VisitRainier Board Minutes: March 2010

Alta Crystal Resort
Attendance: Steven Cadematori, Maree Lerchen, Pam Newlun, Jeremy Foust, Rehne Copeland-Vanek, Adam Angel, Dee Patterson, Mary Kay Nelson, Annalee Tobey and Julie Johnson. Vivian Cadematori was guest and hostess. PC was absent.

The meeting was called to order by President Jeremy Foust at 10:03am.

Minutes: Maree moved and Steven seconded to accept the January minutes as presented. Motion carried unanimously.

• The board stressed the importance of reserve funds, as it has become a challenge this year due to the large expenses incurred in January with the new tradeshow booth. In future years the January expenses need to be monitored closely.
• Due to the low reserve amount the investment in a money market certificate has been delayed until the bank account is larger.
• There is still a desire for an internal audit of the books to review process and procedure. MK and Annalee will handle this as soon as time allows.
• The 2010 Pierce County contract has been fully executed and the first reimbursement was received. The second request has been submitted.

Enumclaw Support: Mary Kay met with Enumclaw Mayor Liz Reynolds. She is very interested and invited us to do a presentation to city council at a later date.

Unincorporated Pierce County Lodging Tax Collections 2009: MK noted these are up substantially from previous years. There was discussion as to whether or not this was due to new motels in Dupont. Park visitation was down for 2009, however Visitor Center use increased, as did overnight stays in the park.

Tourism Advocacy: Tourism Day in Olympia/Tourism Matters are programs we are supporting for the state of Washington. While all agreed this is an important part of our job, frustration was expressed as to whether the legislators really listen and if they indeed support economic development. Tracking their voting record is the best way to find out. Mary Kay teamed up with Pam Painter, Felecia Tomlinson and TRCVB staff February 9th for 15 minute meetings with the following legislators: Tom Campbell, Jim McCune, Dan Swecker, Richard DeBolt, Christopher Hurst, Dan Roach. Material was left with Randi Becker, Gary Alexander and Pam Roach. Thank you notes were sent to all, including a message to ask for support of tourism in the 2010 budget.

Community Outreach Specialist: Introducing - Julie Johnson from Enumclaw.
Julie presented the proposed tradeshow list including the most recent Ft. Lewis Passport to Travel show which she attended as her first opportunity to promote the mountain. She stated that she thought VR should have its own booth at the event next year if we decide to participate. There are about 10 shows that she is signed up for throughout the year. Julie has acquainted herself with Mt. Rainier by taking several personal "fam tours" with her family. She is well versed to speak to folks interested in coming to Mt. Rainier and offering them information. Julie and the board discussed the following information: Budget, Job description, Business contacts, Brochure, distribution, Tradeshow tent, Giveaways & freebies.

Mary Kay and Annalee reported that they are trying to keep a list of those businesses they work with throughout the months to compile into a report on Business Partner Outreach 2010.

• Seattle Travel Show January 23rd & 24th at the Seattle Exhibition Hall with a booth space next to Mt. St. Helens. We collected 137 addresses and handed out 400 brochures. No apparent impact on website or facebook.
 
• L.A. Times Adventure and Travel Show Feb. 12th & 13th with Washington State Tourism co-op with Spokane, Tri Cities, Skamania County & Snohomish County and shared booth expense with Mt. St. Helens) 388 new email addresses and 501 signed up 61 visits on website following 5 days compared to 36 for same 5 day period last month. A new flyer/map was created and distributed showing the Two Mountain Vacation and has proved to be very popular.

Coming up: Sunset Celebration Weekend Co-op with Mt. St. Helens June 6th & 7th in Menlo Park California

• Results: Web traffic has increased from 6,228 in Feb 2009 to 13,036 this year.
• Referral numbers gathered from tracking codes shows we are referring an average of 21 visitors per property, per month to lodging properties websites.
• Launch of 2.1 still uncertain.
• VR Board has decided to wait until 2010 is completed in order to develop performance goals and matrix? We can work with Washington State Tourism to learn what industry standards are and what our goals should be.

Media Relations - The board expressed interest in pursuing the editorial calendar & photo library. It was decided that we should continue researching options to purchase photos to increase our library to have photos of 300dpi that are accessible for all who need them.

Social Media - Annalee reported that on Twitter and noted that we have 1300 followers, VR is following 955 with a total of 933 tweets done so far. VR does an average of 3.5 tweets per day and has a Twitter calendar now. An example: In Feb. we did a Twitter contest - White Pass lift tickets- and picked up 35 new followers.

On Facebook we have 518 Fans. She posts every 3-5 day and had 30 "likes" and 23 comments this past week.

YouTube & Blog: 26 videos, 17,498 views, 543 channel views, with a formatted the channel with new logo & web address

Formatted blog and new logo has just been added. Her intent is to post every two weeks.

Annalee continues to work on website content and design work with Sara. She described several projects they are working on and have accomplished. The board suggested we investigate doing Facebook sponsored ads.

Video Project
Seven new sign-ups
3-5 minute DVD cost $2900 (includes 30 sec and 1 min)
Any remaining will be used to offset video enhancement of website. Approx. $3000
Video content on websites is big and is something we need to continue adding.

2010 Marketing
Mary Kay reviewed both print and on-line advertising that has taken place so far this year.

Next Meeting
June 10, Ashford
October 27-28 - TBD