KRIS VEHRS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
KRIS VEHRS What does your role involve?
I manage the association internally. I’m a wildlife lawyer, so my specifi c areas are government affairs, ethics and accredita- tion. I serve as legal council for both our ethics board as well as our accredita- tion commission.
Are there any legal issues outstanding at present?
A number. A big example is that the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service is work- ing on the creation of regulation for birds. Birds have never been covered with regula- tion under the Animal Welfare Act.
How is AZA accreditation earned?
There are a series of criteria. Top of the list is excellence in animal care. We make sure there are appropriate facilities, trained staff at the appropriate level and appropriate veterinary care programmes. There must be an education and a conservation pro-
Member institutions must go through AZA’s tough accreditation process every fi ve years
gramme. We also look at fi nancial stability and governance.
How do institutions apply?
An application is completed initially. We then send a team, including a veterinarians, a husbandry person and an operations person. If it’s an aquarium, someone who’s familiar with the wet side of things will visit. That inspection team spends two to four
days at the institution. They talk to the staff and check out every exhibit, front of house and behind the scenes. They also take a look at policy, check
sample stock and records and also talk to governing authorities.
At the end of that time they leave the
institutions with a list of achievements and things they need to work on. The institu- tion has between three weeks and three months to submit a report and documen- tation showing what they’ve done. At the end of a hearing the committee votes on whether to accredit or deny or accredit for a year and then send the team back in.
How often do you review?
Every fi ve years. It averages out that we deny accreditation to about two institu- tions a year. In a 10-year period we denied accreditation to 26 institutions and tabled accreditation of 64 institutions.
JILL NICOLL, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING AND CORPORATE RELATIONS What does your role involve?
I oversee the revenue generation aspect of the association including memberships, conferences, advertising, corporate spon- sors and new business development.
What’s the For Profi ts subsidiary?
We’ve formed a Delaware-based corpora- tion called Animals Inc. AZA is currently the sole shareholder and is looking for ways to use the great animal-based dig- ital content generated from our zoos and aquariums and monetarise that. It’s looking at online ventures, digital sig-
nage ventures, iPhone application ventures. It would be funded through investor fund- ing, generate a profi t then generate the portion that AZA maintains in the company to AZA to fuel its work.
AM 3 2010 ©cybertrek 2010 JILL NICOLL We’re fi nalising a business plan right
now, it’s very new. We’ll be approaching private investors to help fund the company.
Who are your sponsors?
We have a top tier programme called Proud Partner programme. Currently,
Animal Planet and the insurance company Geico and are in that programme.
How has the recession affected AZA?
We hold two conferences a year so we had all the challenges inherent in running an event when the economy’s down. We’ve managed to weather that very well and have a profi table conference. Many associations cut marketing, but we
increased it and reached out to our mem- bers fairly strongly. We gave a compelling argument as to why, if they only go to two conferences this year, ours should be one of them. Also, we’re in a unique indus- try – our members rely on each other for breeding animals and they get a lot of that work done at our conference. ●
Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital 31
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