Interview 31514 – Caption Index: 303
Can’t just be a businessman, I’m just running this. So it will run smoothly. You have, you have to have some interest in it. I would think. There are big zoos. There are small zoos. Read More
Can’t just be a businessman, I’m just running this. So it will run smoothly. You have, you have to have some interest in it. I would think. There are big zoos. There are small zoos. Read More
So, but I, yeah. What do you think now?… Read More
Doesn’t matter. I mean, as you know, we’ve had great businessmen or business women come into the zoo. You, you know, Doug Myers at San Diego, Ron Foreman in, in New Orleans. You could go on and on. Eric Stevens in Miami. We’ve had some great people that came from… Read More
If, if you have an issue with a humane organization, they shouldn’t be the one that goes and defends the zoo. They should bring their curator or their veterinarian there. Not that it, that they’re not, because that’s not their particular expertise. So if you have a businessman running the… Read More
In your opinion, is it better to have a business person in charge of the zoo or someone who might be called a zoo man or woman who is knowledgeable about the animals?… Read More
Okay. ISIS was, I think now we can’t use that term obviously for reasons. It was the International Species Inventory System. I think ZIMS is zoo information, something or other. I don’t even know what it stands for, but it is, and, and there are, that’s not the only one. Read More
Zoo, okay. I, what is isis? What is zims?… Read More
Would you explain what the Ackerman acronyms mean?… Read More
That’s, that’s part of the job. But I think maybe the bigger change is, and, and I think why zoo directors are asked to do so much more than they used to be asked is, you know, the fundraising efforts. ’cause the cost of running a zoos is so much,… Read More
And now, now they have to raise money. And we’ve had missions and you know, certainly, certainly in our zoos have changed a lot too. And you don’t just sell hot dogs and popcorn and stuff. We have really nice restaurants and, and, and snack bars and facilities like that. Read More
What skillset do you think a zoo director needs today as compared to when you started?… Read More
Yeah. Well, you know, that was a long time ago. And so, you know, I, as you know, mark and, and others, most of the zoo directors, 50 years ago, we were animal people. And, and their basic job was, you know, getting animals for the zoo and, and keeping… Read More
I mean, even when I started in, in Cleveland 35 years ago or whatever, you know, the records were on three by five cards, you know, and then we started having ISIS where we had those little computer cards. You stick in a machine and stuff. And of course now… Read More
Or, or was it just the senior staff that knew what the mission was?… Read More
I, I think everybody had some sense of it. I wouldn’t say a hundred percent, you know, because maybe they didn’t really care. It was just a job, particularly as you said, when you get to concession workers and stuff. But no, I think most people do. It was posted… Read More
And, and, and certainly anybody with any management ability had a, say a yearly work program and their staff had to know that this is what they were supposed to do at this time. And I, I think that worked out well. Read More
Everybody understood their role in the plan because everybody had a job, not in a job description, but a yearly plan that fit that mission and those goals of our plan. And I think, and then that of course with maybe a good sense of humor and tenacity to get… Read More
Did people lower than your senior staff understand the mission, the keepers and even the concession people?… Read More
Hmm. It’s an interesting question. I, I don’t know that I was a good zoo director, but I, you know, I, I would guess that one is my passion for saving wildlife and wild places and doing that through work, the work in the zoo. I also think I was… Read More
What do you think made you a good zoo director?… Read More