CALAS inquiries

I often get emails from local animal techs who are looking for more information about their local CALAS chapter. I got news for everyone: I’m not involved with that disfunctional group any longer and have not been for a while!

I would also strongly suggest that if you are a CALAS Pacific member that you DO NOT renew your membership for 2011. Instead of improving animal welfare and the education of animal technicians, they spent $250 on a failed restaurant reservation, intending on throwing a party for one of the executives. This was a party that members were NOT consulted on, despite the fact that it was member fees which paid for the costs.

And after this party failed (no one wanted to come to a party in the middle of nowhere), ANOTHER dinner was set up where the “guest of honor” was wined, dined and gifted (along with her husband – remind me again, what he has done for animal welfare?) on your membership dollars. Brilliant! When the regional organization has an annual budget of only a few thousand dollars, spending several hundred on one member doesn’t seem right to me.

Add that to the additional $500 the chapter spent to send this same person to the Quebec CALAS conference (even though there were other qualified nominees) and suddenly you have a suspicious amount of money being spent on one person.  Hm.

And how many educational seminars have been hosted outside of RLAT training? ONE seminar. ONE webinar (which was industry arranged and presented, and hardly counts as more than advertising).

Anyways, my ranting aside, if you still would like to contact CALAS, try this site for national contacts. And if you ask nicely, the national contacts should also be able to direct you to local contacts.