VisitRainier Board Minutes: January 2008

Board Meeting Minutes, 10:00-2:00pm, Ashford
Attendence: Vivian, David, Jeremy, PC, Pam, Carol Zahorsky, Mary Kay Nelson were present. Dee, Andrea, Maree and Ellie were excused.

The meeting was called to order at 10:30am by President David Wilde. A quorum was present. Pam made a motion to accept the minutes as distributed. Jeremy seconded, the motion carried. A written copy of the board roster was provided.

December Financial Reports were reviewed for year end. The Balance Sheet report did not provide the board with enough information for the year end balance. Mary Kay will work with the bookkeeper to get a P&L report that has the necessary information. She will report back to the board and send the appropriate report. (A meeting is scheduled for Feb 12 with the bookkeeper) The final 2007 reimbursement from Pierce County has arrived and David will work with Jeremy to transfer responsibility for depositing the checks into the Key Bank account each month.

Executive Director Report
A written report was not provided as much of it is covered in the 2008 Marketing Plan which is to be shared at this meeting. Mary Kay announced that the new director for TRCVB has been hired. Her name is Tammy Blount. Mk and Carol will make an appointment with her soon and bring her to the area to familiarize her with Mt. Rainier. A new DVD publication was given to each board member called "Revisiting Washington." This DVD was produced by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation. It is a reproduction of a book published in 1941 with historical, cultural and travel information for that time. It has been updated with current travel notes and images, graphics, audio and video selections. The DVD is reproducible and is being distributed throughout the state by the Tourism Office. Mary Kay also provided board members with a copy of a book called "Last Child in the Woods" Anyone interested in reading it was asked to let MK know. Copies of the Washington State Tourism Office itineraries were distributed. The Mt. Rainier itinerary was created by Annalee Tobey and Carol Zahorsky for the state office. It is being used for NTA and other tradeshows as well as to be posted on the state website. Mk will ask for a link to their site and permission to use it on our website. It is a 2 night/3 day tour of the Mt. Rainier area and contains contact information for Visit Rainier. MK is working with the graphics designer on a revision of the map for the Mt. Rainier brochure as well as updating the creative in our ads to note the new website revision. Mary Kay reported that 2 meetings have been held regarding the proposed extension of the Scenic Byways to incorporate the west link between Eatonville and Enumclaw. Nearly 50 people have attended the meetings and expressed interest in furthering the exploration of this effort. A meeting will be held Thursday, Feb 7th in Orting at 3pm to form group to move this plan forward. The board had a brief discussion about how Visit Rainier might be able to work with the group for future marketing efforts. Mary Kay announced that she has been appointed by Congressman Brian Baird's office as part of a team to represent Lewis County in discussions regarding a proposed change in management of the Mt. St. Helens Monument. This effort is being done as a volunteer through her connection with the White Pass Scenic Byway. The Travel Industry of America's PowWow tradeshow has agreed to let Washington State Tourism have a triple booth at the show in Las Vegas, June 1-4. This will allow Visit Rainier to have a delegate attend that tradeshow. Guest Services has agreed to sponsor one representative (from Guest Services) and they will be going as a Visit Rainier delegate. Guest Services will work directly with the tourism office for details regarding the trip. New Business: The Board received a letter of resignation from Sandy Altman due to personal reasons. Sandy, who was a charter member of the organization, noted that she had enjoyed her time with Visit Rainier and offered her continued support. The board thanked her for her contribution to the group and encouraged her to attend meetings in the future.

