The first phase of the project management life cycle, project initiation, entails beginning a new project. In the initiation phase, a business opportunity is identified, a solution is developed, a project is established, and a project team is selected (Niederman et al., 2018). This stage’s objective is to assess the project’s viability as decisions are made regarding who will carry out the project and which parties will participate. Team formation is critical in the initiation phase as it determines the success or failure of the project. The project’s needs should be proportional to the team’s skills; thus, employing people with adequate expertise is vital.
The staff is responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the rescue group. The executive director is the face of the organization and acts as the spokesperson. The executive director ensures the team operates according to its mission and thus should be knowledgeable about business and media relations. The records manager should be detail-oriented as he is responsible for updating the group’s website’s profiles and images, each animal’s current location, and medical history (The Humane Society of the United States, n.d.). The financial coordinator monitors the organization’s finances, including incoming contributions and outgoing expenses. The corporate relations coordinator contacts businesses like pet stores and other service providers to negotiate food prices, veterinary care, and transportation to reduce costs for your rescue.
The facility director develops guidelines to care for the animals and guarantee their welfare, including training and supervising volunteers. The position is ideal for people with experience in community outreach, prior animal care experience, and knowledge of shelter cleaning procedures. The person in question must be a people person as they will represent the company at events and solve challenges frequently encountered in the rescue shelters. The foster coordinator clearly outlines for potential foster caregivers what the group will provide and what the caregiver is accountable for when taking care of animals (The Humane Society of the United States, n.d.). This position requires someone with a lot of patience and strong interpersonal skills. A medical coordinator helps schedule veterinarian appointments and liaises between the rescue group and local veterinarians.
Staff and volunteers are essential to the rescue organization’s development. It is crucial to have a structured program for recruiting and retaining volunteers by offering them assistance, guidance, and training to help reduce turnover. It is prudent to list the physical, mental and emotional requirements to help staff and volunteers prepare for their tasks. Communication is crucial for a volunteer program to be effective. A minimum time commitment requirement would ensure consistency for all parties and allow volunteers to withdraw if the experience is unsuitable. An orientation and training session should be held before permitting volunteers to perform their tasks. The orientation should give participants a general overview of the organization, information and elements that will aid in their decision-making. The training session should cover all pertinent regulations, guidelines, and instructions. It is advisable to distribute volunteer manuals that list everything you covered during orientation and training to help volunteers and create consistency within the organization.
The project team should be formed two weeks before the event to ensure adequate preparations. The executive director can hold a public meeting to explain the event’s goals. Each team will have a coordinator who communicates to team members about the task and reports to the management. The team leader can inform members regarding the date, time, and place they can meet for a community campaign to draw support. The person then reports what they were able to gather from the campaign. All the work groups can meet quarterly to bond and give reports, but they mainly cooperate within their work groups. In addition, virtual meetings will be included with the help of a single computerized mailing list database that keeps track of staff and volunteers’ addresses.
Each team member is crucial as all employees and volunteers work towards a shared mission, a mission to improve animal welfare. There is a need for staff to consider themselves as a representative of the shelter instead of working to the exclusion of the shared organizational mission. Mutual respect and understanding among the employees help staff feel more integral to all organizational processes and decrease the likelihood of boredom (Dasí et al., 2020). Each team member represents a department crucial to improving creativity and interdepartmental interactions in the animal shelter.
Two strategies to manage stakeholders’ expectations include being flexible and revitalized. The executive director should ensure stakeholders appreciate that multiple views can co-exist in animal welfare. The team should provide continuous re-evaluation regarding the stakeholder’s expectations by helping them understand the contentious nature of animal rescue, which may be contrary to their perspectives. The executive director will facilitate interactions between the stakeholders to ensure all parties offer constructive solutions to the adjusted expectations (Fernandes et al., 2019). This will entail rekindling enthusiasm for the animal welfare goals instead of offering hostile expectations demands. Stakeholders can be informed of project progress through project status reports released bi-weekly. It informs the stakeholders of what has been done, what needs to be done, and what issues exist. The copies should be easily accessible to all stakeholders.
References
Dasí, À., Pedersen, T., Barakat, L. L., & Alves, T. R. (2020). Teams and project performance: an ability, motivation, and opportunity approach. Project Management Journal, 52(1), 75–89. Web.
Fernandes, J., Blache, D., Maloney, S. K., Martin, G. B., Venus, B., Walker, F. R., Head, B., & Tilbrook, A. (2019). Addressing animal welfare through collaborative stakeholder networks. Agriculture, 9(6), 132. Web.
Niederman, F., Müller, B., & March, S. T. (2018). Using process theory for accumulating project management knowledge: A seven-category model. Project Management Journal, 49(1), 6–24. Web.
The Humane Society of the United States. (n.d.). Rescue group best practices: Forming your team. HumanePro. Web.