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Operations News- December 2024

What a difference a year makes

I can’t believe it’s been a year since being elected as Operations Director. Although this position was my second rodeo, I found that the basic framework still held. The first item on the agenda was to build a team. Our operations team is one of the best. Together, we brainstormed with one question. How can we do better?

During the last annual meeting, we set some lofty goals. Together with our team, we achieved or made significant progress. Let me tell you about some of them.

Adopter Education

Health and Welfare

  • All new intakes are equipped with GPS monitoring devices. We are also providing harnesses and the usual Martingale collar.
  • Wellness checks are now more comprehensive and include complete blood panels, urinalysis and fecal exams. We also negotiated a fixed price for each new hound, resulting in savings of more than 151% compared to last year’s vet costs. In short, we are now getting “more bang for our buck.”

Pairing

  • We have stepped up our focus on matching dogs with prospective adopters. During the hound’s foster stay (an average of 10 days), the foster is sent a questionnaire. The information provided by the foster gives us a very good idea of the hound’s temperament, likes and dislikes. This tool has been invaluable in more precisely placing these hounds and has resulted in fewer bounce-backs.
  • New adopters also have a 10-day trial period to ensure the hound is successfully integrating into the household. During this time, a member of the operations team frequently contacts the new owner to give guidance.

Efficiency

  • This passion requires record-keeping, communication, file uploading and copious note-taking. Our current systems were meant for something other than a single-breed adoption group, thus limiting our ability to accurately document and track our hounds. We have contracted with a wonderful company that tailored our database to what we do best … adopt and care for greyhounds. As a bonus, we will be getting a new website! It may be live by the time you read this. Double bonus: This system will save us over $1,800 per year.

Thank you!

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. As you can see, it’s been a busy and very productive year. However, this is not the work of one person; it is the work of many dedicated folks who all share a passion for caring for and seeing retired greyhounds living their best lives. For that, we thank you.

Wishing you and yours a Greyt holiday season. As for us, we’ll always be …

Moving forward,

Nancy


Nancy Lynberg is Operations Director of Southern Arizona Greyhound Adoption and can be reached at nancy@sagreys.org.