Here is the job posting for director at Memphis Animal Services. Key phrases to avoid if you are applying: no kill, 90% live release rate, and of course YesBiscuit. Save all that for after they hire you. Like Day One. Go get ’em Tiger.
Here is the job posting for director at Memphis Animal Services. Key phrases to avoid if you are applying: no kill, 90% live release rate, and of course YesBiscuit. Save all that for after they hire you. Like Day One. Go get ’em Tiger.
btw, for anyone wondering, Mayor Wharton has won re-election in Memphis. hurray and stuff.
I am so so sorry to hear that! No hurrah’s from me, unless of course he grows a heart of compassion.
Government work – where creativity goes to die.
Nothing will ever really change for the better as long as these kind of criteria are used for hiring. What is listed on that job posting cements in the failings of today’s “shelter.” The credentials they seek is for someone experienced in organizational function – not animal handling.
This is the greatest weakness of our shelter industry today: people with virtually no animal knowledge are being hired to run these prisons. They cannot bring creativity to bear because they are unfamiliar with their product line. Attorneys, fundraisers, administrative people – these are the Great White Hope of the shelter industry. Shelters and pounds continue to fail because they are lead by the wrong people.
It requires real knowledge of the “merchandise” to know what is possible and what is not. The current prison model hamstrings creative people by boxing them in and forcing them to operate within this incredibly failed model.
Memphis and all other communities hiring leaders need to go back to basics and hire people who have a wealth of knowledge and experience in handling companion animals. They can hire people to run the business aspect. That’s easy. Those specialists are a dime-a-dozen. Innovation will never flourish in this limiting environment.
Want to see real innovation and creativity that far exceeds even the “best” no-kill shelter today? Go to http://www.shelterrevolution.org and simply read and look at pictures and videos. This is where the future of animal sheltering lies…
I had been to this site. And knowing that it can be done… I can’t believe it’s NOT BEING DONE.
I clicked on the “Job Posting” and got a error.
it opened the third try
Just out of curiosity can you tell me the proper requirements for this job? Should they seek a DVM? Is animal experience considered “rescue work”? Someone who has not completed anything beyond high school but has read & agreed with everything in Mr. Winograd’s books/blogs is a proper candidate. You are trying to take down a man who on his first day on the job supported the raid at the animal shelter. He is the first new mayor in 18 years. You have no idea the scope of problems he is trying to fix. I may not agree with all of his views, but he working hard to “right this ship”. Are any of you aware of the crissis the school system is in here? Please don’t say that has nothing to do with the animal issues! Who do you think will be volunteers & politicians 20 years from now? Nothing can be achieved anywhere if just worry about today and not the future! Here is a little information for those of you who not only have never been to Memphis, but have probably never been to Tennessee. Take out the name, and just read the facts. Doesn’t this sound like a reasonable person that you would like to try to work with to bring about change?
About The Mayor
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Mayor A C Wharton, Jr.
A C Wharton, Jr. was sworn in as the Mayor of the City of Memphis on October 26, 2009. Mayor Wharton was elected by a 61% margin of victory against numerous challengers to become Memphis’ first new Mayor in 18 years. Upon taking office, Mayor Wharton immediately set about focusing his administration to execute a new agenda of transparency, responsiveness, innovation, and delivering efficient, equitable, and excellent service for the people of Memphis.
Mayor Wharton believes that Memphis can be a City of Choice for people, families, and businesses of all kinds. His vision is to align civic, commercial, and political leaders to move our economy forward and improve the quality of life for all residents. In every word and deed since taking office, he has called for the City of Memphis to celebrate its successes, honor its singular accomplishments, confront its challenges, and claim its place as a great American city.
The Wharton administration and its partners have received national recognition for Memphis’ remarkable revitalization. The Mayor has focused specifically on new initiatives that dramatically increase jobs and capital investments, reduce crime, improve government efficiency and transparency, add more parks and green space to the core city, and improve public education for all children. Mayor Wharton has addressed major policy institutions and conferences of the Brookings Institute, CEOs for Cities, and the National Association for Counties. Memphis was one of only seven communities nationwide to be invited by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to take part in a national poverty-reduction initiative co-funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Social Innovation Fund and is working with an ambitious new White House initiative to prevent youth violence throughout Memphis.
Prior to being elected Mayor of the City of Memphis, A C Wharton, Jr. served as the Mayor of Shelby County for seven years and was the first African-American elected to that office.
Twice elected as Shelby County Mayor, Wharton led initiatives that shaped the region’s future. He inspired Operation Safe Community?the area’s first comprehensive crime-fighting plan, developed the first smart growth and sustainability plan for our community, tackled education and early childhood development issues with programs like Books from Birth and Ready, Set, Grow, and reduced the County’s inherited debt while limiting its citizens to only one tax increase in seven years.
