Chanda Helms

English 102

July 29, 2011

Unit IV

Getting it Right; to be successful in volunteer recruitment you have know the who what when where and how or you might fall short

“Five out of ten dogs in shelters and seven out of ten cats in shelters are destroyed simply because there is no one to adopt them.”(Pet Statistics) Being an animal lover I have always paid attention to such statistics. When I am watching television and I see a commercial for the ASPCA with the slow music and pictures of the dogs and cats on the screen I can’t deny or hide the huge rock that finds its way into my throat. I hear the celebrities who endorse this organization explain how the animals can’t talk so “we are their voice.” (ASPCA) Every time the commercial gets to the point where they ask for that small donation I find myself more and more compelled each time to pick up the phone and call. I would even receive a free t-shirt if I did donate. I can only imagine how many people feel the same way as me but actually do something about the rock in their throat. I wonder how many animal lovers nationwide take the time to donate their money to save these animals by picking up the phone and giving a credit card number to the operator then rest easy that night knowing they did a great thing today. Helping out the ASPCA or any other animal rights group by providing a financial donation is, of course, a selfless act. However, there are thousands of animal shelters all around the united states that are struggling to make ends meet.

 “Approximately 5 to 7 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, and approximately 3 to 4 million are euthanized (60 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats). Shelter intakes are about evenly divided between those animals relinquished by owners and those picked up by animal control. These are national estimates; the percentage of euthanasia may vary from state to state” (ASPCA) What is causing this mass destruction of these animals?  It is the over population in the shelters nationwide and not enough amenities to provide and care for them? Barbara Zekausky CEO/CFO of the Shelby County Humane Society would argue that “being short staffed and underfunded is the source of almost all of the issues any nonprofit organization faces today.” (Personal Interview)  Since Shelby County has become a no-kill county (meaning they do not euthanize any adoptable animals) the more pets they can take in the more they can save. Being a nonprofit organization it is hard enough to keep the lights on for the building let alone provide for animals outside their normal capacity. In order to raise money there has to be fundraisers, in order to put on those fundraisers there has to be people in other words volunteers. Volunteers are a key ingredient to nonprofit companies. Without them nonprofit organizations would not survive. How does a nonprofit organization obtain these volunteers? Networking.

 “It’s all about connections. Sure you can walk around and ask for volunteers for one specific event and a few people will show up for that one fundraiser, but in order to get a group of good reliable hardworking volunteers who will come back on a regular basis, you have to know the right people, offer the right incentives and have the right volunteer coordinator all of which we don’t have the time and or money for at the moment.”

Shelby County Humane Society Logo

            It would seem that a sacrifice of some sort will have to be made in order to do the things that need to be done to keep the SCHS running smoothly. So which sacrifice should be made?  The Humane society should spend the extra money to offer incentives as well as promote volunteer opportunities to those willing to help raise money for the organization in order to obtain more volunteers. By doing this they could get more attention from the people of the surrounding counties. “There aren’t too many people who are willing to work for free; everyone likes to see something for their work.” (Zekausky)  By offering incentives it would attract more people to volunteer or donate.

There are many opportunities to raise money for the business but there isn’t any manpower to do so. “There aren’t enough reliable volunteers that we can count on to do what they are supposed to without having to hold their hands.” (Personal interview) Barbara has been struggling with her volunteer situation her entire 10 years being CEO however, recently has been more of a challenge than anything. She claims to be feeling helpless when it comes to finding the right amount of people needed to do even the smallest tasks to raise money for the company. Where have all the dedicated volunteers gone?

T-shirt and wristband offered for donating to the ASPCA

Anyone who watches television has seen the commercials. There have been well known superstars like Alyssa Milano and Sarah McLachlan promoting Foundations such as the ASPCA and the SPCA. By putting theses well known people on their commercials it is showing their support and grabbing the attention of the public. They have been aired on nearly every station over the past several years. During the ASPCA commercials there is a section which shows they will give you a t-shirt for your small donations.  There are more than 1 million members in the ASPCA and to become a member all you need to do is make a donation. It seems that by offering this incentive and making it so simple for people to help the ASPCA has recruited enough people to keep the company afloat.

