VisitRainier Board Minutes: July 2011

Location: Hancock's Gallery and Caf - Packwood

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

The meeting was called to order at 10:10 am by Vice-President Dee Patterson.

The minutes were reviewed, Steven moved and Maree seconded that the minutes be approved. Motion carried.

Financial report: Dee reported on the Pierce County funding decision to support Visit Rainier at the full amount requested for 2012, $263,000. There was a question on the financial profit and loss about the categories for consultants. Mary Kay will see that the correct categories are used in the future.

Bylaws Proposed Amendment
The following discussions was held regarding:
Current language: 7.2 Term "Officers may serve two (2) consecutive terms if reappointed to the Board and re-elected to the office."

Change text to read: 7.2 Term - Officers serve 2 year terms if appointed to the board of directors and re-elected to the office.

Mid Term Vacancy
Current language 7.6 -"Officer vacancies shall be filled by election. The officer so elected shall serve until the next annual board meeting."

Change to read: Officer vacancies shall be filled by election. Officer so elected shall serve until the scheduled expiration of the vacated term.

MK reviewed the remaining bylaw sections and pointed out two other areas of concern: 7.7 - President shall be member of all committees. It was proposed to remove this section. 9.3 - Five officers and executive director may sign checks. Recommend to remove Two signatures required and change text to read "Any current officers may sign checks."

Mary Kay will prepare a summary of the proposed changes and send them out to the board 10 days prior to the October Board meeting/retreat. The changes will be voted on in October.

Election of Officers
President: Jeremy
2008 - 2009
2010 - 2011
Vice President: Dee
2009 - 2010
Secretary: Steven
2011 - 2012
Treasurer: Maree
2009 - 2010

Election of Officers 2011 - The positions open for 2011 are Vice President -Dee Patterson and Treasurer- Maree Lerchen. Steven moved and Rehne seconded to elect Dee and Maree to the respective offices. Motion carried.

Community Outreach Report - Local Travel Shows:
1. Crystal Mt. "Kick Off to Summer"
Attendance: Approx. 33 people entered our drawing.
Exhibitors: Visit Rainier and the US Forest Service
Cost: Only contractor hours and mileage
Top Benefits: Networking, contact information, one-on-one time with travelers.

2. Travel and Word Conference
Attendance: 37 freelance writers.
Exhibitors: 18 exhibitors from 11 different Destination Marketing Organizations
Cost: $611 including table and travel/hours
Theme: "Sustainable + Green + Responsible Travel and Tourism"
Top Benefits: Networking, contact information, one-on-one time with writers and DMOs

It was suggested we purchase a clicker/counter to use to count those we contact at travel and trade shows.

Media Relations
Four press releases sent:
Visit Rainier Offers Last Minute Lodging "Mattress Sale" release - May 10 (53 opens; 12 clicked to our site)
Summer Family Fun release - June 1 (74 opened and only Seattle's Child clicked to NPS' "for kids" section)
Sunrise Visitor Center release - June 7 (81 opened; 4 clicked to our site)
Sunrise Open for Fourth of July Weekend release - June 27 (80 opens; 5 clicked to site)

Pieces published as a result of a direct connection with Visit Rainier:
Coast to Coast magazine printed Spring 2011 information - fact checking by VR.
EveryDay with Rachael Ray-June edition: Mentions National Park Inn and Wellspring Spa.
KACS puts our Summer Family Fun information into its community calendar
Seattle Travel Examiner published Sunrise Visitor Center information from our release
Seattle Times prints Junior Ranger Program from our release
Patch.com prints Sunrise Visitor Center information from our release
All Voices.com reprints Seattle Times article on Junior Ranger program
Seattle Times prints our Sunrise opening release
5starcampgrounds.com printed from our Sunrise release

Recap of Media Inquiries
May
Fact checking for Meaghan Alfier of Camping Life, Highways, MotorHome and Trailer Life for its August edition
HARO lead: Annika Hipple writing for Berlitz Handbook to the USA needed information on the life of a park ranger. Coordinated with Steven Redman to provide content for her.
Photos and text provided to 425 magazine for its 'Great Views around the Northwest' story.
Suggestions for Maria Finn and her article on National Parks in the August edition of Sunset magazine.
June
Ruth Schubert from Seattle's Child needed Jr. Ranger Program pictures for July edition of magazine.
Ingo Hubner from 4-Seasons magazine in Germany/Netherlands requested lodging help for his trip in August

Julie asked the board to consider a proposal for a Media Trip for September 17-19. She has 4-5 travel writers that expressed interest in doing a trip around the mountain for this summer. The At-A-Glance cost was shared for the proposed "Glamping" press trip.

