Want to Be an AT Founder? We're Going National

Life Animal Adoptions & Emergencies
1

Hi there.

As you may already know, AnimalsTaiwan has been in the process of registering as an official Taipei City non-profit organization. We missed a deadline for providing documents and now have to start the process again - apologies to those of you who now have to provide us with your details again.

But the skipped deadline may turn out to be fortuitous. It is clear that AnimalsTaiwan needs a national presence - there is much work to do. It is also apparent that we have some dedicated individuals starting up animal-welfare groups of their own in various counties: Bobepine in Kaohsiung, Steeevieboy and proto_tw in Taoyuan, and random in Yilan, to name but a few (many more have been contacting me recently).

It seems the time is ripe to make AnimalsTaiwan a national concern. Here is your chance to help create something that could be your legacy in Taiwan; in order to become a national NPO, we need at least 31 founder members, and they must be residents of Taipei City, Kaohsiung, and eleven other counties.

The responsibilities include attending six-monthly meetings, in which you would vote on how the organization will operate, and who will be in charge of what areas. The other details I can provide a little later.

So, if you are dedicated to making a difference to the lives of animals in Taiwan and can commit to attending meetings and offering ongoing support to the organization, please e-mail me today at SeanDMcCormack at gmail dot com, telling me why you would like to be a key part of this great organization and how you think you can help. I will then need you to fill out a form, which I can fax to you, and provide me with copies of the front and back of your residency permit / ARC.

We welcome anybody from any background, both foreign and local. Being an English speaker is preferable but not a requirement.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to bring about positive change on this island we regard as home. Preventing suffering and saving lives has immense rewards. You can play a large part in that.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Sean McCormack

2

Can’t you call it the
F
oundation for
A
nimal
R
escue
T
aiwan ?

3

Erm … maybe. At least people will quickly get wind of what we’re doing.

4

[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”]Can’t you call it the
F
oundation for
A
nimal
R
escue
T
aiwan ?[/quote]

Do you think the government office in Taipei will clue in?

5

OK, we have people in Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taipei County, Yilan, Taoyuan, Tainan, and Taichung, but we still need representatives from six other counties. Who can help us out here? It’s pretty urgent. You’ll get to see AnimalsTaiwan branches all over the island when this goes through. :slight_smile:

6

You might want to ask in “open forum” with regards to becoming a founder in a charitable organization.

7

Hi there.

As you may already know, AnimalsTaiwan has been in the process of registering as an official Taipei City non-profit organization. We missed a deadline for providing documents and now have to start the process again - apologies to those of you who now have to provide us with your details again.

But the skipped deadline may turn out to be fortuitous. It is clear that AnimalsTaiwan needs a national presence - there is much work to do. It is also apparent that we have some dedicated individuals starting up animal-welfare groups of their own in various counties: Bobepine in Kaohsiung, Steeevieboy and proto_tw in Taoyuan, and random in Yilan, to name but a few (many more have been contacting me recently).

It seems the time is ripe to make AnimalsTaiwan a national concern. Here is your chance to help create something that could be your legacy in Taiwan; in order to become a national NPO, we need at least 31 founder members, and they must be residents of Taipei City, Kaohsiung, and eleven other counties.

The responsibilities include attending six-monthly meetings, in which you would vote on how the organization will operate, and who will be in charge of what areas. The other details I can provide a little later.

So, if you are dedicated to making a difference to the lives of animals in Taiwan and can commit to attending meetings and offering ongoing support to the organization, please e-mail me today at SeanDMcCormack at gmail dot com, telling me why you would like to be a key part of this great organization and how you think you can help. I will then need you to fill out a form, which I can fax to you, and provide me with copies of the front and back of your residency permit / ARC.

We welcome anybody from any background, both foreign and local. Being an English speaker is preferable but not a requirement.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to bring about positive change on this island we regard as home. Preventing suffering and saving lives has immense rewards. You can play a large part in that.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Sean McCormack

8

Isnt’ this volunteer work, which is illegal? What I want to know is if there is any volunteer work which is legal. This bizarre prohibition on volunteer work by foreigners is one of the most offensive pieces of legislation in this country.

9

Hi, forigurn.

No, it’s not volunteer work - you would be setting up an association, which is much the ame as setting up a business. There is no ‘work’, unless you want to become more actively involved.

