Possible Future Changes

     This is for how I currently have my waiting lists and possible changes I'll be making next year.

     As of now, my waiting list policy is as follows. When I know which parents I will place together, I look at the line history, as well as the females' histories (if they've had litters before) to determine about how many babies I'll have. Based on that number, I will announce applications are open and approve an amount of adopters that will fit the guessed number of babies. Sometimes, my guess is lower than expected, and I end up having room to accept a few more people on the lists, or my guess is high, and not everyone approve that round gets to adopt, which can lead to extended wait times.

     This is the order that people choose their babies:
- I choose my potential hold backs
- Approved breeders get second choice
- Previous adopters will choose from the remaining babies
- Newly approved adopters will choose from the remaining babies (the order new adopters will be placed on the list will be determined by their application number. Getting your app to me sooner gets you to a higher spot for the new adopters)

     While I like parts of this method, I feel it typically has adopters waiting a while for babies. Especially if my pairings aren't taking when planned, and babies are born at a later date, or I have small litters.

     What I've been considering, instead of having a waiting list, is to open an adoption list when babies are made available. The order that people choose their babies would still remain the same (me, approved breeders, past adopters, new adopters), but I would go to only accepting new applications once the babies are old enough to be reserved rather than before babies are born. I feel this method would give me the most accurate number of babies I'll have available, therefore, allow me to accept a more precise amount of new adopters. This would also eliminate the waiting period for those approved to be on the lists before babies are even born, as well as, any pressure for me to feel like I have to have X amount of babies available for Y amount of people on my lists.
Approved breeders and past adopters would be able to be added to the lists at any time, keeping in mind they may have to wait, but new adopters would have to wait until I post what babies are available.
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     This change will likely be taking place after this round of breeding, but I am still working things over first and trying to decide if this is how I would like to run adoptions going further.