Texas is a big state, and coordinating members and volunteers across hundreds of miles is a big project. For years, we have had to turn away volunteers who live in areas too far from headquarters to allow them to participate in USESR rescue activities. We have found a way to solve this problem. We have instituted Regional Coordinators. These important people will be the movers and shakers in the regions we have split Texas into. It will be your duty to attract new members in your region for the purpose of setting up a fully operational rescue program in your area. It's not as hard as it sounds, and it's a very important volunteer position.

Here is our Regional Coordinator's Contract, which explains more fully what the duties and expectations are:

1. The person named above has agreed to accept the volunteer position within The Rescue named Regional Coordinator.
2. The Regional Coordinator shall be assigned one Region, consisting of the county in which the RC resides, as well as all of the counties immediately adjacent to that county on all sides.
3. The Regional Coordinator is a non-paid, non-officer, non-Director volunteer position.
4. The Regional Coordinator is voted in as RC and approved by a majority vote of the members of the rescue who are entitled to vote.
5. The Regional Coordinator position is considered permanent and is not an officer or Board position, therefore, there is no term of office. (This means you wouldn't have any legal liability like the current officers do)
6. Regional Coordinators may resign from the RC position without resigning from The Rescue as a member. (If you don't like it, you don't have to keep doing it and we won't be mad at you!)
7. Regional Coordinators can be voted out of office according to a majority vote of the members of the rescue who are entitled to vote.
8. Regional Coordinators are entitled to one vote per issue at all meetings they attend, the same as all other members and Directors. Regional Coordinators may also vote by proxy.
9. Regional Coordinators shall take direction from all officers and members of the Board of Directors and shall follow those directions at all times, in all circumstances. Should a conflict of direction arise, the RC shall immediately call that conflict of direction to the attention of all officers who issued conflicting statements so that the correct direction can be given.
10. The duties of the Regional Coordinator are:
    1. To recruit new members in their region.
    2. To recruit new foster homes in their region.
    3. To promote The Rescue in a positive light at all times in their region and in all other regions.
    4. To act as a coordinator between The Rescue's Headquarters, Officers, and Directors. This shall be done in the following ways:
       • Proliferate needed information regarding Policies and Procedures to members and potential members, donors, and adopters in their region. The RC must take adequate measures to ensure that information being proliferated is true and accurate. In other words, the RC answers questions or provides basic information. (Actually, everything but the last sentence is schmoozy, but true. You do just answer questions. If you don't know the answer, refer them to someone in the rescue who does. Refer them all to me and I'll refer them - I know everybody. See the next directive.)
       • In the event an RC is not able to answer a question or provide adequate and complete exact information, the RC shall contact an officer or Director and request they contact the person asking for information.
       • Make suggestions to new members as to ways in which they can serve The Rescue by volunteering.
       • In the event a member in the RC's region becomes dissatisfied or appears to be dissatisfied for any reason, at any time, the RC shall, at the direction of any officer or Director, contact that member via phone or in person (not via e-mail, U.S. mail, fax, or through any third party) and speak with them to find out what objections they may carry towards The Rescue, take notes, and report back to the appropriate officer. (It's recommended you tell them you are doing this) If an appropriate officer is not known, the RC shall submit said report to the President or Secretary within 7 days time via phone, e-mail, U.S. mail, or fax. At this point, the coordinator's duty has been fulfilled unless further instructions are issued from the officer the RC is in contact with or any other officer or Director who is familiar with said report from RC. (This way, you don't have to fight with anyone. If this person is a friend of yours, just write down what he or she says & submit it; submit it and forget it. I have lost friends over the rescue, but I've made so many more and the newest ones are better)
    5. Regional Coordinator shall not assign volunteer positions.
    6. Regional Coordinator shall not act on his or her own volition without the express written consent of an officer or Director of The Rescue outside of the written direction of this contract. (These sound like you don't have a lot of authority, but really what you don't have is the bother of it. Our old RC policy had the RC literally building a mini-model of us, on their own. This caused some territorial differences among the regions, and that wasn't the direction we wanted our rescue to head in. We removed the isolation factor from the Regional Coordinator position in order to attract more volunteers to the position- persons who may have limited time- and took a lot of the personal expense or automatic expectancy of reimbursement for anything out of the duty roster. We put everything into contract form to keep the best track of what each of us understands and expects out of each other.