A visionary leader, Mayor Wharton created a public-private partnership to preserve and cultivate Shelby Farms Park ? the largest urban park of its kind in the country? and established the Shelby Farms Greenline ? a new urban trail connecting Midtown Memphis to Shelby Farms Park?recognizing Memphis’ potential as a green, connected, and healthy city.
As the City’s leading official, Mayor Wharton has worked untiringly to incubate innovation and create efficiencies throughout government at a level that has brought about dramatic improvements in a relatively short amount of time. These advances have included a rooting out of corruption from within city government. Mayor Wharton established the Office for Talent and Human Capital to develop, retain, and attract the best and brightest young workers. He has pledged 55 miles of new bicycle lanes and hired the City’s first Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator. And through what has been a difficult economic period for the nation, Mayor Wharton has with the support of others personally shepherded a number of processes that have resulted in thousands of new jobs in Memphis’ economic pipeline. In concert with these efforts, he has placed equal attention and invested significant time on job retention and expansion opportunities for companies already located in Memphis.
An attorney by trade, Wharton is a former public defender and served as executive director of the nonprofit Memphis Area Legal Services, which received national recognition as a result of his leadership. In 1982, he wrote and saw passed one of the first state laws in the United States to combat domestic violence. At a national level, he worked for a special appropriation for one of the nation’s first transitional living facilities for juveniles. While serving as a public defender, Wharton’s passion for reform in criminal justice system’s treatment of the mentally ill led to the nationally renowned Jericho Project.
Mayor Wharton received his law degree in 1971, graduating with honors from the University of Mississippi Law School, where he was one of the first African-American students to serve on the Moot Court Board and first to serve on the Judicial Council. He became the University’s first African-American professor of law, where he taught for 25 years. He earned a political science degree from Tennessee State University and is a native of Lebanon, Tennessee.
The Mayor and his wife, Ruby, have raised six sons in Memphis.
WOW- had to get my boots on to wade through that….
Yes I’d love to work with Mayor Wharton on reforming MAS. Tell him to call me!
So, Mayor Wharton has a law degree and yet, he allows criminals to work in “his” animal shelter, he allows ongoing animal cruelty, neglect and abuse in his animal shelter. Animals disappear on a almost daily basis from that shelter and nobody really seems to be interested looking in to it. What exactly is Mayor Wharton doing to stop dog fighting in Memphis? If Mayor Wharton would be the “visionary leader” as it is claimed, we wouldn’t be sitting here reading and writing about the Slaughterhouse of Memphis, TN.
I got this…5 kids (6 with my stepson) and full of bull! He ‘cares’ and wants change in his city. Ummm it is ALWAYS easy to do a fancy write up that looks good. Now you want to share the facts and figures that SUPPORT just HOW he cares and what EXACTLY he’s doing IN Memphis to enact change? I see a lovely “bio” full of nothing and yet everything. Kind of interesting. Let’s hope my job application for MAS is just as fluffy! I can do the same thing with a little info about me…but I’ll spare everyone the details! It ALWAYS looks good on paper, but how’s that doing for you guys IN Memphis?
Don’t get me wrong – the children ARE important…but so are the elderly, the regular citizen, the public officials, the lady next door, the jobless, the underpaid, the homeless, and….ummm, crap, what else was I going to say! I know there is SOMETHING else I wanted to add! Oh wait – yeah I remember now….the animals in MAS! Maybe “rooting out the corruption” is just so damn hard that it leaves no room for the corruption at the shelter level. Oh wait – I missed the election…was MAS one of his platform issues that he promised to deal with?
Yeah kind of doubted it……
IF the mayor is so into being transparent then why is HE supporting the removal of cameras in MAS when it comes to the new shelter? I mean – that IS part of the whole transparency thing, but seems to have been so transparent that it has raised MANY red flags. So, OBVIOUSLY they are accomplishing one of his goals…and yet he doesn’t want them in the new building? Just doesn’t make sense to me!
After reading the job posting I don’t really see a difference between Lowes looking for a Warehouse Manager and the City of Memphis looking for a Shelter Manager. The word “passion” doesn’t seem to exist in the City of Memphis.
I’m pretty sure that it is the exact same job posting they used in 2007 (note the preference for someone with experience in shelter design).
You know, I caught that and I wondered if they wanted somebody who knew where to hide bodies quickly in case of a raid. But of course, that’s silly.
Not so silly at all. The landfill can only take so much before the hiding the bodies has to begin! Don’t forget….this is Memphis, city of high crime, low income, deplete of any moral fiber. So looking at just these things it’s not silly to assume anything.
