So we had document, and I kept those all staff meeting sheets, who reported what, what day. And so I presented this huge stack of all staff meetings. And I’m like, well, for the last 20 years we’ve met every single month with every single member of the team. And… Read More
And so it got to be a lot of fun. they got real creative in their department head meetings. So we would have the tool of the month. So maintenance would bring a tool, and they would tell people, and it would be an odd tool, it wouldn’t be like… Read More
And everybody would pass it around, they’d touch it, and they’d pass all the way through the whole dog gone team, right?… Read More
And then the other meeting we had that I started, which was a lot of fun, was we had a monthly all staff meeting. Mandatory, monthly all staff meeting. So everybody would have to come to that meeting, unless you’re teaching a class, or we had one person at reception,… Read More
I can listen to me talk all day. I know what I know, but I wanna know what you know. So we stopped. So I said, okay, that’s over, I’m done with that. We’re not doing it anymore. And they’re all like, great, we don’t have to go all staff… Read More
But now we’re gonna have every single department report. So every single department has to report. You get three minutes, three minutes only, I’ll call you on the time. Every single staff, every single department has to report. And the senior manager cannot report. It has to be one of… Read More
And we had, at the zoo, one of the things I instituted, the very first year I got there, was an annual retreat, senior staff retreat. Started out being three days. We got good at it, so we got it down to two days. And then, so in the fall… Read More
And then in the spring we do a mini retreat, and the mini retreat was primarily focused on, how are we gonna survive the next six months?… Read More
Because 80% of the attendance of Pittsburgh came in from May to September. 80%. And so we had to figure out how we’re gonna survive the next six months with everything that was going on. And that was the spring retreat. And at the spring retreat, we had the senior… Read More
Master planning is about your facility and what you’re gonna build. Strategic planning is about all of your programs and everything you’re doing. And so I went through, I think three strategic plans with outside firms coming in, doing focus groups, and doing all that kind of stuff, getting involved. Read More
And my team said, they were getting us, they didn’t wanna do planning either, because it took too much time out of their already very, very busy schedule, right?… Read More
And he literally actually told me, he said, “Well, whoever yells the loudest.” And I said, well, when does the money run out?… Read More
Then he said, “Oh, about June.” And I’m like, holy cow, about June, that’s not gonna work. So one of the first things we did in the first year I was there was put together a budget for every single department, and we had to train people how to do… Read More
I’m not a planner, I’m a doer. Planning is hard for me because it takes time. You gotta sit down, you gotta take time, and that takes away from doing rounds, or it takes away from, whatever, fundraising, whatever you’re gonna do. But planning, I’ve learned in my career, even… Read More
We had six accounts in the city line item, six accounts. Animal food, provisions, it was crazy, staff. I mean, and that was it. That was a whole budget. So, one of the first things I did was we put together a full fledged budget for the zoo, independent of… Read More
I said, so how do you decide who gets the money?… Read More
During your time, did the zoo have a master plan?… Read More
And how important do you think master plans are?… Read More
A parent telling the kid what the animal’s doing, and you know that’s not what the animal’s doing. It’s a lot of fun. Read More
And talking to visitors, you learn a lot about where they’re from, where they came from, what are you doing, how often do you come?… Read More