So you're interested, now where do you start? There are many groups you can join to offer your transport help. A quick search on Yahoo Groups will assist you in finding groups that you can join. The types of groups vary. Some are breed specific, others are dedicated to assisting seniors, special needs, etc. Some groups are nationally based, others are regional, state, or city specific.
My first suggestion to you is that you create an email address that will be used soley for your transport mailings. This serves two purposes. First, if you get into transporting and you find it's not your cup of tea, the email address can easily be deleted without your having to notify all your family, friends, and businesses. You can simply delete the account and go on with your life as if you know nothing about rescue and transport. Second, once you begin transporting, or add your contact information to one of the groups databases, it's easy to get on a lot of folks mailing lists. We coordinators are like sponges - we soak up every contact we get. :)
My second suggestion is that you start S-L-O-W. I know that if you are passionate about animals and you find this "secret" world of rescue and transport, it's very easy to want to help everywhere all the time. At first, join only a group or two that is local to your area. Pace yourself when offering your transport help. I've seen more than one of my drivers start out gang busters, driving miles and miles every weekend. Some burn out quickly. We need you around for awhile, so pace yourself!
I'll be adding links to some of these groups at a later date, but for now, you can access MoStar's mailing list only group by clicking here. I created this group so that those folks who enjoy assisting MoStar with our transports can easily find out what we have going on on any given weekend. I am the only person posting to this list. It's not a discussion group, it's a mailing list. You don't have to join the group to see my postings. I've got the messages set up for public view so you can go to the group at any time to view the postings of our current transports (and a few from some of our most trusted coordinators that I crosspost there). However, if you want the postings to come directly to your inbox, you will have to join the group. We don't generate a lot of mailings on the list, usually just the daily updates to the transports that we are currently working on. Thursdays and Fridays are heavier as we try to fill the last few legs on the run and/or crosspost for other coordinators.
