Hello All,

As most of you may know Rick and Donna have resigned from their roles as rehoming officers.

Donna is very kindly hanging on until we can find some replacements, but wants to stop ASAP.

I would like to thank both Rick and Donna for all their hard work and dedication to thier rolls both personnally and from Birdline as a whole, and wish them both well in the future.

So if any one feels they can fill their boots in a vital role within Birdline please step up!

A rehoming officer needs to be able to have access to a landline telephone;

Have plenty of time both during the day and in the evenings to make calls;

Have a good understanding of all the different species of birds we rehome;

Be able to speak to members (via telephone) about their applications and assess their suitability as a foster home;

Be able to deal with telling people they have not been successful in their application as well as telling people they are able to foster;

Work as part of a team and pass on requests for homechecks etc in a timely manner;

Please pm me with your details and I will contact you to discuss things further.

Thank you

Vicki

Thank you for your kind words Vicki.

I would like to add that you need to be able to call landlines AND mobiles, a lot of applicants only give their mobile number as that way they are unlikely to miss your call.You also need to accept that applicants will call you at any time of the day or night. You also need to speak to EVERY applicant that applies no matter how unsuitable they may appear on paper.Once you have done this you must input all the information you have gathered into the re-homing database. It can be an incredibly frustrating job, it takes up a lot of time and clocks up large phone bills. You have to be thick skinned, if you're not  you must have the ability to learn,fast! You need to have a sense of humour...a big sense of humour! Huge!!! A good memory is a must too, applicants fail to realise how many people you will have spoken to that particular day/week/month and fully expect you to remember them by their first name alone! You also need a very understanding partner/spouse and family, you cannot control when people will call you back.One phone call may take 5-10 mins or an hour, there's no way of knowing until you go on the phone. You need to think long and hard before deciding if you think someone is suitable for a certain bird. Wrong decisions can have irreversible side-effects on our birds.Having said all that it can also be very rewarding. I have been part of re-homing for a year and I still receive regular phonecalls, emails, texts and even snail mails with photos from people that I gave some of my first 're-homing' birds to. People still call Rick and I up for advice, many weeks and even months after we have re-homed a bird. As Vicki said you also need to be a team player, a good re-homing team relies on good communication at all times. We were lucky in that we gelled and all worked together well. It hasn't always a bed of roses and we've all had our disagreements and arguments from time to time, it's impossible not to when we are all so passionate about the birds, but ultimately I think that's why we were a good team.Before this turns into sentimental nonsense I'd just like to thank Rick and Vicki and say that I have really enjoyed working with you both x

A very difficult role to fill.  I'm sad they have made the difficult decisions to stand down as it is such an important job.  Good luck in the search.