Good afternoon.

Welcome to the May meeting of the Mesker Park Zoom Botanic Garden Advisory Board.

I have to call the meeting to order.

First up is the minutes from the April meeting.

Excuse me.

Do we have any additions, edits, changes to those minutes?

All those in favor of accepting the minutes as is, say aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

Minutes are hereby accepted.

Moving along to the report by Director Beck.

Good afternoon.

It is springtime, so a lot happening, a lot to update on.

First on the attendance and revenue report.

You can see I think we have is April on here too.

Yeah, April's on here too.

So 25,371 people in April, which is uh real close to a record April for us.

On this sheet, March was a record March.

So we're already at 60,000 visitors for the year.

Um so it's been a really strong spring so far.

Um revenue on the revenue side.

Uh this is just uh our gross revenue through the city.

Uh so $235,000 for the month of April and 476,000 uh so far here to date.

Um so again, a strong, strong start to the spring.

Uh gift shop is still uh going really well.

We did $54,000 in sales in April.

Uh looks like our record was way back in 2023 of $61,000.

So it was better than the last year, but kind of almost on track of where we were in 2024.

If you remember, last year was kind of a dip for us as far as attendance and revenue.

So it is good to see it back on track, so to speak.

And then our uh concessionaire venue works.

Uh, they report um their gross sales, which is lagging a little bit behind.

So their most recent report I guess is February.

Uh so we'll get those from them sooner than later.

Um, some staffing updates.

Uh we are still in dire need of an animal curator.

We've been looking for one for better part of oh boy, four or five months.

Um, and we're still have a vacancy right now, so we're kind of uh re-looking at our strategy.

We've had it posted kind of all over and um just not having any luck getting it filled.

Um, other staffing news, we do have summer camp counselors and education part-timers, which are year-round that are currently open and on the city website for applications.

So if you know anyone in the education field looking for year-round part-time work or summer camp work, a lot of school teachers uh come and work for us in the summertime to do summer camps, so still trying to fill those roles.

Um as far as animal updates, uh spring, like I said, has been a busy time.

So the budgies have been out for a little bit now.

It got finally got warm enough for them to go out.

We've changed their feeding strategy this year.

Thank you to Stephanie Sanderson, and uh they're doing really well on the new food.

Uh African tortoises are Sulcata tortoises are getting ready to go out, I think this week.

Um the giants will probably wait a little bit longer.

They're not as easy to move if we get a cold snap for a night or two.

So we wait till usually around Memorial Day weekend to put the big ones out or the bigger ones.

Um, the cicadas are pretty big too.

Uh we do have a couple penguin chicks that are uh we debuted one on our uh social media this morning.

That's Dale the penguin.

Uh he's still behind the scenes learning how to swim and getting his adult feathers, but we have I think at least one chick that is still being raised by parents, so that they're actually doing really well.

Um but that happens kind of behind the scenes before they go out on exhibit with the big pool and the group.

Uh we had an African crested porcupine born, and I believe that was in April, a porcupette, and we've been doing a lot of shipments.

So we um acquired a little gecko.

Um we shipped out a kuka burra today, going down south to New Orleans or Louisiana.

Uh Tacken went to Ohio and uh Camel went to Ohio.

Um and then we're picking up a Jaguar tomorrow or Thursday and bringing it back from Louisiana.

A little female.

So we got a whole crew and two vehicles going down there to transport that animal ourselves.

Um events.

I kind of want to hit on some of the events coming up.

We have member appreciation night.

Kristen, help me.

Is it May 27th?

Yes, please.

Good afternoon, I'm just good afternoon.

I'm it's funny in this small room.

Kristen Comer, Director of Institutional Advancement for the Zoological Society and Mesker Park Zoo.

Um we are excited to, among so many other things, have our annual um membership appreciation night on Wednesday, May 27th.

Um that will start after the gates close at five.

So we'll start at 5 30 and go till 7 30.

We're gonna have a couple of food trucks.

Um we'll have some live music by our friend Nick Smith, and um we have a few behind the scenes tours, the commissary and the vet building, those are always a huge hit.

Um these are things that just a special night for our members.

We'll have um a little activity where families can decorate their own pot, plant their own um plant, little little thing to take home with them, just something for something fun, and uh talk a little bit about native plants and B City and all the fun things that we've been connecting with here in the community lately and the things that we do at the zoo.

Um I also heard that our horticulture team and our uh maintenance team will have the the big machines, the big tractors and things out, and that's always so fun for the kids to to check that out as well.

So uh free giraffe feedings, free carousel rides.

Um, and so we hope all of you will join us, even if you're not currently a zoo members, please just let me know.

We'll put you on the list.

Could you give an update on where Zoobrew is and the date for that?

We are so excited for Zoobrew this year.

Um, this has always been a great event and a lot of fun for the community.

Um we have partnered with.

