In the short time since we adopted Gracie from the Great Dane Club of New England-Rescue I have been told that the board of the club wants to discontinue their rescue group. Not because of the job that is being done, they admit that Great Dane Club of New England-Rescue is doing a great job !!!! They want to end it as they are afraid of getting sued.

I have heard rumors that the entire board had threatened to quit if the members vote to keep Rescue alive. Now the easy thing for me to say is don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out the door. But for me to say that I would need to be willing to step up and take one of those positions but I don't think that could happen for a couple of reasons,
#1 I'm not even a member
#2 I work anywhere from 60 to 80 hours just about every week.

So what I did was talk with a lawyer and reviewed their standard adoption contract. He listed a few dozen loop holes in it and gave me some info on the laws in this state.

I also downloaded a few good looking ones from different areas of the state/region/country and basically made some suggestions on how their current contract could be updated. This needs to be done carefully as laws vary widely from state to state but I hope it helps at the meeting next week

But my question is has anyone else been in a situation like this, from either side, and if so do you have any advice

I heard about this but I thought that the rescue was going to try to go it alone; were going to try to obtain 501(3) status and become a seperate entity, but still affiliated with the club.

BERNER, Inc. just seperated from BMDCNV so it could become a tax exempt organization, but it is still considered the rescue for New England and linked to the club. If you want, I can put you in touch with the rescue chair and maybe she'd have some ideas.

ETA: BERNER, Inc. is a Massachusetts entity, so their documents may be helpful.

Thanks Martha

That contact info would be great, the club is already a 501 3c and I think the rescue would probably continue on without the club but I think it is just going to make a hard job even harder.