Hi everyone, feel free to ask any questions in chat during the webinar and we'll be happy to answer. We'll have some time at the end to answer questions but may not be able to get to all of them.

Hi Veronica, you'll receive an email with a link to the recording in 1-2 days!

SPCA of SW Michigan

Hi! California, USA

Hi everyone! Laura Kniffen here from the Michigan Humane Society (Metro Detroit area).

Toledo Area Humane Society, OH

Toronto Humane Society, Toronto Canada

paws for life utah, heber city, utah

Second Chance Animal Center, Vermont USA

Hi this is Erin with the ASPCA. I'm based in MA.

IACC - CA - USA

Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation, Virginia USA

Hello from ASPCA NYC

Watauga Humane Society of Boone, North Carolina, USA

Stacey from Purr Nation Cat Alliance, Roswell, GA

Middleburg Humane Foundation VA USA

FRAS Farmington NM

Trina from Saving Grace in Roseburg OR

Bangor Humane Society in Bangor, Maine USA!

Cedar Bend Humane Society, Waterloo Iowa

CAT Adoption and Rescue Efforts Virgina

For Animals, Inc, NY NY

NYC!

Guilford County Animal ServicesGreensboro, NC USA

Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center in Tampa, FL

Green County Humane Society in Monroe, WI

Companion Animal Alliance Baton Rouge, LA

Best Friends NYC

Foothills Animal Shelter- Golden, CO

Middleburg Humane Foundation, Marshall, VIrginia

Humane Society Waterville Area, Waterville, ME USA

GAHS Maine USA

Innocent Paws Puppy Rescue, CO

Hi everyone, this is Beth from the ASPCA, calling from my home office in Washington State.

ASPCA from my remote office in Atlanta!

Hello! Humane Society of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin here

Harbor Animal Shelter, San Pedro CA

Virginia Fostering Network, Virginia

MADACC Milwaukee WI

Dakin Humane Society MA USA

Humane Society of Greater Dayton. Dayton OH

Virginia Beach Animal Control. Virginia Beach, VA USA

SPCA of Polk County, Texas

Humane Society of Pinellas, Florida!

Wadena County Humane Society Wadena mn

P.A.W.S. Animal Adoption Center Maine, USA

Search Dog Foundation Santa Paula CA

Hi all. Animal Protection of NM, New Mexico USA

Stephens County Humane Society in Duncan, Oklahoma

Hi! Ohio Alleycat Resource Cincinnati, OH

Howdy from Oromocto and Area SPCA in New Brunswick Canada

Clermont Animal Care Humane Society Batavia, Ohio

FAPL Ohio

HSU SLC, UT

Wenatchee Valley Humane Society, WA State

FURRR 911 in New York

Christine Gardner

Hi! I’m from Roice-Hurst Humane Society in Grand Junction, CO

Columbia Animal Services- Columbia, SC

Recycled Paws Rescue, INC New York, USA

Berkely Humane, Ca!

Greenhill Humane Society from Eugene, OR

Hi everyone, TAILS from Westport, CT :)

Heather Friends for Animals of Metro detroit Dearborn Mi

Foster Dogs Inc, New York!

hello! Silver Comet Animal Welfare Alliance from GA.

Fox Valley Humane, Wisconsin

Linda Kelley Animal Shelter, Maryland!

Good afternoon everyone. I am Donna Hans. Foster coordinator from Humane Society of Charlotte, NC

Lori Mason-Regional Animal services of King County Kent washington

Citizens for the Welfare of Animals in Clay County, Lineville, AL

Charlie"s Angels Animal Rescue Fletcher NC

Webark Estates, Moundsville, WV

Hello from Louisa County Animal Shelter.

Friends of Jackson County, Ocean Springs, MS

Lexington Humane Society, Lexington, KY!

hi from Humane Society, Alliston, Ontario

Hi I'm Brittany from Homeless Animal Rescue Team in cambria - I'm an RVT

spcaLA from Los Angeles/Long Beach, CA

Hello from Caledon Animal Shelter, Caledon Ontario :)

Carl Johnson Palm Springs Animal Shelter Ca

Sarah Worth via invite from Cat Friends of O`ahu

Hi

Welcome everyone -- coast to coast and New Zealand!

Hey all -- Just a reminder to send chat to All Panelists and Attendees so everyone gets to hear your questions

How is this initiative funded? Budget? Staff size?

@bob tubbs - hopefully low - my group's all-volunteers ;)

Hi Bob! We'll address your question during the Q & A portion.

