Hi Everyone
First of all: Thank you so much for standing up for the whales and being here!!!
As you all know, I have taken over from Scott as the Ground Commander today. Luckily Scott is still here for a few days to ensure that the transition goes smoothly. :-)
Just a few things from my side to reiterate:
1. NO changes to the strategy, lines of communications or commitments.
It is very important that our onshore campaign strategy is explained to each new volunteer. We can not have people on the ground who is unclear as to what our strategy is and who will not know what to do if a Grind occurs. I know each team's patrolling strategy and reaction strategy differ because of your differences in beach location, distance between beaches, geography etc, etc. So it is also EXTREMELY important that each of your team members are VERY familiar on how things work on your team and what their roles and responsibilities are.
3. Daily reports to still be submitted daily - and please continue to copy in Scott
4. Each new volunteer needs to complete and sign all the necessary forms (as you have been doing). I will collect these whenever I am visiting your area.
5. My plan is to have weekly visits to each team (Suduroy might only be every second week, but will keep you guys informed). During these visits I will also give you cash for the relevant expenses. In order to manage this effectively, please give me an estimation for your weekly cash needs (please work in a small component for incidental expenses). Brendan (Suduroy team)- you will need to include the 2000/week rent for the second house, in you estimation.
6. As indicated by Scott in a previous mail, you will reconcile/end off the cash that was given by him and start over with me. This will help myself and Scott to easily do our own accounting. If for some reason this can not be done, we will record the cash left over from Scott with you, as added income to the cash I will provide to you. I know you guys are extremely busy, but I will appreciate it tremendously if you can keep track of your expenditure (please remember to keep all receipts) by completing the attached petty cash reconciliation sheet. It is simple and self-explanatory, but if anything is unclear or if you have any questions, please let me know.
7. Elora and Nathalie are doing an amazing job with allocation of volunteers, but it is also my and your responsibility to assess the volunteer movement reports sent to you each day in order to always make sure you have sufficient number of volunteers to keep your operations going.They have a astronomical task of coordinating all the volunteers so please let us assist in which ever way we can. Thank you. We have opened the application process again and already Elora and them are getting new applications.
8. Although we are 2 separate teams (land and sea) here on the Islands, we are 1 Sea Shepherd with one goal of stopping the Grinds, so we must ensure we assist each other whenever we can.
9. I know you guys are doing this already, but when you are on high vantage/lookout points, please be on the lookout for pilot whales so that we can inform the boat crews of this. On this point, we have ordered compasses for each car so that we can indicate location and direction (degrees - east, west, south, north) of the whales to the boat crew. This will assist them in finding the pilot whales quicker.
10. In order for me and Scott to ensure our asset registers are complete and correct, can you please (when you have time - not urgent) give me an updated list of all assets with your team - cars (SSCS and rental), SSCS cameras, binoculars, phones, wi-fi dongels, tunnel passes etc etc. Thank you
11. We are planning to train 1 person on each team (preferably a volunteer who is doing a long stay) to operate a drone. Lukas, Jake and Dinielle (Dinielle and Jake arriving later in July) is our drone guys and we will discuss this (and the drone strategy) more with you when Jake and Dinielle have arrived.
With Brendan in place as Suduroy team leader, Lukas will return to HQ in this week. Please remember that we are just a phone call away.
Thank you so much for all your hard work!!
Hope you all had an extremely boring and uneventful day!
Regards,
Rosie Kunneke
SSCS Operation Grindstop Ground Commander
As Sea Shepherd spy on innocent people from Faroe Islands - we from the Nordportal spy on them. Remember, Sea Shepherd - that should you come back next year (2016) - we will know every single move you'll got! And please do remember to like the page I Support Japan - so we can help Japan also in the fight against Sea Shepherd - Link here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/I-support-Japan-1010316362351786/timeline/
Jógvan á Høvdanum (junior) 09.10.2015