Well, this is presented by Heritage Federal Credit Union this year.

They are presenting sponsor, great partners with the zoo for a lot of different events.

Um but we have a new partnership with leisure distributors who are the local distributor for the big green egg grills.

Um they're gonna come out and they're going to raffle off four of their egg, their uh big green eggs, and they're also gonna be performing demonstrations and cooking some food on site at Zoobrew.

Um, and that is gonna be Saturday, June 13th.

Time slips my mind at this as it shifts a little bit, but it will be June 13th in the afternoon.

We do have our Facebook posts up.

Those tickets will go live this week, uh, no later than Thursday afternoon.

So today's Tuesday, Thursday afternoon, they'll go live.

There will be an announcement.

I just met with our team just before I came here, and uh there will be an announcement on social media when those will go live.

But by Thursday at noon, we expect those to be available online and certainly uh give our front gate a call.

I'll fill you in if you have any questions about purchasing tickets.

We do have some sponsorships still available for that.

Uh and we have increased our capacity.

Um, and we'll be selling tickets.

Uh, usually we cap it around 800 or so, and we are opening it up.

We have more vendors this year.

We're gonna have a little um beverage garden with beer, wine, spritzers, things like that.

Things are non-alcoholic options as well.

Um it's gonna be a lot of fun.

And um, we're excited about these new partnerships specifically with the with the big green egg.

That should be great.

And uh leisure distributors will be donating all of the money from the raffling the the eggs off uh to the zoo, and they have a few other things up their sleeve.

They're going to be uh selling koozies and and giving that donating all that money to the zoo as well.

Um so great new partnerships and uh we do have a theme this year.

I people love a good theme, so this will be uh zoo brew tropical takeover.

We're gonna have a little Jimmy Buffett theme going on, which is should be a lot of fun for the summer.

Partnering that with the big green egg, and it just was kismet, it just happened by by complete accident, um, happy accident, and it'll be a great thing.

I'm told that folks that are big believers in the big green egg are called eggheads.

So we'll have parrot heads and eggheads.

So I've learned a lot with uh with this event this year, but we're very excited to kind of throw a little extra activity and a little more glitter on on some uh signature events we've been doing for a long time.

So I saw what you can say.

A big green egg is a type, it's a type of grill.

Uh it's a big green egg.

It's a cult following.

It's a cult following.

I've I've been told.

I have we even have some board members.

Our advisory, or not you all are the advisory board, but our EZS board of directors, we've found we have we have a couple of of and my understanding is that you're making a grilling investment if you get one of those.

This is a thing, yeah.

So it's a very it's a it's a really exciting partnership.

There's a really great in-kind donation to the zoo and actually not so much an in kind.

Um once we raffle these off again, they're gonna be donating all the proceeds to the zoo.

So yeah, and that's that's our local uh um leisure distributors connected with Bass Myers and uh some great community partners there, and we're excited uh to see what we can do.

It'll be fun.

Maybe even some local local chefs, local celebrity chefs.

They might be celebrities to us, but not you know, everybody else.

And when is the first night of Wild Summer Lights?

And we know I love to talk about this wild summer lights, they're rolling in June or July 1st.

Start setting up so that you'll see that happening at the zoo very soon.

Um Wild Summer Lights opens July 30th.

Tickets will go on sale July 1st, we think, but we'll make an announcement about that.

But they will be on sale by July first, and that will run through October 4th, uh, run four nights a week.

So we've added 11 nights this year, uh 11 event dates.

Um, we expect it to just be a huge success again this year with additional dates, uh, a lot more sponsorships and partnerships coming on board now that they know what we're doing, and it will be a completely different show than last year.

And um, I was able to work uh our team was able to work directly with Tianu Arts and Culture to get the show that's important to our community, talk about the animals that we love and the animals that we have at our zoo.

So we're gonna have an Africa theme.

Um there'll be some other fun things in the show as well, but we we're excited to have um to showcase some of the the animals we actually have at our zoo through the lanterns.

Live music every night, food trucks every night, and tickets for that again will be available online.

Uh no later than July 1.

Um, but more details to come on that.

Great, nothing going on at the zoo.

Right.

Um, any questions for Kristen?

Yes.

One last thing.

Vintage Vines are gala.

Yep.

See, there's so much going on.

Vintage Vines Gala is uh planned for October October, August 22nd uh at the Evanso Country Club, and uh invitations are gonna hit mailboxes around July 1 on that.

So if you have any questions about uh table at the gala, let me know, and that'll be a lot of fun as well.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions for Director Beck?

Okay.

Moving on to new business.

We have some requests for approvals for quotes and then a request for an increase.

Let's start with uh request for approval, see quotes for various paving and path improvements.

Uh do we have some of the chat about that?

Yes.

Uh so this is the first step in us getting pricing on our annual paving and path repairs.

