I've voted 9am - 8pm Mon-Sat but only because all of the volunteers at SYESSR have "proper" jobs too, plus dogs of our own and families and because of this you are more likely to get hold of early evening onwards (answer machines are on the rest of the time). So I couldn't really vote for any of the 9-5 etc as you wouldn't get us if you called at that time.

We do get calls at all hours and don't really mind but if I was ringing some other rescue I would try and phone as early as possible and always before 9pm.

No expert at time management but starting slowly to learn how to say "no" not always easy but sometimes necessary and needed when you have things to balance in your life.

My experience as a volunteer manager for the last 15 years is you just have to remember is that people willing to give their free time is probably far more valuable than anything than an employee will ever give. And if anyone wishes to criticise people who volunteer in any activity who sometimes do have to say "no sorry I can't help this time" has probably not actually given up their own time and appreciated just how much volunteers give to our society not just in terms of dog rescue but actually in all areas of life and our community.

Just over a month ago I went to meet a lady who has volunteered for the charity I work for ... for 60 years, she is now in her late 70's and over the years has raised about £500k!!!! I thanked her but all she could say is that she was sorry she could no longer do more, that she had been ill and was getting on a bit and no longer had the energy to do what she used to, she still raises about £1,000 a year for us!!! I will never ask her to do more, all I offer is my support and help so that she is able to do what she wants for us for as long as she wants to and is able to. But any volunteer be it someone who give an hour a week or their whole life to a cause has to be valued because it all helps.

Going back to the original question

“What do you think is a reasonable time to contact a breed Rescue? Considering they are all volunteer helpers giving there time for free for the love of there chosen breed.”

can we first define what is meant by a breed rescue?

My personal opinion is that a "breed rescue" is a rescue which deals only with pure bred, working and first crosses of one breed, anything other than that is a "mixed breed" dog rescue. If it has more than one species of animal than it should be classed as a "general animal" rescue.

For clarification Spaniel Trust works only with Spaniels (but not just one breed of Spaniel) and again only with those who have severe behavioural issues but with a rescue back up for rehoming, so we wouldn’t come into this category but I do have views which might be of use.

To address the question; I would imagine a lot would depend on the size of rescue and the number of volunteers it can call on. Let’s take Springers for example (well this is ST!) there are some rescues with little resources in terms of manpower and income whilst there are others with many helpers and £30k+ in the pot.

Obviously the ones without available manpower or income will need to rely heavily on an answer phone system, as most of their day will be spent with and on the dogs in their care, and rightly so, unless they are networking heavily with other rescues. I would be very surprised if they had available time to be “on call”, checking email or the answer phone or able to answer the phone 24/7. So I would not expect an immediate answer to my call nor would I expect anyone to leave other dogs in their care to go to an emergency which may be many miles and hours distant, my answer in that case would be answer phone 9am-8pm Monday to Saturday (with call back/return call if necessary).

In the case of a rescue with a good bank account and numerous volunteers and supporters, the management of the organisation is down to the “day to day manager” to make sure their volunteer coverage is adequate to provide the service they advertise. If they offer an “out of hours” service, then they have to be prepared to accept calls at all hours advertised either at their headquarters or via call divert to a volunteer. The sheer size of this kind of organisation means office management (ie answering phones, emails etc) depends heavily on good management from the top. However I think this is unrealistic for most rescues as many do not have the size of management committee necessary for making good management decisions because they are in it as stated “for the love of there chosen breed” and have not thought it through to the management structure necessary to run a vast rescue covering large tracts of the country. If they do not have the necessary volunteers then they have to source the funding for staff elsewhere or cut back on their service to the public. This type of expenditure an still be viewed as legitimate for animal welfare but the tax man would take a dim view if the system were abused.

Even in the case of the largest “breed” rescue, I would expect them to be able to provide a service at least 9am – 8pm Monday – Saturday with an answer phone on for out of hours calls and/or other emergency cover.

Here Here Nik Nak !

I do (as do others) what I can on top of a full time career. In terms of "advertising our services" we don't, we simply do what we can to help spaniels in need.

We have just held an event to appeal for more helpers on a regular basis, disappointed with the response doesn't even describe the outcome.

We have no paid staff and, as Heather said "it costs us" to be part of rescue.

Unfortunatly, too many people who are prepared to "sit on the outside" like to comment on how sometimes we are hard to get in touch with, or how long it takes us to reply.

Only problem is, I don't see these people knocking on our door to help !

Its only when I see the springers we help I realise why I continue !

I put 9am-8pm 7 days a week on the basis that helping as a volunteer for ESSW I would be happy to be contacted in those times, in fact up to about 9.30pm. If it were an emergency I wouldn't mind being called outside those times, of course. That is not to say I am available all that time, I am out quite a bit or sometimes tied up, say putting my son to bed, but if people call they can leave a message on the answering machine. But in reality most of what I am able to do as a volunteer is in what might be termed as unsocial hours of evenings and weekends (look at the time now its 1am!, lol). If I were being called continuously during that period it would be a different matter though!