On March 22, 2010 — just under a year ago — Kay Speerstra resigned as AWLA’s Executive Director. As the animal-outcomes data attest (see ShelterWatch.org), she left behind an organization that dramatically underperformed leading national open-admission shelters when it came to saving homeless cats and dogs. This was in spite of the fact that AWLA [...]
Archive for the ‘Principles’ Category
Forward Progress?
Posted in County Contract, Principles, Yardsticks on October 29, 2010 | 5 Comments »
It’s been almost two months now since Neil Trent joined AWLA as its new Executive Director, and some good things are happening. For starters, AWLA has taken tentative first steps toward marketing its on-view dogs. Three offsite events featuring adoptable AWLA dogs were held during the last two months. And AWLA seems to be discovering [...]
What’s Possible, Part Three
Posted in AWLA Policies, Principles, Yardsticks on August 17, 2010 | 4 Comments »
August 16, 2010 The Animal Welfare League of Arlington is pleased to announce that Neil Trent will join the organization as Executive Director in September 2010. Neil brings over 30 years of experience in international, national and local animal welfare. He is currently the Executive Director of the Longmont Humane Society in Longmont, Colorado. Neil [...]
Delaware Changes Everything
Posted in AWLA Policies, Principles on July 29, 2010 | 12 Comments »
On July 23, Governor Jack Markel signed Senate Bill 280, thereby establishing Delaware as a national model for the compassionate treatment of homeless companion animals. Modeled on the No Kill Advocacy Center’s Companion Animal Protection Act, Senate Bill 280 amends Chapter 80 of the Delaware Code by specifying how animal shelters must handle unclaimed animals. [...]
The Root of the Problem
Posted in AWLA Policies, County Contract, DC Area Rescue Orgs, Principles on July 15, 2010 | 3 Comments »
In its fiscal 2009, AWLA received $1,229,326 from Arlington County to perform animal control and manage Arlington’s open-admission animal shelter. But as a private non-profit organization, AWLA also raised $1,031,897 in charitable contributions. Along with depreciation of $91,162, those contributions resulted in positive cash flow of $500,000 in fiscal 2009. If AWLA were a for-profit [...]
Vision
Posted in Principles, Yardsticks on July 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
From the About Us page of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals: Founded in 2002, The Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals is a non-profit, public-private partnership of over 160 animal rescue groups and shelters working with the City of New York toward the day when no New York City dog or cat of reasonable health [...]
How They Did It
Posted in Principles, Yardsticks on June 15, 2010 | 1 Comment »
After holding management positions at progressive animal-rescue organizations Best Friends Animal Society and Alley Cat Allies, Bonney Brown joined the Nevada Humane Society as Executive Director in 2006. She and the NHS Board were determined to convert NHS from an open-admission shelter that killed most of the homeless animals it received into an open-admission shelter [...]
Transparency
Posted in AWLA Policies, Principles, Yardsticks on June 4, 2010 | 12 Comments »
Comments we’ve received from an AWLA volunteer on our last two posts suggest that maybe we’ve been too optimistic about the rate at which AWLA is improving its efforts on behalf of homeless animals. A culture of stonewalling and inertia is hard to change, especially when most of the management team responsible for it remains [...]