Okay, I will sum it up for you! List your qualifications for the job! I haven’t applied for work at Lowe’s, maybe since you have you can tell me. Do you need a college degree and ten years experience to be interviewed? @YB, would you like to speak to the mayor? It may help to quit speaking about him as though he were an uneducated idiot. It may help to quit allowing people here to callously throw about physical threats to those they don’t agree with. Maybe you haven’t personally threatened, but you have allowed it! You have said it many times, this content is your choosing. You do not allow people to come on and attack others, that’s why you throw them off-right? The mayor can choose who he listens to outside of Memphis taxpayers. Do you often take meetings with people that have incited violence against you? You won’t even let them post comments if they are not 100% in agreement with you. All I can say is be glad you didnt try to get a meeting with the past mayor. I would be interested to know if you explain to your people what kind of a mess he left in Memphis. So here you go, add to “your content”. Lay out the qualifications for the job!
You’ve got it all wrong. My policy is to discourage threats of violence but to err on the side of free speech. The blog is full of comments from people who disagree with me and/or other commenters. Sometimes it seems like it’s mostly that. Which is fine. I only ban trolls, bullies, and cowards who repeatedly demonstrate their inability to find their own balls.
Oh and as for the Mayor, perhaps you have forgotten that he has his stooges blogstalk me and threaten me with skeery “legal action”. I don’t think he has any serious interest in talking with me about MAS.
I know for a fact that even Lowes is looking for people that bring passion to the job. You know, the thing that is missing at MAS on all levels?
Well – I have been searching and searching for the job posting because I had ‘heard’ that it was being posted on Wednesday and wasn’t able to find the post…then couldn’t OPEN the posting. FINALLY through YB of ALL places I got it and have read it. Now to go shine up my fingers to get ready to type up my “application”…thanks to “Georgiabear” I have seen a ‘write-up’ of Mayor Wharton so I have a better idea of how to approach it than I thought I would. Piece-of-cake…..
Don’t bring up no kill, or even reducing killing – we’ll save that little tidbit until after I get the job! LOL The application looks EXACTLY like the one I was referred to when I asked for a copy of the job description…and it IS the one they used when Pepper got hired.
Now wish me luck folks. I’m throwing my hat in the ring and going to ‘try’ to save those poor animals in that shelter! Don’t worry – I won’t tell “them” that!
All paws crossed!
Good luck.. two thumbs up from me…
I’m not at all a religious person but the thought of someone cleaning house in that hell hole sure has me praying now!!
I am curious what you all think of the application by Attorney Scott Kramer, he has a facebook page to support him and is supports the No Kill equation. Please take a look, discuss:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/No-Kill-San-Diego/176149375733600#!/pages/MAS-Needs-Scott-Kramer/220408334686943
I remember he wrote a very good letter to the editor of a Memphis paper about no kill and leadership. Other than that, I don’t know anything about him. Maybe he can chime in and tell us some things about himself and his vision for MAS.
Attorney Scott Kramer (yes, he is an attorney) is the man for this job. He is intelligent, compassionate and passionate about animal rights. He, personally, has rescued and happily placed a number of dogs. Scott’s own home is a happy haven of rescue pups that he has adopted. Scott is qualified for the job and would take the MAS in a new, humane direction. Please show your support for Scott by writing a letter to the Mayor.
Atleast I think he is an attorney!
With corruption so bad in most governments how will we know if they don’t already have someone picked out and are just posting about the job to make it look like they will give other people a chance at it?
You know the SAME thought crossed my mind as well! With the majority of opinion on how NOBODY understands what is going on in ‘their’ city. I am betting that the ‘acting director’ gets the position. And honestly have thought since the beginning that they would let people post for the job and make it look legit, you know keep up with appearances, but then give it to someone who has been there and won’t possibly rock the boat. I can’t wait to see how this plays out……
I hope I didnt overstep but I sent him an invite at facebook to come and comment here with his mission and credentials
Kellee — ixnay on the esyay iscuitbay.
Unless you are trying to scuttle a job candidate’s chances.
I remember when one of my Mom’s friends interviewed for a slot in the Master Gardener program in Ohio. She spoke passionately about her love of organic gardening and desire to teach it to others.
BLAAAAATTT. The extension program, including the Master Gardeners, are funded by and beholden to the pesticide companies.
The next year she interviewed again, said nothing about the organic method, got a slot, did her classes, and then threw away her pesticide charts when it came time to start teaching, and did what she’d intended all along.
I thought the same thing…but Scott Kramer has been pretty open about where he stands on things. Hell he wrote an article (or was that a letter to the editor?) and spoke out about no kill. So that right there is enough to already put him in the ‘enemy’ camp so to speak. It still would be nice to see a website or something other than just a FB page supporting him where people can ask him questions and really find out more about him. I have Googled him numerous times and still don’t feel that I have the whole picture about him. But then again….I’m sure that since ‘we’ don’t get to pick and choose the new director that it wouldn’t do anything more than reassure us that he IS a good candidate, and at the same time turn the Mayor/city officials against him. I fear that my own association with YB could cause me problems and had backed away from YB while awaiting the posting of the position….At this point I figure either way it’s going to be tough – I’m states away to begin with….took ‘patience’ to make me come back on here to blast her one time. Now I figure that everything I have ever written is already ‘out there’ since I had been posting so much prior to my decision….