D2Care

D2Care Update
December, 2009

Ummm, well, I am very sorry. It has been awhile since y’all received a Presidents update. So here it is! Hope you enjoy it.

Our elections in April went smoothly. We are modifying the voting booth so that members who believe they have had a problem with voting will be able to get the issue resolved. Currently (and after this modification), there is no way for anyone to know that a vote came from any particular Member. With the modification, the Member is given a “Vote Code” that can be used to connect the two, but only the Member will have access to it. Voting will remain confidential unless the number is given to someone else. Stay tuned. This enhancement will be available for the 2011 vote.

After the elections, one of our Board Members had to resign due to personal reasons. Kim Mehall has graciously accepted a Board position in her place. Your Board members are now:
Katrina McGinnis, President
Lori Skinner, Vice President
Sandi Liss, Treasurer
Monica Kaskey, Secretary
Katie Earle, Membership Officer
Jennifer Laus, Webmaster
Rhonda Champion
Kim Mehall
Mikki Razor

The website, www.d2care.org , continues to experience enhancements and changes. For those that haven’t gone to the website lately, click on: http://www.d2care.org/aid/awarded.php. These are dogs that your member’s dues and donations have helped. As our presence becomes better known, we expect help requests to increase, however we will always post aid awarded here.

While you are perusing the website, click on: http://www.d2care.org/supportus/bonus.php and shop online through the links on this page. You pay the same price as listed on the site, but the companies we are affiliated with donate to us a percentage of all sales made through these links. We have received several hundred dollars through this program. You receive the pleasure of knowing you’ve done something great with your money. Make Holiday shopping easy and beneficial to our deaf dogs.

Kim and Mikki tell me that if you use goodsearch as your search engine, and click on D2Care, we will receive monetary awards every time you use the search engine. Goodsearch is used just like Google. Go to www.goodsearch.com then type in D2Care below the question “who do you goodsearch for” and click the verify button. D2Care’s name will then remain on that line. Go up to the Search line and type in whatever you are interested in looking for and hit the Search button. Every time you utilize goodsearch, D2Care will benefit. It is very easy and every click benefits D2Care.

If you are looking for something a little more personal, go to http://www.d2care.org/supportus/merch.php to purchase your own D2Care t-shirt. Members of D2Care receive discount pricing for t-shirts, but you must log into the Members Only http://www.d2care.org/membersonly/ area of the website to receive the lower price. Get an early start on the spring. We know it’s out there, somewhere!

With all this good news also comes some bad, unfortunately. This year (2009), we lost almost half of our members when renewals came due. Times are hard and a lot of folks do not have free money. We certainly understand. However, as life circumstances change, we hope to see you all back. We definitely miss you. If you are able to renew now, go to http://www.d2care.org/membersonly/ , log in, and follow the directions for renewal. If you haven’t already created a log-in, you will still be able to do so (it only takes a few minutes) with your membership number. Just scroll down to the end of the page and follow the directions.

Whatever your membership status, you can keep up with all the D2Care news through either the Members Yahoo!Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/d2care_members (if you are a current member) or http://www.d2care.org/news/ (if you are not a current member). I promise to get updates posted in a timelier manner. The Secretary and I are discussing posting Board Meeting minutes in a timelier manner as well.

This update brought to you by
Katrina
President, D2Care

D2Care Update
6/20/09

I hope all of you are having a great day!

Well, we have gotten through the D2Care Board and Officer Elections for 2009.
Your new Board and Officers are:
Katrina -President
Lori – Vice President
Sandi – Treasurer
Monica -Secretary
Rhonda
Katie
Becca
Jennifer
Mikki

Please congratulate and welcome your new Board members and Officers. That leaves us with one item of business to complete. And that is the Membership Officer. This position is the liaison between you and the Board. The Membership Officer, in conjunction with the Membership Development Committee, is responsible for seeing to it that the elections run smoothly, for notifying members of membership renewals, for setting up a plan and implementing Membership Recruitment and Retention, and acting as liaison between the Membership and the Board of D2Care. This is an extremely important position for you, the Members of D2Care.

Our Bylaws state that this position is to be voted on at the May Members meeting. But since we did not have a quorum, we were unable to cast that vote. So now we need to complete this part of the election process. Unfortunately due to family and personal issues, most of the Board Members that have not been elected into an Officers position are unable to take on this role. Katie feels she is capable of the responsibilities inherent in this position. However, we still need your blessing.

So, for those Members that are on the D2Care_Members group, I will be setting up a poll with a yes/no response. All you have to do is let us know if Katie is an acceptable choice for you. For those that do not belong to the Members group, please write to me at Katrina@d2care.org and let me know if you are ok with Katie being the Membership Officer. I will open the polls on June 21 and close them on July 4. If you have any questions for Katie, you may write to her at Katie@d2care.org

Katrina
President, D2Care
www.d2care.org

Members Meeting
May 17, 2009

We did not achieve a quorum tonight so were unable to conduct business. A chat room glitch may have contributed to this in that Members were unable to get into the chat room for at least an additional half hour. We do not know what caused this problem, but our webmaster is looking into it. This is the first problem we have experienced with this particular chat room.

