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VisitRainier Board Minutes: April 2011

Visit Rainier Board Meeting: April 6th, 2011
Northwest Trek: The meeting was called to order at 10:30am by Jeremy Foust.

Attendance: Jeremy Foust, Pam Newlun, Rehne Copeland-Vanek, Dee Patterson, Maree Lerchen, Steven Cadematori, Consultants, Mary Kay Nelson, Annalee Tobey and Julie Johnson. Adam Angel was unable to attend.

 

Minutes - The January minutes were reviewed. Steven moved and Pam seconded to accept the minutes as presented. Motion carried unanimously.

 

Financials -The March financial report was presented. Maree reported that an additional $10,000 was allocated to Visit Rainier from Lewis County. This followed an appeal made after the initial allocation of $25,000 was made in December 2010 for the 2011 year. Mary Kay and Annalee presented the commissioners with a detailed report about the investment of lodging tax dollars by Visit Rainier and the results of the program of work. The commissioners took this into consideration and agreed to add $10,000 to the initial amount for a total of $35,000.

 

Mary Kay reported the length of time taken by Pierce County to execute the 2011 contract and allocate first payment in 2011, has resulted in a delay of payments to vendors and contractors. It appears this situation will continue each year and therefore we need to immediately return the signed contract into the PC system when it is issued. It will also be important to have our first reimbursement request on PC's desk as soon as the contract is approved and signed. The check was cut on April 4th this year and March 10th in 2010. Even a one day delay can result in a one week delay due to the PC routing/courier schedule.

 

Mary Kay presented a resolution to authorize Mary Kay to sign the Pierce County Lodging Tax request and to contractually bind the organization for funds in the future. This will help with the application process and speed up the turn around time. The board unanimously approved.

 

The 990 report was compiled by Carol Bezy, Business Resource Center. Mary Kay provided a copy for the board's review. The board approved and signed the 990 IRS report.

 

Election of Officers - Discussion was held regarding the term limits for the officers. There is confusion about why they do not coincide with the terms of office. Should the officer's terms be one year or more? The bylaw committee will meet during lunch and bring back a recommendation. Officer's election will be tabled until after lunch.

 

Community Outreach - Julie Johnson presented the following report for Community Outreach
Seattle Travel Show / Jan 29-30, 2011
Attendance: 3,334 (last year 4,195)
Exhibitors attendance: 59
Cost: $795 for booth.
VR contest entrants: 253
Brochures Dispersed: 400-500

 

Northwest Women's Show / March 4-6, 2011
Attendance: 22,129 (last year 24,240, up from 22,336 in 2009)
Exhibitors: 475
Cost: $895 for booth, plus $230 supplies/booth expenses
VR contest entrants: 431
Brochures dispersed: 1,100 approximately
Wildflower packets dispersed: 2,000 approximately

 

The board recommended doing the NW Women's Show in 2012, but wait till 2013 for the next Seattle Travel Show. MK recommended a representative of VR attend the Seattle Travel Show in 2012 to see if it has improved. It was recommended we keep each group of emails collected separately so we can determine if they are quality leads and so we can compare opening rates.

 

Media Relations Report - The media contact list is being compiled and entered into Constant Contact. Crystal Mountain (Justus) asked us to share the list with her. George Sharp from Olympia/Thurston VCB is willing to exchange lists.

 

WSU Internship - Julie brought information about the summer internship program available through WSU. After some discussion, the board decided to wait another year to see if there was more demand to set up such a program for VR.

 

Media Visits - The board agreed it would be wise to develop VR Policy on media visits. Julie presented a Media Assessment Form which will help determine the validity of media inquiries relative to press trips and media tours.

 

Press Releases - Julie is currently working on 2011 press releases for summer family fun and the 24 Hour "Mattress Sale" Last Minute Lodging Deals. She is looking forward to promoting a new program for 2012, "The Mountain is on Sale," if we can get enough participating properties to honor a discount for National Park Week coinciding with the Fee Free Week in April or May 2012. It could be a month long special or 1-2 weeks depending upon the consensus of opinion.

 

Green Travel - Julie presented information regarding a green travel initiative. Sustainable Travel International (STI) would like to work with Visit Rainier and the gateway communities to implement innovative and results-oriented programs and services to promote the Rainier region as a sustainable destination. The board discussed the idea, but decided it would need more involvement from the local businesses. It was determined it is not our role to help area businesses become eco-friendly, but if and when they participate in this, we will promote them as eco-friendly businesses.

 

Executive Director Report

 

24 Hour Last Minute Lodging Deals (Mattress Sale) - We will begin offering these discounted rooms by the first of May. The goal here is to not only help fill rooms that might otherwise be vacant, but to drive people to the website each week to make plans to visit and stay at the mountain. We will report back on this in July and assess the effectiveness of the campaign.

 

It was also stressed we need to track the usage of the lodging deals page, as well as the number of clicks from articles in the e-newsletters. We should also monitor analytics for traffic from tradeshows and e-blasts.

