Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Points from the Regional Board meeting


Lots of animal welfare activity going on, but the economic situation will mean retrenchment in many areas. In the East region, education posts falling vacant will not be filled, and the Branch Development Advisers will be reduced from 5 to 4. It seems to be generally felt that the RSPCA is in a better position than it was in the 2002 downturn, but we still need to make savings overall of £9 Million on the RSPCA's total annual budget.

As the cost of boarding animals until they can be rehomed is such a large part of the budget of both Region and the Branches, we need to redouble our efforts to achieve rapid throughput of animals.  We also need to work to increase income from sources which are under our control, such as our charity shops, visits to animal centres etc.

The new "Facing the Future" tool to help branch committees analyse their own branch's strengths and weaknesses will be coming into operation this year, following last year's trial. Committees will be asked to complete the spreadsheet immediately following their AGMs, when their annual report and accounts are freshly out, so that the analysis can be as relevant as possible. The spreadsheet records finances, numbers of volunteers, branch resources (e.g. shops, animal centres, clinics), current levels of animal welfare activities and what could be done to increase provision of welfare services in the branch area.

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