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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-03-22 KCVB MinutesKenai Convention and Visitors Bureau Board Meeting Minutes March 22, 2004 Board Members Present: Dan Van Zee, Robi West, Ron Maiston, Jacquie Steckel, Sharon Brower Board Members Excused: Fred Braun, Pat Porter Staff Members Present: Diana McKenney, Michelle Glass A. Call to Order Roll CaII: The meeting was called to order at 5: 1Op.m. B. Approval of Agenda: Mr. Malston moved and Ms. Steckel seconded approval of the agenda. It was approved unanimously. C. Approval of Minutes: Mr. West moved approval of minutes for December and February, Ms. Steckel seconded. It was approved unanimously. D. Persons scheduled to be heard: None E. Correspondence: 1. Gary Freeburg Donation request for Book Publication Ms. Glass spoke with Mr. Gease about this and he says that his understanding is for a commitment to purchase $1500 worth of the books. The letter doesn't reflect that, so Ms. Glass will call Mr. Freeburg. None of the Board Members present recall any discussion about this in the past. Mr. West felt that if we were really in better financial standing, we might be able to do this. Mr. Van Zee indicated that Ms. Glass should go ahead and clarify the request and determine the need for inventory. Mr. West indicated it might be a good idea to talk with Ms. Tarr also to see what she remembers. 2. Ricky Gease Grant agreement with KRSA There are several requirements and commitments requested to satisfy the grant that seemed to be excessive for a $500 grant. Many of the requests also did not apply to us. Ms. Glass wrote a response indicating what we are willing to do. Mr. West indicated that he has received several grants from them and that this does seem to be a generic type of request. F. New Business: 1. Alaska Society of CVB's membership advantages are advocacy and education for DMO's. ATIA doesn't really have a voice for DMO's and doesn't include DMO's in consideration of their decisions and marketing. The society will do a meeting survey list and meeting planners throughout the state. Their focus is more on what we do instead of on tourism as a whole. We are currently not members and Mr. Gease had participated at times. Ms. Glass said that this was an organization that benefited Haines. Due to budget cuts, many memberships were eliminated. The society has been reorganizing in the last 2 years under a new president and has taken on a new life. Mr. West felt that for major training or things like that, the Board should be involved with the decision, but for these types of business decisions, the Executive Director is free to make those decisions. Ms. Steckel and Mr. Van Zee agreed. 2. Oilers /Oldtown Bingo Board member The Old Town' Bingo division is a 60/40 split and we therefore have 2 seats on the Board. Mr. Braun and Mr. Gease were the members. Ms. Glass is replacing Mr. Gease. Linda Dunn had asked that we find another member to replace Mr. Braun because he is very busy and hard to reach. Ms. Glass recommended Mr. Van Zee. Mr. Van Zee is willing to take the position. 3. Donation request from Watershed Council River Festival They have indicated that in years past, we had been a major contributor in the form of a cash contribution of $1000. None of the staff can remember ever participating. Because the festival brings in 4000 people, and it is in Kenai, and they are trying to move it to Soldotna where it can also be on the river, it is worth discussion. Ms. Glass feels that we don't have the cash flow. Mr. Malston indicated that they do bring in quite a few people and it would be nice to do something for them, but cash is probably not a good idea. Ms. Glass will tell them that we will not be able to do cash, but would try to come up with some sort of in -kind opportunity. 4. Year -end Report Ms. Glass is considering reducing the size of the year -end report and putting the money into the membership directory. The audience is the City of Kenai. Mr. Malston feels that we don't need to do anything near this fancy although we do want it to look professional. He said that Ms. Tarr used to do it on the copy machine. Mr. Van Zee felt that we should just do something simple in light of budget cuts. Ms. Glass will kill the fancy annual year -end report, produce a smaller yet adequate version in house and put the money into the membership directory. G. Old Business: 1. Thank retiring board members for service plaques from Ron? Ms. McKenney will get list of members going off board to Mr. Malston. 