Hermitage By-Laws Posts
2008-06-29: Hermitage By-Laws
Category: Hermitage By-Laws
Posted by: KatyH
Ask and ye shall receive. A sympathetic member of the public has gifted me with copies of the Hermitage Cat Shelter By-Laws, current as of the first of this year. There are seven articles, and the document is in a pdf file. Since the board appears to have a genetic predisposition against full disclosure, I am publishing it here as a public service. I remind you that the by-laws of tax exempt nonprofits are mandated as being open to the public under IRS regulations, this is not a violation of anyone's privacy. The document is several pages, so download, start printing, go select your favorite cool monsoon beverage, and then come back and read along with me.
Hermitage Cat Shelter By-Laws
Article I, Section 4 states "The Board shall be composed of no fewer than five (5), nor more than fifteen (15) members..."There are currently five Board Members, so that leaves room for 10 more people. Article 1, Section 3 states "Persons wishing to be considered for nomination as member of the Board of Directors will be asked to submit an application to a member of the Board of Directors in writing and satisfactorily comply with all application requirements currently in effect prior to being accepted as a board member."All three new applicants for the 10 vacant positions this spring were rejected. Tom Tulowitzki, Board President, has specifically stated that they are looking for new Board members who have never been associated with the shelter, and they are unwilling to take volunteers, sponsors, and former staff for that reason. While I can understand not wanting staff on the board due to potential conflict of interest, I find the exclusion of current volunteers and sponsors from consideration for board positions simply astounding.
I find Article IV, Section 5 particularly interesting. The last sentence states "Trainees shall not be entrusted with the unsupervised operation of the shelter". Since no member of the current staff has been there a full month, it would seem that this by-law is being violated pretty regularly. Since there was no Cat Care Manager (head vet tech) for most of June, it would seem that the vet tech staff was totally unsupervised for several weeks this month. But then, the board considers Mary Jo Spring's fundraising background to be sufficient to qualify her as the point of first contact for euthanasia decisions, so perhaps they also consider that enough to supervise a brand-new vet tech staff unable to identify the individual animals they are treating.
Hermitage Cat Shelter By-Laws
Article I, Section 4 states "The Board shall be composed of no fewer than five (5), nor more than fifteen (15) members..."There are currently five Board Members, so that leaves room for 10 more people. Article 1, Section 3 states "Persons wishing to be considered for nomination as member of the Board of Directors will be asked to submit an application to a member of the Board of Directors in writing and satisfactorily comply with all application requirements currently in effect prior to being accepted as a board member."All three new applicants for the 10 vacant positions this spring were rejected. Tom Tulowitzki, Board President, has specifically stated that they are looking for new Board members who have never been associated with the shelter, and they are unwilling to take volunteers, sponsors, and former staff for that reason. While I can understand not wanting staff on the board due to potential conflict of interest, I find the exclusion of current volunteers and sponsors from consideration for board positions simply astounding.
I find Article IV, Section 5 particularly interesting. The last sentence states "Trainees shall not be entrusted with the unsupervised operation of the shelter". Since no member of the current staff has been there a full month, it would seem that this by-law is being violated pretty regularly. Since there was no Cat Care Manager (head vet tech) for most of June, it would seem that the vet tech staff was totally unsupervised for several weeks this month. But then, the board considers Mary Jo Spring's fundraising background to be sufficient to qualify her as the point of first contact for euthanasia decisions, so perhaps they also consider that enough to supervise a brand-new vet tech staff unable to identify the individual animals they are treating.