    7. Regional Coordinator is not to process adoption applications and cannot make any final decisions on qualifications for foster homes except in those issues which are brought to a vote in a regular meeting in which all members are given the opportunity to vote on them. In the event that there is any possibility, no matter how remote, that the RC may be biased toward an adopter, RC shall abstain from voting on this particular issue.
    8. Regional Coordinators shall not, at any time, for any reason, award their friends, relatives, co-workers, or professional service providers, or anyone else, with special treatment and may not partake any actions towards those in any of the aforementioned groups or categories which may appear to be special treatment.
    9. If a Regional Coordinator comes into a position in which they must choose between friends, family, co-workers, or professional service providers in matters pertaining to The Rescue, RC's must choose on the side of The Rescue. Penalty for this shall be immediate suspension of RC duties, pending review by the Board of Directors within three days of suspension of duty. (We won't be too mad if you choose your friends over the rescue. We don't like it when that happens, but it usually does happen. We also don't guarantee that you won't still be a Regional Coordinator, but you may loose your ability to vote on a certain issue that you really, really want to go your way. We just can't go around letting people choose their friends over rescue policy or by allowing any of them to come in and attempt to destroy our rescue.)
    10. Regional Coordinators shall make every effort to locate, plan, and implement promotional booths, membership drives, and fundraisers within their region. Such activities shall be implemented at least once every three months throughout the calendar year. (At first, you're bound to be alone, unless you can talk a friend into joining. When I started, it was just me and one other volunteer. We did a raffle at a local WalMart store. I made posters using pictures I cut out of horse magazines I've been saving for no reason for about 8 years. One poster was facts about Premarin. I couldn't get a pill from the pharmacy because it's a controlled substance, but I did get a print-out of its side effects. Another poster was about abuse and what to do about it. The letters and pictures were all pretty large. I knew a lot of people and they donated. We raised more in donations than we did for our raffle. We raffled off a free house cleaning. Lots of men went for it!!!!! All we raised was $100.00, but it was worth it. Our website attracted new members and we grew. I also just created some nice business cards for volunteers that promote our booth space on them. You'll be limited as to what booths you can do, but we're really trying to cultivate the working population of horse people right now. This campaign may last us several years.
    11. Regional Coordinators shall pass out flyers, brochures, business cards, and written information as provided to them by an approved member, officer, or Director of The Rescue.
    12. Regional Coordinators may not design, print, or distribute materials they created themselves without the express written permission of the President, Vice President, Secretary, or Treasurer of The Rescue. (When I first started, back in the days of the hundred dollar fundraiser, I paid for paper, ink, postage, everything, myself. You won't have to do that because you've got us! Just ask and it shall be mailed!)
    13. The Regional Coordinator does not send out Membership Packets, Adoption Packets, Foster Care Packets. These are the duties of the Secretary of The Rescue. (Most of this stuff is already on the internet for you, but you may want to hand out membership forms at a booth or something. We have entire packets to send you, in full color, for booth distribution. We can tailor these packages to your target audience. If you need foster homes, then people who might be able to foster are the ones you want to grab the attention of the most. Same thing if you're looking to place a horse or need funds for a special project. Just ask and it shall be mailed!)
    14. Regional Coordinators may send out Donation Contracts. The current donation contract that The Rescue uses is the only form of that contract the RC may send out. It may be sent out via U.S. mail, fax, or e-mail.