Volunteer work is not illegal in Taiwan - you just need permission to do it, and mostly that involves informing the local government of your actions in advance.

Sean

10

Stray Dog,
You can sign me up for Taitung County. PM me for details
Thanks

11

It makes sense…as a legal precaution. If volunteering was always legal for foreigners…then everytime they went to bust some foreigner at some school he could say “They weren’t paying me…I was just teaching this one day for the heck of it!”, but since it’s illegal to volunteer (without permission) the police can respond with “Oh they aren’t paying you? Well, it’s still illegal to volunteer…you’re coming with us, SCUMBAG!!”

That’s my guess anyway. Plus people could force labourers into doing jobs they don’t want to do…and make them tell the police they were doing of their own free will…regardless it would be illegal…in theory.

12

Stray Dog,
Don’t know if you’ve been in touch with Proto_tw, a poster on this forum, but he’s been doing some good stuff in Taoyuan City and surroundings–playing country music in the malls and raising money to help take care of strays. You guys should team up, if you haven’t done so already…Cheers!

13

Hey wookie, read the initial post from SD, I believe they met already. I heard all kinds of good things about what proto and friends are doing in their corner of the universe. Keep it up!

Just a quick not for the AT folks here, you can visit this site : www.animalstaiwan.org on their main page. Scroll down to “Links” and you will see the link to your website.

Also, we have our own website for the Kaohsiung crew already. It’s being created at the moment and there is only a picture of two cute dogs and a link to our very own forum. Our website coordinator has been busy and he’s on the ball! He started a discussion forum so that we can discuss any and all issues from the comfort of our home.

If you are interested in participating in our discussions, pm or email me and I will send you the website URL. I’m not posting it yet because it’s not ready, only our forum is ready to use and it’s reserved for volunteers and collaborators.

Cheers!

bobepine

animalstaiwankaohsiung@hotmail.com

14

[quote=“Stray Dog”]Hi, forigurn.

No, it’s not volunteer work - you would be setting up an association, which is much the ame as setting up a business. There is no ‘work’, unless you want to become more actively involved.[/quote]

Thanks for the clarification.

Doesn’t that also involve them then saying ‘No’, or pretending to say ‘Yes’ and then sending the police around later to get you deported?

15

[quote=“Fortigurn”]

Doesn’t that also involve them then saying ‘No’, or pretending to say ‘Yes’ and then sending the police around later to get you deported?[/quote]

Like I said before…the only reason “volunteering” is illegal…is so that foreigners who are caught at places of work other than their own…can’t claim they were doing it just for “fun”.

So if you claimed to “volunteer” at a bushiban…they’d deport you. But I’m betting it’s pretty safe to say that no one on the island has been deported for playing with puppies.

16

Personally, I think mordeth nailed it on this one. The law is there to prevent an overload of teachers donating 20 hours/week of their time to a local bushiban. :wink: There may be other reasons behind it but that is certainly one of them. I think helping pooches and kitties is not really a heat score. :slight_smile:

bobepine

17

I would be more than happy to donate 20 hours of my time to a buxiban. I see that the purpose of this law is (as usual), to support an existing farce. There’s no reason why foreigners couldn’t be formally registered as volunteers at buxibans - I’m sure the government could think up a 6 week procedure involving half a dozen forms in triplicate to accomodate the process, the way they do with everything else.

18

Thanks to everyone who has contacted me to become a founding member - please e-mail me ASAP so I can send you the info (I’ll respond to your PMs and posts a little later; early morning CNR work to do, so must be off to bed now, but I sincerely appreciate your offers).

Night all!

Sean

19

Just looking for an update. How many more counties do we need?

20

The only cases I can recall where anyone was deported for ‘volunteering’ were dubious at best - generally revolving around musical performances or ‘I wasn’t working at this English school, honest, officer!’ I used to think the ‘ban’ on volunteering was a national disgrace until I found out that much of the hype was coming from our aforementioned deportees.

I volunteered a few hours a week at a public primary school back in Taipei and it was a painless experience to get the necessary authorisation. The headmistress wrote a brief letter to the CLA explaining what I would do and why they needed me. The CLA wrote back saying it was okay and I kept copies of everything including an attendance record. Got me brownie points with the local cops who had kids there actually and probably the least beauracratic thing I’ve ever done in Taiwan.