. She will then forward your application to the coordinators in the areas you are interested in – home evaluation, foster, or to work at our fundraisers and events. She maintains a list of all current volunteers and communicates the needs of the rescue to them. Those needs may be the ones already mentioned but can also include meeting a give-up family or transporting a dog or even sending out job descriptions and soliciting names of volunteers who may want to move into board positions.

last but by no means least, is Stacy Saville, our newest board member. She holds the position of Board Member at large too with an emphasis on fundraising. If there was ever an area that required special attention, it is fundraising. We are very fortunate with having the generous support that we receive from our donors. Without them, none of the rest of the areas could function. But it is non-stop! Fundraising is not a one-person job (there are many committee members), but Stacy oversees all the various things that we use to raise money for our dogs’ care, and there is always something going on! During a given year, we have Give local 757, the calendar contest, the beach house raffles, the tennis ball raffle, our online auction, our year-end card, the GoFundMe solicitations for the Turkey dogs or some other special situation. And those are just the big items, there are all the events that also have a fundraising component.

The individuals listed above, and the four officers highlighted in the last issue, are the voting board of SEVA GRREAT. The voting board makes the decisions on how the rescue moves forward in various areas. However, they are not the only ones with a voice. We also have what we refer to as our extended board. Although they do not have a vote, the extended board includes some key positions as well.

Jennifer Dauzier is our merchandise coordinator. She is responsible for ordering and distributing all the items for sale at our events as well as the logo items and T-shirts on our website. She also serves as the regional events coordinator for the Richmond area. It gives her first-hand knowledge of what merchandise sells.

Pat Ritchie is our webmaster. The title is self-explanatory, but a few of his duties include keeping the various areas (foster, adoption, etc.) up to date, the donation screens working, and the news up to date. He has recently been working in conjunction with liz Hanson who is responsible for the rebuild of the new website.

Brad Miller is our editor. We used to say he was the ‘magazine editor,’ and he is responsible for all the wonderful issues of GRREAT Times. But he is so much more. He also designs the calendar and the year-end card. If an item has great graphics, more than likely Brad created it. Even saying he ‘designs’ these items doesn’t do him justice as he also handles all the logistics of printing and, in coordination with Jacob, the shipping and mailing of these items.

The extended board also includes two more regional events coordinators – Tracy Schmid on the southside and Michelle Smith on the peninsula. They arrange the public events like festivals, pet markets, and get togethers. All the events coordinators work closely with the fundraising and volunteer coordinators. The foster, volunteer, and adoption coordinators also have assistants that have some delegated duties that help their areas run smoothly. They are Barbara Smith (foster), Peg and Bob Graham (volunteer), and Sharon Leeman (adoption). The list of people who help this rescue in important ways could continue for many more pages, but this ends the article on our board members. We hope it helps you understand how the parts come together to create the SEVA GRREAT that you know. We hope it makes you want to get more involved. We thank all the members of our current board for the hours and hours they put into the rescue.