Shelter’s Andrea Murphy: Volunteer Program Restarted, Five Active After 23 Applications

Shelter’s Andrea Murphy: Volunteer Program Restarted, Five Active After 23 Applications
Andrea Murphy, Operations Superintendent

During the Animal Advisory Board meeting, Andrea Murphy, identified as Operations Superintendent, gave a detailed update on the shelter’s volunteer program, including how many people applied, how many followed through, and what volunteers are currently allowed to do.

Murphy said the shelter has restarted volunteering and held orientation with a small group after weather delayed the original date. “We have started our volunteer program,” she said. “I had orientation with a five volunteers on January 31. It was supposed to be the Saturday before that, but… it was a wind chill of like negative teens and lots of snow. So we actually postponed it a week.” Murphy said the shelter received “23 applications,” but only “five new volunteers… came to that orientation.” She added, “Seven of the 23 never responded to my attempt at contact, and eight declined to move forward,” and said “there were two accepted volunteers that did not come to the orientation or even tell me they were not coming.”

Murphy said the shelter is managing volunteers through a written manual and scheduled shifts. “We do have the five that have gone through the volunteer orientation, received our volunteer manual that states all of our expectations,” she said, adding that the shelter is “using a scheduling app… that has available shifts that any of those volunteers can pick up. That way, we know when they are coming.” Murphy said volunteers are “expected to pick up a shift in order to come,” so staff can “make sure we have the staff, we have supplies needed for what they are doing… and the ability to get them into the shelter.”

Murphy also outlined the roles volunteers can currently perform, saying the shelter has “four positions right now.” Those include a housekeeping role (“things like laundry… making adoption bags… putting the cardboard… boxes together”), a cat socializing role (“play with the cats… get them out of the kennels and socialize them”), a dog enrichment role (“making those enrichment toys… spending time with the dogs”), and a photo and video role to help create content for social media and a lobby display screen showing adoptable animals and shelter information.

On dog walking, Murphy was direct: “No, we are not going to use volunteers to walk dogs,” she said, explaining the shelter wants to ensure walking happens “to state standard,” including “the multiple times a day… two times a day… for a certain amount of time outside.”

The board also discussed volunteer and foster background checks, including concerns about requiring Social Security numbers. Murphy said that process is not controlled at the shelter level, stating it is “above us at the shelter… that is city… through the human resources department that do the background checks.” Jacob Wood told the board he would look into whether there is an alternative method, while emphasizing the city still needs background checks for liability reasons.

The volunteer program update was presented as part of broader shelter operations discussion during the meeting.

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