VisitRainier Board Minutes: May 2008
Alta Crystal Resort, 10:00-1:00pm
The meeting was called to order at 10:25 by Jeremy Foust, President.
Those present included: PC Dickinson, Vivian Cadematori, Andrea Brannon, Jeremy Foust, Dee Patterson and Mary Kay Nelson and guest, Steven Cadematori. Maree Lerchen, Pam Newlun and Ellie Worsham were unable to attend.
The minutes from the March 5, 2008 meeting were read. Vivian moved and Dee seconded to approve the minutes. Motion carried.
The April financial report was reviewed and accepted. The need for an independent audit by Pierce County is being reviewed by the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. The committee will follow up with Visit Rainier.
Mary Kay reported on the Executive Directors Report March- May:
| Strategic Plan and Marketing Plan for Washington State Tourism | Maree and MK attended the presentation May 6 in Leavenworth. It was recommended that Mary Kay join WACVB for networking and to about opportunities as they are presented. The board agreed and asked Mary Kay to report on the cost of membership at the next meeting. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1.Scenic Byway Conference 2.West side Byway Connection project | Maree and MK attended the conference May 7 & 8 in Leavenworth Steve Pruitt, Eatonville is the chairman. The group will have a meeting with Carrie Sunstrom on May 20th to pursue the designation process. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Watchable Wildlife Conference | Mk to attend September 3 & 4 in Leavenworth... National Geographic Society will be there. See below. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National Geographic Society/Oregon State Tourism and Washington State Tourism Geotourism MapGuide | Mk was asked by WST to work on the Stewardship committee. June - Dec. Mary Kay explained the new program initiated by WST. The board agreed to have Mary Kay work on the committee to represent Mt. Rainier interests. The board expressed possible interest as a sponsor, depending on the value. MK will investigate the opportunities and ROI. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website 2.0 | Annalee and Mk assisted Sara with content, Annalee collected nearly 100 photos and compiled a list of wildflowers and wildlife. They have been collecting GPS waypoints and other content for Sara. New features are coming soon. The board asked that the new site replace the old one as soon as possible. We will soon have the ability to add/modify events and other content ourselves. We eventually want to create our own itineraries from the WPSB routes and post them online. MK to ask Sara how to do this. The trip should go from any starting point (community) to another as a loop trip. The board decided to drop the classification for lodging. MK will notify Ken. More amenities need to be added. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prepared and delivered Pierce County 2009 request for funding. Presentation completed. | The LTAC board will meet to make recommendations for the County Council May 28 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2008 Performance Report | The board discussed the most appropriate time to issue the 2008 Performance Report. It was decided to do it at the end of the fiscal year when a summary of the year's activities can be compiled. Quarterly and Mid year reports will be done throughout the year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Online Marketing Orbitz - May 1-July 15- $7900 (GORP and Outside online) WA State Tourism Google Adwords DiscoverAmerica.com | Mary Kay reported on activity currently underway. The board asked MK to check Google Analytics to see how the GorpTravel ad was working. MK provided info on a new opportunity with DiscoverAmerica.com. The unique target on this is the ability to have information about Mt. Rainier translated into other languages, ie. Japanese, Spanish and/or German. The board decided to wait on this and learn more about it. Mary Kay will have a meeting with John DeLeva, rep in June. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Three Round Table meetings - 25 participates so far- one more tomorrow at 10am. | Mary Kay reported on the round table meetings held in Ashford, Packwood and Greenwater. Over 30 individuals were in attendance. The main focus was to discuss the new website and other VR program activities. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Brochure - MRVA is helping to mail out multiple copies.. Delivery to local areas and Direct Mail through Lacy & Par mailing house. | 200,000 brochures have been produced and are being distributed in the Seattle - Portland market areas, as well as the ferry and cruise terminals and SeaTac Airport. Local distribution is being handled by Visit Rainier and MRVA. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previously the highest month overall was July '07 at 32,053 through 1&1 Hosting. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mineral requested to post a link to their Newsletter online. | The board discussed the ramifications and decided that in all fairness to other areas who also have newsletters it would be sufficient to have a link to their community website, where links to their newsletters are posted. Visit Rainier will eventually have their own newsletter. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tacoma Regional CVB - Open House Wednesday, June 18, 4:00pm - RSVP Seattle CVB - May 29, 7:30- 9:30 am Edgewater WA State Tourism Commission mtg May 29 | Mary Kay announced these upcoming dates for board members to consider attending. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Campgrounds listings on the website | The board agreed to post campgrounds inside and outside the park. The listings will include Name, address, phone and website information. This will be a static (not rotating) list and alphabetical by community. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEW BUSINESS:
Update on Paradise Inn Reopening - Mary Kay reported for Carol Zahorsky who is currently hosting a media luncheon on behalf of Visit Rainier at Paradise Inn. She has invited media from the northwest region and is hosting 7 media for lunch and 6 overnight at Paradise. This was a unique opportunity to meet the media for a the top story of the year. Some of the benefits were to have them network with Carol and learn about the Visit Rainier's program and our new website. Current and future stories in media publications are expected from this activity.
New Marketing Options:
Digital Display boards - A 9 second spot of advertising on panels on board (6) ferries and in the WA State Ferry terminals (7) will cost $ $25 each month, per panel, per location ($5,100 total if we did them all, all year). Mary Kay mentioned that we currently have a 20 second production that was provided free by WST last year. As a Certified Folder Display customer, and as we expected, we are now being asked to renew this on a pay to play basis. The board was interested in this and wanted to consider targeting specific routes such as: Seattle - Bremerton, Seattle- Bainbridge, Anacortes - San Juans, and Anacortes terminal. MK will look into other options for the Seattle Cruise terminals and Boeing Travel Center.
Ad pockets - Mary Kay presented another option of small business card size brochures called Ad Pockets distributed on counter tops in major attractions in the Seattle - Portland area. The board felt the brochure distribution was an adequate way of having collateral materials at this time and decided not to pursue this advertising option. Other ideas? Jeremy suggested we consider using dollars in next year's budget to produce videos for each property. The look and content would then be consistent and all properties would be represented. It was suggested that Kelly who is now doing the videos for the website might be interested in contracting to do this? It would be a virtual tour of the property like Real Estate websites do. VR would pay for a basic video and a property could enhance it at extra cost paid by that property. Additional ones for other seasons (winter vs. summer) could be done as well.
Mary Kay asked the board if they were interested in holding a partner lunch this summer like the media luncheon. The idea would be to invite WST, DSI, Certified Folders/publications ad reps/WSDOT/FS/ White Pass, Crystal Mt. Concierge service, Seattle and Tacoma CVBs etc. After some discussion the board decided it might be better to do a Fam Tour of the loop trip in September. It might involve renting a bus with step on guides at each location. We could invite the funding partners as well as those mentioned. We will look into what is left in the budget and what the cost of doing a fam tour would be.
Vivian submitted her resignation from the Visit Rainer board of directors. She explained that it caused a conflict of interest with the Pierce County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. She is not able to vote on the committee due to her board position and she has chosen to remove herself from the board in order to be able to vote in the next allocation process.
Meeting Adjourned at 2:30pm
Next Meetings
July 9 - Packwood
October 15 - Board Retreat - TBA
December 10 - TBA