RASKC Volunteer eNews/ Issue 6/ August 2017

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Sarah Stolberg: Volunteer of Excellence

Stolberg

This summer RASKC nominated Sarah Stolberg as Mud Bay's Volunteer of Excellence. She has provided extraordinary leadership to three volunteer teams. With kindness, exceptional skill and incredible dedication, Sarah recently managed over 200 volunteers. She has donated over 1,000 hours since 2014. As an accountant in her day job, Sarah brings strong organizational skills and innovation to the many daily challenges of volunteer management. She also volunteers in a weekly cat-team role herself. Sarah has earned the deep respect and immense admiration from team members and RASKC staff.

Mud Bay will be announcing three top Volunteers of Excellence tomorrow at their annual FUTY Festival. The winners will personally receive $1,000 each and also $1,000 for their organization.

If you would like to attend Mud Bay’s FUTY Festival on Sunday, August 20, from 4-7pm in Seattle, you must preregister online at this website by typing in this promo code: S595864FUTY. (The password will not work if you “copy and paste” it in). The festival features free food and beverages, free samples of pet supplies, and a very fun atmosphere. RASKC volunteers are encouraged to wear RASKC t-shirts and meet at the photo booth at 5:30pm for a group photo.

Exciting changes coming to RASKC Dog Team

Derek

RASKC Dog Walkers are being introduced to many changes that will enrich the lives of our dogs and help make them more adoptable. These changes were also designed to keep volunteers safe while working with dogs, and to help build a greater sense of teamwork between volunteers and staff:

Dog enrichment:  Staff is developing a new enrichment program to help keep dogs entertained during their downtime between walks. New enrichment items include food puzzles, rotating toys, and dog playgroups that allow the dogs to run around with each other off leash. The goal of this enrichment program is to provide mental stimulation for the dogs and increase adoptability.

A better dog walking experience: We have several new changes in store for RASKC dog walkers, including our new Dog Team Skills Assessment and Color Matchup. Dog walkers participate in a training session and assessment that will cover best practices for walking and help match volunteers to appropriate dogs based on their strengths. Volunteers who have been assessed will now be able to walk dogs off RASKC property. 

Improved communication between staff and volunteers: A new white board outside of dog adoptions will provide dog walkers with important information about each adoptable dog. If volunteers have any concerns or observations about a dog, they will be able to express their comments to staff in the new Dog Memo Binder. 

Additionally, RASKC is now hosting monthly dog team meetings on the last Thursday of each month. These meetings are a great opportunity for dog volunteers and RASKC staff to work collaboratively on future improvements to the dog team. These one-hour meetings are open to all dog team volunteers. If you are interested in participating, our next meeting will take place in the lunchroom on Thursday, August 31st from 5pm-6pm.

Recognizing RASKC Volunteer of the Month