The #AmPA2020 schedule is an exciting one. While we work on finalizing this year's incredible line up of speakers, we are excited to announce our featured speakers: Ryan Clinton, Dr. Ellen Jefferson, Kristen Hassen-Auerbach, Cheryl Schneider, Paula Powell, Mike Kaviani, Ed Jamison, Ginny Sims, Teresa Johnson, Rebecca Guinn, and Denise Deisler. This year's theme, Redefining Animal Sheltering: Disrupt the Past, Build the Future, focuses on the entire animal sheltering system, from intake, to shelter operations, to outcomes. So no matter your role in the world of sheltering, there is guaranteed to be something for you.
SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
Come pick up your name badge and mingle with other conference attendees, speakers, and exhibitors.
Join attorney Ryan Clinton, founder of Fix Austin, as he kicks off the conference by laying the bricks for what we mean when we say the broken foundation of animal sheltering. At the end of the session be ready to disrupt the past and spend the next three days imagining how you can rebuild the future for homeless pets.
Kristen Hassen-Auerbach introduces the concept of how transforming our thinking about animal management and sheltering can lead to more live outcomes, cost-effective solutions for emerging animal management and welfare challenges, and a more fully engaged public.
Join Dr. Ellen Jefferson, Executive Director of Austin Pets Alive! and American Pets Alive!, as she guides you step by step through metrics in outcomes, intakes, and the 12 programmatic ingredients to propel lifesaving forward in your community.
Want to know what the top-performing shelter directors in the country have to say about the term No Kill? Ryan Clinton moderates this panel with expert voices including Dr. Ellen Jefferson, Kristen Hassen-Auerbach, Rebecca Guinn and Teresa Johnson. Come hear from the people building lifesaving momentum in their communities what this term means for their work.
During this brief break, go and meet the conference exhibitors!
During this lunch, there will be multiple presentation options including Lessons Learned: What it Means to be a Fellow in America's Top Shelters with Lisa Ward and Adopt a Donor Management System with Maggie Lynch (sponsored by Little Green Light).
How do you prevent stress and tough times from affecting your lifesaving? Learn how how stretch the resources you do have to save the most lives possible, even in high-stress moments in your shelter or clinic. Leave with tangible ideas for how to use techs and managers to do medical work, how to work strategically through crisis, and how effective management is key ensuring everyone is doing everything they can to save the lives in your care.
Ryan Clinton teaches the foundations of various animal welfare ordinances and what they mean for your organization. Some of the topics covered will include stray holds, caretaker liability and Austin's No Kill plan. Leave with less unknowns and more answers to these often puzzling laws.
Rebecca Guinn, Lifeline Animal Project CEO, shares about current community programs in Atlanta focused on keeping pets and people together. Stories from how past experiences and initiatives have shaped some of the most innovative ideas for community programs in the country. Leave with ideas to take back to your community and build, immediately.
When space is tight how do you prevent killing the dogs in your facility? Come to this action-driven session to learn how to outsmart and overcome the impulse to kill in a space crisis. Leave this session with effective strategies to decrease the pressure you feel in these situations, end the practice of killing for temporary space shortages, and learn to instead save more dog lives.
One of the most important tools No Kill advocates have is data, but often shelter data seems impossible to find and when you do find it it seems impossible to understand. Leave this session knowing what data you need and how to get it, through the use of public information requests. You will learn how to understand what these numbers are telling you and how this information can be used to influence shelter leadership and your community to save more animals lives.
Join this panel discussion as Marc Peralta leads a discussion with a panel of expert animal protection change-makers. What role does Animal Control play in community lifesaving? Hear how animal protection units around the country are thinking about what's next for animal protection.
Are you an open intake shelter trying to navigate intake? Have you tried managed intake? Looking for alternative solutions that save lives and don't compromise the shelter's role in your community? Two animal shelter leaders from sizeable cities present ideas to keep your intake practices moving, focused on serving pets and people. Learn about how to face and work through some of the toughest challenges and responsibilities open intake shelters face.
What does it mean to think about the connections between access to care and decreased shelter intake? What role does community engagement play in increasing access and service awareness? Dr. Mike Greenberg shares how to increase success with engagement in your community and tools to help you get there.