2. Budget meeting with City of Kenai Ms. Glass has had a meeting with Ms. Snow. She had a previous meeting with Ms. Snow and Larry Semmens where he had indicated that no matter who had requested $80,000; it would not have been submitted. Her subsequent meeting with Ms. Snow resulted in an increase in the submission to the City Council to $65,000. Ms. Glass wondered if she should lobby council members. She had asked for Ms. Snow's impressions about how council members view tourism etc. Mr. West felt that we should to graciously accept the funding amount this year, but let them know that we will he back next year again looking for more. He also felt that there is no problem in letting them know our historical situation and thank them for the increase. Ms. Glass and Ms. McKenney updated the narrative that accompanies the budget and worded it in such a way that showed where we have had to make cuts to accommodate the cuts from the City. Ms. Snow reiterated her desire to review the contract with KCVB. Ms. Snow also felt that there are still some questions unanswered concerning the retail scenario from last year. She suggested the possibility of should bringing our board together with the council to discuss the contract. Ms. Glass felt that it is a great idea and that we should find out exactly what the City expects from us so that we are clear in meeting their expectations as well as clear in what their priorities are in case we need to cut programs based on diminished funding. Ms. Steckel felt that this should happen ASAP. Ms. Glass agreed because there are certain things that we need to do like marketing that we can't because of lack of funding. Especially in light of the fact that we are having to do things such as retail in order to subsidize our funding, which is making the community unhappy. Ms. Steckel said that it would be nice to have our city council member present at the board meetings and if ours is unavailable, maybe we should have someone sit in. Ms. Glass has committed to going to a council meeting at least once a month and will bring that point up. Ms. Brower said that Mr. Bookey had indicated that he would be interested to be kept abreast of our financial situation and that he would back our attempts to increase funding. Mr. West feels that this is good for a start because bringing us up to $80,000 would just bring us up to where we were years ago. Mr. Van Zee agrees it is a good idea to look at the contract because costs have not gone down and the City needs to decide what will not be provided as a result. Ms. Glass also felt that it would be a good educational opportunity for the council. She said that the contract is very generic and that after reading it, it is still unclear what their expectations are. She gets the feeling from Ms. Snow that there seems to be a question among some council members about what this building is and what we do here and what the benefits to the community are year round. 3. Sponsorship update Board agrees that the Oilers' sign is too expensive and doesn't meet our marketing needs. H. Executive Director's Report: Included and packet and mostly covered in the meeting. We are working on a schema that will smoothly integrate the 4 websites. The 3 new ones are all scheduled for launching very soon. We hope to maximize the ingenerati..ng possibilities in this effort. J. Board Comments: Mr. Malston asked about Alaska Airlines Magazine. He felt it is a very good magazine. He saw that Soldotna had a nice ad and wondered why we didn't. He felt it stuck out like a sore thumb that Soldotna was there and thought it might be good for us as well. Would it possibly be better than some of the ads we are currently using? Ms. Glass purchased a full -page ad for Haines this year and feels it is a great magazine and a good one in which to advertise. The Haines ad is just coming out and she will be checking on the results to determine the effectiveness. Another magazine Ms Glass is interested in researching for advertisement is the Coastal Living magazine. At the recent KPTMC retreat she mentioned these and hoped they might consider co -op advertisements for the peninsula in both of these magazines. Ms. Brower felt that the Coastal Living idea is good for most of the communities on the Peninsula. Ms. Glass thinks that if KPTMC could be most beneficial if the focus was on destination marketing rather that an advertisement filled brochure. She doesn't feel that their brochure is the most effective marketing piece for Kenai, but it is all we have right now for mailing out. Ms. Brower indicated that not only is our membership directory hard to read, but there were many inaccuracies. Ms. Steckel indicates that the B B Association has just had rack cards made up that have all the members and we can use that to verify info. She indicated that they seldom get requests via mail anymore; it all comes via e -mail and phone. 1K. Schedule of Next Board Meeting: April 12, 2003, 5p.m. L. Adjournment: Ms. Brower moved and Ms. Steckel seconded adjournment of meeting. It was approved unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 6:30p.m.