Table of Contents Page 2 Agenda Pages 3 6 Minutes Pages 7 8 Financials

Transcription

1 Table of Contents Page 2 Pages 3 6 Pages 7 8 Agenda Minutes Financials 1

2 Agenda Visit Big Sky May 21, I. Roll Call II. Public Comment III. Chamber Liaison report, John Richardson Action Items I. Approval of Minutes John C II. Approval of Financials John R III. Discussion Items I. Griffin and Associates Update Kitty II. Mega FAM with MTOT III. Media FAM Information Items II. Resort Tax Update Catherine III. Upcoming Annual Meeting Catherine Nominating Committee Report III. Winter Ad Campaign Audit Alex IV. Sidewalk Concierge/Content Curation Marci V. Other Non-Agenda Items VI. Adjourn 2

3 VISIT BIG SKY MEETING MINUTES Visit Big Sky 55 Lone Mountain Trail Big Sky, Montana April 23rd, Present: Steven Rager, Ryan Hamilton, Dan Martin, Catherine Gilb, John Cramp Not Present: John Richardson, Ennion Williams Public: Joanie Griffin, Erica, Adriana; Associates from Griffin & Associates, Krista Traxler; Director Marketing & Public Relations, Lone Mountain Land Company, Crystal Snook; Owner at Mountain Maven No Public Comment Call to order: 8:31 a.m. Chamber Liaison Report Kitty Clemens, Executive Director in John Richardson s Absence Kitty discussed Big Sky s Gateway Community Award at the Montana Office Tourism s Annual Governor s Conference. Big Sky and West Yellowstone won the Gateway Community Award for its cooperative Host Week Program. Tuesday s Chamber Board meeting was cancelled due to lack of quorum. Most board members were away on vacation. Kitty briefly reviewed the Chamber Resort Tax application. The Chamber asked for additional lighting on Hwy 64 heading west. This phase will require a new transformer which might require easements from the Forest Service. The Chamber feels these light poles increase safety in Big Sky and are not just for aesthetics. The Chamber had a rollover for the entryway monument. It was not spent due to several factors including the inability to secure an easement from the property owner or a long term lease. The Chamber asked for transportation corridor planning fund for FY16 and is working with Northwestern Energy to bury the power lines on the corner. The transportation corridor plan would address additional light poles on 191 find easements for two right reading entryway monuments on Highway 191 for north and south bound traffic. The Chamber also requested operational funds to maintain the visitor center. Kitty did include a line item to offer rebates for businesses interested in creating water conservation improvements. However, the Chamber removed the proposal believing it was something more fitting for the Blue Water Task Force. Kitty spoke with Kristen from the Blue Water Task Force and it might be something in next year s application as a combined effort. $4.2 million was requested overall. We do not believe the Resort Tax is oversubscribed. However, we do believe a portion will be put back in the sinking fund. The Chamber itself is rolling nearly $100,000 back in from its entryway, overhead power lines and wayfinding. Resort Tax Q & A is on Wednesday, May 13 at the Chapel. ACTION ITEMS 3

4 Approval of Minutes Motion to approve the minutes was moved by Steven Rager and seconded by Ryan Hamilton. Approval of Financials Kitty Clemens, Executive Director & Catherine Gilb, Board President Kitty discussed the P &L and B vs. A for CVB. Kitty did not distribute the P & L and B vs. A for VBS because some of the budget numbers were incorrect and Kitty does not have access to Quick Books. VBS has not sent the Tax Return because there is a 3-page a non-profit questionnaire which needs to be approved by the executive committee before we can send out the finalized tax return. A motion to approve financials was made by Dan Martin and seconded by Steven Rager. With all in favor, the motion passed unanimously. CVB Marketing Plan Kitty Clemens, Executive Director Each year VBS provides a marketing plan to MTOT, which is posted online. The deadline to be posted online is May 5. The content in the plan has been previously approved. However, the VBS board still needs to approve the overall plan. VBS does not leave a lot of the questions open ended. However, our marketing plan is a lot more robust than most other CVBs, which are very minimal in comparison. A motion to approve the CVB Marketing Plan and authorize Catherine to sign the certificate of compliance was moved by Ryan Hamilton and seconded by Dan Martin. Griffin & Associates Introduction Joanie Griffin, President of Griffin & Associates Griffin is really enjoying their time in Big Sky. Joanie feels as if the Big Sky community is very friendly and seems to be working together to strengthen their community. Griffin sent out their first press hit and was already picked up by Bloomberg. Griffin will have a Fam trip Aug We will be working with Alex our new hire in regards to this Fam. Griffin prefers to receive the most information possible and wants to have as much communication with members in Big Sky. Joanie stressed that more communication is better. Upcoming Annual Meeting Catherine Gilb, Board President The VBS Annual Meeting is in June and VBS does need to think about elections of officers. Karen Lum s position is open. Dan Martin s and John Richardson s position is expiring this year. If a board member is interested in re-upping, they need to inform the nominating committee. We can leave Karen Lum s position open if we choose to. The VBS Annual meeting is on June 18 th. A letter of intent to continue must be sent electronically by this Saturday, April 18 th. Provided there are no other candidates for the position, the board will vote on a slate. This is a three year term. The nominating committee will recommend a slate of potential board members. 4

