Redeveloping the Georgia Chapter of aazk
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| Redeveloping the Georgia Chapter of AAZK
Shelley Raynor, Keeper III Birds and Program Animals Zoo Atlanta Atlanta, GA Abstract: The Georgia Chapter of AAZK has been active for many years. Over those years, we have seen ebbs and flows in membership and participation in events. The 2011-2012 officers have committed themselves to branding the chapter and moving forward with renewed investment. We have been applying new strategies to accomplish this mission. Organization has been the key to making all of this happen, and it starts with the officers. Each officer has set personal goals to attain throughout their term. Those goals are focused on fundraising and branding the chapter. Some goals that have already been accomplished are: proposing and having our institution pay for all full time keepers to be national AAZK members, creating a bi monthly professional development series in collaboration with the Zoo Atlanta HR department, creating and voting on a logo, organizing a fundraising event specifically for the chapter, creating and developing a social media presence, partnering with local companies, including the Braves, to organize new events for National Zoo Keeper Week, and much more. The Georgia Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers has been looking for new and innovative ways to improve and re-energize the chapter, its membership, and its fundraising endeavors. The officers have been working tirelessly over the past two years to redevelop the chapter with several strategies. Organization has been the key in our success. The past two years have been spent reorganizing and setting goals in order to change the chapter. Goal setting was the first step to strengthening the chapter. The officer’s start off the year with an officer’s meeting to plan events and make decisions on what we would like to accomplish over the year. Instead of just talking, we decided to hold ourselves accountable for the ideas and promises that we make in the meeting. We decided to set goals and take ownership over several aspects of the organization in order to start momentum and keep it going throughout the year. This goal setting also kept us focused on the tasks that we wanted to accomplish even though we have daily jobs responsibilities and life in general, to distract us. We all agreed that treating the chapter as a business would be a great way to increase our membership and event participation. All of the goals that the officers set were centered on this concept. The first thing that we needed to do was focus on the membership. We started with increasing our membership through the membership drive. Realizing that in these hard economic times, with all of the monetary commitments that keepers have, the GA AAZK officers wanted to make it as easy as possible to be a National AAZK and local chapter member. In order to ease the financial burden we looked for outside monies to pay for National AAZK membership dues. Attempts were made to find outside funding through grants, but we were unsuccessful. We then came up with a proposal that we presented to our institution. The proposal consisted of several key parts. We spoke to the mission of National AAZK, the values of the local chapter, an explanation of the things that we had accomplished over the past 3 years and our goals and intentions for the coming year, as well as membership numbers and pertinent financial records from the past 3 years. These financial records included statements on the amount of money that our fundraisers had made. Another key component of the proposal was giving the organization options of donations. We calculated the amount of money that we needed to get in order pay for all full time keepers to have National AAZK memberships. With this amount in mind we offered 3 options of support: 1)100% participation in which the zoo would pay the entire cost of national membership dues ($45), 2) 50% participation in which the zoo would pay for half of the national membership dues ($22.50), leaving the keeper responsible for the other half, or 3) 25% participation, in which the zoo would pay for 1/3 of the national membership dues ($15), leaving the keeper responsible for the other 2/3 ($30). We took our proposal to our Deputy Director with an explanation of the importance of National AAZK and the local chapter. To our delight our organization, Zoo Atlanta, decided to support us by choosing to cover 100% of the cost for all full time keepers have National AAZK memberships. We only had one person who chose not to participate. Due to their donation our local membership numbers doubled. Now that we had the members, we wanted to make sure that they were in touch with the chapter and its goals. Branding became our top priority. Last year we got with one of our very talented graphic design artists at Zoo Atlanta and she donated her time and talents to meet with one of our keepers to design logo options for the chapter. We sent out 6 options and the membership voted on their favorite. This year we unveiled our new logo. This logo is now used on every communication that we have with any and all things that are chapter related. Our branding efforts continued through a commitment to creating a social media presence. We did this through the creation of a GA AAZK Facebook page, a Crowdrise page to support year long fundraising, and the design of a web page. (At the time this paper was written we have not gone online with the web page). Supporting the membership in as many ways as possible was a very important goal that all of the officers set. We took different approaches to making that a reality. Each officer took on a goal that would add to the professional development or fundraising opportunities that we could provide the membership. We collaborated with the HR department of Zoo Atlanta, our Director of Animal Programs, and our membership to come up with six topics that were of value to learn more about. These hour long professional development meetings take place during lunch; hence we titled it our Lunch and Learn series. GA AAZK provides treats while an expert presents information on a themed topic. Along with these informational sessions we have decide to offer more fundraising opportunities. Along with our flagship fundraisers like Bowling For Rhinos, Bushmeat Bingo, and quarterly bake sales, we have designed new fundraisers for the membership to get involved in to benefit a variety of species. This enables us to represent the variety of conservation efforts that our membership is interested in supporting. This year we are holding fundraisers to benefit kori bustards, hartebeests, hornbill nests, and even the local chapter. Partnering with local companies and organizations has been a large part of enabling the officers to give the membership new and fun opportunities. By approaching these companies with the values and mission of GA AAZK and National AAZK we’ve been able to offer a variety of experiences to our members. By approaching the Regal Movie chain we were able to obtain free movie tickets that we raffle off at the monthly chapter meetings. By approaching our food service company, Sodexo, we were given vouchers for different food locations on grounds to give out to members during events. Along with Zoo Atlanta, Sodexo also generously donated catering for a luncheon to the keepers for National Zoo Keeper Week. Taking a page out of the San Diego chapter’s book, we approached our local baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, for an event for National Zoo Keeper Week. Although we are not on the field, they did donate a block of seats, announced National Zoo Keeper Week, and featured us during the game. Over the past two year our officers have been involved in trying to bring our local chapter back to life with new ideas that will bring involvement and energy to our events and our mission. We feel as though we are thinking outside the box and really committing to holding ourselves accountable for the overall goals and values of our chapter. Through hard work, goal setting, and getting out into the community we are well on our way to more active membership than ever before. 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