 

2011-12 Brochures - Reprint in June; no text revisions this year.
Budget for 200,000 production - $13,700, down from 250,000 @ $16,399 in 2010.
Cost of distribution $7,087 - down from $8,835 in 2010
Removed cruise terminal and full Washington State ferries, but kept the Bainbridge Island run for 6 months. Kept Portland Supercities for 12 mo, Seattle/Eastside for 6 mo, Seattle Airport for 6 months.

 

2011 Print Advertising options:
Washington State Travel Planner
Discover America - It was asked if we can measure the effectiveness with international inquiries from this ad.
Washington State Visitor Guide - co-op with Crystal Mountain and StayCrystal AAA Journey - co-op with GSI and White Pass Byway.
Sunset - co-op with GSI and White Pass Byway for August National Park Issue.
Seattle Visitors Guide- co-op with GSI

 

The board discussed the search for "new faces" to replace Gus on our printed material. It was determined that there was no urgency for this and rather than settle for something or pay the price needed to create the perfect option, we should consider this a cost of the redesign or branding upgrade for 2012. We will be doing a contest this summer to encourage folks to "express their Happy Side" in hopes of finding some good photos that we might use.

Other info:

 
  • Mary Kay reported a letter was sent to support the Ashford Community Center funding.
  • Pow Wow/TIA May 22, 2011- Submitted National Parks Promotion Council (NPPC) CD with photos and our video.
  • Op-Ed article for Eatonville Dispatch March 30, 2011.
  • MK featured guest at Enumclaw Chamber followed by meeting of VIPs on April 20th.
  • VR joined WSDMO in March 2011 at which the new Washington Tourism Alliance was discussed. Maree and Jeremy reported on the March 30th meeting of the industry. We are now able to submit a small write-up on our activity in their Tourism Today e-newsletter that is sent to industry and legislative stakeholders.
  • Trip Advisor Promotional Placements - A Trip Advisor logo was placed on our home page in exchange for listing on Trip Advisor website for Mt. Rainier destination travel information.
 

Website Content Update - Annalee updated the board on content enhancements for the website. The editorial photo library has been added to the Press Room page which allows media and others to access 300dpi photos 24/7. A page listing WiFi and cell phone locations around the mountain has been added and several historic photos have been placed on the website.

 

Internet Advertising - Annalee reported the Google & Bing Adwords, Facebook Ads and VisitSeattle.org are on schedule and delivering good traffic to the website.

 

Social Networking numbers:
Facebook: 7,919 fans
Twitter: 2,006 followers
YouTube: 132,788 video views

 

Bylaw Committee - Discussion was held relative to board and officers' term limits and length of terms. Steven, Rehne and Dee met during lunch and recommended the board amend the bylaws to clarify the following:

  1. Officers shall have no term limits
  2. Terms shall be 2 years

This constitutes the first reading of the amendment. Long term, Mary Kay was asked to review the bylaws before the next meeting and bring any suggestions that might need to be amended or addressed. One suggestion is to review the item: "Board President shall be a member of all committees."

 

The election of officers was tabled till July.

 

Visit Rainier board members - It was suggested the board should look for an additional two members to serve. Crystal Mountain has expressed interest in having someone from their area on the board.

 

Contractor Evaluation - It was determined that while there is no immediate concern, the board would like to formalize the executive director and media relations positions with a written contract. Mary Kay will ask the WSDMO colleagues to send samples of contracts they use. The purpose is to provide framework, define expectations, and organizational structure. This will help the board determine if the contractor is meeting goals and objectives. Jeremy, Dee, Rehne, Pam and Maree offered to review this information.

 

Prioritize New Programs:

  • Reporting occupancy rates - The board directed MK to develop a form to collect the information and contact lodging properties for 10-12 volunteers who would provide a snapshot of this information on a monthly basis.
  • Online reservation system - The board has not yet determined if this is a step we need to move towards in the near or distant future.
  • Video RFP. Mary Kay will prepare and post an RFP on Craigslist for video production.
  • Mobile phone apps - The board agreed this is not a priority since most phones do not work within the park.
  • NW Trek visitor surveys - Need to be reviewed to see what information can be gained.
  • QR Codes / Microsoft Tags / NFC Techology - This is not a high priority as it again depends on cell phone usage and is not highly needed or wanted in the outdoor adventure sector.

Stakeholder Summit Review - It was suggested at retreat we should:

  • Discuss using more banner ads on the website as Exclaim had suggested at the summit.
  • Review NPS website for places where they should link to VR.com and give them ideas of where and what to link.
  • Discuss emphasis on how to have a park experience outside the park boundaries when park is inaccessible (i.e. MTTA, Crystal, Ashford events, etc).
  • Retreat should focus on goal setting. Also review a contingency plan for a catastrophic loss of funding.
  • Review what we do for the east side of Mt. Rainier relative to representing hikes, lodging and activities. It was noted we now can push more traffic to the Chinook Byway and White Pass Scenic Byway websites.
  • It was suggested we skip a year for the summit.

Next meeting: board retreat, October 19-20 at Alta Crystal Resort.