Meeting at Oakland Animal Services with Megan Webb

Last tuesday I met up with Megan Webb, the director for Oakland Animal Services.

I went down to the shelter and took some photographs, and walked around to try and experience what the shelter feels like to a user.

I talked with Megan for a while about the needs she had around the shelter. Things we discussed:

Creating some sort of display for the volunteers who have worked over a certain number of hours.

Changing the "adopted animals" display (it is currently in the lounge/seating area. Volunteers/workers would like to have easier access to it).

Making use of this blank kiosk area that is in the main lobby. Things I would have to organize is finding a donated computer and monitor.

Organizing information and photographs of the animals in the shelter.

Making use of all the blank walls and spaces throughout shelter to display adoptable animals.

One thing that Megan wanted to stress was that she wanted to "change it from feeling like a 'pound.'" She said that she also found that many users simply came in and viewed the animals that were featured; and also that animals are not always on their best behavior when caged.

Plan of attack:

Next step for me is to research printing on ceramic tiles (cafepress.com offers this for relatively cheap). And also to begin searching around for donated computers and computer monitors for the kiosk.