Hi Jennifer! Registration is open until March 20th.

How many people do you have in your foster team?

Atascosa County Animal Shelter Advisory Committee

Do you not require foster's to have proof of vaccinations for pet's already in the home?

Are you required to complete a home visit to qualify a foster home? Some states, like Colorado, have that requirement. We are interested to know how you handle that requirement if so

What is your application/orientation process for families that cannot do an online orientation?

@Daisy: Our foster & placement team consists of 8 people (from RVTs to coordinators to managers)

Is there a certification process for your fosters?

@Cathleen: we highly encourage fosters to ensure their pets are up-to-date on vaccinations and provide information on the importance of vaccinations.

do you have a tool for doing prerecorded orientations? OBS was recommended to me

@Jenn: we do not require a home visit. we can generally tell whether foster parents are suitable to care for kittens by getting to know them throughout their fostering experience.

what about using you tube for pre-recorded?

how do you transport the animals to the foster's location?

@Kristen: All foster volunteers must attend an online info session. We offer many opportunities and various times to accomodate different schedules.

Do you do background checks on fosters?

@Bob: We do not have a certification process for fosters.

How do I check to be certain I provided a link to my organization's foster program website?

How much does Zoom cost to use? You may have said this, my internet cut out.

Cost of Smartsheet and Zoom?

Have you tapped into military families? They are a large pool that because of their deployment can't adopt but are often in training locations for a year or longer.

@Bob: We use a ride share service to send kittens directly to their foster home if the foster parent cannot pick up the kittens from us.

with zoom and using the online orientations, is there a way to verify that the foster parent actually attended the orientation for the duration of it?

@Kathy: We have not had any push back from people who are used to attending in-person sessions. In fact, we find that people find it more convenient. :)

How often are you doing your online orientations during kitten season?

@Kathy: Definitely feel free to modify slides to align with your program!

Can you provide scripts for the various training?

@Bob: We have not done so, but our foster program is open to anyone who can provide care for kittens for 2-4 weeks at a time.

That seems like a large draw on staff time to do live orientations all the time, how frequent are the orientations?

The foster guide that Tina just mentioned will be sent to all participating Meow For Now agencies through the newsletter.

we are workinig with cats and dogs

@Laura: We do have a way to cross reference the list of attendees with the list of RSVPs.

is there a way to find out which organizations are using on-deck ?

How are you able to text your fosters? Do you use a work line or personal line?

What software do you use for this survery?

@Becky: We provide all the supplies kittens will need: food, litter, litter boxes and the playpen. Fosters provide bedding, dishes, toys & we give them suggestions on how to get cost-effective items.

Do you have a network of preferred Vet Clinics in your system?

Do fosters ever express annoyance or resistance to completing the survey for every new litter?

@Jamie: We typically host about 10 info sessions during kitten season. Sometimes we host more depending on the availability of foster homes. That is, if we feel we need more foster homes, we will host more sessions.

Do you have to manually enter in this information on smart sheet or does it automatically upload once they do the survey ?

How do you go about scheduling pick ups and notifying staff? If you have multiple people working to schedule foster pick ups?

What is the reason your fosters can only have one litter of kittens at a time?

@Erica: Each online info session is about 1 hour long. Considering the amount of homes we are able to recruit via online sessions, it's a great investment! :)

Jennifer, probably illness, that's why we don't usually send out more than one litter

How do you handle fosters who decide to adopt?

@Alexandra: We communicate with fosters daily via text, phone call and email. We use e-mail a lot so you don't necessarily need to text all fosters.

Do you have an example waiver?

@Chelsea: we use smartsheet for the on-deck foster application, to track on-deck fosters, as well as to track all incoming foster kittens.

how do you distribute kittens? (do you make sure fosters are always with kittens, if they do desire?)

@Bob: We do work with veterinarian partners throughout LA and Orange County. We also work with our own ASPCA veterinarians.

what’s the FB link?

how do you find fosters to join the rescue?

Do you also track all fosters on Smartsheet? Like a master list?

www.ASPCApro.org/meowfornow

For the orientation, do you have any recorded videos that we could have as an example? We are still working on our program and we are looking for examples!

Do you advertise for fosters electronically or through posters, etc?

With docusign, they sign all waivers needed - at what point do they sign these? do they do this online at home?

have you seen anyone using the same system for foster dogs as well?

What is the benefit to doing live online orientations rather than pre-recorded orientation videos?

Did you have any roadblocks or pushback from upper management when starting the online foster orientations?

