K9COLA Board Goals

Board Goals for 2010:

  • Raise $25,000 for new OLA at Squaw Creek
  • Participate in the St. Patrick's Day Parade
  • Hold a wine tasting fundraiser
  • Break ground and host grand opening for new off-leash area
  • Support American Heart Association with their August walk.
  • Team with CR Rec Department to host K9Splash!
    • Be sure to incorporate improvements/suggestions from ‘09
    • Accurately track volunteer hours
    • Increase attendance by 10%
    • Increase profit by 10%
  • Work with the boy scouts to complete @ least two projects in 2010
  • Hold 4 Recall tests sessions (assumes fees & discounts are reinstated early in year)
  • Complete the FY 2012 Hotel-Motel Tax Grant application (begin working in late August)
  • Participate in Downtown Farmers Markets
  • Accurately track volunteer hours for everyone
  • Complete 2011 Goals by December board meeting 2010.

Board Goals for 2009:

  • Raise $100,000 for off leash-park flood recovery
    Outcome: City is chipping in $125,000 for a new park; we have raised $11,984.15; FEMA estimates $158,000 for old park; found a volunteer (Denise Clark) to design new park; her time/service is usually expensed out at $65/hour for a total value of $2,600 for this year
  • Plan & Design a new Dog Park (possibly including a timeline)
    Outcome: Initial design revealed to Board September 2, 2009
    • What do we want to see?
  • Update Website (Overhaul/facelift)
    Outcome: Found a volunteer designer (Steve Schenck from Ohio) on April 1; unveiled new Web site July 2009
  • Update By-laws
    Outcome: Completed March 20009
  • Support American Heart Association with their August walk.
    Outcome: Completed August 8, 2009
  • Team with CR Rec Department to host K9Splash!
    • Be sure to incorporate improvements/suggestions from ‘08
      Outcome: Completed
    • Increase attendance by 5%
      Outcome: Increased by 34% August 23, 2009
    • Increase profit by 10%
      Outcome: Increased by approximately 8.7% August 23, 2009; 2008 - $2,683.20, 2009 - $2,917.08
  • Work with the boy scouts to complete @ least two projects in 2009
    Outcome: Cindy has started the process for a backgroun check; we currently have no projects for the boy scouts to do.
  • Hold 4 Recall tests sessions (assumes fees & discounts are reinstated early in year)
    Outcome: As of the end of November, no fees have been reinstated and there is no date from the city on when the fees will be reinstated; therefore it hasn't been logical to spend resources on holding recall tests for discounts, when there is no discount to receive.
  • Double the number of our newsletter subscribers
    Outcome: Our first electronic newsletter sent out 10/11/08 went to 1,409 people. Our most recent newsletter went to 1,301 people. Although this may look like we have failed at our goal since it indicates a net loss of 108 people, the newsletter has changed a lot over this time and looking at more data points allows us to get a better understanding of what is happening. Our high number of newsletter subscribers was 1,453 in November '08, and our low was 1,189 in February '09. If we look at just February '09 to present we have seen an increase of 112 subscribers, or almost 10%. This number continues to grow. This could reflect the fact that we have finally established a frequency and content in which people are interested and which they will read.
  • Get a semi permanent feature on gazetteonline.com
    Outcome: Our Public Education Coordinator who established this goal left our organization early in the year, and the position remains vacant, so we have not worked on accomplishing this. We have had a Gazette article written about our organiation and have had three different news segments appear on local television stations. We also launched MySpace and Facebook pages (social networking sites). The Facebook page has been especially successful recruiting "fans" and allowing an easy and quick method for communicating news with our park users. We also received Dog Fancy's Most Determined Volunteer Award, placing us in the top ten dog parks in America!
  • Complete 2010 Goals by December board meeting 2009.
    Outcome: Completed 12/02/09

Board Goals for 2008:

  • Update Use Agreement with the city of Cedar Rapids. (status: pre-empted by flood)
  • Plan improvements in small dog yard and set date for execution of plan. (status: pre-empted by flood)
  • Recruit qualified people to serve on board of directors. (status: done)
  • Continue "Come Join Us" campaign that focuses on retaining and gaining K9COLA members. (status: pre-empted by flood)
  • Continue “Dogs Gone Wild” campaign that focuses on fun events. (status: pre-empted by flood)
  • Participate in 2008 Pet Expo April 26th & 27th at Hawkeye Downs. (status: done)
  • Compile training material for Park Rovers (Park Greeters) and recruit volunteers. (status: pre-empted by flood)
  • Hold four recall test sessions. (status: pre-empted by flood)
  • Support American Heart Association with their August walk. (status: done)
  • Team with Cedar Rapids Recreation Department to host K9Splash! (status: done)
  • Define additional Boy Scout projects. (status: pre-empted by flood)
  • Complete 2009 Goals by end of December 2008. (status: done)