Brave volunteer

Brave Companion Dog Rescue is in a poor state at the moment. It’s a very small organisation, very under-resourced. Recently one of the top volunteers resigned because she felt used and abused, and there are similar murmurings from others.

One of the problems is too much work, too few people to do it. The people who are there are absolutely flogged with work. The main problem however is lack of organisation. There is no real management committee to speak of, no regular meetings. The whole thing runs under Ludelle’s direction, and it is a mammoth task.

Ludelle works incredibly hard, taking responsibility for looking after the pound dogs, and handling most of the phone call enquiries about re-homing, She is the group’s primary contact with council, media and other groups, and it’s main liaison between volunteer carers. She is the group’s driving force, she is also the force that drives people away. She is extremely dedicated to her cause, she is also inflexible and unfocused and frustrating to deal with.

Since agreeing to take over the bookkeeping from former Treasurer I’ve felt drawn against my will into doing more for the group, many times I’ve regretted the impulse that took me there in the first place. There is such a great need for people to do things, and no end to the dogs coming into the programme. As well as the bookkeeping, I still go to the pound once a week to walk the dogs, and look after data entry and filing of the adoption paperwork . Since Jenny resigned, I’ve now taken over maintenance of the web site, and keep a check on emails. Today I drove over to one of the carer’s to take photos of dogs for the web site.

I must be going crazy because there is a scheme in my head to put my hand up for the Secretary’s position, and take charge of getting regular meetings happening. It badly needs to be done, although I don’t know how Ludelle will react when the group starts having a greater say in the decisions. She may not like some of them.