Some may say that is not necessary or it may be counterproductive to spend money on incentives to attract people who will help raise money, but by spending the money on the incentives the SCHS will attract more people who will see something for their time or money. There have been studies conducted that have shown results when offered incentives had no effect on the willingness of volunteers. When a case study was done on a group of volunteers for the female community health center in Nepal researchers found that“. . . it may not be useful to promote a generic range of incentives, such as wages. . .” (Vijaya et al Abstract?) In the results it suggests that many women who were asked to volunteer were not wooed by the incentives that were offered to them which would suggest that it would in fact be useless. Maybe the incentives aren’t right in this situation. Instead of offering higher wages for extra work there could be a more materialistic reward such as a t-shirt which would also promote the company as well as show others that the person in the t-shirt is a volunteer. It would give the volunteer a badge of honor almost which would gain them respect when wearing it much like a member of the armed forces. When someone wearing a uniform of our country people tends to show them more respect than if they were dressed in everyday casual clothing.  But that is just one scenario.

In a different case study involving teachers and faculty members when asked which incentives they would prefer many opted for more teaching opportunities as well as academic rewards. (Kumar et al 122) What this means is that in a different volunteer opportunity with a different group of people a different incentive would be preferred. So if the group of teachers value the academic rewards they must be useful to them. By offering an opportunity to have more practice in your line of work it would seem that you would be more likely to take that opportunity and enjoy it. That is a prime example of knowing exactly who your target is and knowing what they value most. It would be unnecessary to offer a lot of money to someone who is Amish because they don’t need money in their society. However, if you took the same reward and offered it to someone is in large financial debt they would gladly work for the money.

Now when do incentives “cross the line”? Susan Ellis raises some questions regarding volunteer rewards when she read an e-mail from a volunteer coordinator of Phoenix. In this email Lacretia Bacon brings up the topic of incentives being thrown around too much. In Ellis’ article she asks the questions about these rewards that have been given out to people who have put their time and effort into volunteering. There is one case where a pitch for a project is

“One volunteer through their service on this assignment will earn a new MINI COOPER car, donated by EZFIND. Other volunteers may also earn a new LAPTOP or IPOD or one of a number of other incentives to volunteer as a MS EZFIND ENVOY.”(Ellis)

In this pitch I am sure plenty of people showed their support when the incentive is something as extravagant as a brand new car.  But I feel that the incentives should not be too flashy. What this will cause is people waiting around for the incentive before they will decide to help. It would be like spoiling the public or bribing them and they may become accustomed to these rewards and not work unless they are offered. In other words the humane society needs to find out what the incentive should be and who should they target? They have to aim for the right group of people, and they have to aim for the right reward. For starters any animal lover would enjoy being with the animals so there should be a volunteer opportunity to spend time with the animals and gave them the love and attention they deserve. They may not need an actual reward for doing something they would enjoy anyways. There would be no sense in wasting their time or money trying to find and produce an incentive for something that someone would want to do. By doing this it would give the actual paid members of the humane society less things on their checklist so they could focus on more productive tasks. It would also gain them some volunteers. Maybe by letting the people come in and do something fun they would want to come back. After their third or fourth appearance the staff at the humane society could suggest a more revenue producing opportunity for the volunteer.

Me spending time with my animals, you would never have to pay me to do this.

 They could promote at the high schools of the surrounding counties and let the students know how much fun it would be to get the community service hours they need by helping clean up the humane society or maybe put on a car wash to raise money. They would in turn earn the hours they need and maybe a letter of recommendation for college from the staff members. This would be something a high school student would value because it would save them the time they need to devote finding someone to compose a letter of recommendation. By also making this volunteer opportunity seem effortless it would attract more students to the humane society.

The more help they can get will be beneficial to them. There is no definite source of income so the humane society has to rely on volunteers to keep the wheels of the business turning and running like a well oiled machine. By gaining more volunteers the SCHS can get more done and continue to take more animals into the shelter. Thus saving more lives. The reason they were struggling to gain new volunteers is because they weren’t promoting enough or offering any reward for the work they needed done. There are so many opportunities available to raise money for this organization all they need is some extra manpower.  Just a little help goes a long way. (Arnold)

Works cited

“Pet Statistics.”  The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ASPCA: We are their voice. 2011. Web. 22 July, 2011

“Help the ASPCA Fight Animal Cruelty!”  The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ASPCA: We are their voice. 2011. Web. 22 July, 2011

Vijaya Shrestha, et al. "The female community health volunteer programme in Nepal: Decision makers’ perceptions of volunteerism, payment and other incentives." Social Science & Medicine 70.12 (2010): 1920-1927. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 July 2011.

