The Companion Friends Forever Humane Society Newsletter
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The Companion Friends Forever Humane Society Newsletter Giving Companion Animals a Second Chance Since 1953 Friends Forever Humane Society Freeport, IL Spring 2012 Calendar Of 2012 Annual Meeting Events Friends Forever Humane Society Terri also discussed the relationship held its Annual Meeting on Janu- FFHS now has with our auditors, March 7, 2012 –Chili Day , Freeport Eagles Club. ary 18, 2012 at the Freeport Eagles which has improved the accuracy of Club. Members had the option of financial statements. As a result, March 17-18, 2012 - Stephenson Coun- purchasing a ticket to the buffet our relationship with the auditors ty Home Show at the HCC/YMCA dinner, which also gave them an has shown that FFHS was greatly Sports Complex opportunity to win door prizes, or impacted by several factors last March 28, 2012 - Board Meeting, FHN just attend the meeting portion of year, including a decease in overall Lower Level. the evening. donations and bequests. 2011 finan- cials and the 2012 budget are in- April 28-29, 2012 - FFHS Spring Rum- Board members were optimistic cluded in this newsletter for review. mage Sale. about trying something new this year. Several door prizes were do- Following the financial review, elec- May 5 & 6, 2012 - Dog Park Spring nated, including the Grand Prize: tions were held. Jan Carlson, Karen Beautification Day an overnight stay with water park Christen, Diane Heeren, Deb Klages, June 9, 2012 - Rich Sokup Memorial passes to the Clock Tower Inn and Melinda Kluge, Terri Matthews, Tim Golf Classic, Park Hills Golf Course. Resort in Rockford, IL. Remington, JC Wilson and Pam Wilson were elected. In addition to door prizes, silent auction items were also offered Following the elections, President Inside this during the event. All items were Toepfer discussed the future of auctioned off. FFHS. A question and answer peri- issue: od followed, and the winners of the From the President 2 The meeting opened with a year in silent auction were announced. review of FFHS. Board President Doug Toepfer discussed many of FFHS wants to thank the following Treasurer’s Report 4-8 the challenges and accomplish- for contributing to the door prizes ments that brought about change and auction items: Carlson Canine Muses, Barks and Meows 9 during 2011. These included Camp, Clock Tower Inn and Resort, changes in board members, re- Country Girl Florist, Family Video, FFHS Alumni Serve the 10 modeling projects, decreases in Freeport Eagles Club, JD’s Pet Para- Community monetary donations and the devel- dise, Jiffy Lube, Judy Gonder and opment of a strategic plan. Luecke Jewelers. Manager’s Report 11 Terri Matthews, FFHS Board Memorials and Donations 12- Treasurer, reviewed the financial 13 status of the society. Terri pre- sented the figures for 2011, as well Fundraising 14 as historical data showing trends over past years. Shelter Operations 16 THE COMPANION Page 2 President’s Box by Doug Toepfer, FFHS Board President Friends Forever As I pen this article, it is Valentine‟s How many of you have been to an an- Humane Society Day. I took my walk through the nual meeting in the past 5 years to vote Board of Directors kennels and the cat room, thinking for directors? How many of you have about the message I wanted to con- attended a board meeting? How many vey…..and I have decided to continue of you have served on a committee? Doug Toepfer - the message from the Annual Meet- President ing. Members of FFHS, this is your organi- zation. I am sure most of you have tal- Tim Remington – By the power (which I don’t have) ents, ideas, skills or money to help our Vice President invested in me, I hereby declare 2012 organization succeed. Terri Matthews - the year of the members! Treasurer The board meeting dates and times are Why ? It is very simple. As a mem- posted on the website calendar. Soon, Pat Toth - Secretary ber of Friends Forever, each and eve- there will also be a posting soon of the ry one of you has a vote for who will Jan Carlson various committees along with the name represent you on the board of direc- of the chairperson and contact infor- Karen Christen tors. The board of directors is elected mation. to act in the best interest of the mem- Judy Gonder bership in making decisions that con- Be a part of the experience and help Diane Heeren cern the animals, staff, budgets, etc. make a difference in 2012. WE WANT