Since we did not achieve a quorum we were not able to conduct business. So, I am going to summarize the pertinent items that we informally discussed.

A) Board Elections

The new Board Members are:
Lori Skinner
Mikki Razor
Sandi Liss
Monica Kaskey
Katie Earle

Congratulations to all of our new Board Members. Their tenure will begin on July 1. In the interim, the Board Members will be voting for the Officer Positions. The Officer positions will be announced as soon as we get those elections done, which should be the first of June.

B) Membership Development

As the outgoing President, I have charged the new Board with increasing Membership. We are currently at 63 members. So any ideas for increasing and retaining membership are definitely welcome.

C) Membership Officer

The Membership elects this position. It is the only Committee Chair that must be a Board Member. Since we did not have a quorum, we could not vote for this person tonight. So you will be receiving a post from me soon on how we intend to go about this.

D) Financial Report

A copy of our current finances is in the Members only area. If you have questions, please write to our current treasurer at myra@d2care.org

Katrina
President, D2Care

D2Care 2009 Board Elections

We would like to remind you that the voting booth is open for the 2009 D2Care Elections. In order to vote, you will need to have your login and password. If you have not yet created a login and password, this is the time to do so! Voting will continue until May 3, 2009. If you have not created your login and password, and cannot remember your Membership number, please write to any of the current Board Members and request your number. If you have created a login and password, but cannot remember them, please write to our webmaster at Jennifer@d2care.org for assistance.

Please go here to enter the Members only area of the website. http://www.d2care.org/membersonly/

After signing into the Members only area, you will be taken to the Welcome Page. Before clicking on the “Ready to Vote” link, please take time to read the biographies of the Candidates. On the Candidates page, we have added a new component as well. You will find the summary of the Question and Answer Session from the Members Meeting on March 15, 2009. You are voting for 5 Board positions, and there are 6 Candidates.

While visiting the website, have a look around. We have a few new pages. http://www.d2care.org/aid/ will take you to an entirely new section. If you scroll down to Aid Awarded, you will get to view the new pages which show the deaf dogs that your D2Care Members Dues and Donations have helped since 2007.

At the request of some of those folks supporting us, and some wondering why they should, we have also added a directory for what information lives in the Members Only Pages. http://www.d2care.org/membersonly/whatsinhere.php

Are you a writer? Do you want to share your deaf dog knowledge, experience, or training ideas? Please step forward and let us know! We are always on the look-out for new articles for the D2Care website, and would love to hear your idea. At this time, we’re particularly interested in articles on “later onset” deafness (as from aging, illness, or medical complications) as opposed to the congenital that we tend to focus on.

Katrina
President, D2Care
www.d2care.org

Have you ever wanted to have direct input into the running of a nonprofit organization? February 15 is the last day to submit your application for the Board of Directors of D2Care. We have 5 positions to fill. Time Commitment is about an hour a week. And you will be on the front lines helping to make the decisions to chart the course of D2Care’s future.

Candidates will be asked to attend the Members Meeting scheduled for March 15, times to be announced. This meeting is intended to give our membership an opportunity to ask questions of the candidates. As an additional reminder, in order to vote in the upcoming elections, your dues need to be paid and current by February 15, 09.

To apply, answer these questions.

Board Candidacy Entry Form
Name:
State/country of residence:
Are you over 21? Yes (__) No (__)
Member of D2Care since: ________________________
Do you have a computer and internet access? Yes (__) No (__)
Do you belong to another national or international organization or group with substantially the same purpose and objectives as D2Care? Yes (__) No (__) If yes, please describe:
Do you agree to abide by the Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws and other policies of D2Care? Yes (__) No (__)
Do you belong to an internet dog list or group? Yes (__) No (__) If yes, please describe all.
What dog related activities have you participated in? (Examples: rescue, agility?)
Do you or have you owned a deaf dog? Yes (__) No (__)What do you think the D2Care needs to accomplish in the next 12 months?
Where do you see D2Care being in the next four years?
What do you see your role as in accomplishing this plan?

Once complete, send the Entry Form to the Membership Development Committee, using this link:

http://www.d2care.org/aboutus/committees.php

(you will need to scroll to the Membership Development Committee and click on “contact”.

If you are not sure you are a qualified candidate, the criteria for sitting on the Board Of Directors is:

1. Be over 21 years old;
2. Be a Member in good standing of D2Care for one (1) year, or a Charter Member, whichever is less;
3. Have own reliable computer with e-mail or internet access;
4. May not be a Board Member or Committee Member of a national or international group or organization with substantially the same purposes and objectives as D2Care;
5. Agrees to abide by the D2Care Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, all other D2Care rules and regulations, and promises to promote the health, welfare, and quality of life for deaf dogs.