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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3.1 Meeting Minutes CGCVB 2020-11-24 COTTAGE GROVE CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU MINUTES November 24, 2020 A meeting of the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau was virtually held via Zoom at https://cottagegrovemn.zoom.us/j/97476699454 on the 24th day of November, at 7:30 a.m. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:30 a.m. by Chairman Steve Dennis. ROLL CALL Director Wolf called the roll: Members Present: Steve Dennis, Chair - Here Laurie Levine, Director - Here Justin Olsen, Vice Chair - Here Roshan Patel, Director - No response, joined meeting later Matt Wolf, Director (Secretary) - Here Members Absent: Anthony Untiedt, Director (Treasurer) Staff Present: Christine Costello, Economic Developer Director Zac Dockter, Parks and Recreation Director Scott Seroka, Communications Manager Molly Pietruszewski, Recreation Services Manager Jordan Hirman, Recreation Facilities Manager Chris Hetland, Management Assistant Others Present: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 3.1 Approval of Meeting Minutes CGCVB 2020-09-22 Approval of the September 22, 2020, Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Meeting Minutes. A motion was made by Director Levine to accept the September 22, 2020 Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Meeting Minutes. The motion was seconded by Vice Chair Olsen. Director Wolf called the roll: Director Levine - Aye; Vice Chair Olsen - Aye; Chairman Dennis - Aye; Director Wolf - Aye. The motion passed 4-to-0. BUSINESS ITEMS 4.1 Washington County Grant Discussion Director Wolf stated using CARES Act funding Washington County started a program to support local organizations and businesses. The first two rounds of their funding went to support businesses only, but recently they opened up a third round that also included support for Visitors Bureaus. Due to COVID-19, it’s currently estimated the Cottage Grove Visitors Bureau has lost an estimated $32,844 in lodging tax funding, calculated as follows: Pre-COVID estimated lodging tax funding $51,416 minus $18,572 (post-COVID estimate). Our Bureau submitted a request for $15,000 to the Washington County Limited Convention and Visitor Bureau Assistance Program on October 29, 2020. On November 10, 2020, Washington County advised that our grant request was accepted. In order to facilitate the quick turnaround time from Washington County, the Bureau had to submit all eligible expenses by November 19, 2020; eligible expenses could only include marketing or remarketing expenses , and no operational expenses could be included in those funds. Expenses submitted were as follows: City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau November 24, 2020 Page 2 of 6 $ 1,362.50 - Brand Development & Marketing through That’s My Idea Marketing (5-27-2020); $ 4,615.99 - Website Development and maintenance costs through Sievers Creative (11-09-2020); $ 2,000.00 - Backer Board Advertisement of the Visitors Bureau at the Ice Arena (11-13-2020); $ 2,000.00 - Snowmobile Trail Map, revised to promote recreational advertising of the Cottage Grove area (11 -13-2020); $ 5,000.00 - Development of a Visitors Guide for Cottage Grove Tourism and Visitors Bureau (11-13-2020). $14,978.00 Total Expenses A Certification of Expenses has been submitted to Washington County; once that’s approved, they’ll reimburse us for those expenses. Once an actual budget for 2020 is complete, we ’ll have a discussion on any surplus revenue at our February, 2021 Board of Directors meeting. Chairman Dennis thanked Director Wolf for his presentation, and stated he appreciated the fact that Director Wolf had included all but $22 of the allotted grant money. Director Levine jokingly stated that she was going to call out Director Wolf for leaving $22 on the table. Director Levine had a question about the Visitors Bureau magazine; she asked if that was going to be a yearly production or if it was a one-time guide, to be updated in years to come. Director Wolf replied that right now it will be a one-time publication, but stated he felt more discussion needed to take place on what needs to be included in that; however, he ’d spoken with Sievers Creative who indicated the document would last for years and would just be updated every year with any new businesses and new attractions. Roger Sievers thought the Fargo, North Dakota publication was maybe a format we might like to use. At our next Board of Directors meeting in December, he’ll present the full proposal of what we’re looking at and what we want in the final document. 4.2 Third Quarter 2020 Lodging Tax Revenue Director Wolf stated the Lodging Tax for the third quarter of 2020 was due October 31, 2020. The current 2020 budget used estimates of about $1,850 per month; those estimates were conservative , a result of what’s taking place with the pandemic’s effect on the hospitality industry. We added the $15,000 grant money into the Fourth Quarter. Some really good news is actual third-quarter revenue exceeded our projections with about $4,220 of revenue per month, about $2,370 per month more than projected. Lodging Tax submissions for the third quarter were as follows: Country Inn & Suites: $ 9,863 Wakota Inn: $ 3,089 Hope Glen Farm: $ 707 Total Revenue: $12,659 In the second and third quarters of 2020, we have already met our projected revenue of $18,572 for 2020, without having any sort of lodging tax included in that. So, as previously discussed, once we have a finalized