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

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

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

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

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.

In order to be eligible for voting in this election, your membership application and dues must be received by February 15. Directions to the Members Only Chatroom will be provided prior to the March and May Members Only Meetings. Directions on entering the Voting Booth on the D2Care Website will be provided prior to the start of voting.

Katrina
President,
D2Care

Board Elections-Policy Statement

Board elections will occur every two years, on odd years. Only half of the Board positions will be replaced every two years with a 5/4/5/4 pattern.

1. In January of the appropriate year, an announcement will be made to the Membership that candidate applications are being accepted. These applications will be forwarded to the Membership Development Committee. (see the Bylaws for eligibility criteria: http://www.d2care.org/aboutus/bylaws/article3.php).January 20, 2009 (http://www.d2care.org/aboutus/committees.php)
2. In mid-February, no further candidate entries will be accepted. The Membership Development Committee will review the candidate applications to assure compliance with eligibility criteria. February 15, 2009
3. The 1st Sunday of March, approved applications will be posted on the organizations website in the “Members only” section. The Membership will have approximately 2 weeks to review the entry applications. March 1, 2009
4. The Membership Meeting on the 3rd Sunday of March will be used primarily for Members to ask questions of the candidates. March 15, 2009
5. The electronic voting booth will be opened the day following the Members meeting. The voting booth is in the “Members Only” section of the organizations website. March 16, 2009
6. Voting will continue until the 1st Sunday of May. Periodic reminders will be sent to Members to assure as many Members as possible the opportunity to vote. May 3, 2009
7. The Membership Development Committee will review the electronic election results, comparing with their handwritten results for accuracy.
8. The announcement will be made to the Membership at the Members meeting the 3rd Sunday of May. The agenda for this meeting will include the Treasurers report. May 17, 2009

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?

We now have 16 Affiliate organizations on our website. The organizations range from The Disney Store, to JB Pets, to 1-800-pet-meds, to Amazon and Dogwise Books. When merchandise is purchased through our website using the links provided, we will receive a percentage of the total sales. At the same time, the purchase does not cost you anything additional. Please go to : http://www.d2care.org/supportus/bonus.php and take a look.

Our Aid Committee has worked hard to complete the application and criteria for Aid for both rescues and individuals. The Applications will never be 100% complete as something always comes up that requires a small change. We have provided funds to several rescues this year. The Annual Treasurers Report will reflect the funds that D2Care has sent out for helping deaf dogs.

Our Charter Membership Certificates were completed and mailed in the early part of the year. I want to thank the Merchandise Committee for their excellent work. The Merchandise Committee also issued our first “product” this year. Beautiful sweatshirts. They were a big hit but a onetime sale. However, we now have t-shirts available. These are not a onetime sale but available as part of our product package. http://www.d2care.org/supportus/merch.php will take you to the order page. They are available to members and non-members alike. Our next product endeavor is window clings.

In the early part of the year, we had our two Members Meetings. In March, we had some major difficulty with the Chat room, and so, by May, our webmaster found us a new Chat Room. This one seems to be working excellently. And, by the way, we have our Members Meeting to kick off this year’s elections on March 15.

Our Community Outreach Committee created a D2Care brochure. It has already been used at one event, and will be used again this month at another. If interested in printing up copies or having copies mailed to you, contact our Community Outreach Committee at http://www.d2care.org/contacts/d2care.php?id=outreach

The Adopt-A-Dog pages have faced the greatest challenge. They are still in progress, primarily as a result of lack of volunteers to not only beta test the pages, but also to commit to maintaining the pages as information is sent in about deaf dogs in need.

Board Elections 2009
We will be filling 5 board positions this year. Current Board Members that will be stepping down are: Myra Ellis, Lori Skinner, Kara Gilmore, Monica Kaskey, and Laura Brown. Eligible candidates must:
Be a Member in good standing for one year, or a charter member, whichever is less
Be over 21 years old
Have own reliable computer with e-mail or internet access
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
Agree to abide by the Bylaws, Articles of Incorporation, other D2Care rules and regulations, and promote the health, welfare and quality of life for deaf dogs.

More information about the upcoming elections, including the Candidates questionnaire will be forthcoming by the end of January.

Thank You,
Katrina
President, D2Care

Review of May meeting minutes moved to end of Sept board meeting as moved by Monica. Becca 2nd the motion. Motion passed.
III. Treasurer Report:
a) Kara motioned to accept the treasurer’s report and file. Myra seconded the motion. Motion passed.
IV. Committees:
a) Membership Development committee: 3rd reminder sent out for dues – 4 said they forgot and would mail their checks ASAP, one said could not afford it this year and had dropped all memberships but to keep up the good work, and one said mailed the check and we must not have received it but would mail another ASAP.
b) Community Outreach committee: In final stage of approval for the informational brochure. Many new suggestions have slowed the final approval but the brochure should be done shortly; next task to investigate various means of distribution for the brochure. The initial plan is to create as many options as possible and no/low cost. This will be discussed immediately after the final approval; committee will then be looking for suggestions on ideas for future projects. If you have any ideas, please pass them along.
c) Merchandise committee: Received an order of T-Shirts (royal blue with white imprint) and is waiting for a sales page on the web so sales can begin. The committee will next look into pricing for logo imprinted window clings.
d) Grants & Affiliates committee: No new activity in previous reporting period.
e) Web committee: No report.
f) Aid committee: Waiting for dispersal of funds.

