To: noreply@clarkdogpaw.org From: dogadmin@clarkdogpaw.org Reply-To: noreply@clarkdogpaw.org Subject: [DOGPAW] DOGPAW Annual Meeting Follow-Up and Update This is a post-only message. Please do not respond. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ANNUAL MEETING FOLLOW-UP... We held our annual meeting on March 5th and had over 130 folks show up so thanks to all for your support of Dogpaw. We wanted to update everyone on current activities and respond to some issues from the meeting. Full minutes of the meeting are on our website (www.clarkdogpaw.org/publicdocs/). DEVELOPMENT: First and most exciting, Pete Capell, Clark county public works director, announced that there are 2 new sites that are approved for Dogpaw use that we should be able to get up and running in the next year. We will be reaching out to the Dogpaw membership in the next few days with a vote to get your input on which site should be developed first. This will require a lot of support by our volunteers to build these sites and we will be reaching out to businesses to get materials donated, so please let us know if you can help out. Additionally, we are working with the city government in Washougal on a new off leash park they are building which we hope will open sometime this year. Dogpaw will be partnering with Washougal to operate the park. MEMBER PROFILES: Please click your member profile link at the bottom of this e-mail. You'll want to be able to navigate. So, you'll be ready to vote. Soon we'll be asking you to help us decide on which sites to develop first. FINES: It is very important that only areas that are approved off leash areas be used by dog owners. There have been a lot of complaints to the Parks department by folks using ball fields, school yards and regular parks for off leash and that is illegal plus it causes a lot of ill will towards dog owners, so we all need to make sure we only take our dogs off leash only at legal off leash parks. And remember that the leash/scoop law applies everywhere and it can cost you up to $250 for a ticket for not cleaning up after your dog. SECURITY: Our treasurer, Lisa Erickson, announced we have about $29,000 in the bank and that it will take about $10,000 to build each new site and then about $4-5K per year to maintain, so we will continue our fund raising efforts to support new projects. A question was raised about the security of our money (due to stories about ball leagues having folks steal money). We have several steps in place, different person writes checks and another enters data, etc. We also learned that the insurance we carry for the board covers any ?wrongdoing? of board members. We will continue to look at ways to keep our funds secure. MEMBERSHIP: We now have grown to over 800 total memberships, which equals over 1000 people. A single membership counts as one person, a family membership counts as two. We have several membership drives planned for this year to grow our numbers. VANDERVORT: The move to Vandervort has been completed and we need to continue to honor the rules of the park. Neighbors have been taking photos of folks not picking up after their dogs, having dogs off leash outside the park, folks smoking and standing in groups not watching their dogs. We need to be very respectful of the rules since the church can withdraw their parking approval if they get pressure from neighbors and that will mean the county will close the temporary park. Pacific Park construction is moving ahead and the plan is still to open that site in June or July. SAFETY: Dogpaw has initiated a very important new project, headed up by Heather Watkins from the Dogpaw board, which is our Safety Task Force. We have the involvement of Animal control, Parks department, Public Works, Dog trainers, Veterinarian, Vancouver Police department, and some general member volunteers. This group will be working on education plans along with enforcement issues to help insure our parks are as safe as possible. Part of this program includes free training programs offered by our trainers. The first class was on March 29th, had 16 folks attend and all found it very worthwhile. We will continue to offer these classes, so stay tuned for the dates. Also, we provided books to all who attended the membership meeting, 'Visiting the Dog Park' which is intended to help educate folks on tips for making your dog park experience a good one. Dogpaw will play no role in determining responsibility in an incident, we will defer to Animal control in those situations where there has been harm to a dog or person. We will offer the experience of our Dog Trainers to assist in educating folks about problem behaviors and to present situations from the dogs point of view. Please view our Education link for safety information. You can contact Heather Watkins for more info at heatherw@clarkdogpaw.org ELECTIONS: A question was raised at the meeting about how our board elects officers and gets new board members. The current practice (which is very common in non-profits) is the board elects the officers and new board members. We have had pretty good turnover and gotten a lot of new blood on the board as people move or have life changes that make it difficult to serve. It is a big commitment to serve since it is a working board and we are always interested in talking to folks that are interested in getting involved. We have a process where in interested party fills out a board member application, then we have a couple board members vet that person and make a recommendation to the board. A suggestion was made that we have the entire membership vote on each board member. We asked for a straw vote on this issue at the meeting and only 8 out of over 100 thought we should change our practice. Given that it will cost money and time every time there would need to be an election, the board decided due to the lack of support of the idea that we would not change our practice. FORUM: We are adding an additional tool to get input from our membership. We used to have a on-line forum but due to lack of use by members and the overwhelming amount of advertisements and porn that we got, we closed it down. With our membership growth we think it makes sense to reinstitute our forum, with some new safety tools in place, we are working on getting that started again. ITEMS: Dogpaw sells shirts and hats to help fundraise and we will be bringing in some new styles in the next couple weeks. Our merchandise is available at both Natural Pet, on NE 162nd Avenue and the Beastie Boutique on Highway 99. We also sell on our website. NEWS AND EVENTS... SMALL DOG AREA: As most of you know, we are working on construction of the new 'small' dog area to be located at Ross, in the lower west end of the park. Construction is going to start soon, as we are still working on getting donations from local hardware suppliers for fencing materials. If you wish to donate, or lend a 'construction' hand, please let Norm Neely know, at nneely37@msn.com. If you have any questions about the small dog area, please contact Jean Hood, jeanh@clarkdogpaw.org. MEMBERSHIP DRIVE: DOGPAW hosted a very successful membership drive at Ross last weekend ... Sooo, we are hosting one at the temporary Pacific Park (Vandervort) on April 19th from 10-5 -- CANCELED. If you would like to volunteer for a 2 hour shift, please let Jean know at jeanh@clarkdogpaw.org. DAKOTA MEMORIAL PREP: There is a meeting of the minds scheduled on April 10th for preparation of the grand opening of the new Dakota Memorial (Pacific) Park due to open this summer. If you would like to get involved, let Julie Mills know at julie.mills@clarkdogpaw.org. MUTT MINGLES: Beastie Boutique will be hosting Beastie Mutt Mingles, during April. See the events page. That is it for now, remember to be safe, and have fun out there! DOGPAW Board of Directors ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ www.clarkdogpaw.org/stayinformed.shtml Please do NOT click reply, as listserv responses are not monitored. Instead, forward any questions/comments to the appropriate person. Thank you!