    15. Completed Donation Contracts, Membership Registration Forms, Adoption Applications, and Foster Care Packets shall be submitted to The Rescue's Headquarters and not to the Regional Coordinator. (You don't have to keep a bunch of files. Believe me, they can pile up over the years. I've got 3 filing cabinets in my living room now and need another one.)
11. Financial directives are as follows:
    1. All checks and money orders are to be written to The Rescue and mailed to The Rescue's Headquarters, c/o "Treasurer".
    2. The opening of a bank account in The Rescue's name is expressly forbidden and is grounds for a lawsuit.
    3. Reimbursements may be submitted for the following:
       • Vinyl banners (cloth or magnetic) bearing the name and logo of The Rescue
       • Transport of equine owned by or being donated to The Rescue
       • Fundraising expenses
    4. NO reimbursements shall be paid which are not approved in writing by the treasurer of The Rescue prior to any expenditure.
    5. Regional Coordinators are not allowed to accept or handle any money meant for, donated to, or paid to The Rescue for any reason, at any time. All such money shall be directed straight to the treasurer of The Rescue.
    6. Should the Regional Coordinator wish to place an ad in a newspaper or other media for the purposes of attracting members, adopters, or donors, or any other reason, this expense shall be approved by the treasurer in advance, in writing. Text of the ad shall be written by an approved HnT volunteer and submitted to the RC for approval, after which time the treasurer of The Rescue shall place the ad on behalf of the RC's region, should the expense be approved by the treasurer.
12. Regional Coordinators vow to abide by all HnT policies and procedures and submit to the board for direction and to accept all reasonable penalties imposed upon them by officers of The Rescue.
13. Regional Coordinators vow to promote the rescue in it's highest light at all times, even if they resign from their volunteer position or from The Rescue.
14. Regional Coordinators shall demonstrate allegiance to the rescue at all times, under all circumstances. Voting contrary to popular opinion within the rescue shall not constitute an act of dis-allegiance in and of itself. (We don't care what you vote. If we didn't want you to have the right to vote, we wouldn't have given it to you. Even the officers have to sign a pledge stating that they will vote according to their own beliefs even if they are the only ones voting that way.)
15. Acts of dis-allegiance cannot be fully listed in this contract, therefore, the rule of two Officers or Directors, as outlined in # 21 of this contract shall apply.
16. Regional Coordinators may not start their own rescue, either registered as or recognized as a nonprofit corporation nor shall they start their own private rescue within 24 months of the date they resign their position as RC or resign from The Rescue.
17. Regional Coordinators may not claim ownership of any of The Rescue's equine at any time, nor shall they act as an independent agent in the placement of any equine at any time.
18. Regional Coordinators may not use the term "rescue" in speaking in regards to any equine they purchase privately during their term of membership in The Rescue.
19. Should any Regional Coordinator be offered a free gift of any equine or be offered a purchase price for any rescue they may seek to or be offered to purchase for a dollar amount of less than $300.00, RC shall not accept that offer and shall instead attempt to persuade the seller or donor to sell or donate said equine to The Rescue instead.
20. Regional Coordinator hereby agrees to pay all court costs associated with enforcing this contract, whether suit is brought by RC or by The Rescue.
21. Regional Coordinators may be suspended by two or more members of the Board of Directors in the event there is reason to believe this contract has been violated in any way, pending a full review of the facts by the entire Board of Directors, by which the majority shall rule.
22. Regional Coordinator hereby agrees to pay The Rescue no less than $500.00 in personal damages should RC in any way violate the terms of this contract, whether The Rescue seeks damages in a court of law or not. This amount is in addition to any claim for damage or breach of contract The Rescue may see fit to sue RC for.
23. Regional Coordinator does not give up his or her right to counter-sue The Rescue.

I, ______________________ (full name of Regional Coordinator) have read and understand the terms and conditions of this contract. I attest that I am of legal age to sign a contract and am not under any undue stress or pressure to sign this contract. I do so of my own free will. My signature below means that I stand by this statement and accept this position, it's requirements and limitations.

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