Myra motioned to file the reports as written. Becca seconded the motion. Motion passed.
V. Old Business:
VI. New Business:
* Survey – including survey in the dues reminder to find out why people are not renewing. Only 6 responded out of approximately 30 that received the survey. Myra motioned to have Kara send a list of non-renews to the board list to have board members contact and ask the non-renewers why they are not renewing. Kara seconded the motion. Motion passed.
* T-shirts – Royal blue with white logo t-shirts now in stock. Webpage will be set up for orders.
VII. Comments/Questions/Additional Items:

Lori motioned to adjourn the meeting. Myra seconded the motion. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 6:26pm PST.

Attendance: Jennifer Laus, Katrina McGinnis, Myra Ellis, Laura Brown, Monica Kaskey, Rhonda Champion, Kara Gilmore, Lori Skinner, and Becca Incledon

Review of May 4, 2008 Meeting Minutes:
* 05.04.08 meeting minutes – deferred to September meeting to allow board members time to review the meeting minutes after Monica post the meeting minutes. Katrina motioned to defer the May meeting minutes until September. Motion passed.

Treasurer Report:
* Myra reported that the bank sent notice that they will start charging fees for service, so Myra will look for another no-cost bank before September.
* Treasurer’s report accepted and filed.

Committees:
* Membership Development committee: Emailed renewal letters on May 25th. Still have members who have not renewed yet. Another round of renewal letters will go out on July 14th (a month behind). Bylaws state that members are considered delinquent from July 1 to July 30 then they are terminated. Becca motioned to use the word lapse in both types of mailings (email and snail mail) and on the website. Motion passed.
* Rhonda moved the word Lapse/lapsed replace the words terminated or expire in any reference to membership. Motion passed.
* Myra moved to take revisions of the renewal letter to the board list for final wording. Jennifer seconded Myra’s motion. Motion passed.

* Community Outreach committee: Rhonda moved to allow Monica to revise the brochure and present it to the board via email. Laura seconded the motion. Motion passed.

* Merchandise committee: no report

* Grants & Affiliates committee: No new activity to report.

* Web committee: No report.

* Aid committee: Aid applications approved.

Old Business:
No old business.

New Business:
* Per Bylaws, the Bylaws committee has 120 days to bring any recommendations back to the Board. Not much action has been taken due to people being busy. Myra moved to lift the time constraint and the work will continue on the committee list with due diligence being put forth to complete work on anything needed that is pending or upcoming. Laura seconded the motion. Motion passed.
* Jennifer motioned that the board discuss regenerating interest in D2Care to the Board list. Kara seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Business to be completed on the Board List, Committee Lists, or at the next board meeting:
* Katrina’s proposal on how to deal with delinquent renewal dues.
* Monica will revise the community outreach brochure and present it to the board via the Board email list.
* Monica will post the May meeting minutes to the files.
* Myra will search for another bank that does not charge fees for service.
* Discussion on how to regenerate interest in D2Care will take place on the Board email list.

Katrina moved to adjourn the meeting. Kara seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 7:03pm PST.

Attendance: Jennifer Laus, Katrina McGinnis, Myra Ellis, Kara Gilmore, Monica Kaskey, Rhonda Champion, Becca Incledon and Lori Skinner.
Absent: Laura Brown

Review of Meeting Minutes of March 2008:
* Laura was not in attendance for questions about the March 2, 2008 meeting minutes. Katrina asked if there are any changes or additions/deletions. There were none.
* Motion to accept March 2, 2008 meeting minutes as posted by Becca, seconded by Monica. Motion Passed.

Treasurer Report:
* Katrina requested the treasurer’s report be put into the Members Only area to prepare for the next Members meeting by May 18th. Jennifer and Myra agreed to do so.  Accepted and filed.

Committees:
* Web committee: See Adopt-A-Dog (below).

* Adopt-A-Dog committee: Slowly but surely getting this together, the front-end face needs more testing.

* Aid Committee: D2Care donated to a rescue in the west. It was determined that the surgery was not needed and the money was returned. The application is still a work-in-progress and would benefit from more input from committee members. An application was mailed for a Fox Terrier in need, but the application was not returned.

* Bylaws Committee: Will continue working on the bylaws

* Grants & Affiliates: No new information.

* Market and Merchandise committee: Sweatshirts will be sent this coming week

* Outreach Committee: Working on brochure for distribution, will continue looking for ideas and feedback on the draft in the near future

Old Business:
* The Paypal option on the D2Care Myspace page has been deleted because of technical difficulties. There is now a link to the D2Care website for those interested in donating.
* The Calendar fundraiser project will be taken off the board agenda until more information is gathered.

New Business:
* Members Meeting (May 18th) Agenda was discussed. Already on the agenda is the financial review. Only new item suggestion is to include a question/answer/idea time for members. Katrina indicated that she and Kara will come up with something to cue the group to provide input on how D2Care is doing. The agenda is to be completed and posted this week.
* The format of the chat room was discussed. Due to the technical difficulties from the previous member meeting, it was determined that a new format be chosen. Jennifer agreed to do research on other chat room options and possible back-up options. Summary: Chat room will be changed, using the same meeting protocol as the previous meeting.
* Member dues renewal process: Kara posted a renewal letter for input. It was requested that more time be given to Board members to look over the letter and come up with suggestions. After discussion about past renewal practices Myra made a motion to email the first, snail mail the second and email the final renewal reminders to members seconded by Becca. Motion Passed.

Comments/Questions/Additional Items:
None.

Monica moved to adjourn the meeting. Myra seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 6:47pm PST.