Board Members Present:                                                                              Members Present:

Pat Freytag                                                                                                Kim and Mike Walker

Sherrie Kent                                                                                               Patty Erdman

Sheri Clark

Marlane Bernardo
Mark Brooks

Julie Caprette

Chris Ford

Ryan Behenna

Amy Bradford

Mike Lorenzen

 

Call to Order:  Pat F. 1:07 p.m.

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Welcome to Members in attendance: Kim, Mike and Patty

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Treasurers Report:  Sherri C.

Financials presented for October 2023, November 2023, December 2023.  Brief discussion of details, but the biggest news is finally had a good month of donations for December.

Motion to approve the financials made by Mark B.  Julie C. 2nd motion.  Voice vote to accept financials as written, all approved, no nay votes.  Motion carried.

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Update on changing signature cards on bank accounts has been scheduled for next Wednesday.  Part of the updating bank account will be to request a credit card under GPAH name only so will not involve personnel finances of prior board members for GPAH.  GPAH should have credit based on it’s own standing now.

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Fund Raising:  Sherri C. received wonderful donations that will be transferred to the FB fundraising team soon.

Minutes for October 2023: Sherrie K

All minutes for the October 2023 meetings were presented for discussion.

Motion to approve the minutes made by Mark B.  Ryan B 2nd motion.  Voice vote to accept minutes as written, all approved. No nay votes. Motion carried.

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Permanent Fosters:  Pat F and Sherri C gave updates on all permanent fosters, Bruce, Cindy, Emma, Gritty, Trifecta (Tonopah), Tucker and Elias are all doing well on maintenance medications and wonderful foster homes.

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Old Business:  Sherrie K presented the issues discovered in excessive price increases of the Protatek Tick Disease testing and the cost of the overnight shipping.  This now exceeds $300 just for these costs.

Motion to change business plan to remove the Tick Disease testing for Australian Dogs.  Australia tests for their diseases, so this expense no longer needed.   Mark B made the motion and Julie C. 2nd motion.  Voice vote approved.  No nay votes.  Motion carried.

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Status of Australia Dogs:  Sherrie K. reported 4 hounds had made the trip on 2 different flights.  Everyone involved in travel and fostering were happy with the dogs.  George and Patch were adopted to their foster parents.  Strike and Dotty are currently in foster care and have their initial vet exam completed by the end of the week.

Adoption Committee Report:  Ryan B.  Currently have 3 adoption applications pending and 2 others have been put on hold at the request of applicants due to personnel issues that popped up.  Only bringing in dogs a few at a time since foster homes are still needed.  Slow and steady pace.

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Emergency Number and GPAH Telephone Issue:  Mike L has hit a wall with the research of emergency number.  Comcast owns the line but cannot tell us where it goes or who is paying the bill.  There are 4 phone lines for GPAH in Pat’s name through the Nobel Center business account.   

He presented 3 options:

 1.) Do nothing and hope we will never lose the emergency line.  We cannot change who is notified or make any updates. 

2.) Proposed a plan to get 2 of the 4 lines transferred from Pat F to GPAH for billing and service from different carrier. Upon doing this, it frees up 1 person being on the hook for every call 24/7.  Once this change takes place we cannot go back. Without the kennel no longer need extra lines.  Changing now will mean we need to order new emergency tags.  Sherrie K. will research the cost to buy new tags once emergency number change takes place.  The old number will then be fazed out when whomever is paying the bill stops. Emergency number has been in existence at least over 30 years.  Kim Walker will assist in the outreach to current members that want new tags issued.  Mike will work with Pat to get the documentation changed from Pat’s name to GPAH within the next month or two. (Note: Pat has been reimbursing GPAH for all phone line costs except for Emergency line.) The new phone service will be transferred to a non-profit carrier at a significant savings per line and we can then update whatever and whenever we need changes made going forward.

3.) Just get a new emergency number and tags.  Will deal with any new issues as it happens.

Motion to accept proposal #2 as presented by Mike L., made by Ryan B.  Marlane 2nd the motion.  Voice vote approved.  No nay votes. Motion carried.

 

GPA National News:  Sherrie K attended the GPA National Business Meeting zoom meeting

Highlights follow: There are now more dogs being sent from different states in Australia to additional destinations across the U.S.  Each Australian State has it’s own MOU and procedures.  New Zealand flights are in the works to start end of February or early March.  This will open up even more destinations to ship dogs to the U.S.  No word on if/when Houston will be added as a destination for dogs.  Since programs began last fall over 500 dogs have made the trip from down under.

Caliente Race Track in Tijuanna, Mexico has closed.  Over 100 dogs were transported to groups on the West Coast and Arizona.

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GPA National asked each group to verify that the National Greyhound Association website is updated with current information. Marlane pulled up GPAH and we are no longer on their preferred adoption site.  She also checked the Texas Greyhound Association page.  It needs updating too.  She volunteered to do the necessary documentation to correct both sites.

TJ Beader gave an update on the status of the dog respiratory disease.  GPA National is advising extreme caution for all greyhound owners as this disease is highly contagious, easily transmitted and not responsive to normal known treatments.  It is hitting dog breeds hardest on those that have limited respiratory capacity (smashed face breeds). Disease is in at least 23 states now.  Medical sources have identified virus but have not discovered any way to treat it.  This disease can be rapidly fatal.

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Denise (GPA MA) gave a little talk on encouraging all groups to start fundraising events locally since availability of dogs from abroad is happening.

Sherrie Kent advised that the Directors of GPA National FaceBook page put up a notice that a few NGA greyhounds would be returning to Kansas from tracks on the East Coast.  They wanted each group to specify how many they would like as a hauler would be doing a GUR to transport dogs.  Some brood bitches would be available.  By the time Sherrie saw the post, all dogs had been spoken for.

Motion to adjourn made by Julie C.  Ryan B. 2nd motion.

Sherri C adjourned meeting at 2:27 p.m. as Pat had to step away.

 

Questions/Corrections regarding Minutes from discussion via email:

Julie C requested for professional reasons to correct the “#” used for telephone number.  Corrected.