Are you tracking the average number of assignments each foster takes in a year? And, do you know the average length of retention per foster? (I realize you're just over 2 years into the program, but curious if you have any data yet).

Have you tried to get Petsmart Charity grants?

How does the list work, as far as sending out kittens... just start at top and text, then move on to next person?

Do you find that fosters struggle with care because they are not doing an in person orientation?

online live vs online prerecorded?

we get petsmart charity grants

When fosters are removed from the on-deck list, are they deleted from the database entirely? How do you keep track of active fosters?

how do you train fosters to bottle feed?

Have you tried the local prison? There are a lot of very sucessful fostering programs where the inmates help foster animals? A cat version was recently on a Jackson Galaxy episode. It was in South Carolina

Do you have a Q&A session during the online orientation? Or is it solely to cover the basics of fostering?

program budget?

We would also like examples of recorded orientations

do you encourage your fosters to adopt out their kittens from their home?

I would love to see your protocol/cleaning procedures for kittens with ringworm in foster homes.

Do foster parents dislike being "assigned" kittens rather than choosing them? We currently send out emails of all available kittens to all registered foster parents.

Cathleen, we have resources about cleaning procedures for foster homes that we'll distribute through the Meow For Now newsletter.

Thank you Elizabeth

For a small/all-volunteer group like mine spending the $ to get the tracking tools would be challenging - but the program information you provided is fabulous - do you think that Maddie's Pet Assistant would complement your online program as a means to track/provide information (since MPA is free)? Thank you.

Do you recognize foster superstars? Process?

How do your fosters disinfect those playpens?

Do you run training sessions for bottle feeding? How do you know they are capable?

How do you register capabilities/competence.

can we see your orientation?

Do you find that requiring them to attend an online orientation first slows down your on-boarding? Currently we do a phone orientation as they are ready (experienced foster volunteers help with these phone calls). I wonder depending on how often we are able to do the orientation if it will slow down on-boarding.

is online orientation hard to set up if you're not very computer savvy?

how do you find fosters to join your organization>

Where do you find the play pens and how much do they cost?

How do you handle when animals die when in foster care? Preparing foster for that possibility.

Do you have a set of rules and guidelines for your private foster facebook group?

Is there a place you get your foster supplies discounted?

How do you share videos for the ~1/3 of people that don't have facebook? We have trouble reaching our fosters that don't use facebook

can you attach Meow for now FB link?

Suggest partnering with Petsmart...discounts, food donations, etc.

Regarding supplies: we do work with distributors who can provide a discount when we buy in bulk. We also use Amazon and Chewy to send supplies to fosters when needed.

How do you deal with confidentiality around seized animals under going investigations?

We are setting up a Virginia based fostering network at https://www.facebook.com/groups/566072530538146/

(Sarah- playpens and paneling to set up areas for kittens; Amazon

We have a ton of foster-related resources on ASPCA Pro you can scroll through to find helpful tips, downloads, etc. https://www.aspcapro.org/search?keywords=foster&submit=

Tnx @Bob Tubbs - just (re) connected with the local Petsmart -- we're in bed with Petco (we have cats in 3 of their stores) - they do give us a tremendous amount...the kitten pens are the $ items ...:)

Here's the link to the Meow For Now Campaign. The deadline to register is March 20th.www.ASPCApro.org/meowfornow

Regarding supplies: we do work with distributors who can provide a discount when we buy in bulk. We also use Amazon and Chewy to send supplies to fosters when needed.

Have you had any issues with people sharing kittens on facebook etc. then them not making it to adoption for whatever reason? Does this create animosity with the public?

We use Facebook as a way to connect fosters to one another and to make announcements, but we also use email to send out important information to all fosters.

Great program. Congratulations for a job very well done. Be proud.

@Tessa: Luckily we haven't found that fosters give each other conflicting information in the facebook group too often. When it does happen, we chime in and kindly remind them about our protocols & our practices.

are you aware of any dog fostering programs?

We have found our private facebook page created recently has been really successful for connecting fosters, they love sharing and will often help each other out.

Thank you guys you have done an amazing job!!

Thanks so much for your time and all the great information!

@Michelle: we verify the list of attendees through Zoom. It allows you to pull a list of attendees at the end of the info session.

good stuff

Thank you!

thank you

Thank you so much! You guys are rad and it sounds like you have a successful foster program! So excited to try out online orientations.

Thank you so much!

PS - HI MILENA!

Thank you!!

Thank you!

thank you!!!

Thank you so much!! I learned so much!!

thank you!