I have been watching the news releases of the Roice-Hurst Animal Shelter with some normal citizen concern. Although I do not donate a lot to this organization, I have made donations in the past and will continue to do so, should it remain viable.

As a former non-profit executive director, I could not help but wonder: Where has the board been for so long? Why have they abdicated their responsibility for the affairs of this organization? It is hard to believe, after reading the stories in the news, that any responsible board member would be able to look at the monthly and yearly financial statements and not be concerned. Rather than showing a committed interest in this operation, it appears they chose to close their eyes to the realities of the fact that they needed to establish some annual fundraising programs and get businesses and other organizations involved in the program.

I would guess that, had not the operational staff contacted the press for public support, this operation would have been allowed to close the doors and no one be any the sadder. It is appalling that the board members did not seek community support for this operation from Day One and accept the responsibility for the funding of this.

I am sure there would be grant monies and business donations that could have been obtained. It would seem that the board would have insisted that fundraising programs be established on an annual basis and that budgets would be made and how the organization would raise the needed funds would have been developed during the board meetings, if there were any.

It should not have been the responsibility of the staff to fulfill the responsibilities of a deficient board. However, it would not surprise me to see the board make decisions to discipline or eliminate the staff in order to make the public believe that they have taken the problem to heart. Had they had the will and heart there would be no need for the crisis that now exists.

We can only hope that a new board will be put into place and that board will set the operating criteria and budget for this much needed community service. The present board should be replaced immediately and not allowed to take any punitive actions against the current staff. Let the new board determine how well the staff is operating under supervised management rather than be the victims of vindictive, exposed current board members.

R. GERALD HAMPTON
Clifton

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 12:32 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.