Prioritizing People and Tasks in Animal Welfare: A Balancing Act
Crystal Arnott, Executive Director Lowell Humane Society, Board Member NEFHS
Animal welfare is not for the faint of heart. Each day presents new challenges that require us to
pivot and get creative in our approach. But in the midst of responding to the fresh chaos of the
day, where do the daily tasks fall? Running a small to medium-sized animal shelter with a small
staff and a limited budget comes with many challenges. However, the foremost priority is always
the wellbeing of my team—both staff and volunteers. The old adage, “Put your oxygen mask on
first,” serves as a daily reminder to my team, but ensuring they have the support and resources
to make that a reality is an ongoing challenge. It’s essential to take the time to address it.
In recent months, despite the considerable accomplishments of my staff each day, they began
to feel increasingly frustrated by the tasks they couldn’t get to. The constant deluge of calls,
emails, voicemails, and questions from our volunteers can be overwhelming. Our priority is
always the animals and people in front of us, which often leaves frustrated callers and emailers
without an immediate response. This, in turn, leads to multiple follow-up messages,
compounding the problem. (We’ve had callers leaving voicemails and sending emails multiple
times within the same day, despite our outgoing message asking for 24-48 hours for a
response!)
On the other side, our volunteers have expressed their own frustrations. Some are frustrated by
their lack of access to information about the shelter pets, while others feel that the staff isn’t
addressing what they see as priority tasks. Conversations with volunteers in various roles
revealed that they weren’t fully aware of the overwhelming number of responsibilities the staff
handles each day.
Interestingly, our volunteers also expressed a desire to take on more responsibilities to support
the staff. This prompted us to reflect as a team: Why don’t we delegate more responsibilities to
our volunteers, such as returning phone calls, data entry, and some of the more time-consuming
daily tasks? What tasks could volunteers realistically take on?
To tackle these questions, we conducted an exercise with our staff to visualize our priorities
more clearly. This exercise helped the team distinguish between high-priority and low-priority
tasks and identify those that truly require staff attention versus those that could be assigned to
volunteers. It also provided a platform for staff to share their frustrations about feeling
overwhelmed by the many directions they’re pulled each day and to finally accept that they can
delegate some tasks to trained volunteers.
In a few weeks, we plan to follow up this exercise with a Town Hall meeting that includes our
staff, volunteers, fosters, and board members. During this meeting, we’ll repeat the prioritization
exercise with the entire team. The event will include a potluck (because who can get feisty with
a full belly?) where we’ll break into small groups—each comprising staff, volunteer task forces
for dogs, cats, and small animals, and board members—to revisit the priorities exercise and see
what insights emerge.
Our hope is that by visualizing the scope of each staff member’s daily responsibilities, our
volunteers will gain a clearer understanding of why staff priorities may differ from their own. We
also hope to establish a task force dedicated to creating training materials for volunteers,
enabling them to take on some of the more time-consuming tasks and lighten the load for our
staff.
In animal welfare, balancing priorities is an ongoing challenge, but by fostering communication,
collaboration, and mutual understanding, we can ensure that both our team and the animals in
our care thrive.
