Liveblogging No More Homeless Pets: Planning, business skills to save lives

Day two at the No More Homeless Pets conference in Las Vegas, and "talking in the hallway" syndrome has continued to put me late into the sessions. This morning, it was a fascinating discussion with Best Friends Animal Society co-founder Gregory Castle. Some of what we talked about will be in an upcoming article I'm doing for Bark Magazine, but we also talked about feral/community cats,  which I'm starting to see as the "hot" issue at this conference -- we're at a real watershed moment in the animal weflare community as regards these cats, who account for such a huge percentage of the animals who die in America's shelters.



So, picking up the session "Plan? I don't need no stinkin' plan!" a bit late...



The speaker, Mike Arms of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in southern California, is blaming killing in shelters on the fact that shelters don't operate as a business. They don't keep good records, don't have a strategic plan, don't have or don't know what to do with their mission statement, may not even have business cards.



At his shelter, everyone always knows what thegoals are, and the goals are to save more lives, do more adoptions, speuter more animals. Compares it to retail -- projected sales. People being aware what their job is.



Volunteers want to save lives. We all want that. But what is our goal today. It can't be "To save as many lives as possible." We have to give people an achievable goal, something to work for.



Walk into most shelters and ask, how many animals did you adopt this day last year? Most don't know. How many are you projecting you'll adopt today? Most don't know.



You need a written action plan, and everyone has to be involved in putting it together.



Sometimes boards put together strategic plans, but that usually fails if they don't get input from the staff. Use the business minds on the board, but get input from everyone.



Most organizations that fail, fail because of problems at the top, often the boards.



Recounting his experience when he took over his shelter, 300K in debt three years ago. Now have a new $7 million in endowment, hundreds of employees, do it as a business. They have profit and loss meetings, budgets, schedules. And he says he not only pays well, but he gives bonuses.



Why is it, he asks, if you work for retail and you meet your quota you get a bonus, but when you reach a quota of saving lives, you get a pat on the back? I beleive in rewarding. I believe those who clean the kennel and take care of the animals -- I need them. They can do their work without me, but I can't do my work without them.



"I am not here to win a personality award, I'm here to save lives. "



He runs a boarding facility with a monthly 200 pet waiting list, and nets $500,000 a year on it. So in his new expansion, he's doubling the occupancy and going to take some of the suites and SELL THEM AS TIMESHARS! I'm in the BUSINESS of saving lives; it takes money to do it.



I own our veterinary hospital and all its equipment, but  I lease it to someone else, so I get rent, plus a share of their revenues. I even own an equine hospital. There are 50 equine vets who use it. Has suites, emergency room, etc.



They partner with Meals on Wheels to provide free meals to their clients with pets.



He says shelters have to monitor external things -- social trends, etc. We are not each other's competition. Backyard breeders and puppy mills are our competition. He says we have to market better.



We have to change what we're doing. We have to market better, promote better. The lay person thinks we just play with puppies and kittens all day long.



I hate the words "animal control" with a passion. It was created in response to a rabies epidemic. Catch and kill. We provide animal care, welfare, well-being. That's what we should be recongized for. Perfect example: I was in New Zealand last year. I looked in the yellow pages under animal control, it said "go to pest control." Because the lay person thinks animal control is killing animals. Why would you want to be perceived that way?



The industry has to change. We are professionals, business minded. The reason I get support from corporations is because I think LIKE A BUSINESS. I would do anything to save animals, but I do it with a business mind.



They had an event called the "Surf Dog Surf-a-thon," got 5000 attendees and international television coverage. Next year, he's going to do a "world's cup" competition. "Trust me, I will make money. And that money will go to help animals, where it belongs."



"We don't have to prove to our animals that they have ourhearts. We have prove they have our minds. They need our brilliance to save their lives. They can only get that from our minds, not our hearts."



He recommends the book "Search for Excellence." Teaches you how to think like a business.



"We're in the business of selling used dogs and cats. We are."



Says some people come apply for jobs in shelters, and you ask why they want to work with animals: "Because I hate peple."



But you need people who like to chat with people. In fact, people woh like to talk talk talk so much that people will adopt that animal just toshut them up.



Don't put the puppies up in the front. Put the puppies in the back so they have to walk past all the adult dogs before you see the puppies. We have someone at each station so if someone stops and looks at the dog, the associate walks right over to them and say, "Isn't Bingo a wonderfual animal?" Then she'll ask them to take the dog out to potty, because the associate is not allowed to leave the station but the dog is "crossing his paws." And it works!



He says you have to pu t ateam together to create a strategic plan. That team is not only of  senior management, but junior management, too. We don't have multi-million dollar ad budget; we need to use public relations. The staff working with the animals have the best stories, the stories the media wants. But they often sit on them.



We give staff $25 bonus if they bring us a story that makes print media, $50 if it gets on television.



Use the team.



Someone has to set the mission. People often don't know who is the leader -- the board? The director? The CEO?



Everyone has to buy into the mission.



You have to have core values. Everyone has to buy into those, too.



Identify internal strengths and vulnerabilities.

Comments

[Mary]

Thanks very much for blogging this conference for those of us who can't attend. I'm with a very small rescue group - and we can use all the advice we can get!



I've already ordered the book that was recommended (Which I believe is actually "In Search of Excellence). I'd love to forward these posts to my other board members, but don't see any button to forward them. Am I overlooking something?

[Gina Spadafori]

You can click on the social media buttons at the end of any post and put it up on facebook, twitter, etc.



Otherwise, just click on the title, and then cut and past the URL into your e-mail. :)

[MichelleD]

"Says some people come apply for jobs in shelters, and you ask why they want to work with animals: “Because I hate peple.”



Oye Ve! This is waaayyy to common. These people are often on a power trip as well - forcing potential adopters to jump thru hoops to adopt an animal or worse yet, denying them for arbitrary reasons. To reach No Kill as a nation these people will have to GO!