BRAT Board Changes

Last week BRAT's founder, Mike Swan, retired from his post as President of our organization. Liz Newton, who is a regional coordinator and a longtime member of the BRAT Board, has agreed to step up to the post and become our new President. We are grateful to Mike for his many years of leadership and dedicated service to BRAT, and for his wonderful vision of rescuing basenjis nationwide that he made into a reality when he formed BRAT. Mike, you are a pioneer and you will surely be missed! As we turn now towards our future as an organization, we are confident that Liz will use her skills and experiences from serving many years on the "front lines" of rescue, to ensure that we keep BRAT moving forward and expand our capabilities to rescue even more homeless basenjis.

In addition to Mike's departure and Liz's elevation to President, the BRAT Board also unfortunately loses Barbara McShea, who has been a coordinator and a longtime Board member. The Board would like to thank Barbara for the many years she served as an officer and Board member. We are very grateful to her for remaining with BRAT as a stationmaster who both fosters and coordinates many basenjis annually.

In order to fill these two vacancies, the BRAT Board of Directors is pleased to announce that two new directors have been added. Roberta Kosek and Chey Miller, both longtime regional and district coordinators, have been selected to serve on the Board. The board officers are now as follows:

• Elizabeth Newton, President/Director; 
• Roberta Kosek, Vice-president/Director; 
• Debbi Johnson, Treasurer/Director; 
• Jackie Kuhwarth, Director;
• Chey Miller, Director. 

Additionally, B. Ann Hageman has accepted the position of BRAT Secretary, and a new position has been designated and filled by naming Don Kuhwarth as Chief Information Officer. B.Ann spends many hours weekly reviewing new adoption applications, volunteer applications, and maintaining our databases of both. Don spends many hours weekly maintaining the security of BRAT's web site and databases, and in the next few weeks he will be contacting other stationmasters who manage information to determine how we can improve our processes. We are glad to have them both on board and thank them for their continuing service to BRAT.

In closing, we'd like to once again thank our departing Board members for their hard work and years of service, and we look forward to working with our current and new Board members, as well as all of our dedicated volunteers nationwide, to accomplish our mission.