About
Who we are
A volunteer-run animal welfare organization, working on the parts of the problem that volunteers can actually move.
We exist to relieve the suffering of cats — by funding the shelters that house and treat them, by putting adoptable cats in front of people who will take them home, and by making sure those people know what they are taking on.
The work is unglamorous and mostly logistical: raising money and handing it to shelters, carrying adoptable cats to a show and standing beside them all day, and writing down the answers to questions people were previously given badly. None of it requires anyone to own a pedigree cat, and none of it is reserved for members.
We are small and everyone here is a volunteer, which decides what we take on. We do not run a shelter, a clinic, or a rescue. Those things need buildings, licences, and staff, and the organizations that already have them do it better than we would — so we fund them and send them adopters instead.
Legal status
Golden Sierra Cat Club is a volunteer-run animal welfare organization. Our application for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status is pending with the IRS, classified under Animal Protection and Welfare.
Until that application is approved, contributions to the organization cannot be treated as tax-deductible charitable donations. We will say so here the moment that changes, and post the determination letter.
We are seeking public charity status, which depends on support from many people rather than a few. Small recurring gifts genuinely count for more here than their size suggests.
Programs
What the money and the hours go into
These are the three things we do. If a program is not on this list, we do not run it — and if you are told otherwise, it was not us.
Education
Free, plain-language guides on care, nutrition, grooming, and behaviour, written and reviewed by members and open to anyone.
Most harm to cats is not deliberate. It comes from advice that was wrong, or that nobody offered. Nothing here is behind a membership.
Funding shelters
We raise money and give it to animal shelters doing the expensive, unglamorous work of housing and treating cats.
Shelters already have the buildings, the licences, and the veterinary relationships. A small volunteer organization multiplies its effect by funding that capacity rather than duplicating it.
Adoptions at our shows
We bring adoptable shelter cats to the shows we run, and staff the table that introduces them to visitors.
A cat show is several hundred people who already like cats, many of them willing to take one home that day. It is the highest-intent audience a shelter cat is ever going to stand in front of.
How we choose which shelters
Grants are authorised by the Board of Directors, which controls the Club’s funds and makes disbursements under procedures it establishes. No part of the Club’s earnings goes to any member, officer, or director — the By-laws forbid it, and officers serve without compensation.
Governance
A board the membership elects, every year
Terms run a single year and the whole board faces the membership again each March. Every officer is an unpaid volunteer who stood for the role.
President
Chief executive of the Club. Presides at every meeting, sets the agenda with the Board’s input, and appoints the committees the By-laws do not otherwise provide for. As chair, votes only to break a tie.
Vice President
Assists the President, and carries out the President’s duties in their absence, disability, or resignation — including filling the office outright for the rest of a term if it falls vacant.
Secretary
Keeps the minutes, maintains the roll of members, handles the Club’s correspondence and membership applications, and files what has to be filed. The person to email if you are not sure who to email.
Treasurer
Holds the Club’s funds, keeps the accounts of what comes in and goes out, collects dues, and reports on the finances at the annual meeting and whenever the Board asks.
The Board of Directors is the four officers together with one to three additional Directors, elected from the membership.
Everyone serves a one-year term and may stand again without limit. Officers take up their duties at the close of the annual meeting that elected them.
The annual meeting is held each March. Regular meetings run monthly, and members may attend and vote by video or telephone where the Board allows it.
To stand for office a member must be in active good standing and have held voting membership for at least a year — a requirement waived only for the Club’s founding slate.
The offices of Secretary and Treasurer may be combined and held by one person if the membership decides to.
Money
What we commit to publishing
A charity asking the public for money owes the public an account of it. These are promises, not aspirations.
Every officer is an unpaid volunteer. No one draws a salary from this organization.
We keep the records the law requires us to keep available: our last three annual returns and, once granted, our exemption application. Email and ask, and you will get them at no charge.
If you want to know what a specific donation paid for, ask the Treasurer and you will get a straight answer.
A typical meeting
What you are actually walking into
Published because the honest answer to “what happens at a meeting?” is more useful than an invitation.
Arrive and settle
Coffee, introductions, and a genuine effort to learn the names of anyone new. Bringing a cat is optional and, at meetings, uncommon.
Business and numbers
Minutes, the treasurer’s report, and where each program stands. Kept brisk on purpose — it is the shortest part of the evening, but it is the part that is on the record.
The main item
A talk, a demonstration, or a hands-on handling and grooming session. Members propose topics; visiting speakers cover health, nutrition, and what shelters actually need from us.
Open floor
Questions, coordination, and advice. Most of the useful information here is exchanged in this half hour rather than from the podium.
Membership
The practical details
- Who can join
- Membership is open to anyone interested in furthering the Club’s objectives. You need a current member in good standing to sponsor your application, and the Board approves it. Applicants under eighteen also need a parent or guardian’s written consent.
- Dues
- Individual $25 a year, Household $15 for a second person at the same address, Junior $10 for members under eighteen. Payable on or before the first day of the fiscal year, which runs January to December.
- Dues are not refundable or prorated
- Joining in November costs the same as joining in January. If an application is not approved, dues submitted with it are refunded in full.
- Voting and holding office
- Reserved for members in active good standing: dues paid, not under suspension, and actually taking part — helping run a show, coming to meetings, pitching in on fundraising. The Board decides whether that participation test is met.
- Letting it lapse
- Dues unpaid thirty days after they fall due make a membership inactive, after written notice from the Treasurer. Coming back afterwards means applying again rather than simply paying up.
- Dues are support, not a fee for services
- Membership money goes into the same programs as donations. Nothing about the work is reserved for members — the guides are free and the help is offered to anyone who asks.
Next step
The work needs hands more than it needs admirers
Give, take a shift on the adoption table, or come to a meeting as a guest and decide afterwards.
Until that application is approved, contributions to the organization cannot be treated as tax-deductible charitable donations.