Board Members Present:                                                                             Guests Present:

Pat Freytag                                                                                                          Diane Dahl

Sherrie Kent                                                                                                       

Sheri Clark

Mark Brooks

Julie Caprette

Marlane Bernardo

Chris Ford
Amy Bradford
Mike Lorenzen
Ryan Behenna

 

Member meeting called to order by Pat Freytag, President at 1:07 p.m.  Quorum met.

 

Treasurer’s Report:  Sherri C. presented financial reports for April 2023, May 2023, June 2023, July 2023, August 2023, September 2023. Discussion followed to explain costs. Sherri explained that due to the higher expenses for permanent fosters will need to do fundraising soon.
 

Motion:  Sherrie K. to accept financials for all months.    2nd Julie C.  Vote – Unanimous to accept.
 

Minutes – April 2023:  Sherrie K. provided last meeting minutes to the board.  Discussion included the need to revisit changing by-laws to include emailing to all board members, response to emailed minutes discussion be held via email, and voting to accept minutes would be allowed via email after all discussion/corrections. 
 

Motion:  Mark B. 2nd Ryan B to accept minutes as written, and change by-laws to allow future minutes, discussion, corrections and approvals via email.  Also, that financials would be provided quarterly at each board meeting (to match the by-laws change to quarterly board meetings effective January 2024.) for discussion and approval.  Unanimous to accept motion.

Status Permanent Foster (PF)Dogs:  Cindy is now 15 yo with more medical needs; Gumdrop (Zoe) had medical follow ups and injections; Tucker had his neuter successfully and will be rechecked to determine if prostate issue is resolving; Gritty had the Libreala injection and appears to be helping; Bruce, Emma and Tonopah are doing well. Two dogs were returned and placed in PF – Elias is fostering permanently with Robbie due to excessive aggression.  Morgan is fostering with Sandy as she is senior pup.
 

Old Business:  Sherrie K. reported that the PO Box was acquired and receiving mail. Keys given to Sherrie Kent, Sherri Clark, Julie Caprette and Mark Brooks.  Texas Secretary of State processed the Restated Certificate of Formation and is complete.  Sherri C reported that the Tax Permit Corrections was complete.  Still have funds for start-up costs earmarked for looking into restart of adoption program after paying premium for liability insurance.
 

New Business:  Status of Dog Availability from Australia:  Sherrie K. reported the updated information that GPA-National had Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) completed with New South Wales – Greyhound Pet Adoption (NSW).  All greyhounds requested from NSW for GPA Chapters and a few other non-GPA groups will be solely requested through the authorized chapter representative via the GPA National Board of Directors Face Book page.  At this time Sherrie K. is the authorized rep for GPA National and can continue as liaison unless someone else wants the job.  This liaison includes representing GPAH by attending national board meetings (zoom).  Excerpts from the MOU that explained the system to provide equal access for groups to request dogs.  After selecting, they would then be placed at the bottom of the list in a rotation basis. Dogs would then be assigned to the requesting group, in Australia, and email of all necessary documentation for each dog would be sent to each group.  In the rare case of necessary last minute of unfit to travel dog, substitution new documents would be forwarded to group as early as possible.  Estimated lag time for dogs to enter GPA foster homes is still approximately 6 weeks, but may be earlier if available.

 

Report from latest National GPA meeting: Sherrie K.  National did a rundown on exactly how the Australia program would progress for Dallas airport.  MOU stated that a company that handles all permits and care of animals that travel around the world would receive the greyhounds from Australia and groups would receive their dogs from that company’s property nearby the Dallas airport.  Pickup by group would be the following day after flight.  Separate MOU agreements are being worked on by GPA National for New Zealand and England flights.  New Zealand has many more non-stop flights to other US cities than Sidney has.  Due to the difficulties with the Irish dogs having to go through England, this necessitates National doing their planning. Currently all Irish dogs flights are difficult with planning and customs permits.

National queried all chapters about the availability of access to a live trap for escaped greyhounds.  GPAH will be put on the list for a trap to be delivered to our group.  Due to its large size, Sherrie K. volunteered to store the trap.  National will be paying for the trap and freight charges.
 

Face Book Admins:  Julie C. and Jessica Ford are current admins.  A third, Jenn will be removed as she no longer is active for GPAH.  Amy B. agreed to work with committee to act as a third admin for both the GPA main FB page and the Discussion Board page maintenance.
 

WIX – GPAH website admins: Due to resignation of Arden, Chris and Jess are the only admins.  A committee meeting will be held with new volunteers to discuss volunteering to add new admin(s) and updating the website.  Need to correct as soon as possible as on-line membership application and other important information has dropped to unknown place.  Updating website mandatory if dogs are again available for adoption.
 

Hyperoffice Database: Pat is the owner (donor) of the Hyperoffice Database and is the only 1 that can change administrators.  Sherri C is an admin.  Arden resigned as admin.  Maximun # of admins is 3. Hyperoffice allows up to 10 users and several need to be changed. Pat pays as a donation the database, but, when she is finished with her president term next year, we  need to plan to transfer everything to GPAH including billing.  Mike Lorenzen agreed to work with Pat and Sherrie K. to switch to another provider or if necessary, write a program for maintaining database.

Constant Contact:  Sherrie K. reported that CC was currently in suspension.  Still have funds available for future emails.  Participation by membership to renew dues and step up to volunteer was good.  Hopefully will have more active volunteers as the word gets out that GPAH might have dogs available for adoption again. (For new board members, suspension is to avoid excessive fees between emails.)
 

Credit Card:  Pat F. reported that current credit card is in her and Arden’s name and credit.  Sherri C and Sherrie K will work together to figure out how to get a credit card in GPAH credit line only.
 

Phone Lines:  Emergency line and general line currently are being sent to Pat’s home via Comcast.  She has tried to change for months, and no success.  Mike L. agreed to work with her to use portability laws to get these changed to GPAH as owner and work with committee to handle calls.
 

Status of GPA Adoption Program:  Sherrie K. reported due to all the changes from the last vote for adoption of greyhounds, needed to update motion from March and April 2023.  Motion to reinstate entire greyhound adoption program:  by Mark B.  Julie C 2nd.    Pat made a statement that she was against the program.  During the vote, eligible voting board members approved.  Motion carried.  Adoption Committee will be developing the process, etc. AdoptionA

Printer Discussion:  Sherrie K.  It was brought up at the committee introduction meeting, that we would need to consider how GPAH would handle printing all the necessary forms needed to handle intake, maintenance and adoption of GPAH dogs when they arrive in the Houston area.  It was decided that Sherri C. would contact the prior donor of all GPAH documents and see what the cost would be to have all printed.  Then could compare to see if this was feasible or need to buy a printer for GPAH business. 

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Next board meeting 01/28/2024.

Motion to adjourn: Chris F.  2nd Julie C.                  Unanimous approval

Adjourn:  2:33 pm