Finally, an intake and animal flow process designed to help you prevent outbreaks and ensure live outcomes! Join American Pets Alive! staff, as they discuss what should (or conversely, could) happen within the first 72 hours after an animal enters any sheltering system.
When should animal control officers bring animals into the shelter? How do you prioritize calls when you get jammed? What role can returning animals in the field play in your organization's drive to save lives? Learn policies and procedures to implement in your organization and take the guesswork out of bringing animals in and streamline and prioritize the safety and wellness of pets and people.
Attorney and founder of Fix Austin, Ryan Clinton, teaches how to understand municipal hold periods and rescue access. Learn how to advocate for implementing model laws to save more homeless pets in your community.
Are you trying to grow as a leader? Thinking about succession plans and how to grow leadership within your organization? Tawny Hammond and Denise Deisler present a foundation for understanding how to cultivate the leadership abilities that will enable your or your staff to reach their highest potential.
What intake protocols are in place for animal control officers in your organization? Effective ACO intake can streamline shelter flow, mitigate error and lost notes, minimize the spread of disease and save more lives. Learn the best practices for intake protocols and how to effectively implement them in your shelter to keep up with this ever-changing field.
Newsworthy stories happen every day in shelters across the country. Local media is vital in lifesaving success for shelters, but how do you get your local media's attention? Learn how to cultivate relationships with news sources, and tips and tricks from a marketing director and an Emmy-Award winning news caster.
Data questions? Look no further, we have answers! If you want the latest data tips, whether you are a board chair, shelter director, program manager, volunteer or advocate, we can help you. Learn how you can use data to achieve YOUR lifesaving goals. By the end of the session, you will be ready to make and implement strategic goals based on your data. If 2020 holds plans for strategic change, you will want to sit in on this session. This can apply to any level of learner because goal setting is important to all of us.
Using the latest research, Dr. Levy and Monica Frenden shatter misconceptions and bring you current on every must-know feline leukemia detail. You'll learn the best practices in shelter housing, testing, and treatment. You'll master how to find fosters and adopters for your FeLV+ friends. And most importantly, you'll gain the knowledge and skills you need to tackle the next frontier in cat lifesaving!
A 30-minute jolt of audience-inspired applied improv to kick-start the AmPA! 2020 Conference and propel you into the day with positive energy and a fresh way of looking at problems. Guaranteed to get you laughing and raise your heart rate as we move into day 2 of Redefining Animal Sheltering!
Learn from Veterinarian and Executive Director of Austin Pets Alive! Dr. Ellen Jefferson as she shares solutions to start saving the lives of the most vulnerable pets in our care.
The national average shows us that when animals end up in animal shelters, very few dogs and even fewer cats are returned to their family. How is this possible when pets being reunited with their owners seems to be a cause for celebration for everyone? Gina Knepp offers solutions and insight into how to start innovative, progressive and proactive programs, anywhere.
What does it mean to be foster centric? Learn from the people who have elevated foster care from a sidelines shelter program to a best practice.
Lunch and Learn: From Pound to Community Resource
How do you engage adopters when you most need them? Learn how adopters can be your biggest lifesavers when your shelter is experiencing space crises.
How do you save all the cats when there are barriers preventing you from returning them back home? Ginny Sims found solutions in her community that you can take back to your own. Learn how you can safely save all the cats, even when SNR isn't an option.
Solutions for large breed dogs continue to be one of the most common struggles faced by many shelters and rescues today. In this session, taught by Dr. Ellen Jefferson and Dr. Sheila Segurson, you will gain a deeper understanding of lifesaving best practices and innovations to increase lifesaving for big dogs. Learn how to identify your needs clearly and work to reach goals of having enough resources to give every dog a chance it needs to be safely adopted.
Are animals in your community dying and being killed due to medical conditions and their associated costs? For many shelters and rescues this is true. Learn how to spend the least amount of money possible, to spread the meager wealth of medical resources, and save more lives. You will learn that saving the lives of the pets with medical conditions in your community is possible, even if you don’t have extra money.
