Meeting Title
Date / MarchDM Board Meeting
March 10, 2011 / Start Time
Stop Time / 3:06PM
4:43 PM
Place / MonTECBuilding
Conference Room
1121 E. Broadway
Missoula, MT59802
Phone: 406.532.3250
BOARD MEMBERS ATTENDING
1 / Bob Terrazas – President / 2 / Linda McCarthy–President Elect
3 / Dan Carlino– Secretary / 4 / Anne Guest – Vice President
5 / Kim Sawyer – Vice President / 6 / Matt Ellis – Past President
7 / Carol Blodgett / 8 / Denise Moore
9 / Bill Muse / 10
11 / 12
13 / 14
15 / 16
17 / 18
19 / 20

The Official Convention & Visitors Bureau

Missoula, MT

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES

2011

Barbara Neilan, Executive Director

MEMBERS ABSENT

1 / Libby Baker / 2 / Tom Bensen
3 / Jon Bernthal--Excused / 4 / Chris Bosshardt
5 / Ryan Boehme--Excused / 6 / Jim Galipeau--Excused
7 / Cris Jensen--Excused / 8 / Erika McGowan-Ad Hoc
9 / Trisha Piedalue--Excused / 10

Other Guests Attending

1.Ron Anderson, Hilton Garden Inn

2.Cameron McKnight, Holiday Inn Express

3.Diane Hellman, New Wes Health and Aflac

4.Mary Erickson, Courtyard Marriott & Comfort Inn

5.Leslie Wustrack, MissoulaInternationalAirport

6.Racene Friede, Glacier Country

7.Louis Cross, Best Western KwaTaqNuk

8.Jim McGowan, Windfall

Minutes & Financials

Bill Muse motioned to approve the minutes. Linda McCarthy seconded and all voted in favor.

Bob Terrazas reported for Jim Galipeau who is absent. The private account expenses are tracking. There are a few issues of income for April and May coming from the auction and the event. There will be a little bit of money allotted to the private account from bed tax for administration, which will help. The bed tax account is tracking well. The sports account hasn’t really generated much in pledges, but that may not be our largest concern right now as we should focus on the private account. Barb Neilan stated we are where we thought we would be, and staff is working to reduce expenses. Matt Ellis said the committee is making follow-up phone calls for the sports pledge. We have committed $3,000 to cover the track and field tournament. Linda McCarthy said this year the Missoula Downtown Association will not be giving $1,000, because that was contingent for the wrestling tournament. The University of Montana pledge was also contingent on the wrestling tournament. Linda thinks this is something MDA should be contributing to. It needs be budgeted in the future. Linda motioned that we approve the financials. Bill Muse seconded and all voted in favor.

Rollover Allotment

We will receive $21,000 in rollover funds from the State. The Executive Committee recommends: 20% to administration; 50% to the new visitor build out; 30% to new projects at the discretion of the executive committee and the board ($4,000, $10,000 and $7,000 respectively). The $7,000 could be used for the visitor information as well or for consumer advertising. The administrative funds would help the private budget; by law, we can take no more than 20%. Our budgets are always on projected income. Rollover funds are monies above and beyond what we budgeted. There are some other restrictions with the money such as we will have to make an application for the visitor information center project. Matt Ellis motioned to accept the Executive Committee’s recommendation. Dan Carlino seconded. All voted in favor.

TBID Update

Dan Carlino stated Harry Sladich came over from Spokane for a TBID board planning session. They talked about the qualification of funds and howbooked room nights are used to analyze that. Harry talked about how the TBID can augment Destination Missoula’s existing plan. Ron Anderson, the Hilton general manager, was one of the founding fathers of the Spokane TBID; it’s a great resource to have Ron help guide us. Barb Neilan stated that we got to learn how to get a good start and not make similar mistakes Spokane made when starting out. Matt Ellis stated Harry reaffirmed why we created a TBID. Bob Terrazas thanked Matt Ellis and Linda McCarthy for going to the meeting in his absence. Linda thinks they need to have another brainstorming, prioritization and planning session. The first quarter should generate $40,000 to $42,000, which is the lowest quarter we will have. The money is available in April. The next TBID meeting is 9 a.m. is on Wednesday at the Holiday Inn at the Park. Ron stated this is a critical time. We will have a $300k budget--10% contingency, 10% local initiatives, the bulk would be in consumer advertising ($240k). Ron recommends we expand what is working at the CVB as well as get advice and direction of the hoteliers and TBID board. This money needs to be allocated now. He recommended Barb start making a draft marketing plan now with a timeline. Dan stated the TBID ratepayers were going to evaluate the CVB’s marketing plan and offer suggestions at the next meeting. Matt suggested Barb make a presentation on what we are already doing, so the rate payers know and provide suggestions of other things we could do. It will need to be a full day workshop. Linda suggested we create a survey for the TBID ratepayers and put that together for the workshop. Dan said in Kalispell there is one budget and each line item is allocated who pays for it (TBID, Bed Tax, etc).

