For CAA’s Board Meeting on January 21, we once again gathered remotely. The technology worked very well, and we’re thinking of continuing this format going forward.

After reviewing updates from the Executive Director and the Communications & Events Coordinator, we discussed the results of our year-end fundraising campaign. The number of unique donors and the amount raised were both up over last year. We also reviewed a donation history report that tracks donations over time. The board was pleased to hear that our new staff person, Brita Bengtson, will take over as our bookkeeper.

Next, we turned our attention to our upcoming strategic planning session. We will be taking time in late March to discuss what kinds of objectives we see as most important for the organization. Should we focus more on outreach or on community building? Or should we focus on both? Should we concentrate on helping those who’ve transitioned to a plant-based diet stick with it or should we work on getting people who eat animals to begin eating fewer of them? And how can we measure our progress once we’ve decided on our objectives?

We’ll also be working to articulate in some detail how exactly we see each of the programs we plan to engage in as connecting with our objectives, as well as how to assess them. As a way to help with the project of planning and evaluating programs, we will be reviewing the work of Humane League Labs and Animal Charity Evaluators.

If you find this kind of work interesting, please consider participating in our strategic planning session. We’ll be meeting on Saturday, March 26.

We are still looking for board members. If you’re interested, please contact Unny Nambudiripad at unny@exploreveg.org and plan on attending our next board meeting, which is tentatively scheduled to follow the strategic planning session on Saturday, March 26.