Um we asked for approval to see quotes, and then we're planning on opening these quotes at the uh May 13th.

No, not May 13th, May 20th uh parks board meeting.

Um so we'll have a packet we send out to vendors, they'll make a site visit.

We have this is ongoing work for the zoo, so we have paths and areas that'll be torn up and re-asphalted and concrete repaired.

Any questions regarding the request to seek quotes for path and paving improvements?

Hearing none, I move for approval.

All those in favor of approving the request to see quotes for paths and pavements, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, any opposition?

Okay.

Next up, request to seek quotes for fencing and containment improvements.

So this is another um capital item that we fund uh every year through the city's uh budget process along with paving.

Um and it's just tackling some of the older fences and containment areas around the zoo.

Uh we get a budget number and then we put out quotes uh to meet that budget.

So especially our Asian valley right now, uh, the Asian Valley, I think was a lot of wood fencing done in the 1980s, and it isn't really die on dire need of replacing, and um that's one of the reasons that we're doing some replacement of collection animals down there for a variety of reasons.

But uh part of that will be to tackle some of the fencing in that area, so uh we'll prioritize the the uh the heavy maintenance ones first for sure.

Any questions regarding this request to see quotes for fencing and containment improvements?

There's a motion and a second.

All those in favor of approving the quote and the approval to see quotes, excuse me, for fencing and containment approval.

Aye.

Any opposition?

Any abstentions?

No.

Okay.

And finally, the last uh request to uh seek approval for seek quote, excuse me, for various printing and uh EFFs projects.

Uh so this is kind of our last of our summer uh maintenance projects for painting an ethos.

Uh this is uh some rusted paint around the zoo.

Um but the ephus is the uh entry building, it's the facade that they put on the stucco facade.

Uh we have several areas that are peeling or faded that need to be repaired, uh that as well as Amazonia.

So well, we'll put a package together.

I think another area that we're painting is um some of our tiger steel structure and our um where the given was housed.

We have howler monkeys in there now, but some of that steel is uh in dire need of being replaced, not replaced, but repainted.

Any questions about this request to seek quotes?

All those in favor of approval uh to seek quotes for various printing and uh east projects.

Aye.

Any opposition, any abstention?

Okay, moving right along then.

Uh request to increase birthday party package pressing, which we have in our packet.

Yes, and on the I'll let uh Stephanie Sanderson, our guest services manager, uh talk about birthday parties.

There.

Um, Stephanie Sanderson here, I'm the guest services manager, and we realized recently that it's been a solid five years since we've increased our birthday parties at all.

So we're just simply basic request of uh 20 bucks a package for both the member rate and the non-member rate, which is still less than 10%.

So we're it's subtle.

We're keeping everything very affordable for families.

Excuse me to come out and have a birthday party there, but we want to cover all of our labor expenses and all those things that seem to be increasing uh everywhere as you as you go.

So yep, that's what we're asking for.

Twenty dollar increase.

We're not increasing um the add-on packages.

So these are the this is the basic packages.

There are the package.

There is um there are a bunch of add-ons draft feeding, rhino feeding, all that kind of stuff.

Um we're keeping those the same, but uh just in asking for the basic what all is included in the basic package.

So there are two hour parties.

Uh it includes a miniature tour throughout the zoo to include your admission into the zoo, it includes a private room for your party.

Um the first hour they go out and do the various attractions.

It includes carousel already, unlimited rides for 20 minutes.

The second hour they spend more time in the room doing their you know, cake presents, that kind of thing.

So it includes the host the whole time and admission they get complimentary tram service with it.

So you get a lot, a big bang for your buck.

And if you look at other party packages throughout the community, a lot of times the prices they might be three, four hundred bucks and only include ten people.

Ours includes 20 people in this price.

Um, and then you can have a few more for additional rates.

So again, very reasonable.

Um, but they are time consuming.

They it's just as much work to do a birthday party as a corporate rental at our event tent.

And so um we we try to keep them um affordable, but again, still want to cover our cost and our time and all that good stuff.

I think last year we did about 75.

Is that sound right?

Yeah.

So it's not a huge piece of our puzzle.

We definitely spend much more time on all of our feedings, attractions.

We spend a tremendous amount of time on the, you know, the gift shop, admissions, you know, a lot.

There's a whole lot of other revenues that shine compared to this.

Cause I think we probably uh fifteen thousand last year.

I should have looked that up before I came, but um, so not a huge piece of the puzzle, but still fun for the families on the weekends.

Sure.

Yeah.

I believe that you's increasing quite.

All right.

A second.

Any uh further discussion on that?

Okay.

All those in favor of approving the increase in price?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposition?

Any abstention?

Okay.

That is approved.

Thank you.

Thanks, Stephanie.

Thank you.

Uh any other business that we need to discuss before we move on.

Hearing none, I move for adjournment.

And we'll see you all in June.

Thank you very much,