Kumar, Ashir, David J. Kallen, and Thomas Mathew. "Volunteer Faculty: What Rewards or Incentives Do They Prefer?" Teaching & Learning in Medicine 14.2 (2002): 119-124. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 July 2011.

Susan Ellis “Save a Life, Win a Car!When Do Incentives to Volunteer Cross the Line?” Energize Inc. Specially for leaders of volunteers. (June 2005) Web. 29 July 29, 2011.

Picture; Shelby County Humane Society “Home” Web. 29 July 2011.

Zekausky, Barbara. Personal Interview. 1 July 2011.

Arnold Cailyn. “Just a Little Help Goes a Long Way; We Can Make This Community Better with the Help of Others.” (July 2011) Print. 29 July 2011

 

Walking in a Circle

Works Cited

Kumar, Ashir, David J. Kallen, and Thomas Mathew. "Volunteer Faculty: What Rewards or Incentives Do They Prefer?" Teaching & Learning in Medicine14.2 (2002): 119-124. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 20 July 2011.

Thomas L. McKenzie, et al. "Factors Influencing the Performance of Volunteers Who Provide Physical Activity in Middle Schools." Journal of School Health 72.4 (2002): 147. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 20 July 2011.

Stebbins, Robert. "Would You Volunteer?" Society 46.2 (2009): 155-159.Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 21 July 2011.

Petfinder.com. "Facts About Animal Sheltering: Pet Statistics: For Shelters." Pet adoption: Want a dog or cat? Adopt a pet on Petfinder. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 July 2011. <http://www.petfinder.com/for-shelters/facts-about-animal-sheltering.html>.

“Approximately 8-12 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year and approximately 5-9 million are euthanized (60% of dogs and 70% of cats). Shelter intakes are about evenly divided between those relinquished by owners and those picked up by animal control. These are national estimates; the percentage of euthanasia may vary from state to state.” What is causing all of these animals to be euthanized? It is the over population in the shelters nationwide and not enough amenities to provide and care for them. One of the most deficient amenities of the Shelby County Humane Society is of course like everything else in America today: finances. Being a nonprofit organization it is hard enough to keep the lights on for the building let alone provide for animals outside their normal capacity. In order to raise money there has to be fundraisers, in order to put on those fundraisers there has to be people in other words volunteers. Volunteers are a key ingredient to nonprofit companies. Without them nonprofit organizations would not survive.

On the subject of euthanasia Shelby County animal shelters have been working towards becoming a no-kill county. The Humane society should offer incentives as well as promote volunteer opportunities to those willing to help raise money for the organization in order to obtain more volunteers. By offering incentives it would attract more people to volunteer. Some may say that is not necessary or it may in fact be counteractive to spend money on incentives to attract people who will help raise money.

There are so many people out there that claim to be animal lovers

chingychongy

One of the issues here at UCLA during finals week is distractions in the library. The most reoccurring problem would be use of cell phones. I have spent several hours in the library studying and as soon as I am about to reach an epiphany, I hear someone’s cell phone ringing followed by someone of the Asian origin speaking.  UCLA enrolls hundreds of Asians each year. I see them in my apartment complex with their families every weekend. It seems like their entire family comes over each weekend to cook and help their students with laundry.  I find this a nuisance because it happens every single weekend without fail. I would really appreciate taking your phone calls outside the library. It would help people focus on their studies more especially during finals week. Thank you ching chong ling long

Hidden Intellectualism

In the introduction Graff displays an instance where he mixes in academic and colloquial language when he writes “What doesn’t occur to us, though, is that schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to TAP INTO SUCH  STREET SMARTS AND CHANNEL THEM into good academic work.” (297)In this statement he discusses the idea that the kids with street smarts (that are lacking book smarts) may re directs some of the street smarts to academic work. He uses the terms “tap into” which to me, is something I would say in conversation rather than an essay but this mix is effective because I feel like I can understand this section a little better than a long drawn out explanation of redirecting knowledge.

“I grew up torn, then, between the need to prove I was smart….and the needs to impress the hood.” Talks about how he was afraid to show he was intelligent. 

This is where the animal sanctuary will be built in the near future.