In order to effectively create change in your organization, you need to manage staff expectations and accountability. This session focuses on how to manage change amongst Animal Control officers. Learn how to build teamwork and camaraderie even when things are different and new and reach your departmental goals.
Learn from expert advocates as they share their success stories for state-wide efforts to transform to No Kill. Learn how these state-wide commitments were made, what they are presently working towards and how you might lead your state in similar efforts, too.
What does it mean to be accountable to life and death as a leader? Learn how to implement policies that will keep your organization accountable and increase lifesaving across your organization.
Join us for a conversation with Paula Powell, director El Paso Animal Services, led by Kristen Hassen-Auerbach. Paula Powell leads an animal shelter in one of the most challenging cities in America. With an annual intake of over 26,000 animals, this session will shed light on the last 2 years as Paula fights for animals and the people who love them.
Public safety and animal welfare go hand in hand. How is public safety impacted when lifesaving increases? Join Marc Peralta of Best Friends and Edward Jamison of Dallas Animal Services to hear about the increases and impact they have seen in public safety, when lifesaving takes priority.
Learn how to fast-track animals and make them available for adoption, foster and transfer, immediately. Time wasted means animal lives lost, leave this session with a plan to move animals through your shelter more quickly.
Leave this session with the knowledge necessary to fight disease outbreak, without unnecessary deaths or culling of puppies and kittens. This session is not exclusive to medical professionals and should be attended by anyone interested in changing the way disease management for puppies and kittens is handled in shelters.
High-performing shelters can't run without volunteers. How do you create a volunteer program that works to the specific needs of your rescue, shelter or community? Learn how to rethink volunteers and reach your goals together as a united front.
Austin Pets Alive! began as a volunteer-led organization with no budget but with a big dream to end the needless shelter killing in Austin’s city shelter. Although very difficult to get, money didn’t hold this organization back from achieving its dreams and it shouldn’t hold you back from achieving yours, either. Join fundraising innovator, Maggie Lynch and learn how to raise money, and how to get scrappy when you need to!
Have neonatal kitten questions you want answers to? Ask them all at roundtables with expert kitten lifesavers.
Learn from shelter branding experts on how to identify steps to create and market your No Kill brand to your community.
The national average shows us that when animals end up in animal shelters, only 15-20% of dogs and 2% of cats return home. Come learn from RTO expert Gina Knepp of Found Animals to learn how to increase your organization's RTO and attain a higher return to owner rate through innovative, progressive and proactive programs.
As sheltering evolves from what happens in the building to what the community needs, we face an evolving set of challenges -- among them: how to know what the community needs? How to track the work you are doing? How to know how effective your efforts are for animals and people in your community.
How do you instill a culture in your clinic that requires all staff, including veterinarians, to treat every animal with the care and treatment we would expect for our own animals? Learn from two shelter veterinarians who have built successful lifesaving culture as leaders in their clinics.
If you save their lives, they’ve all got to go to homes. Learn the most innovative and creative ways to counsel potential adopters and safely increase adoption in your organization.
In Part II of this session, learn tips and techniques to set and meet your fundraising goals.
Join us for the Official After Paw-ty in the backYARD. There will be drink tickets for the first 400 people in the door, a selection of yummy appetizers, live music from The Matters, a photo booth to commemorate your weekend, a chance to win the Blow the Woof Off Giveaway, PLUS mix and mingle with animal lifesavers like you.
Go into the last day of the AmPA! 2020 Conference with an open mind, ready to connect and network with all conference attendees. This 30-minute jolt of audience-inspired applied improv and lessons on improving communication within your organization will have you ready to take on any problem and will help you learn the best ways to build ongoing communication with your teams!
Hear from some of the most influential voices in animal welfare as they imagine what the future holds for homeless pets.
In 2019, Austin passed the most comprehensive set of lifesaving laws in the country. A decade of work drove Austin to be the safest city in the country for homeless pets. How will these reporting requirements help to ensure lifesaving continues to progress? Have these reports impacted the municipal shelter and its major partners? Can Austin be a model for communities all over the country to implement reporting requirements?
