A.S.A.P. Alonnisos Society for Animal Protection.

Held on Tuesday 16th June 2009 At Annie and Les’s House in Votsi. Present: Chairperson - Julia Browne, Secretary - Annie Green, Treasurer - Les Green, Committee members - Craig Sinclair, Dinah Sinclair, Nik Ivison, Lyn Ivison, Mike Holmes Dianne Lewin The meeting commenced at 19:05 Before the meeting commenced the Secretary handed the minutes of the last committee meeting to the new members of the current committee. Apologies and Chairperson address. There were no apologies. Julia welcomed the new committee to the first meeting and said that she hoped that we could all work together successfully. She then thanked Annie and Les for hosting the meeting. Julia said that a number of thanks were in order. The charity vet who visited recently was a great success, she was a lovely person and very efficient. Thanks were extended to Nik and Lyn for their hospitality to the Vet, to Dinah who transported animals to and fro, to Andrew Lewin who collected cats, Guy Routh for his help and Margaret Halliday, who provided new collecting tins. Julia then thanked Mike for making alterations to the stall to create storage space and weatherproofing. There will be a plaque at the stall in memory of Dick Dendy who built it initially. We also have t-shirts supplied by Will and Colin Oosterveld. Julia also said that a copy of the licence is on the stall should anyone be asked about it. There are also amended membership forms and the old forms should be disposed of. Julia also thanked those who raised money for ASAP by a sponsored swim. She said that there is a newsletter due and, although she has quite a lot of material for it, she would appreciate more “stories”. She said that she would appreciate help with including photographs in the newsletter and either Mike or Les will do that. Julia reported that a lady had taken two kittens to Germany recently and also gave us a donation. On the down side however, there are still a lot of kittens being dumped in bins; if anyone finds any please let her know. Secretaries report As there was nothing that could be discussed regarding the previous minutes, Annie just asked Julia if she had spoken to George Michael about charging non members with private pets, so that ASAP would be reimbursed a little for his travelling and accommodation. She said that as he was so busy she did not have a chance to, but it is something that needs to be addressed soon. Annie asked if the Domain name had been locked; Julia asked Mike who said that it has. Annie then thanked Julia and Michaela Kiriannikis for obtaining the licence and getting permission from the Port Police to set up the stall in the Port. She said that she opened the stall on Saturday 13th June 2009 and so far it had been manned every day, though she does need more volunteers. Annie had a report from a lady, staying at the Atrium Hotel, of a small kitten which had something wrong with its foot, it was eating and drinking but was obviously in distress. She reported it to Julia who collected it but sadly it was too damaged to save. The lady however is great in her praise at how quickly we responded and said she will donate something before she leaves the Island. A lady visited the stall and said she gives 50 euros every year and will do so again. Also a girl, with a beautiful dog, said that she was from Athens but visits other Greek islands and she was impressed at how well the animals look here. She gave a donation and bought goods from the stall. Annie said she sent a thank you email to Chris Browne and to Bert Dendy for swimming for ASAP recently. Chris raised 135 euros but she had not been informed of how much Bert raised as he was still collecting sponsorship money. Annie said that the group that are fund raising have said that they will be giving ASAP a donation of €350 to use towards any drugs we need. Treasurers report Les said that we had received a large donation from a Charity group that Ellen Stucki is involved with in Switzerland. He said that we are currently spending around 900 euros a month on cat food and that cannot continue. Mike said that we should not have to feed the animals as much in the summer as there is enough fresh food around for them to find. Les said that he had spoken to Takis and we could have Friskies dry food at 36 euros for 20kg and that it is a good idea to get them to mix the three types of biscuit so that the cats get a variety. He said that he told Takis that he would see him after this meeting to formally ask him to start selling to us at the new price. Julia said that she thought that the time has now come for us to consider only putting dry food down for the cats (except kittens or cats unable to eat well) and this was met with approval from the committee. WORKING GROUPS IT and membership Report Mike said that there was nothing much to report. The website is up and running with the new address. He said that a copy of the Constitution and the latest minutes are posted on it, but other information is needed. Mike said that he had received an email from someone concerned about the pony which was reported in one of the newsletters. Julia said that Guy and Jane have been looking after it over the winter and it is looking better. Les suggested that a photograph should be taken and an update of it’s condition should now be reported in the newsletter. Julia asked Mike if she could have a copy of the complete list of members and Mike handed her a copy but then asked if anyone else would like to take over the running of the membership. Craig asked what it entailed and Mike said that he had all the information in a folder and explained briefly what needed to be done. Craig agreed to take it over. Annie explained that when someone completes a form, it is handed to her with the money. The details are noted and the money given to the Treasurer and then the form is handed to him. Julia asked Mike if she could have a copy of the complete list of members and Mike handed her a copy but then asked if anyone else would like to take over the running of the membership. Craig asked what it entailed and Mike said that he had all the information in a folder and explained briefly what needed to be done. Craig agreed to take it over. Annie explained that when someone completes a form, it is handed to her with the money. The details are noted and the money given to the Treasurer and then the form is handed to him. There was some discussion regarding how people abroad could get their subscriptions to ASAP each year and Pay Pal was an option that had previously been