Interview 30880 – Caption Index: 192
And the team called up and said, would you help?… Read More
And the team called up and said, would you help?… Read More
I draw 70,000 people in, in a month. Read More
How involved were you in the day-to-day activities hands-on when you became director?… Read More
Oh, very much so. You know, my first week there I was serving snow cones in the concession stand. ’cause the zoo opened up shortly after I got there. And I used to run the concession stand back at the other zoo. So I knew how to make snow cones. Read More
I got there in April of 86 and we got married in March of 88. But before we had children, Tracy and I would give all the zookeepers, all the staff Christmas off and we would take care of the animals. She was the head zookeeper and she told me… Read More
I always try to encourage and encourage and encourage it. Try to provide funds to go off to conferences, try to grow, try to grow, try it is very, very important. Very important to me. I always try to get people off the conferences and, and to, and to develop. Read More
A correspondence course and zookeeping and things like that. But I really was, I was fortunate. I always had to pay for my own stuff when I was a keeper, assistant director and director. I had to pay for my own stuff. And so I knew how expensive that was… Read More
We had keepers who took, what do you call it?… Read More
But the Lincoln Children’s Zoo is situated on very rich Antelope Creek silt. So very rich soil and a bit recessed from the cold, harsh desiccating, sublimating winter winds. And so we had a very, the plant collection at the zoo is more diverse and more valuable than the animal… Read More
How, how important is, was professional growth for your staff?… Read More
One, the biggest thing that I championed was we had this horrible exhibit of a Kodiak bear and basically a bear pit. It was built originally as a sea lion pool. When they put the sea lions in, in seventies. They bailed up very shortly after being there. My predecessor… Read More
And was there any one exhibit that you really championed that we gotta get it going?… Read More
Okay. ’cause nobody wanted this big maladjusted male Kodiak bear because nobody needed it for logical reasons. But when he passed away, I said, we’re taking that down. And we made it into a beautiful little seal harbor seal exhibit. And then eventually we made it into a penguin exhibit… Read More
So on the reverse of that, how would your staff, do you think, describe your management style?… Read More
Pollyanna. They’d call me Pollyanna because I’m soft. Okay. I’m not a good confronter. Okay. To be very honest with you, confronting a bad situation, I got better at it. But a dysfunctional employee, I, it was hard for me to confront it and to repair it. And sometimes I… Read More
But I could see, I could see the commissary right outside of my office. I could see the zookeepers working right outside my office. They could see me up in my office. Okay. Facilities maintenance was just beyond that, along with horticulture. So we were always, I wanted to keep… Read More
Quite often people are given responsibility, but not the authority to go with it. But I really worked hard to give them the authority to go with the responsibility of moving things forward and being leaders. So I think part of it was really believing in, in my coworkers listening,… Read More
Okay. The frontline fighters gotta listen to them too and hear what they’re saying, hear what they’re saying. Now what’s, words are coming outta their mouth, but what, what are they really saying regarding this situation or whatever. So I try to be a really inclusive listening door wide open… Read More
I guess I always believed in my coworkers, especially those that I had a lot, a lot of faith in who demonstrated their ability and their knowledge. Okay. And I really wanted to listen to them and their influence and their recommendations because they’re the pros. You know, as a… Read More
Oh boy. Can I describe my management style?… Read More