Volunteer Appreciation continues with
#TelephoneTuesday.
So, you just filled out an application to adopt a dog from us. Then what happens? Today we pay tribute to our volunteers that handle the critical process of evaluating our applicants.
First up is the vet and reference checks. Our volunteers talk to 3 references from each applicant and then we move on to the vet check. We verify that current and past pets have had annual well visit exams, have been kept current on vaccinations and receive annual heartworm tests. We also make sure that there is a consistent history of purchasing heartworm preventative.
If everything checks out, a different group of volunteers will do the phone interviews. They talk with every applicant and learn more about their experience, home life, lifestyle and what they are looking for in a dog. The phone interviewer provides a detailed overview of the conversation to the adoption committee for consideration.
The final step in the process is the home visit, done by an entirely different team of volunteers. Home visits have always been done in person, but during COVID we aren't able to do that. Our volunteers adapted to virtual home visits without skipping a beat. We help people who aren't tech savvy to navigate the process on Zoom, FaceTime or Messenger. They tour their houses and their yards. They talk to families that are experienced with rescues and those that aren't. They answer questions and provide information about what to expect. Some calls are 30 minutes and others are more than an hour if they need to answer a lot of questions. When the calls are done, they fill out a detailed online form to share this information with the adoption committee.
Lastly, each volunteer on the adoption committee evaluates all the information collected and votes to approve or deny an applicant. Once the decision has been made, an email goes out to the applicant. These decisions are made with careful consideration from an experienced and impartial group of volunteers. If you applied and were not approved, it's not personal, and we take steps to explain the reasons for denial. Most often, this process takes one to two weeks in total and ait truly takes a village to get it done!
A great big THANK YOU to all of our volunteers that spend so many hours on this process each and every week!