 When my mom told me about a meeting she was attending here at the newly constructed Humane Society, I immediately invited myself. She was invited to this meeting to give her ideas on how to improve the financial and physical aspects to the organization. I was hoping to get more involved to help out the animals like my mom does but instead of taking more dogs into our home and adding to the high headcount of 8, I could help animals find a home of their own. I was instantly thrown off by the appearance of the building and the large plot of land it sat on. My mom made an “hmm” noise as we walked up towards the entrance. I imagine she was not impressed by what she saw or did not see rather.  It didn't have any fencing or boundaries so I had no idea where the property ended. There were tall green and yellow weeds sporadically located throughout the yard. I asked her how long since the building was finished being constructed and she responded “apparently not long enough if they don’t have a fence up.”  When I read Todd Martin’s article Humane Society hoping to open new clinic in spring; will give society chance to help many more animals I see that this is still an ongoing project and there are several phases that have not even began being constructed. “The building is phase one of the humane society’s greater vision for the land. Phase two would incorporate a larger adoption center on the grounds and also add an animal sanctuary, and phase three would put a small barn on the property for horse rescue.” When I look into the long yard I notice where the barn would be placed for the equine rescues. I point this out to my mom and she simply shakes her head as we get near the porch. It looked like we were entering someone’s home. It was small on the outside which made it hard for me to visualize where all the animals would be kept. I noticed there wasn't much landscaping near the front of the building. There was a glass front door that looked much like one you would find on a normal house. The glass door allowed you to see directly in at the 3 dogs inside barking excitedly as new guests approached them. The closer we got the more excited they became.



Barbara's german sheppard Fluffy.



     When we got inside we gave our introductions, even the dogs introduced themselves by hopping up on two legs as if to hug my mom and I. there was a lean German Sheppard named Fluffy who was getting publicly harassed by Shep, the tiny white stringy-haired terrier mix and then there was Katie, a black Lab. She was extremely friendly and her fur was so soft to the touch that I was a little surprised when I first patted her. I could easily tell she was well groomed from reflection of the overhead lights shining off her dark coat that it looked white at first. Shep and Fluffy belonged to Barbara Zekausky the CEO/CFO of 10 years. Barbara was introduced to the CEO position by a friend whom she volunteered at the Woodstock animal shelter with. Katie belonged to Tracie who has been working here part time recently. Tracie and Barbara gave us a tour of the office so we could see what all has been done.



Barbara Zekausky(right) and Tracie(left) outside the Humane Society.



The waiting room was very small filled with only 5 fold out chairs that resembled the ones movie directors lounge in. There were 2 exam rooms, 1 for dogs and 1 for cats no matter how many came in at once, there were separate cages in the cat room and a kennel in the dog room.  There was a spacious sparkling clean operating room with one table for the spays, neuters, dental work and any other surgeries to be performed. “None of the local vets from the county would work with me, so we hired a doctor she lives in the county but works in Oldham County. Dr. Gregory is an awesome surgeon and she truly cares about the animals.”  Dr. Gregory performs surgeries once every two weeks and has done about 200 animals within this year so far. Outside of the OR were many shelves which housed gleaming silver tools which were used in the surgeries. There was also an office where the paperwork was being processed and where this meeting was going to take place. I realized that I haven’t seen any animals but the 3 dogs of the welcoming party so I asked where the animals were. There was a basement where the cats were kept and they told me there were some kennels outside for the dogs.

I walk down the unfinished steps that lead me into the basement and I can smell the sawdust from the small piles I am hiding under my feet as I descend down the stairs. It was a walkout basement so there was plenty of natural sunlight with the help of the large glass doors. When I get to the bottom of the steps, I see a bunch of cat kennels, maybe 12 or more each with 2 cats in them. These weren’t kittens they were all full grown cats. As soon as I showed my face, a symphony of “meow’s” and “purrs” flooded my ears. I could hear maybe 20 different noises all at once each coming from a different cat. There were so many cats down there in those cages I couldn’t believe it. There was no organization to the setup of the crates. They were all just placed around the room anywhere they would fit. There was enough space to walk between each cage. As I weaved my way through half of the crates I came to a fenced in room which would have been ideal for some dogs but there were more cats in that section. These cats in this area were free to roam around anywhere within the borders. I noticed that some cats were coming down from the woodwork in the ceiling which wasn’t finished either. They were all racing towards me rubbing up against the enclosure some reaching out to me. I felt like all they wanted was some attention, and so I gave it to them. I pet the ones within reach and tried playing the best I could. I started to smell the dry litter boxes with the perfumed gravel in them. There was a faint scent of urine and feces, perhaps from a combination of the 20 or more litter boxes that were placed down here. I walk towards the door and notice that outside there are 3 dogs each in its own kennel.

