Okay. First, as far as education, my dad and I actually used to talk about this quite a bit. It’s the one department that you could spend unlimited amounts of money and justify it with the programs and the messages you want to get across. I mean, how much do… Read More
How important are amenities at a zoo, and do you think people think of them enough?… Read More
If you’re referring to amenities of everything from park benches to decent bathrooms to good food and the gift shop, it’s the entire package. You know, I can still remember Wendy Fisher, the wife of Lester Fisher from Lincoln Park Zoo, giving a talk on toilet paper and how important… Read More
And you know, we had a special committee on it. And as long as we could have per caps and generate net profit that met industry standards, it made sense. I mean, it took a lot of work, but you had total control over the thing. And if you had… Read More
And were they gonna step up and raise more money?… Read More
And what could I do to scale back?… Read More
And so thank goodness when we opened the bids, the first one was 1.9, then 1.7, then 1.5, 1.3. And we had 1.1 and I had an ace in the hole and I knew I could overhaul the grizzly bear complex and save a couple hundred thousand if I wanted… Read More
Even Jane Goodall came and said it’s one of the best Chimp exhibits in the country. You need outside yards. And we used that clip quite a bit in raising money for that project. And the other desire was elephants and decent hospital facilities. The elephants took a long time. Read More
And what did you want to be the first accomplishment that you did?… Read More
Well, I inherited. They were almost finished fundraising for the North American Prairie Exhibit. He had said that this exhibit could be built for a million, $100,000. We had been cut out of the planning process that last six months during the retiring thing. And I let some people go… Read More
But I knew in my heart that this was gonna cost twice what he had told the board, it was gonna cost. So my first problem was convincing the board of that and how we were gonna handle it. Read More
I don’t know if there were any surprises I found out. I think the most important thing was learning very quickly what my strengths and weaknesses were at that level. We all have ’em and I did not understand the budgeting process, the financial process very well. And I knew… Read More
And there was only 30,000 of that left at the end of that first year. And if it hadn’t have been my first year and if it hadn’t had been with the board’s trust in the finance person, I think I could have lost my job easily. I made a… Read More
I only had to dip into the operating reserve once, which was sort of the prelude to the elephant story when it comes. But I felt very proud of the fact we put the zoo in a good financial setting. And I made a point to know where everything was… Read More
He believed in museums and zoos and cultural things for the community. And he lived up to that and he’s coming out to the zoo and right as he got to my office and we’re getting in the golf cart to ride down, ‘cos the office is outside the actual… Read More
And in fact, you’re responsible to the community because it’s their zoo. And I always said that you knew you were doing a good job when you could go home and sleep at night. When you couldn’t sleep at night, something was wrong. Read More
What surprised you from the shift in roles?… Read More
And in fact, the last thing I did my last year preparing for leaving and building that last budget was to build into the following budget after I left money for a total professional, strategic planning process and a master planning update review process. So I left my successor the… Read More
You had indicated that your father had said to you, “Hey, until you sit in the seat, don’t keep judging ‘cos it’s gonna be different.” So how different was the role as a director from that of assistant director?… Read More
You know, I tell this story. The last three weeks, I can remember that Ron wasn’t there much the last three weeks, burning up some time and everything. And I was telling somebody, I said you know, if that elephant falls in the moat, Ron will get blamed for it… Read More