Minutes
North Brunswick Humane Association
July Monthly Meeting (7/11/11)
7:30 pm ET
710 Hermann Road –NB Community Complex
Conference Room #1
- The Meeting was called to order at 7:35pm by Jay Soloway
- Attendees: Michele Andrea, Jay Soloway, Vincent Sheehan, Linda Sheehan, Sandi Erickson, Erica Bundy, Lisa Colletti, Dan Smith, Claire Butkus, Brenda Sauer, Eileen Lorner, Barbara Russell & Allison Russell
- Opening & Introductions- Membership
- The June Minutes were read and accepted.
- Treasurer’s Report – Vincent- deferred
Updates from June Meeting:
- Press Release on “ NBHA Defers Shelter Project”– Jay
- We need to be consistent with our message to the community/public. Only Board Members should be providing detailed information to the press or community.
- Spay & Neutering Assistance Program (SNAP) – Lisa
- All responded have responded to the grant offering except Wags to Riches. Lisa will follow up tomorrow.
- One grant has already been used by Whisker’s Rescue.
- We received a very nice Thank You letter from Animal Rescue Force (ARF)
- We are in discussion with additional rescue organization, one with cats and another with dogs.
- North Brunswick Dog Park -Bulletin Board
- Michele will Follow up Gail
- Dog/Cat Food Bank– Sandi
- 35 Cats and 8 Dogs- We need donation of Cat Food- preferred drop off location is at Supermarket at 400 Renaissance Blvd, North Brunswick, New Jersey 08902 or if you need to have the donated food picked up, please email us at info@northbrunswickhumane.org.
- Donation Cans Update– Sandi
- Katie’s Pet Depot & Blitzburger’s cans totaled $68.34- Thank You
- Save a Senior Cat Program Update( 5 years and up) – Eileen
- We have completed the brochure to hand out to 10 selected places. This will be operated as a Voucher System. More to come.
- Middlesex County Fair Update – August 1st– August 7th -Jay
- August 1 – 7th on fairgrounds on Canterbury Road in East Brunswick
- Collections are taken for non-profit groups
- Jay will attend last day to collect the donations from the sponsors
- If NBHA collects the most the sponsors add $500
- Encourage people to come out and donate
- National Night Out– August 2nd from (5pm-8pm) -Jay
- August 2nd – runs 5 Pm to 8PM need 4 volunteers at a minimum from about 4 PM to 9PM to set-up and breakdown
- this is a Nationally sponsored event by local police departments across the USA
- This year to be held at field across from Town Hall
- All non-profits from the area are invited to attend
- Also restaurants in area attend- free food
- Please contact Michelle is you can volunteer
- At the meeting a motion was made to purchase 1/4 page ad at cost of $30 to support one of the police charities.
- vote was 6 in favor / 2 opposed
- Opposed were concerned because not animal related
- Motion carried even though not pet related good to support local police
- L’Oreal Update–Your Dog is Worth It too Day- Saturday- August 20th– 9am – 4pm -Vincent
- August 20th at L’Oreal complete on Broadway Road in Cranberry
- NBHA is scheduled to have a table to solicit donations and spread word about organization
- Volunteers are needed from 9 AM to 3 PM
- Please contact Michelle to volunteer
- Event attracts 6,000 to 7,000 dog owners and their pets
- Many volunteers are needed since it is a long, warm day
- Township Display Case (the month of August) -Sandi
- NBHA has the month of August
- plan to include a history of NBHA in the display
- Bowl-a-Thon – Saturday, September 10th– Jay
- Sept 10th at Carolier Lanes
- 4 hour window for 2 hours of bowling
- Cost $25 includes 2 hours of bowling, shoe rental, 2 slices of pizza and drink
- Cost $10 for 2 slices of pizza and drink
- Pay at door
- $10 for each participant is donated by Carolier Lanes to NBHA
- All are welcome, spread the word
- New flyer will be available by end of week
- Pervious events attracted 80 people at first / 50 people at second eventHeritage Day Event– Saturday, September 24th 12pm -5pm-Babbage Park – Jay
- Sept 14th
- Run by Township at Babbage Park
- Volunteers needed to main table for donations and spread the word
- 8th Annual NBHA Dog Walk–a-Thon – Sunday, October 2nd -Michele
- Michele has sent emails to last year’s sponsors and vendors to ask if they wish to participate this year
- In the correspondence she introduced the spay / neuter program
- Plan is to follow-up with phone calls
- Request to the membership – please forward ideas of who may be sponsors or vendors to Michele for follow-up contact
- Cold Water Creek Event– Ann Marie was unable to attend due to illness – no update
- Next Mall Event– Halloween Weekend -Jay
- Menlo Park – Jay
- Brunswick Square Mall –Sharon
- Jay reported Modelles donation of $223.86 from last fund raiser – plan is to have this again around the Mall events through Black Friday
New Business
- Helmetta Animal Shelter – Vince
- Vince and Jay toured the new animal shelter and met with the Shelter Director
- Modern, well designed facility
- Operated now as no-kill shelter, but no stated policy on euthanasia
- Soliciting animal control contracts from many local communities
- Adoption fee is currently $10.00
- 3,000 square feet on 2 floors, estimates 30-35 dog runs / 75 cat
- Required $1.9million bond for retrofit of an existing building
- Jay had 15% off coupons from Modelles valid through end of month
- Access Storage info was provided by Jay to Sandi to update information about Access Storage on the NBHA website
- Sandi proposed that shirts be printed in yellow and black with the NBHA logo for volunteers to wear at events so we are more noticeable. Shirts may be purchased or earned through volunteer work. Next step is to gather proposal on costs.
- Eileen / Lisa requested that generic business cards be created to use when corresponding and contacting other organizations to provide contact information – can be personalized by each individual writing in own name. Next step – Don (? hope I have right name) will design a template
- Dan also suggested that sign-up sheets used at events to gather volunteers or people to add to mailing list look less like a membership list
- Suggestion also to have a shared email address that individuals can use to contact organizations, for example, Lisa had some concerns from the organizations when she contacted using her personal email – need to determine feasibility of shared gmail account.
- Question about website articles that discussed option of a smaller shelter, is this new? Jay explained that this is not new, it was an alternative discussed over the last couple of years under project shelter options.
- Claire still receives calls directly for cat food, she will continue to forward to Sandi. We are waiting on the Township to provide a separate telephone extension for the food bank.
- Next Meeting is August 8th
- The meeting adjourned at 8:45pm