Chris Lam

Last Sunday, I attended a Best Friends meeting at the Pacific Design Center. The founders Frances and Silva Battista were there from Utah, and so was Georgia, one of the rescued Michael Vick pit bulls. She’s known as one of the Vicktory Dogs – how cute! The attendees were people who represented many animal rescue and animal welfare organizations in the LA area. I went with my colleague Christina, a rep for the Rescue and Humane Alliance of Los Angeles.

This was more of a townhall where the attendees listed several issues they faced in working for animals in LA. Some of these issues included:

• Volunteer management
• Overlapping organizations and competition
• Reinventing the wheel again and again
• Working with their respective city halls

Christina and I were excited about this because this is what we aim to do with our business. We don’t want organizations to compete with each other. Each organization has an expertise or specialty, whether it’s feral cats, pit bull rescue, or education. Wouldn’t it be great if there was an umbrella organization or group that could pull a directory of regional groups and be the hub of education, volunteer management, and resources?

I’m heading out this morning to the Hotel Stillwell in downtown LA for a grant-writing workshop, hosted by the Grant Foundation Center (NYC). It should be a good refresher as it’s been a few years since I’ve had to write a grant, outside of student association funding.

Last night, I spent the evening at the Pacific Design Center; I attended a Best Friends meeting with my friend Christina. (Yep, she’s got the same name.) I’ve got some stats I want to put up re: homeless pets and what BF is doing to help curb the number. More later on this!