STAFFORD, Va. — The non-profit organization in Stafford County dedicated to the betterment of animals is growing.
The Stafford County SPCA is less than five years old, is a no-kill animal shelter, and has an office on U.S. 1 in Stafford and a facility in the rural Brooke section of the county. But now they need help and are looking for some caring, talented people, and are telling the community more about what they do.
More now in a Q and A session between PotomacLocal.com and Stafford SPCA spokeswoman Lori O’Pry:
PL: What positions are you hiring for?
O’Pry: We are currently hiring for the following positions:
Shelter Technician: We prefer an applicant that has worked with a variety of different animals. We would like to offer the position to someone with a vet tech certificate since we do administer medications to shelter pets. This position includes transport to and from vet visits and spay/neuter surgeries so working knowledge of the veterinary process is helpful.
Office Staff: Applicant needs to have meangingful prior office experience and computer skills. Extra consideration will be given to someone with Quickbooks experience. Multitasking and self-direction is a must!
Volunteer Coordinator: This position requires experience leading large groups of people. Scheduling skills are very important. We’re looking for a person that can motivate themselves daily while continuing to motivate our volunteers, provide encouragement and help us build a volunteer program that serves the communities needs as well as helps us staff our shelter and care for animals.
Marketing and Fundraising Coordinator: He/She will need to have documented experience in both fields. This position works closely with the Volunteer Coordinator to plan events, fundraisers and supply drives, in addition to marketing the SPCA animals using print media, television and radio media. We’re looking for someone who thinks outside the box and can help us spread the word about our animals AND ‘brand’ the SPCA name and mission.
We’re also offering a position within our home for help with our personal and SPCA dogs and light domestic duties that will help us to focus more time on building the SPCA.
PL: What qualifications are you looking for? What will the interview process be like?
O’Pry: Interested applicants can read more about the job availability at staffordspca.org by clicking the employment link. On that page, they’ll find detailed job descriptions.
Our application process is a bit out of the ordinary, but has been very helpful in our selection process in the past. Applicants must submit a three-part application package including a Power Point presentation, a front and back, tri-fold brochure in Word format and a chronological resume including references and salary history.
All three pieces are required to be considered for any position with our organization and it demonstrates that you can work with the programs we use on a daily basis to convey your skills and your personality.
We print the packages and discuss what each applicant brings to the table and, based on their qualifications, ask them to come in for an interview and a tour of the facility.
PL: Is this the first time the Stafford SPCA has hired a new employee?
O’Pry: We’ve actually hired staff in the past and have run ads in the local paper. We currently have one full time shelter tech and three part-time shelter techs that balance school and work to help us out.
PL: What responses have you gotten from applicants for the open jobs?
We ran ads recently and had hundreds of phone calls but only had about 30 people submit application packages. We are prohibited from hiring anyone with an animal cruelty, abuse or neglect convictions and we do run criminal background checks so after you eliminate people with criminal records and those without specific skill sets, we will only be calling about 10 people for interviews.
PL: What has led to this expansion?
O’Pry: As we’ve continued to develop as an SPCA over the last couple years, we’ve found ourselves working “in” the SPCA rather than working “on” the SPCA and it’s future growth, which has required us to hire dependable staff for the day to day animal care and turn our focus toward actually building the organization.
PL: Is the facility growing to meet the needs of the community?
O’Pry: Our facility is meeting the needs of the community to the best of our ability at the moment. We have been at maximum capacity for a little over a year when it comes to our cat population. We made the decision in November 2011 to start housing dogs at the facility and have gradually moved our cats into the east wing of the former nursing home building to designate our west wing for our dog population.
With the current layout, we’re able to house eight dogs in single occupancy rooms. If dogs are able to live peacefully with another dog, we can, at times, assign roommates to increase the amount of dogs we can help but we have to be careful not to overwhelm our current staff and volunteers.
When we complete a dog adoption, we are immediately sanitizing that room and have our attention turned toward bringing in another dog in need. Animals in our care get 14 hours a day, seven days a week, care and socialization from our staff and volunteers. Our dogs get walked a minimum of four times a day, usually more, in addition to play time with other dogs on property, supervised by our staff. What this means to the community is that we’re putting well-socialized pets into homes with fewer reasons for future surrenders, cutting down on the overall demands placed on our local high-kill shelters and other no-kill rescues.
We also serve the community with our ‘no-waste’ policy for donations. Any pet food or pet supply donation that isn’t used in our facility is donated to S.E.R.V.E here in Stafford, which assists that organization in their mission to supply needy families, not only with food for themselves, but with food for their pets as well. More Stafford residents are able to continue to care for their pets in their home rather than surrendering them to an already overpopulated animal rescue situation.
PL: What lies ahead in the new future for the Stafford SPCA?
O’Pry: In our future, we plan to offer a Humane Education program within Stafford area schools. We are also looking at plans for a much needed public dog park and would like to offer law enforcement agencies in the area a K-9 training facility on our property.
PL: How can the community continue to help the Stafford SPCA grow?
O’Pry: Donate and volunteer. Those are the two most effective ways the community can support our work. As a privately run SPCA, we don’t get federal, state or local funding. Many people are under the impression that because you’re an SPCA, there are government funded programs that are readily available for you to care for all the homeless, sick and rejected animals that the community can produce.
Many people that call us are offended to hear that we have limited resources. When we’re full, we’re full and we have to tell people that we can’t take their animals in. We don’t kill [animals] to make space for more animals and in an economy where surrenders are at an all-time high and donations are at all all-time low, we just cannot be the ‘end all, be all’ solution that everyone expects.
We have plenty of alternative solutions but the general public is, for the most part, unwilling to participate in the solution to their own problems and would prefer to dump the pet and walk away. For those that are willing to contribute to being part of the solution, we’re able to provide resources.