Dogs in the kennel.

I join in the meeting and hear that they are discussing ways to improve this facility. We began discussing many of the internal flaws of the organization. A nonprofit company can be very difficult to sustain when there are many bills that need to be paid and no guaranteed cash flow. It’s also a challenge to maintain the facility when there aren’t enough helping hands being lend. I interrupt to ask who tends to the animals to find out that Barbara has to do almost all of the work due to lack of volunteers. Martin confirms this when he wrote “With a new clinic and animal sanctuary in the works, officials at the Shelby County Humane Society determined they could not devote the time needed to continue running the No Kill Mission. Although the society still supports the mission, the time and number of volunteers just weren’t going to be available to continue to support both.” 

There are many opportunities to raise money for the business but there isn’t any manpower to do so. “There aren’t enough reliable volunteers that we can count on to do what they are supposed to without having to hold their hands.” Barbara has been struggling with her volunteer situation her entire 10 years being CEO however, recently has been more of a challenge than anything. She claims to be feeling helpless when it comes to finding the right amount of people needed to do even the smallest tasks to raise money for the company. Where have all the dedicated volunteers gone?

There have been many organizations popping up all throughout Kentucky that were once a part of the humane societies and have decided to leave and put their missions at the top of their priority lists. “All of our volunteers have been helping out with all of these other organizations and have forgotten who started all of them. They see their desperate need of these companies to get started and they rush to help them because it looks like they need more help than we do, that may be true, but it doesn’t eliminate our need for help.” There have been several of Barbara’s most reliable volunteers who can’t help out as much because they are devoting their time to other projects.

Many of the trusted volunteers are volunteering at the animal shelter of Shelby County or the CatSnip clinic. Since all of the companies are related it would make sense to combine them. “I am hoping that once we have everything finished on the home front we can combine all of the related organizations again and all work towards our common goal which is to help the animals.” Barbara has been a major supporter of all of the No Kill fundraisers and has put a lot of time and effort into making the mission stable. She also endorses operation CatSnip which is intended to help fund the spay and neutering of felines within Shelby county animal shelters. “By the end of our expansion I hope to have everyone together and we can get a lot more funding and delegate as needed. If we all could work together the animals would benefit immensely.” If all of the organizations would join together the volunteers wouldn’t have to make a decision about where they wanted to volunteer and they wouldn’t have to take a side. Everyone would get the help they needed. Also they would attract a wider range of people. The funding would be better too because they could generate a larger income if they all combined the profits raised. 

While the economy is struggling many families are having a hard time making ends meet and providing for themselves let alone their beloved pets. Many pets have been listed on Petfinder.com because the owners can’t provide for them anymore. There have even been several cases in the news of owners tossing their pets out of their windows. Pets are losing their value and so people are getting rid of them. The best place to take them if they can’t find a replacement home would be an animal shelter. There are many animals that are found wandering around every day. People who take them to some animal shelters may think they are helping the animals by putting them in a better situation where they can be looked after. However, all of the animal shelters are reaching maximum capacity and not enough people to look after them. So soon there will be no place to take these animals and no one to care for them. There should be more people wanting to volunteer their time to help save these animals. There is nothing but time and opportunity. The humane society is so short staffed they have a hard time devoting times to even find volunteers. They were so dependent on those ones that would come in without being asked and now they have been drawn away by related organizations

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Legalization of marijuana is a good idea DESPITE THE FACT Thousands of illegal immigrant’s farm marijuana on the West Coast. Billions of dollars are made every year in the United States in marijuana sales, but it is not taxed. This financial problem is a recurring issue. My point is not that it would be good for the illegal immigrants but the legalization of marijuana will be positive and productive for the American citizens. By making marijuana legal it would give Americans the opportunity to earn more taxable money and help regulate the economy.

Legalization of marijuana is a good idea DESPITE THE FACT Thousands of illegal immigrants farm marijuana on the West Coast. Billions of dollars are made every year in the United States in marijuana sales, but it is not taxed. This financial problem is a recurring issue. In other words there is a lot of money being made by people who are in this country illegally and the only thing this law, stating marijuana is illegal, is doing is encouraging them. These illegal marijuana farmers are making billions of dollars and enjoying everything this free country has to offer but not contributing. The job of farming and obtaining this billion dollar industry should be given to the American people.

exercise 2

my title does not give any insight to my paper at all. i do have some sense of where I will go with mny text and it can be misintreprted throughout my paper I guess.