looked at. However, it was not an option for ASAP at the moment. Mike believed that 3 years tax returns were needed. Feeding Group Julia asked where people were currently feeding cats. Les gave Julia a list of feeding stations and an idea of how it could be controlled, she said she will use this form as a guide. Julia then asked everyone to state where they fed the cats and who was feeding them at other stations and these reports she noted. She then said she had a strange thing to report to the committee. She had been reprimanded by the Mayor and a Port Policeman, who is also on the Licensing committee in Skopelos, and she was told not to feed any cats in the Port area. It was pointed out to her that we have a licence to run the stall in the Port, but not to feed the cats. She said that she did not know we needed a licence to feed cats, nevertheless, we are not allowed to do so in future. Julia said that what she wants to do now is to go to the Mayor and say that she will feed the cats one more time and then take pictures which will be sent to the newspapers. Craig said that if the cats are not fed by us they will all gravitate to the Tavernas. There was a lot of discussion about this, but Craig pointed out that we have to be seen to do as they want. One thing discussed was that we should put a poster on the Stall and on the bins at the Port informing the Tourists that unfortunately we have been forbidden to feed the cats by the Port Police. Lyn said that Anja, the charity vet that visited the Island recently, had said that we do not need the wet food except for kittens and Les said that if there are kittens or an injured cat then a small amount of food should be put down. Julia said that Chris Lightfoot has two small kittens, one of which has been poorly, but they are both eating well. He is concerned because he and Debbie leave the Island soon for about five weeks. Someone should be feeding the cats daily but the kittens do need a bit of attention and he wondered if the committee could organise something. Dinah and Craig offered to go to his house regularly to give some tlc. Annie said that they (Chris and Debbie) were not members but Julia said that in any event they were very generous if their pets needed treatment. As she was seeing Debbie following the meeting Annie said she would ask about membership, tell them that Craig and Dinah would check on their kittens and also warn them about feeding the cats at the Port as that is something Chris does. Julia said that the various shelters need a good clean before the end of summer. Annie suggested that maybe we could organise a work party at the end of the season. Vetinerinery group Julia said that Anja neutered about 20 cats and some dogs. She also did many house calls. Guy and Julia made follow up calls. George Michael is to visit in July but the date has not been fixed yet. Because of the amount of work Anja did, the supply of drugs we keep has been depleted by quite a lot. George can be asked to get us some and some can be obtained from Thessaloniki. The donation from Beau’s group is therefore most welcome. Julia said that we have a promise of another free Vet in November. It was pointed out that Anja loves animals and she was a very nice and good Vet, it is to be hoped that she can come back sometime. Fund Raising goup Julia thanked people who had already raised money, particularly Jeff and Jan and those that are involved in running the quiz nights. Annie said that Beau’s group want us to give them a wish list of items we may like to have, so that they can save for this and donate it to ASAP. If we want drugs or are in desperate need of cash for something that would be provided if available. Julia objected to this as she said they are using ASAP’s name on the posters and so all the money raised should be given to ASAP unconditionally. Annie pointed out that if they do not use the name of ASAP anyone reading the poster may not attend the fund raising event as they would not know which Charity it was for. Annie said that Beau’s group work extremely hard in raising money. They are very good at organising and running events and give a lot of their time. Not only that but this group of people attend all the fund raising events and put their own money into it as well. It is in the interest of ASAP that we accept what they want to do for us. Annie then said she would like to propose that if Beau’s group raise funds for us that they may hold the money and donate to ASAP either in the form of material things that ASAP may need, or indeed in cash if appropriate, also that they may use ASAP on their advertising material. After some discussion, Annie said she had made a proposal and did someone want to second it, Lyn and Craig said they would and it is minuted that Lyn seconded the proposal and the proposal was passed by 8 votes for and none against. Julia asked that it be minuted that she is strongly against this proposal. The “wish list” was discussed and one or two items were mentioned, namely a table of a good height, though this was thought to be not necessary. Annie said she had telephoned George to ask if he could get some prices for sterilizers and he said he would. He suggested that a good light was necessary. Julia said that she thought it a waste of money to buy something that would only be used 6 day a year. Julia said if the group want to get us anything she would like them to get a Chip Scanner. Any other business Julia said she had brought to the meeting some boxes of things that Andrea Klemm and Alex Watson had found which might be useful for sale on the stall or as prizes at the quiz nights. Annie said she would sort through them. Les said we need to update our stationery with our logo, new web address and include documentation control. Julia said she had produced some new Membership forms and Les said they needed to have some extra wording on them, which he had done. Les to update all standard documents and implement a system of documentation control. There was a discussion about business cards and Craig and Dinah know of somewhere that we could possibly get them, the result was that Julia suggested that Les, Craig and Dinah get together and sort something out. Craig asked if Les could email him the ASAP logo Les said anyone familiar with BS5750 Quality Management Systems would understand about Action Points (A.P’s). After explaining the system it was agreed a good idea by the committee and that we implement henceforth. The next meeting is set for Tuesday 4th August 2009 at Craig and Dinah’s house in Patitiri. Commencing at 19:00.