Carol Zahorsky PR
Carol shared 3 recent articles that she had assisted travel writers with; two from Travel Age West and one from Sunset. She was especially pleased with the full page feature called "Paradise Found" in Travel Age West (a trade publication for travel agents). The contact information and website for www.VisitRainier.com were prominent in the feature. Carol discussed the upcoming NW Outdoor Writers Association conference in Salem Oregon for 2008. She is undecided about attending this year (once every two years might be enough) but recommended keeping our NOWA membership active as this is a good network for Visit Rainier. She noted there is another outdoor adventure writers group that she is looking into for membership. Carol is working on a Press Release for both the Music in the Mountain event (Randy Oxford) and the Film Festival event (Win and Jeremy). She also was excited about the announcement that Crystal Mountain will hold their sunset dinners at the Summit House again this year, via a chair lift ride to the summit. The reopening of the Paradise Inn remains the top news story of the year. She is also working on a method for making the media and travel writers aware of "re-visiting" VisitRainier.com when the new website is launched. MK forwarded several Editorial Calendars from travel publications. The board discussed how they can influence (or if the can?) future features about Mt. Rainier. Carol explained that the features are typically set in advance and work we are doing now to keep in contact with the publications will help us get into that rotation in the future. Since Mt. Rainier did not have a coordinated PR effort in years past, this could explain why it is taking some time to get into the publications now. She remained hopeful that we are now on the right track to make that happen. Some publications go directly to businesses like Guest Services, the ski areas, Whittakers and the climbing guide services. Carol suggested she could work directly with them to ask them to refer writers and publications to her for her assistance. It was also suggested that we share our electronic media kit and photo library access with them. The board asked to have this put on future VR agendas to continue cultivating relationships with key Mt. Rainier businesses. Carol asked to be included in media visits so she can learn more about what the media is requesting. Carol will work on putting together a media group visit to the newly opened Paradise Inn in May. Carol and Mk asked for someone to get that information to them. Carol asked for updates from each area on top stories and news items. Dates have been determined by the NPS for road openings this spring. Greenwater has better than average cross country and snowshoeing this year due to the low elevation snow pack. Sunrise Services, the Dummy Downhill, snowshoe tours with fondue dinners and Sunset Dinners are being planned at Crystal Mt. The Naches Tavern has a great prime rib dinner Friday nights with musical entertainment. The MTTA trails are groomed and have good snow cover. The Moonlight ski is an annual or semi annual event that is unique. 2008 Marketing Plan Mary Kay provided a draft of the 2008 Marketing Plan for review. The full report was distributed to the board with the objectives, target audience, and strategies noted for Visit Rainier. The plan contained information about the Mt. Rainier Brochure- printing and distribution amounts, print advertising options in 5 magazines, 2 newspaper and 3 visitor guides, plus internet advertising on websites and through Google. MK continues to gather more information about internet advertising as this is a new area of marketing. A survey was included that will be sent to lodging properties and key businesses to collect data to allow us to compare who we have determined our target audience to be and what our website analytics show us about who our client is. The board discussed each of the various media options and approved the plan and the survey. The board decided on printing and distribution of 200,000 brochures which will allow us to have an adequate supply for both the local and out of the area market for 2008.

2008 Budget Adoption
Based on the information provided about the 2007 carry over and after discussion of the 2008 Marketing Plan, the board decided to move $4,000 from print advertising into printing and distributing additional brochures. With that modification, the board approved the 2008 Budget as presented.

2008 Meeting Schedule
The board agreed on the following schedule for 2008 meetings: March 5 Tacoma Community Services Building -10am April 16 (tentative) Community-wide meeting to roll-out website at Pack Forest or Nisqually Lodge May 14 TBA July 9 TBA October 15 Board Retreat TBA December 10 TBA.

The date for the community wide roll-out of the website needs to coincide with the needs of the web developer and will be determined by the "deliverable's" due date. Mary Kay will discuss with Ken the process for getting input from property owners for the booking mechanism as well as his advice on when best to share the new website programs.

2009 Pierce County Budget is due March 14. The board will need to decide on March 5th on the budget amount and any program changes (if any) that need to be requested for 2009.

Board Chairman Election Jeremy Foust was nominated at the previous meeting as board president. There were no other nominations. Vivian moved and Pam seconded the motion to elect Jeremy as board president 2008-2010. Motion carried unanimously.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:30pm