This session explores why it is important to understand exactly which animals are dying in your municipal shelter and let people help you to get them out alive. Clare Callison will discuss strategies that have helped save thousands of lives in San Antonio and in communities around the country. Yes, it is scary, but yes, it needs to be done.
Lunch, Awards, and Closing General Session: What Pets Deserve a Radical Rethinking of the Role of Animal Welfare
Learn how animal advocates in Austin, Texas, put no-kill on the City's public-policy agenda, and how you can do the same for your community. Topics include writing press releases, strategies for communicating with public officials, learning how to handle opposition and spreading your lifesaving message.
Does your team fall apart when difficulties seem insurmountable in times of crisis? Learn from people who have experienced, first-hand, what it means to be leaders of change in difficult municipalities. Shelly Thompson moderates this panel to help you get the insider tips on how to cultivate a team of resilience and how to build strong teams that will rally around you.
It's a new decade and there are new, and better, ways for shelters to serve cats! Progressive organizations are breaking the molds of past policies and now realize that cats require unique and species-appropriate care, services, and sheltering. In this session, we'll take a look at innovative programs for cats that work, and outdated practices we still need to replace.
2019 was a big year for research. Know which research is the most important to know about and what it tells us about sheltering.
Shelter leaders are faced with difficult decisions that affect the live outcomes of animals every day. How are these decisions made? Learn what it means to them to set KPIs and goals to instill an organizational lifesaving philosophy.
Intake notes can affect decisions throughout an organization. Understand how to ensure your staff is working to keep accurate and thorough notes to save more animal lives and reunite more families.
Strong relationships are key in creating No Kill public policy. Learn how to put No Kill on your community's public policy agenda. This is one of the most critical things you can do.
Everything you need to know to recruit more foster homes, start new programs and send more pets to foster with five strategies you can start on Monday.
Learn cutting-edge information not taught anywhere else. Leave this session with the knowledge necessary to fight disease outbreak, medically and operationally, without unnecessary deaths or culling, from veterinarians who have lived through it. This session will prepare you to manage the public’s perception and ask them for help during these trying times. This session is not exclusive to medical professionals and should be attended by anyone interested in changing the way disease management is handled in shelters.
What can common shelter behaviors in dogs show us about their needs and wants? How can daily enrichment and foster care help us manage behaviors seen in sheltered dogs? Leave with practical and manageable solutions for common behaviors and increase your lifesaving, immediately.
What is the average length of time animals stay in your shelter? Attend this session and learn how to analyze this information and know what to do with it. You will learn how to fast-track animals and save more dogs and cats.
Is FeLV still a reason cats are not being adopted out in your community? Are you unsure what a FeLV diagnosis means? Are FeLV cats being killed in your shelter or rescue? Come learn from shelter medicine expert, Dr. Levy and leading cat advocates, Monica Frenden and Natascha Hamman, about the most current research and best practices for rehoming this vulnerable cat population.
Discuss how foster and adoption follow up can keep big dogs with the people who love them and out of the shelter. Bring ideas and questions and be ready to find solutions for your toughest follow-up challenges.
New ideas can be scary for leaders. Follow these steps and be ready to take an idea to your boss and hear 'yes!'
Do you live and work in an area that has more homeless dogs than can be adopted back into your community? Learn tools and tips to build relationships and build or grow your transport program.
This session is meant to teach ACOs tips and tricks for handling even the stickiest situations with fearful and fractious animals, wildlife too!
Participants will have the opportunity to connect with some of the nation’s most successful No Kill shelter leaders. Don’t miss the opportunity to interface, ask specific questions and talk with your animal welfare heroes!
Learn how to own your narrative and communicate your vision with major stakeholders. Gain tips and tricks to know what to share, when and with whom.
Get a chance to talk about your big dog challenges with experts from the field. Intended for shelter managers, behavior managers, foster innovators and ACOs.
Monday, March 2nd, the conference is hosting a one-day intensive for government officials that Made possible by a grant from Maddie’s Fund®, #ThanksToMaddie. At this intensive, government officials will learn how to harness community pressure to affect animal lifesaving, build more humane communities, and increase the number of animal lives saved in their local animal shelters.
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