Summer Update: What We've Been Up To
Guess who’s back? Back again? Shan’s back. Tell a friend!
So, I've been promising big things are on the horizon.
Let's discuss a few.
We are working hard on using all my corporate experience, and tech experience - and bringing our rescue into the 21st century.
WEBSITE AND ORGANIZATION
We now have a completely re-designed website, which is getting stronger by the day as we find small ways to improve it.
Our goal is to create a tried and true system, that is mostly automated so that no matter who is looking at the process from any angle - everything is transparent, concise, and detailed.
That means from the moment a surrender application comes in, it begins a series of processes that ensure that all things that need to happen for that bird, happen, are documented, and signed off on all the way through the adoption process as a full eco-system.
That means when a volunteer has a concern for a bird, like "Nails need trimming." or "Beak too long." or "saw blood in cage this morning", we have a set of systems and protocols that handle those, on a timed basis.
That means when a bird comes in for surrender, having seizures (like happened yesterday), that we have a set of emergency protocols in place that allow our veterinarian treat the animal quickly, to view and confer with us in realtime the chart, she can ask for updated videos in the chart immediately, and we can administer meds on a timed schedule while keeping a clear paper trail to follow the whole system.
That means when a person applies for adoption, the team is able to see all their information and interviews in their "Client Record", they can now schedule digitally where it goes to our calendars, it's tied to their record, and a set of tasks and processes are initiated.
And that means, that when that person comes, falls in love with a bird, we can tie the records together, and everything is in one place.
That...is an incredible feeling. So we're working on getting every bird who is here charted and then we'll work backwards to eventually get all our records in one place.
MOVING RESCUE INTERVIEWS AND RECORDS OUT OF FACEBOOK
While we're on that subject, historically, Facebook has been the only way to interview our prospective adopters.
This disqualifies anyone not on Facebook from being able to adopt. We applied for a nonprofit discount with LiveChat, and beginning in October, we'll be moving our adoption process completely off Facebook, and our adoptive families will be able to do their interviews right on our website without having to download anything, or install any apps on their phones or devices.
We'll be using Google Drive for our forms and home video storage for adoptive families because it's secure, and affordable. Those videos and forms will integrate seamlessly with our new management system we've been building.
SPEAKING OF FACEBOOK
And, while we're talking about getting things off Facebook - let's address that Facebook algorithms arbitrarily toy with nonprofit organizations and pages pretty regularly nowadays.
For the last year, you may have noticed you're not getting updates on our content like you're used to. Where our videos would go viral regularly with Ruby and Coby and Tripp, Hunter and Gwen - we had diminished distribution in the algorithms, and it pushed us down your page because one of our volunteers mentioned we should...make a big boom for our auction (use your imagination, because I'm not going say those words out loud here), and because I made a wise crack, and we got in trouble for me basically be a Jezebel. LOL. Me. Can you imagine? ME. HAHAHAH
So, moving forward, we'll be posting our content on our website in a blog, and then sharing that post to each of the social networks.
We'll be using FB, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube and maaaaaybe Twitter, although whatever going on at Twitter is making my eyes squint and my nose wrinkle, so I'm not super excited about using it.
HOW TO GET UPDATES NO MATTER WHAT
So, from there, what we'll do is a monthly recap from our website, in the form of a newsletter, with links and images and the whole bit to make sure everyone has a full snapshot of what went on for the month. You can sign up for our newsletter by subscribing on our home page, about halfway down the page.
VET CLINICS AND AUCTIONS
Because FB is so wonky nowadays, doing auctions here is just a fools errand. We'll post about them here, but we'll be using software to do them on the website.
And if you want to attend vet clinics, we'll let you know about them here, but we'll also send out a newsletter, and that newsletter is how you'll be invited to schedule for your birds to be seen by Dr. McDonald when he comes.
MSU
MSU's Dr. Kottwitz will be teaching some classes and running some labs here at the rescue this fall and winter. SUPER excited about that. Love, love, LOVE having the students come in and light up and learn with the birds. That makes my whole soul happy.
USDA
We are working pretty hard on getting all our ducks in the proverbial row to be compliant and to go above and beyond for them when they officially take over the supervision of avians in February 2024, when all things become mandatory. We hope to be a shining beacon of what that looks like when it's done properly and with intention, and we hope to be able to translate that so we can mentor and help other up and coming rescues as they learn to maneuver the ropes.
VOLUNTEERS
We now have a Volunteer application page that allows for anyone to come volunteer for the rescue. Most of the main every day chores happen between 10-2, but we also have other tasks and things that people can help with outside of normal feeding/watering/cleaning during the rest of the day as well.
CRAFT SHOW/VENDOR EVENT
We're planning a big craft show/vendor event for October 14. Today, we'll be creating an event for our Fall For Rescue Event.
