I think that my involvement with AZA probably started with my volunteering for committee service and their understanding what my philosophy was, as well as what my training had been and my abilities. And it was a question then of taking advantage of resources. If you have volunteers who have like any other volunteer organization, if you have volunteers who have specialized skills that you can utilize to their maximum, then you go ahead and do that. I served on the wildlife management, Conservation Wildlife Management committee as a chair, as a committee member for several years, became vice chair and then became chair. And it was at a time when the zoos were largely impacted by a lot of regulatory agencies, and not the least of which was the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. And for a while, we were essentially archenemies, zoos were no good as far as the Fish and Wildlife Service were concerned. And the zoo’s view towards the Fish and Wildlife Service was you’re nothing but, you’re an impediment to our conservation activities and to our development. And so early on in my chairmanship of that committee, an opportunity presented itself that I latched on to, and that was the Fish and Wildlife Service found itself in a unique position.