budget in February, 2021, we will be bringing that discussion of excess revenue over projected revenue to the Board. Chairman Dennis stated it was nice to see that we had an overage of our estimate, but it’s also nice to see that Hope Glen Farm is now experiencing revenue, too, which previously hadn’t been the case. 4.3 2021 Final Budget & Marketing Plan Approval Director Wolf stated at our last meeting in October, the Board voted on approximately 16 marketing projects and initiatives that were determined through a survey. The final budget, along with a marketing plan, is required by the ordinance to be brought before and approved by the City Council in December. Based on the original 16 projects and initiatives, the list was narrowed down to the top seven: 1) $3,500: Professional Photography for Marketing, as we’re lacking a wide range of photographs that we can use when we’re developing our marketing materials for the Visitors Bureau; 2) $4,100: Advertising (Digital and Print), for Have Fun Biking ($2,450) and Let’s Play Hockey ($1,650), which will be marketing our Ice Arena as well as our trails and our community amenities; 3) $4,000: 360-Marketing Video(s), done by Sievers Creative to focus on wedding and event venues throughout our community; 4) $5,800: Web Advertising, for year-round marketing of Google AdWords and Facebook Ads, so the budget would consist of $400/month for Google AdWords and $100/month in Facebook Ads; City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau November 24, 2020 Page 3 of 6 5) $400: Logo and Contact Information as a way of marketing the Visitors Bureau internally by adding stickers at our park entrances and rules signs to each of the 35 parks . It could also consist of adding window-cling signs to some of our facilities to promote Discover Cottage Grove; 6) $1,250: Dasher Board will showcase the Visitors Bureau to visitors at our Ice Arena (this amount will be covered under the grant but will be included in the budget just in case there are any issues with the grant ); 7) $2,000: Hockey Association Tournament Support. We met with the CGAA in October, who very much liked this idea; we’d try to bring at least two out-state teams into Cottage Grove and have them stay at Country Inn & Suites to try to increase their occupancy rate that weekend. If this tournament is successful, moving forward we could potentially partner on more of these. The hockey association felt that a Thanksgiving Hockey Tournament the weekend after Thanksgiving in 2021 would work. The money would be used to promote a tournament in some materials, like Let’s Play Hockey, etc., as well as having our Visitors Guide available for the visitors to the Ice Arena. The CGAA would use a small portion of the money (perhaps $500) to help for payment of a Tournament Organizer, as they noted they’re seeing fewer volunteers stepping up to help with tournaments. The above seven items are $21,050 of our marketing expenses for the year. Director Wolf reviewed the overall 2021 Budget for the Convention and Visitors Bureau: • Revenues: Projected revenue of $44,232, using a lowered-occupancy rate of about 40%. Without COVID, our projected occupancy rate is 60%-65%, with revenue of approximately $65,000-to-$70,000. • Expenses: Include a 5% administration fee, and marketing expenses for the items of which he just spoke, $23,450 (that includes $2,400 ($200/month) budgeted for social media marketing through Facebook and Instagram through Sievers Creative). • Operational Expenses: $12,515. The majority of this is for contractual services we have with the City of Cottage Grove, $10,500, which includes potential legal fees, some staff salary that we use to run the Visitors Bureau, postage, printing, etc. Also, this includes our membership subscription to the Minnesota Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau. • Other Expenses: $6,408, including $1,602 quarterly payments to both the EDA Trust and the EDA Fund for the City of Cottage Grove; those expenses are a result of starting the Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2019 and 2020. • Total Expenses: $44,582, which leave us a slight deficit of $350. However, as we’re realizing more revenue than what had been projected, we believe that will very much cover our slight deficit for 2021. Marketing Plan: This is something we covered in depth when we first started the Convention and Visitors Bureau in May, 2020. We broke the marketing plan into various segments in May, June, and July. In September, we emailed our marketing plan to the Cottage Grove Athletic Association (CGAA) for review and comment, and we met with the Hockey Association in October, 2020. We resent the marketing plan to the CGAA on October 8. Mission Statement and Strategic Objectives: The vision of the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau is to promote Cottage Grove as a premier destination for leisure travelers, weddings, and outdoor enthusiasts, a recognized and successful host city for meetings and conventions, and a prominent and respected venue for sporting events. Strategic Objectives: • Increase overnight travel and occupied rooms in hotel/motel and other properties. • To be an organization of choice for market stakeholders (i.e., Cottage Grove businesses). • To increase the promotion of Cottage Grove. • To be an economic driver for the community. • To have Cottage Grove recognized for leisure, wedding, corporate trainings, and sporting events . • To take a leadership role in creating regional collaboration of marketing the region. Segmented Marketing Opportunities: • Activities & Adventures • Sporting Events • Local Events & Festivals • Corporate Travel • Wedding and Social Events Recommendation: Approve the 2021 Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Final Budget and Marketing Plan. City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau November 24, 2020 Page 4 of 6 Chairman Dennis stated, as he looks over how far we’ve come in the past six months, it’s really amazing to watch this entire plan come into focus. He liked the fact that we continue to project numbers based off of a more -conservative standpoint relative to what may or may not happen with our COVID economy moving forward; obviously, we’re all hoping things are going to get better and things will open up again. He stated he feels confident that we can make up for the slight deficit of $350 to make sure that our books are balanced. Chairman Dennis stated the meeting was open for any questions and/or comments, but there were none. A motion was made by Director Patel to approve the 2021 Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Final Budget and Marketing Plan. Motion was seconded by Director Levine. Director Wolf called the roll: Director Levine: Aye. Director Patel: Aye. Vice Chair Olsen: Aye. Chairman Dennis: Aye. Director Wolf: Aye. Motion passed (5-to-0 vote). 4.4 Sievers Creative Website Update & Discussion Director Wolf stated at September’s meeting we chose Sievers Creative as the developer of our website for Discover Cottage Grove. Just last week, they submitted a rough draft of the website, so he’ll walk through that draft with everyone today and will also email the draft to the Board later today to afford the opportunity for everyone to look at it in more depth. As mentioned earlier, we don’t have a huge library of photographs to choose from; with the pandemic, we’ve not had many events or social gatherings. We really want to showcase events in Cottage Grove so we’re holding off on those photographs until we have an opportunity to take some more. -The verbiage is More Than You Imagine, and we want our front page to encourage everyone to visit Cottage Grove and think it’s a place that they’d like to come and see. People can select from these categories on that page: Things to Do, Dining, Lodging, Venues, Events (with a calendar), and Contact. -We’d like to change the photographs displayed with every season, but we don’t have a huge library of photographs from which to choose for winter activities; that will be something we’ll be working on with Sievers Creative and potentially other local photographers. We’ve discussed getting them out to the Ice Arena to get some hockey tournament photos, etc. -There is an About Us page and if you scroll down it reads, Cottage Grove, A Great Place To Visit, which is where we’d also like more photographs to draw people into the community. We have Quick Links to other items listed on the front page; we’d also discussed with Sievers Creative adding a link to Explore Minnesota, as a connection for businesses. -Parks and Trails include not only those in Cottage Grove but also those in the region, inc luding the Afton State Park and the Carpenter Nature Center. -The Shopping section is not yet complete, and we’d like to get input from the Board on this. In some larger cities, the Shopping section only includes those that are located within the city; smaller communities tend to do more of a regional approach, including St. Paul and Woodbury, even Mall of America information, as we’re only 25-30 minutes away. -Sports & Fitness includes a Star Trail Snowmobile map, the River Oaks Golf Course, and our o ther regional parks. We’ve included activities in St. Paul, including the St. Paul Saints, the Minnesota Wild, Minnesota United MLS, and skiing at Afton State Park. -Orchards & Gardens include Afton Apple Orchard, Whispering Gardens, et al. Nearby Attractions features everything outside of the community, like Treasure Island Casino, etc. -Dining includes Sit-Down Restaurants, Pizza, Asian Cuisine, Coffee Shops, and Fast Food. One thing that wasn’t included that we need for Sievers Creative to add is The Eagles Bar and Grill at River Oaks Golf Course. They’re still working on updates to this section of the website. Director Wolf asked for comments and first impressions on the website from the Board of Directors, including suggestions for the Shopping section. Chairman Dennis stated it looks like we’ve made some nice progress on this, but he had a couple questions : -Under the Dining tab, he was curious about the term “Asian Cuisine” and noted we try to be all inclusive and yet we’ve not identified any Mexican restaurants but instead are identifying Asian cuisine only. He wondered if that’s the way we should go or maybe we should instead call it Ethnic Cuisine or something similar. -Also, for Shopping, the City Council has spent a lot of time promoting Shop Cottage Grove and Shop Local; he personally felt we should promote only what’s in Cottage Grove since this is d iscovercottagegrove.com; he understands the concept, but he’s not really interested in trying to promote other areas because we’re trying to stop the outflow of money that tends to go north into some other communities. We want to try to increase our market share here as much as we possibly can. Chairman Dennis asked for comments from other Board Members on that. City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau November 24, 2020 Page 5 of 6 Director Patel stated he agreed with Chairman Dennis in that we should probably not have the Asian Cuisine and instead sum up all restaurant types and categorize restaurants