Costa Animal Society AGM

We held our AGM on Friday 13th April at the Nerja Club Hotel.

President’ Address

Good afternoon and welcome to the Cas 2012 AGM.

Again I start with the very difficult financial circumstances brought on by the recession. Our donations have all but dried up. However the backbone of our volunteers have been wonderful. The market people turn out every week and bring in our most regular income.

We have downsized our dogs in kennels and the public have generously paid kennel fees for dogs in certain circumstances. However we do still have some dogs in kennels usually from an emergency.

Our foster families are the backbone of our organisation, along with the european charities that have kept the homing rates high. We normally home between 30/40 dogs each month, many travelling abroad.
Since the law in the UK has been relaxed we have had enquiries but the cost by air or road to the UK is exhorbitant and I believe that several animal charities are trying to get the air fares reduced.

Sue Baldwin our cat woman has been overwhelmed with the cats. Kittens have been easier to home but the adults are more difficult. People are not willing to foster cats and therefore we only have a handful of foster places.

The website and our Facebook sites are undergoing a major revamp. These are both essential for info and rehoming. Fiona updates nearly every day and now has help from Dave Exon who has generously donated the server costs for the next 2 years. The new website which will be going live very shortly, will contain more detail on the dogs available for homing and will be available in several languages.

We must also thank Karen & Mike for all their hard work and great results with the fundraising. Although officially retired they have generously agreed to organize the Christmas Ball.

Patsy, who joined us three months ago as fundraiser has decided it was too time consuming to fit in with her life. We thank her for the work she did. So any offers for fundraising, gratefully received.
We still need people to drive the dogs to the airport for the European flights and anyone willing to run a small fundraising event please come forward.
And of course thank you to Richard for his years as Treasurer, the continued support he gives me and welcome to Maree who now has the aggravation.

Thanks for your support
Wendy Thorne

President’s Re Election

Wendy expressed a concern that although she was prepared to continue as President she was finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the demands placed on her. In particular the increased volume of calls received daily in connection with the rehoming of dogs and enquires from the general public. After discussion it was agreed that Vera Newing would act as Joint President with her to alleviate the load. All other committee members were re-elected apart from Richard Thorne who decided to step down from the committee but will continue to assist Wendy and help with the fundraising.