Once each year, Amigos holds a meeting of our members to review the organization’s achievements during the previous year, fill vacancies on the board, and approve plans for the current year. Our annual meeting this year took place on April 4.
During the meeting, I presented a brief report on our activities in 2022, which is available upon request. A summary of our income and expenses in 2022, prepared by Joslyn Lewis, our treasurer, is also available.
Board members are elected for two-year terms. This year seven board members’ terms were expiring. All agreed to serve for another term and were reelected by acclamation. The new board consists of Rosemarie Conde, John Denissen, Saul Helfenbien (all of whose terms are continuing in 2023), and also Joslyn Lewis, Bill Merrell, Tom Reavley, Julia Salido, Suzy Thompson, Jim Sullivan, and Sandra Ward (who were reelected).
Officers of the association are elected for one-year terms. By acclamation the following board members were elected as our officers for 2023: Tom Reavley, president and secretary; Suzy Thompson, vice president; and Joslyn Lewis, treasurer.
The new board’s plans for 2023 focus on sterilization, education, communication, and development.
In the area of sterilization, we plan to continue conducting two sterilization campaigns per month in various locations and to provide training for new campaign volunteers.
Our education plans include recruiting a children’s education coordinator and teacher for our new program entitled Teaching Children Compassion for Animals (already accomplished) and teaching children who attend our sterilization campaigns how to care for and behave with their pets. We will organize other educational events for children as opportunities arise.
As for communication, we have begun to publish articles about our activities more frequently online and in a new format, and we have updated our mass-mailing system. We have also begun providing information about pets’ welfare to adults through twice-monthly interviews on animal-welfare topics on the local TV channel 8’s morning program “Despierta Guanajuato.” We will continue to post frequent messages on social media, and to keep our website up to date.
Our development plans include increasing our donor base and organizing several special events for our donors and volunteers. Finally, we plan to explore the possibility of creating a dog park in the city in collaboration with the municipal government.