I received a rather heated email yesterday (the day before by the time you receive this) regarding my personal involvement in the Ferrets Across America programme. It appears that some people have concerns about my being involved in an American programme since I do not live in America. They have yet to write in to the FML, however as some other people may share those concerns, I've decided to address those concerns here. Transports themselves will all be handled by people within the US, and in fact within the States that they are going through. The work that I will be doing is essentially handling the paperwork - keeping the database up to date, and passing on to the State Co-ordinators (who handle the transports) the list of transports needing to be done. This does not need to be done specifically within the US. The reason I am handling this is because I know a reasonable number of people within the US who can help, I'm online often enough to keep consistently in contact with people, I work from home, and therefore I am able to keep the database up to date without it interfering too much with my own work. Until there are co- ordinators for every State, I will be handling some transports where they pass through States which do not already have their own Co- ordinators. Once all the States have their own Co-ordinators, then I will no longer be directly involved with any transports at all. Another concern that was raised was because people who had voluntered before may need to fill in the volunteer form again. There are two reasons for this. One, is because there was no-one co- ordinating Ferrets Across America for some time, there are several people who have yet to be put into the database. This is currently being addressed, but may take some time. Two, is because some of the details may have changed in that time, different email address, new phones, new address, different times people can transport... although many will be the same, some may be different. I do not 'decide' who goes into the database, I simply input the information into it from the form that people choose to fill in. If the form at the website isn't filled in, I cannot enter the information on the database. So the only person who 'chooses' who is a volunteer is the person who fills in the form, or who decides not to. The State Co-ordinator will choose who to contact regarding a transport (I will have nothing to do with that personally except in States with no Co-ordinator, until they get one). Each person will be chosen by their location in the State. I waited until the person who originally began Ferrets Across America checked and approved the website before releasing the URL. The website will be changed shortly to reflect the changes to the Ferrets Across America system and that it will be handling transports 'full time' once more. Currently, it holds exactly the same information as the original site. There *are* long distance phone calls for the State, and for the country. The original co-ordinators for Ferrets Across America handled everything, and one person was receiving all the bills for numerous calls across the country. This is the main reason that some could no longer help with Ferrets Across America, as they simply could not afford to continually call all across the US. Transports within a specific area will be limited, and that will significantly reduce the number and cost of calls that co-ordinators initially had to cope with. Some people have asked who their co-ordinators are within their State. There is a hard and fast rule on this. I *cannot* give out any information on State Co-ordinators to anyone except other State Co-ordinators. They have to deal with the transports, and at any given time should only be in direct contact with the people who are involved in the current transport or transports. Anyone who needs to contact Ferrets Across America (except in regards to an actual transport in progress, where they will have been approached by the State Co-ordinator) will have to contact the Central Co-ordinator. This is so that the State Co-ordinators can concentrate on the transports in progress rather than on the paperwork and future transports. Because of this, I am not able to give out information on the State Co-ordinators. I hope this helps with any concerns that people may have. If anyone has any further questions, please feel free to contact me personally. Sam Ferrets Across America need your help in getting ferrets from one home to another. Email [log in to unmask] for information or visit http://users.1st.net/hammock/ferrets/faa/ to volunteer [Posted in FML issue 2872]