In 1999 Karen Lemire, Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, Indiana, hosted the first AZAVA conference. Susan Ruocco, formally of the New York Aquarium, was on a panel of VC's who worked with teens and was discussing how challenging it can be to find time to do basic administrative work when a huge part of managing volunteers is to constantly be available to everyone.

Everyone had a good laugh as Susan explained that she hangs a crab flag on her office door that politely says that I am too busy or "too crabby" to talk to anyone right now unless it is an emergency.

The panel all agreed that an important part of being a good volunteer administrator is taking care of yourself and the things that you need to do - you don't always have to be completely accessible to your volunteers and sometimes we really need that "alone" time to regroup and refocus.

The crab later was suggested as the logo for a newsletter and by the next conference a logo was developed for AZAVA courtesy of Sue Donahue-Smith, Seattle Aquarium.

Susan, who thought every group needs a tradition, brought the original crab flag to the second conference to thank Karen for all she had done - almost five years of planning and research had gone toward establishing AZAVA. Karen was to pass the flag on to someone else who also gave their all to the group and so began the passing of " the Crab" at the closing AZAVA conference banquet each year.

2009 and Current Flag Holder Rachelle Davidson of the Vancouver Aquarium. Rachelle worked diligently with the AZA staff to incorporate the AZAVA in the National Conference in Portland OR in September 2009. She has taken on an important leadership role in furthering the importance and position of the AZAVA in both the US and Canada. Her presentations at this and other conferences have been extremely informative leading us to higher standard of managing volunteers.

Past Crab Flag Recipients
2008, Stacy Luhring,Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Stacy has served as the unofficial historian of AZAVA.
2007 Jenny Greber, Newport Aquarium, Kentucky - Working to Position the Profession of Volunteer Management and AZAVA.
2006 Brenda Gunder, Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure, Kansas - Website developer/host and listserv moderator 2004 to present.
2005 Regi Mezydlo, Brookfield Zoo, Illinois- AZAVA mentor and comic relief
2004 Carol Hill, Binder Park Zoo, Michigan - 25 year VC veteran, perfect AZAVA conference attendance
2003 Sue Donahue-Smith, Seattle Aquarium, Washington - AZAVA Mentor
2002 Susan Ruocco, New York Aquarium, New York - AZAVA Mentor
2001 Heather Koster, John Ball Zoo, Michigan - AZAVA listserv creator/moderator ' 01-' 03
2000 Karen Lemire, Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, Indiana - AZAVA founder