2008 - 2009 Annual Report - Zoos South Australia

CONTENTSYear In ReviewPresident and CEO’s ReportPresident’s Report 2009CEO’s Report 2009Conservation ProgramsAssets and InfrastructureConservation EducationThe AnimalsLiving collectionsThreatened SpeciesOperationsCommunications and PartnershipsVisitor ExperiencesHuman ResourcesFinancial ReportFinalsWell, within the scope of our organization and its clear conservation and environmental education mission, we arecertainly making progress and this progress is in some ways despite the prevailing external operating environment.So, notwithstanding the advent of a global financial crisis and a related hesitancy on the part of governmentsand companies to invest in our work, we find that we are growing at an unprecedented pace and striking a chordwith the public about environmental and conservation concerns. Our Membership and media profile statisticsdemonstrate that we are now ‘playing in a different league’ and we are forging partnerships and receiving supportthat we could not have expected in the past.Others have provided a factual overview and heartfelt thank-you messages to a growing team spanning Board,staff and Volunteers, and so I will mention three topics. The first is that, like any organization and human collectivegoing through very significant growth and change, we have some growing pains. I don’t particularly mean thepains of upgrading business processes and systems, although we have a few of those. I am referring to the paceand tempo within the organization, the pressure put on many people as we take on major projects (enormous oneslike the Giant Pandas, new fence and entrance at Adelaide and the new African experience on the new extension toMonarto…running to plan and budget I might add!) and make operational changes at the same time. For a periodof time this is asking a lot of people and there are inevitable groans and creaks. But this will ease as we can reducesome of the pace and we catch our breath and refocus on to our core role of conservation, mediated increasinglythrough the identity of Conservation Ark. Which brings me to the second topic. During the year just past we havedemonstrated through actions that we ‘do’ conservation. Just one recognition out of many, but extra specialas it is objective and international, was the invitation to ‘twin’ Conservation Ark with Nordens Ark in Sweden.CEO Report – 2 of 2