CallCenter Report

Jim McGowan gave call center report highlights. We are 29,000 up on website visits. The last 7 to 8 days of February were dead. This week has been very busy at the call center. There was definitely a different geography of inquiries with Minnesota and Michigan. That could be due the destination bridal outreach. Our organic rank went from 4 to 3 this month, which is nice. Ron Anderson stated we should market to travelers within 500 miles. Barb Neilan did an informal poll to see how bookings were this summer. Most properties stated they were doing well or ahead of last year. Some bookings were flat, but none were really down. Glacier Park, Inc is way up in bookings from last year. YellowstoneNational Park is up as well. The State also has an in-state campaign. Racene Friede said Glacier Country did find funding for an in-state campaign that will be out of region and a little bit in region. Right now would be a good time to advertise in the Horizon in-flight magazine. Ron Anderson stated the TBID should be working on this now for ad design, copy, purchasing, etc.

Committee Reports

  • Board Development—There was no report given.
  • Executive Committee—There was no report given.
  • Partnership—There was no report given.
  • PR/Education—There was no report given.
  • Fundraising—Matt Ellis stated there will no longer be an auction. The auction committee will be on hold for now. We are going to do a similar dining card to what the Missoulian did. The Missoulian previously sold 2,000 dining cards. It gives a kickback to the restaurants and to the organization. The call center people can up sell visitors on the card.
  • Marketing— There was no report given.
  • Events—Kim Sawyer stated they had a meeting regarding an event in April. They are still working on details. They know what the budget will be, what they will charge and how to sell it out. It will be a unique experience. There would only 60 seats, first come first served. Sunday, April 17 will be the first event. Bob Terrazas would like to thank Bill, Denise, Matt, Kim and Carol for their work on this project.
  • Tourism Hospitality—There was no report given.
  • Sports and Conventions—Matt Ellis stated the committee is meeting every month. They have expanded the committee. They have recently received a request from a volleyball team. Matt would like to see the proposal. One of our competitive disadvantages is costs can sometimes be high in the high school arena. We will still bid on the high school events, but there are other opportunities for us to host such as club teams, swimming, volleyball, soccer. The nice thing is the committee is outside of the board, which will create new leadership for our organization. Ron Anderson stated it is amazing the potential we have for business in our back door. The “bring it home” campaign is great concept; it becomes about civic pride and thanking local people for doing the work.
  • Budget/Finance—See the report above.
  • Legislative—There was no report given.

Director’s Report

Barb Neilan stated she had an interview with Clay Latimer, a writer for Sports Travel Magazine, for an article he was writing about Missoula’s venues and upcoming major sporting events. It will come out next month. On a legislative note, a majority of the bills are in. Bill 316 is a 10% across the board cut of all appropriation funded programs, including bed tax. We are waiting for action on House Bill 2, the general appropriations act, which is asking for a 5% across the board cut to see how this bill would fit in should House Bill 2 move forward as is. We are also watching HB 317 which would sunset all appropriated funded programs within eight years. The funds would revert back to the general fund during the review and they may not come back out. Tourism lobbyists are working hard to talk to the right people about these bills. HB 370 which would increase the license plate fee for State Parks from $2.00 to $4.00, leaving it as an opt-out, passed the House on second reading by a 65-34 vote. If you want to communicate with legislators,go directly to their webpage and make a comment. It goes to the administrative staff and then goes directly on the legislator’s desk. The Montana Tourism Matters site links directly to legislators’ pages. It was recommended that we talk to the Eastern Montana representatives as well as Missoula representatives. On a different note, we lost our intern. We’re back to square one if anyone has any ideas. We have two great events coming up: 1)St. Patrick’s Day Eve Beer Drinking Conditioning Class! Join us at the Kettle House Brewery North on Wednesday, March 16 from 5-8 p.m. for Community Unite. 2) Destination Missoula Marketing Mixer Wednesday, March 23 at the MissoulaInternationalAirport from 4:00-6:00 p.m. You asked and we are delivering. This DM Marketing Mixer is all about packaging and networking! We encourage you to attend these events.

Building Lease

Bob Terrazas stated we are moving into the downtown building at Higgins and Main. After the last board meeting with the board’s authority, the Executive Committee signed the lease. We worked a lot on the lease and modifications, which were accepted by the owner. We received confirmation from Lambros about the opinion of our lease. Jim Galipeau looked at the slight increase of our costs as being a good thing given the new benefits of the space. Bob wants to congratulate Destination Missoula, the Board and all the partners that made it possible. Bob wants to let everyone know Matt Ellisdid not vote on the lease at the Executive Committee meeting. We will be celebrating now. Matt offered tours of the building for the board if it’s in a group setting. Demo is almost complete. Matt stated it feels better now than before demo. Glacier Country will also be joining us in the new space. We will go public with this next week. The press conference will occur when we are completelyin the new space.

New Business

  • The Milltown development group is requesting more funding for the footbridge that connects with the KimWilliamsTrail. They need letters of support for this. Mary Erickson requested she would like Destination Missoula to write a letter. The first portion of the park will be open in May. Linda McCarthymoved we write a letter of support. Denise Moore seconded, and all voted in favor. Mary will provide talking points for the letter.
  • Linda mentioned they have Out to Lunch and Downtown ToNight sponsorships left. Caras Park is under construction creating a new band shell. It will be done in early May.