That event, was my brainchild to get all the area rescues together - dog, cat, reptile, farm, wildlife, Humane Societies, avian - all of us - so that we can a) get to know each other, b) use each other as resources to do more and better for the community, and c) so we can be the superpower I know we all are together to be and do more for animals.
That was the dream when I bought this property.
So, October 14, all rescues are invited to come and set up a booth here, to make money for their rescues. For profit vendors are also welcome, with the only stipulation that they have to pledge some of their profits to an attending rescue.
If you guys know of food trucks and craft vendors who would rock that - send them to our website under the events tab to sign up as a vendor.
I'll ask you guys to share that like CRAZY to get that event out.
CAGE SALES/BARN CLEAN UP
And finally, the last weekend in September, we're going to have a volunteer weekend to clean out the barn to inventory and clean our cages, figure out what we want to sell and what we want to keep, and to help us get them all inventoried on the website for sale.
Cages will be listed for sale on the website, so we can use it as a revenue opportunity for the rescue, and get our proverbial budgies in a row so that we stay nice and organized, and can actually host events in our barn. A lot of times cages come in just caked in crap, and we know there is an awesome cage under there, so we say "we'll clean that and it'll be awesome." an put it in the barn to be processed "later". (LOL)
When there's only a few of us doing all the work around here, and we're also trying to make money to operate - "later" never gets here.
So - that's going to be a giant project, but if we get enough people, we can totally rock it over the weekend and get er' done.
We'd like to host the Fall For Rescue event largely in the barn, and right now, you're doing good to walk in there.
LOGAN AND THE USAF
My Logan is leaving for basic training for the greatest Air Force on the planet on October 10. Now that I've already been through that once with Alex (who is now home permanently as of December), I know that my poor mama's heart is going to be anxious and broken with my youngest leaving the nest to something so full of emotion, pride and glory, and I'm going to need to keep busy. You know who cries? BABIES. Not me. NOT ME. (but really, just keep me busy.)
So, we'll be doing the Fall for Rescue show on October 14, and immediately following that, we'll be doing a transport out Virginia, Pennsylvania and it looks like maybe Jersey on the east coast the following week.
We'll need volunteers to help staff the rescue while we're gone, and then when Logan graduates basic at the end of November, we'll need volunteers to staff the rescue while we're in San Antonio Texas.
And (obviously LOL) if y'all need bird help between here and there - now's the time to tell us, so we can get you on the schedule and itinerary.
TUESDAY NIGHT LIVE
Isn't going to be Tuesday Night Live anymore. Wednesday Night Bird Weirdos? Manic Monday Mamacitas?
What night do you guys prefer? We will probably aim for 7pm's for them, and we will probably do them from my house. We will also likely go live on multiple platforms at once every week.
I'm thinking we'll begin every couple of weeks for now, just to get back in the saddle while we're managing this crazy workload we've got going on.
For now, let's plan next week to doing one during the day. I know that won't be as well attended as the night shows - but we're doing a speaking engagement in the community next Wednesday, and this is going to be a crazy busy weekend, so we'll have to balance with our whacked out schedules.
I'm thinking Monday or Tuesday during the day to kick it off.
birdiebye
We have registered Birdiebye Laser and Graphics Co. LLC and a DBA as birdiebye. That's the new for profit company that we hope to become giant bird funding bajillionaires with. That's the laser business we've been talking about.
As a sneak peak, our first real project that we hope to launch the company with is a campaign called the "Be a Good Human" campaign.
It will involve tumblers and 30 and 40 oz water bottles engraved with the "be a good human." logo along with the birdiebye logo, (intentionally lowercase), and it will have monthly challenges to inspire and motivate us all to be better humans. Better for our birds. Better to other bird people. Better to rescue. Better to our families. Better to our community. Better to ourselves.
And the rest of the tumblers and designs will be bird centric or snarky, hilarious stuff that will make you giggle like a hyena.
This weekend we are finishing up a giant wedding we've been working on for the past 3 months (which is what's paying our property taxes on the facility, WOOT) and then next week, I'm working on the website to try to get that soft launched.
ADVERTISING
Up to this point, I have never paid for advertising for any of our social media channels (other than a free 100 dollar thing Facebook did a few years ago where they gave us 100 in free advertising), for the rescue. All the followers we have here, Instagram (which are under 5k) and TikTok (over 100k) are all completely organic. All our videos going viral - all organic.
Now that I'm not longer considered a "Lady of the Night" by Facebook (thanks FB. Seriously. Been a while since I've been considered sultry, LOL) our algorithms should go back to normal, I think - and we will likely start getting the word out about the rescue and Birdiebye together using our natural "Not Your Mama's Rescue" personality, and then couple that with some strategic paid advertising to compound the push.
We'll work on some serious marketing campaigns and see if...cough...I've still got it. (Marketing chops using my corporate knowledge, that is.)
So that's it. That's the plan.