YOU! Deb Klages Melinda Kluge 2012 CHILI DAY March 7 Jami Nielsen Cheese JC Wilson Beverages Pam Wilson Home Baked Desserts Volunteers are serving from 11:00 am to Manager 1:30 pm and 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Carol Falconer Tickets are available in advance and at the door. Ticket prices are $7.00 for adults Asst. Manager and $5.00 for children under 12. Melody Haeft Nothing warms the tummy like a bowl Tickets can be purchased from any FFHS of chili . All you can eat chili is even Board Member or at the Shelter on Rudy better! Rd. Wednesday, March 7, is the annual Carry outs are available at the same pric- FFHS Chili Day. es. Chili ( regular and vegetarian) All proceeds directly benefit the compan- Cornmeal Muffins ion animals at Friends Forever. Page 3 SPRING 2012 Around the Shelter Mikayla Wrasse, shelter employee, giving Ruger a bath. Ruger was a recent owner surrender. Mikayla in the tub with Ruger. Mikayla decided her reach was a little short, so she improvised! Sorry folks, Ruger has already found his forever family. Shelter Factoids Dog Food per week—70 lbs. Cat Food per week— 30 lbs. Cat Litter per week— 280 lbs. Bleach per day—1 gallon Utilities ( Propane and Electric ) for one year— $15,000.00 FFHS is funded entirely by the adoption fees and the gener- osity of our donors. Our companion animals thank everyone for their continued financial support. THE COMPANION Page 4 Dollars and Sense by Terri Matthews, FFHS Board Treasurer For the first newsletter of the year I Some of you will look at that and say will start my report with the good news that since we still have $188,237 we are and end with the 2012 financial New ok for now. And you would be right, Year‟s resolutions for FFHS. except for a rule that the US government has for non for profits. The Holiday Season was everything we needed it to be in terms of dona- By Law we have to be audited before tions both monetary and Gifts in Kind. we can do our tax return. One of the I would like to thank everyone for their generosity and support. The money we checks the auditors have to do is to see received allowed us to show a profit in if we could function for one year + 1 December and has funded the shelter day without making any money. Our thru January and into February. investments have to be large enough to “We need to cover our yearly expenses to pass this That is the good news because if you test. bring in this look at the 2011 year end financials, much to cover you will see that we lost money in Our expenses for last year were approxi- expenses and 2011. Looking at past years records, mately $230,000. I haven‟t been through I‟ve found that losing money is the the audit process yet, so I‟m not sure put back norm and not the exception for the how the auditors calculate our yearly $20,000 into the shelter. The way we have been operat- expenses. But I‟m not sure we have ing is to spend and when we have a enough in the investments to pass the investments this short fall, we make up the difference auditor‟s test this year. If we do fail this year.” by cashing in some of our investments. test, the auditors will give us a written This has been standard operating pro- warning and we will have until the end cedure since at least 2005. As everyone of 2012 to fix things, because we can‟t knows, you can‟t live off your princi- fail this test two years in a row and still ple forever. We have come to the point be a non for profit. where we can‟t afford to follow the „business as usual‟ practices. I‟ve in- In the budget for 2012 you will see that cluded a graph that shows our invest- we have to make $282,932 in income ment dollars from the end of 2005 thru for this year. This is about $80,000 the end of 2011. At the end of 2005 we more than we made in 2011. At work had $392,452 and at the end of 2011 we would call this a stretch goal. That means that it is doable, just not easy. we had $188,237. As you can see from the graph, we didn‟t use the $204,215 We need to bring in this much to cover from our investments in any large expenses and put back $20,000 into the spending sprees. We used it in small investments this year. We have already increments over the last 5 years to sup- put $5,000 into investments in the 4th plement our income. Page 5 SPRING 2012 Dollars and Sense - Cont. quarter of 2011, and have committed to putting an additional $5,000 into invest- ments every quarter in 2012 to replace the last $25,000 dollars removed in January of 2011.