Rental Van $248.25
Gas TBD, based on price of gas
Snacks $50 budget?
Julie Lodging $210
Julie Meals $10 at NW Trek
Meals Only un-hosted meal is at Wildberry Restaurant $150?
Park Entrance Fee $15
TOTAL $690 +/-

The board approved the activity using reserve funds in the budget. With most of the lodging and dining being comped, the cost is small compared to the relationships we will build and the potential stories. The board discussed the appropriateness of asking those on the media trip for a timeline (18 months was suggested) after which we would be able to get a story for them if they did not get one published and we would post it on the VR blog.

It was suggested that we consider doing a winter media trip to the Packwood area, perhaps on the Winter Carnival weekend in March since this tour will not be able to incorporate the Packwood area this time.

Executive Director Report
Mary Kay stated that Ken, our web developer has suggested that we move forward on making the website mobile ready. The difference between mobile ready and a mobile app was explained. The board was interested in learning more about these options and reviewing them at the retreat in October.

Website Data & Results
Website content completed since the last meeting:
Revised area attractions
24 hour lodging specials
Silver Sage wildlife gallery
Updated 2011 events calendar
What's Hot this Month feature
Trailhead pass and permit information
Revised camping page

The Last Minute Lodging Deals program issues were reviewed. Some concern was expressed by a few lodging properties in the Ashford Valley. Their concern had to do with creating competition between properties and what they perceive as encouraging visitors to depend on specials and deals and putting the mountain on sale. Some of the data included:
14 properties have participated since program began May 5th.
6-8 properties utilizing the program weekly.
Tracking information is now available.
On Thursdays this is the 8th most popular page; It is the 2nd most popular link on e-newsletters. This is much higher than other days of the week.
Weekly reminders are being sent to the 63 lodging properties. There is a 30% open rate on the email. Regular email used twice to send a summary of the program.

Due to the increased web hits and popularity of the links on the newsletters, the board decided that we should continue the program. There are properties that are wanting to utilize this option and since it is voluntary those that want to participate can and others do not have to.

Contests
6 contests complete, 3 in progress, 4 scheduled

2011-2012 Brochures
Mailed 30 packets along with FAQs to hotels and visitor centers in Pierce County
Mailed packets to 12 area visitor centers and distributed to local area visitor centers

2011 Online Advertising to date
Facebook Ads
We currently have 11,202 fans (7,914 in April)
Budget: $5,000
5,568 ad-driven clicks (Jan-June)
4,191 new "likes" (75% conversion rate)
$0.42 cost per click
0.070% click thru rate (.092% June)

Occupancy Reporting 7 lodging properties are voluntarily reporting monthly occupancy percentages.
Goal: 12 properties to participate.

AdRoll Mary Kay explained an online advertising program called Adroll. After preliminary research this appears to have Potential as an good alternative for 2012 marketing. She explained that it involves a concept called retargeting. This is a behavorial advertising technique to reach website visitors who have previously visited our website. We can then reach potential visitors with similar demographics and interests as our current visitors. A 2 week free trial will be completed Sept. '11 so we can decide if we want to budget $5-10,000 in this program for 2012.

Videographer
Mary Kay posted the RFP on Craigslist June 14-16. By June 21 we had 124 inquiries. An RFP was sent to all inquiries with 25 proposals returned. MK narrowed it down to 4 most eligible and then selected Hemlock Productions. - The production is to begin immediately and includes the $5,000 budget. The deliverables are One to Three videos.

E-newsletter report
June sent to 8,356 consumers and had 17 links to our website, It generated 746 pageviews With events, last minute lodging deals, how to choose a hike, hiking stories being the most popular links.

The July newsletter was sent to 7,837 consumers. There were 21 links to our website, 734 pageviews with 10 hiking essentials, Top Ten summer experiences, last minute lodging deals, and lodging as the top pages. There have been 17 lodging & stakeholder e-newsletters sent out this year to date.

The highest website traffic count for June (1,889) and July (2,295) were both were the delivery dates for the e-newsletters. Highest recorded day to date was July 7th.

Social Media
Annalee reported the following stats as of July 13:
11,311 fans on Facebook
2264 followers on Twitter
32 videos on YouTube
7284 blog views

Contractor Evaluation>
Rehne and Dee are working on the Contractor evaluation form. Mary Kay will forward to them two examples of what other CVBs are using for their staff. No one else appears to use contractors, so the forms will likely need to be modified. They serve as good samples.

Sweepstakes>
Discover America is offering Visit Rainier the sweepstakes deal for their eblast for September. They need two overnights, one activity and two meals to be donated. Mary Kay will contact Guest Services for these as they recommended that we use lodging and dining within the National Park.

Washington Tourism Alliance>
There was discussion about what level we should pay to participate in the newly formed Washington Tourism Alliance. Maree moved, Steven seconded to participate at the $300 level. The motion carried.

The next meeting will be October 19-20 at Alta Crystal Resort for the annual board retreat.