i am going to write this now since it has been brought up and is fresh in my somewhat functioning mind..this way everyone has time to think on these things before we get together as a group.

what kind of things do we need to consider for the future of saints? imagine what we want when i do take a few steps over to the sidelines.

do we want to maintain it strictly as an on site sanctuary only?

do we want to incorporate a larger foster care program or do we want to eventually switch over to an only foster care program with no sanctuary to maintain?

do we want to continue to be a domestic multi-species rescue..including the farm guys like horses and cows?

do we want to expand or faze out our current farm animal rescue program?
do we want to expand or shrink our current companion animal program?
do we want to continue our palliative care program and if so, how are we going to manage the specialized needs of it in the future?

do we want to consider a program to financially help seniors and special needs already in public shelters.... to financially support their medical care to improve their adoptability so they don't need to come into a senior and special needs shelter but can stay where they are until they find a new home?
and if we do this..what kind of restrictions (if any) are we going to place on the shelters not to euthanize if it takes a long time to find them a home.

if saints continues as the primary sanctuary, what plans are we going to put in place to ensure that the standards of care do not slip too low? how are we going to prevent the slide into the danger zones? and in what ways are we going to be able to ensure that all areas of saints at all times remains open and transparent to any and all visitors.

many other local animal welfare societies have chosen to enter the animal control arena...what are the benefits and the risks?...do we want this to possibly happen in the future.. and if not what can we do now to prevent it?

do we eventually want to enter the advocacy, legislation and/or education arena and if so, how are we going to achieve this goal?

do we want to continue with paid staff complementing our volunteer base or do we want to be strictly volunteer? and what are the risks and benefits of both... especially if we still do continue to provide sanctuary care?

how do we want to manage the running of saints...who will be responsible for daily operations..the board? paid staff? or volunteers?who will make long term and /or short term decisions? what tyoes of people will we need on our board?

we currently have a set of operating bylaws that i plagerized from the spca (i figured they had smarter than me lawyers to draw up theirs so they ought to be pretty safe) do we want to continue with those bylaws or do we want to now that we know more about what we are doing...write our own.
and do we want to continue to operate by our mandated mission statement or is it time now to update to match any changes we will be undergoing as well?

or..

do we even want to continue with saints past our life times? do we want to let it just slow down with us and eventually let it peacefully just fade away with us too? it is not like we haven't done more than enough already..no one says that we HAVE to continue.

it sounds kind of complicated and it is and it isn't. the first step is to envison what we want for saints in the future and the second and following steps are just to get us there.