You know, if they weren’t interested in the zoo, they’re not gonna show up. I mean, I don’t care how rich you are. But if they wanna start giving back, we need to give ’em those opportunities. And we can’t sit there and stammer, and stutter, and oh my God,… Read More
So the high-intensity visits you can get them to respond to that. And I mean, and again, the responses have been, some of ’em I’ve been very surprised at, but they’re listening and they want to know. And I mean, some of our more significant donors have said, this is… Read More
How do you get them to resonate with that on casual visit?… Read More
That’s the really tough question to answer. Read More
What did you learn today that you didn’t know when you walked in the gate?… Read More
I didn’t realize, fill in the blank. Tell me what the blank is. And the answers are incredible. Read More
I mean, what it tells me is that we are getting to these people, now, how do you get to, you know, 2 million people like that?… Read More
If we keep saying this species is in trouble in Africa and we’re not doing anything about it, or we haven’t even tried to do anything about it. Now, I’m not saying that we have to bankrupt the institution to get there, but if we’re not making some headway in… Read More
Those are not just cliches. Those are things that are actionable. And we can prove that. That’s how you become relevant. I mean, it needs to be an enjoyable visit. It needs to be an enjoyable process. And you can subtly give people messages and you can subtly tell them… Read More
And you really hit ’em hard with a lot of conservation facts. ‘Cause they know they’re gonna get that, that’s why they’re there. They wanna know more. That’s your opportunity to really hit ’em hard. And you know, whether they turn around and donate back to you or whether they… Read More
You’ve spoken about the zoo. Yeah, well, what I get concerned about is that zoos live off their laurels and you know, those days are gone. And we gotta turn the corner. I mean, whether you were the best of whatever, you had the largest whatever, that’s great. But I… Read More
I mean, if we’re not doing conservation both locally and internationally, why aren’t we?… Read More
But how does that really relate?… Read More
You’ve used the word relevant, in what way?… Read More
We don’t need to. But, you know, we’re taking on some pretty challenging cases and, well, I’ll say about both institutions is nobody ever said oh, we can’t do that. Both facilities I worked in all said we’re gonna put our shoulders into this thing and make sure it gets… Read More
Yeah, I think, you know, the lean financial years were terribly frustrating because you know what you want to get done, you know what has to get done, and there’s never enough money. I could say safely now, ZooTampa’s in a much better position. I mean, the problems still are… Read More
It’d be like, well, why are we even doing this?… Read More
So I think that’s the most frustrating thing is that you know, intrinsically, what you wanna get done. You know, I’ve got lists on top of lists and some of those things are still on the list. Now, the master plan will take care of some of the exhibit issues,… Read More
You wish you could just wave a wand and everything gets done at one time and it all looks perfect, but that’s not reality. So I think those are probably the most frustrating times. Those times are easing now. ZooTampa, for instance, is a successful requester for grants that they… Read More
And before I left, I don’t know if they’ve done it, I asked you should go out and survey those adults now and see how beneficial was Zoo School in your educational career?… Read More