5 The VBS Board discussed a nominating committee composed of Steven Rager, John Cramp, and Ryan Hamilton. Each year the Executive Committee comes up for election. If you are interested in serving on the executive committee, please feel free to send a nomination for these positions as well. The role of the nominating committee is to review the nominations and recommend a slate at the June 18th meeting. A motion to appoint Ryan Hamilton, Steven Rager and John Cramp to the nominating committee was made by Dan Martin and seconded by Catherine Gilb. Advertising Campaign Update Kitty Clemens, Executive Director & Catherine Glib, Board President We did not conduct the Winter audit because Kitty wants to complete it with the new hire, Alex Mansfield. Staff will present the Winter audit to the board at the May meeting. Summer advertising has kicked off. We ve had some great opportunities and prices. VBS will again be featured in Outside magazine this summer. The print ad will coincide with national parks issue of Outside magazine. Photographs need to be approved for Dream, Plan Go. Digital ads on Dream, Plan, Go consistently perform really well. Out of home will be going up soon as well. National public radio does not start until June. A final push to drive occupancy will happen in the fall. Next month we will have an analytics report for summer and a winter audit. We are doing some enhancements to the website. We will be changing from winter photos to summer photos. Krista asked if the full advertising plan is outlined in the marketing plan? Kitty replied that it is. This is the end of our second year with Fuse ideas and they ve done a great job. Sidewalk Concierge Marci Lewandowski, Visitor Services Manager Sidewalk Concierges units are in place and functional at the Meadow Village Center, Roxy s Market and Grizzly Outfitters. We have approved additional two units at Buck s T-4 and Geyser Whitewater s West Yellowstone location on Main Street. We are hoping to install those units by mid-may The map has been fixed with correct latitude and longitude locations for the businesses we have imputed into the Dashboard. Kerbspace has added a New Member button so that Marci can add any new businesses on the map without approval from Kerbspace. We have finalized a contract with Erik Morrison for content curation. Erik Morrison, owner of Love Street Media will be providing content for Twitter and Instagram social media. He will also be gathering photos and video for the TINT screen, YouTube, and for our content library. Erik will also be reaching out to the Top 30 businesses and training them on the Dashboard and Sidewalk Concierge system. We choose 30 businesses that are the most active on social media to be trained first in the first fiscal year of funding. Providing we received additional funding for content curation in Year 2, Erik will continue training additional businesses in the Resort Tax Area District. Other Non-Agenda Items 5

6 Glenniss Indreland asked the VBS board to review and provide feedback for the first stage of the launch for visitmt.com. Glenniss noted the Tourism Advisory Council will be reducing their meetings and attending more region CVB meetings. Glenniss believes there is an opportunity for our community to submit more photography for visitmt.com. TAC is concerned Big Sky has not used all of its CVB marketing funds. Glenniss explained the intent of the funds is to be used for marketing annually and not to be retained by individual CVBs. Because these are public funds, they should be spent annual and not retained in a sinking fund. Kitty explained Big Sky consistently over-performs and therefore receives more CVB funding than they budget for during the fiscal year. For example, VBS budgeted $140,000 in the CVB budget last fiscal year, but received $187,000 from our proportion of bed tax funds. Catherine suggests that we discuss this further to remain on good terms with the TAC. Adjourn A motion to adjourn was made by Steve Rager and seconded by Ryan Hamilton. With no other business, the meeting adjourned at 9:50 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Marci Lewandowski Visitor Services Manager 6

7 7

8 8