Education and Standards

The ZRA Committees for Training, Standards and Professional Development are the cornerstones for providing opportunities to ZRA members for their continued growth, education and development, as career professionals working in the zoological industry. The Training Committee is developing a comprehensive business plan for increasing institutional awareness of the importance of the animal record keeping function in zoos and aquariums and to extend the valuable resources ZRA has to offer to a greater target audience.

ZRA has established a Standards Development Committee. Members are very excited about future opportunities for institutional and organizational collaborations within and outside the zoological community. This important work will allow for the achievement of standards that reflect current and evolving business practices and that benchmark the registrar function. Through a comprehensive survey conducted in 2007 as part of the strategic planning process, ZRA members have identified the need for standards in several broad areas of competencies including records management, animal transactions, permit and collection management (artifacts, biofacts, archives) and will be compiling a list of priorities for standards development in the near future.

The ZRA Professional Development Committee is dedicated to reviewing and recommending professional development opportunities that may be proposed by ZRA members and/or through unique partnerships and collaborations with related professional associations and constituents within and outside the zoological community.

The committee currently administers the mentorship of ZRA members pursuing their Certified Records Manager (CRM) certification. The program provides for CRM preparation workshops presented by a Regent representing the Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM) and/or other CRMs attending the ZRA Annual Conferences; assistance with application requirements using a comprehensive template developed by the ZRA Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) with assistance from the ICRM; online study groups; scholarship opportunities; and the establishment of a mentor network by matching a registrar with local records management professionals in their home city who may also be pursing the certification.

CRM Workshop Opportunities by City

There are no workshop opportunities on the calendar at this time.