Minutes

Big Sky Chamber Board of Directors

55 Lone Mountain Trail | Big Sky, Montana 59716

406-995-3000

August 13th, 2013

PRESENT: David O’Conner ABSENT:Shawna Winter

Victor DeLeo

Bill Simpkins

Sarah Griffiths

Greg Pack

John Richardson

Pat Straub

STAFF: Danielle Chamberlain

Kitty Clemens

Andrew Peterson

Marci Lewandowski

  • Call to Order: 8:40 am

Dave made the motion to start the meeting. The board welcomed their newest board member Pat Straub.

  • Visit Big Sky Liaison Report

a. Kitty presented the report in Catherine Gilb’s absence.

b. VBS will move their meetings from the 2nd Thursday of the month to the 3rd

Thursday of every month.

c. VBS will be hiring a marketing firm to put together a year round media

buying strategyset to begin this winter.

e. Andrew is monitoring the operations of the new website.

  • Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve June minutes was made by Victor DeLeo and seconded by Sarah Griffiths, with all in favor the motion passed unanimously.

  • Financial Report by John Richardson
  1. 20% of the Chamber’s net profit will be from the OVG.

b. John Richardson made a motion to move retained earnings to a

reserve fund annually. Greg Pack seconded it and the motion was passed.

c. A second motion for the board to authorize the executive director to use

money from the sinking fund for grant match funding for transportation

funds or operating capital deficiencies by approval ofthe boardwas made.

d. Kitty clarified that transportation funds can be used in support of safety for

vehicular traffic,restrooms, interpretative signs and road signs.

e. Motion was made by John Richardson to authorize the executive director to

use money from the reserve fund for grant matched transportation funding

or for operating capital deficienciesupon approval by the board. The motion

was seconded by Bill Simkins.

f. Motion was made by John Richardsonfor the remaining BSIA funds to go

to VBS contingent on the board’s approval. The motion was seconded

by Bill Simkins.

g. Motion to approve July’s financials was made by Sarah Griffiths and

seconded by Greg Pack.

  • Director’s Report
  1. Entryway and Lightning materials are on order and will arrive in the next few weeks.
  2. The gateway monument can be deeded as a 501(c)3 to obtain more community involvement in the design and implementationwithout Resort Tax investment.
  3. The first CEO and Executive Director Round Table met in July. This round table will be done quarterly and participants will begin to come up with plans to work together in order to achieve common development goals.
  4. The Longwoods International database for the 2012 travel year is available in hard copy only.
  5. Kitty suggested that the Chamber will begin to pursue communicating a brand promise to obtain feedback on how its materials look on an ongoing basisin order to measure how this affects its advertising.This will be achieved through emails and imaging.
  • Profit Centers, Standing Agenda Items:

a. Business Expo

1. Discussion of whether or not the Chamber should have a Business Expo in

October 2013.

2. The board decided to have the Business Expo the following year to

include the Total Resource Campaign.

b. Membership Report:

1. There have been four new members in July and August.The current

member total is 373.

2. Danielle emailed out $30,000 worth of invoices.

3. The OVG is on magazine stands in over 300 locations. The Lodge at Big

Sky is the top distributor. They have gone through over 500 OVGs in the

last month. The goal for next year is to sell 31 ads for next year’s OVG.

4. The Golf tournament has 15 hole sponsors and all the prizes donated.

Board members can volunteer if they choose. There will be a 50/50

Raffle, no handicaps this year and the top 5 teams will win cash.

  • VIC Report

1. Numbers reached a record high with 2,347 visitors in the month of

July. That is an average of 76 visitors per day.

2. New signs will go in place shorty that will add an ‘OPEN’ and a ‘Lobby

Open 24 Hrs’ on the current Visitor Information Center sign as well as

the addition of a 3’ by 4’ foot Visitor Information sign on the west

entrance of the building.

  • Website Update:

1. In comparison to traffic from previous years, traffic to the new site is

doing welldespite minor setbacks after the initial launch.Andrew will

continue to track the new website.

2. Andrew explained that there is traffic from every state and over 35

countries.

  • Adjourn: Victor DeLeo made the motion to adjourn and it was seconded by Sarah Griffiths.With no other business the meeting was adjourned at 10:53 a.m.