Let's Adopt! New Structure

Good morning…

This is an important email. If you are a member of Let’s Adopt and care the slightest about what we do you want to read this message.

Organization:

Let’s Adopt is a Movement.  From the beginning we shied away from the Association concept for a number of reasons, namely:

1. Most of the chaos and horrors companion animals experience in this country is caused by an inability/lack of will, of the government to implement its own animal welfare law. It would be a terrible conflict of interest to allow ourselves to be regulated by the Organization comission and we would always be under threat of being closed down. After a months and a few arguments about political correctness we would be shot down. In a country with a tradition of shooting down political parties last thing we want is to be shot down by some bureaucrat who doens’t like animals in the first place.
2. Not to be registered allowed us independence, total freedom of movement, action and speech. Something that many organizations in this country simply, do not enjoy.
On the other hand being unregistered meant we would be severely limited when it came to fund raising.

Funds:

In an ideal world Let’s Adopt would never be in need to fund raise.

Let’s Adopt doesnt only mean getting a dog or cat home and care for him for the rest of his life.  Let’s Adopt means completely owning up to your responsibilities, and rescuing, my friends, is a great responsibility. To rescue an animal from the street and then call us and ask us to take him immediately because you already have a Golden or a Siamese is not rescuing, is moving the trash from one place to another.

Believe it or not this is what a large number of the members of this group consider “rescuing”.

At the beginning I allowed this situation to happen, the numbers were small enough so I financed everything myself, including all veterinary treatments and transport of the animal to his final home. Those of you who simply dumped your rescues on to me will know what I am talking about. There have been of course, many of you who played by the rules, who owned up to your responsibility from the beginning to end.  To you I thank you, because we couldn’t have achieved what we did otherwise.

The situation has, however, ran out of control. Our trust system has been abused by our members, so many times, that in the end has become unsustainable and it will crash unless I do something about it.
Viktor, come here, get this dog and pay for everything, treatments, transport expenses…

Those days are over. From today Let’s Adopt wont accept a single more case who is not fully sponsored by the “rescuer”. Quite simply, if you don’t commit and own up to your responsibilities, from beginning to end, you are on your own. Of course, your alternative is to dump your trash on Asude Ustaoglu (Uskudar Shelter) or Sema Mandev (Gurpinar Sheleter)… The problem is that, if you do that, the animal will die in a matter of days as you all know by know the deplorable conditions of shelters in this country of us.

Logistics:

Let’s Adopt has the largest number of members of any organization of its kind in Turkey.

Our international audience has enabled us to expand internationally and today we are operating in the US, Canada, South Africa and Germany. We will hopefully be expanding onto Spain and Italy in September.

What we did was to create a brand, a brand with its own history, traditions and rituals, and a brand that people felt very strongly connected with. Those of you who work with us know precisely what I mean. This achievement couldnt have happen without your support and involvement, but let’s face it, most of the work is done by a ridiculously number of people, taking dogs for treatment, moving dogs to foster homes, screening applicants, basically everything you see happening on Viktor Larkhill’s homepage happens because one person works from six in the morning to two in the evening, every day, including birthdays.
I am, of course, assisted by a small number of hardcore volonteers, but this assistance only happens when I pick up the phone or send an email and ask for help. To witness such friendship and loyalty is a source of pride to me, and very flattering, but this system is also very inefficient.

If Let’s Adopt is to continue operating, and growing, I need to be able to delegate tasks, entire areas of work onto volunteers, whilst being completely sure that those tasks will be performed fully, from beginning to end without the expectation of financial reward,  simply because YOU share the same passion about the mission of Let’s Adopt as I do.
Volunteers who will be there, no matter what, no excuses. Volunteers who will not disappear after offering help.

It is my goal for the future to turn Let’s Adopt into a professional organization, but this will not happen for at least another six months to a year. I am currently considering several possibilities and legal structures that will enable me to hire professionals and to pay competitive salaries.
But for now, I need to be able to create a working system. To create several departments and leave them entirely in the hands of carefully chosen teams of volunteers who will report on the weekly progress. Like in any company, if those people in charge fail to perform the organization will crumble… the difference being that if it crumbles, animals will pay with their lives and suffering.

We need to create the following departments:

Logistics: We need to put together a team of at least two people to handle occasional transports of animals from their current location to their foster/final homes, veterinarians, pensions, airport…
Heatlh-care: We need two people to answer email questions related to health -care and/or direct those questions to our approved vets. Also to keep track of the animals we currently have in clinics across the country.
Hospitality: We need two people to coordinate our network of foster homes and pensions. Keep updated track of which ones are available and which ones are not as well as help us increase the network of foster homes and pensions in Istanbul and in other cities.
Education and Culture: We need two people to run our blog. The text will still be produced by Viktor Larkhill but we will give administrative powers to two volunteers who will be in charge of expanding its audience as well as moderate answers/postings.
Finance: To coordinate payments and raise funds. This one is the tricky one…. If you have any experience in fund raising/accounting/banking etc I am waiting to hear from you.

So this is it for now. 10 people who will do what one has been doing until now. It should be easy.

Please contact me if you want to get involved and be part of this exciting group at the deepest level. Consider this as a chance to truly make a difference in the lives of hundreds of animals and to get to know the nicest bunch of people you are ever likely to meet.

To those who dont wish to have direct involvement we ask you to please invite everyone on your list to Let’s Adopt and to ask their friends to do the same. Make the group grow, we have a long way ahead of us.

Contact: v.larkhill@googlemail.com

Kind regards

Viktor Larkhill