But you got in there and I forgot the marmoset, I had a different hair color than the normal keeper that was there and they just did not like me coming in. And that one, one of them jumped on my head and I started bleeding and, you know, they’re. Read More
No. Well only if somebody didn’t show up. And then you would have to fill in I mean. And that was hard too ’cause you’d get out of the habit of stuff. I remember once I had to fill in, it was a last minute one, you know, and you… Read More
You know, Jan Schweitzer, and I can’t remember how old I was then but I’m like do you really have to put all that in there?… Read More
So it was challenging and you try to make it the best you can and use your resources where you can. Read More
How important do you think are, or how involved were you with the day-to-day activities and hands-on when you became director?… Read More
Were you still cleaning cages?… Read More
How important was professional growth for your staff?… Read More
Well I believe in it a lot because, again, the people make all the difference. You can read the newsletter. We tried, we would pay for, if budgets allowed, we would pay for their memberships so that they were trying to get more involved in things. We encouraged the keepers… Read More
The problem, again, was when you got a small zoo you can only let so many people go or who’s gonna run the zoo?… Read More
Was the zoo accredited with the AZA when you became director?… Read More
It was just accredited. I was curator at the time. So. I think that was ’81, 1981. So that was the process, you know, of going through that whole – an accreditation process is pretty intense. And worrisome and, you know, you want to pull your hair out, but it… Read More
And you mentioned you went to conferences. Read More
Well you had limited, so, but I’m happy to fit that. So Paul Chaffee asked me to be on the membership committee. So that’s where I started was membership committee and that’s probably the one I was on the longest. But it was also good because you learn about the… Read More
In addition, what else?… Read More
I was on the ethics board. At one time. The Conservation Education Committee. And then I chaired that one year. And then eventually I was asked to be on the board. Meanwhile then they also ask you to do, on these accreditation inspections, to go out as a representative from… Read More
And we want somebody from a small zoo. Read More
Well I was allowed to go to some of the conferences. It started, the lower I was, I would go to the regional conferences they had back then. And then right before I think Chuck knew he was leaving, I was allowed to go to my first national conference. And… Read More
You know?… Read More
And rather than just being one of several siblings in this little family, we wanted to stand out a little bit better. So we developed a zoological society. With the hope that someday they would be taking on more and more funding of not only the capital projects, but maybe… Read More
Can you speak to your involvement with AZA on a national level?… Read More