accordingly. He felt Chairman Dennis was right, especially with the sensitive times right now, that that’s probably not a good idea. Director Patel also agreed with not promoting Woodbury and other cities over Cottage Grove. Vice Chair Olsen had several comments: -Restaurants: He’d like to see them categorized with terminology relating to the style or approach of the restaurant: fast food, fast casual, casual dining, contemporary casual, cafés, etc. He felt it would be wise to utilize that sort of terminology; once somebody clicks on casual dining, then there’s a menu of specific restaurants in that category. -Shop Cottage Grove: He’s very much against sending people out of town when the intent of the Visitors Bure au is to keep people in Cottage Grove. It’s the same philosophy that we’ve always had in that if I need to go elsewhere for whatever it is that I want to do, chances are I’m going to spend my money on other activities there also. He’d like to encourage Shop Cottage Grove and Shop Local. -Links to Agencies: He might have missed it, but asked if there was a link on the website or if we’ve talked about partnering with other agencies like the Chamber of Commerce; perhaps the link to the Cottage Grove Area Chamber would allow people to plug into that. He’s seen in other communities’ Visitors Bureau websites links to a number of different agencies, including Explore Minnesota. He wasn’t sure if we wanted to do that, but wanted to put it out there. -Photographs: Director Wolf mentioned the need for photographs and not having a very big menu of photographs; he was surprised at that because anytime there’s a community event there are many photographs taken. He didn’t know where those went, but each year we also have the photo contest and those photos are available to the City to use for different marketing venues. He didn’t know who was the gatekeeper of the photos, but he thought we should have a number of really nice photos from the last 12-to-20 years that we could access for the website. With having professional photography done, we certainly want to put our best photographs on the website; perhaps the photos that we have aren’t high definition or aren’t in the right format. Vice Chair Olsen would like to hear what the rest of the Board thinks, especially about links to the Chamber and other organizations of a similar nature. Director Levine stated she agreed with the restaurant categories needing to be changed. All of the restaurants listed in Asian Cuisine are sit-down restaurants so we should just maybe keep them in that category. She also would like to keep the website simple and not have to click four or five times under a cat egory to even find the place that you want. Director Levine stated she agreed with the link to the Cottage Grove Chamber; she knows firsthand that the Greater Stillwater Chamber and Discover Stillwater work hand in hand, and she’d love to see that happen here. Director Levine stated she agreed with Vice Chair Olsen about the photos; she thought the same thing about all the years of the photo contests we’ve had and all the awesome photos that are in the Cottage Grove newsletter; so, those photos must be so mewhere. Chairman Dennis asked Director Wolf if he wished to respond to the comments made. Director Wolf stated we’ll definitely add the link to Explore Minnesota and other agencies within the City of Cottage Grove. Regarding the photos, Director Wolf stated we have a plethora of photos; one issue is there are many photos of children, of nature, and there are some good ones taken by local photographers, Bill Pullman and Nathan Klok, that are used. We just don’t have high-quality images of some of the events or things to do in the community or images that really showcase a wide depth of what we’d like to see. We have some photos, as Vice Chair Olsen mentioned, and we’ve tried to use those as much as we can; we just don’t have enough of the many things to do, like a wide shot of Hazen P. Mooers and people kayaking there, etc. We’re looking for action photos where people are using the great amenities in Cottage Grove to use those in marketing. OTHER BUSINESS 5.1 CGCVB Comments Chairman Dennis stated he had one comment; our next meeting is scheduled on December 22, 2020; as this is in such close proximity to the holidays, he asked Director Wolf if he anticipated that there would be enough agenda items to warrant meeting at that time. Director Wolf responded that the only item for potential discussion would be the Visitors Guide that we’d be working on with Sievers Creative; if preferred, as those discussions take place, we could just email out that information and an overview of what we’re trying to put together to obtain feedback from the Board of Directors. Hopefully, we could have a rough draft ready for our January meeting to review, in addition to some other items. Chairman Dennis asked if the Board was in agreement with that; Vice Chair Olsen agreed, Director Levine agreed and asked if Director Wolf could send out the email invitation for 2021 so it would get on everyone’s calendars. Director Wolf stated that he would send out the calendar invites for 2021 today. City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau November 24, 2020 Page 6 of 6 5.2 Response to Previous CGCVB Comments None. ADJOURNMENT Vice Chair Olsen made a motion to adjourn. Motion was seconded by Director Levine. Director Wolf called the roll: Director Levine: Aye. Director Patel: Aye. Vice Chair Olsen: Aye. Chairman Dennis: Aye. Director Wolf: Aye. The meeting adjourned at 8:15 a.m. (5-to-0 vote). Chairman Dennis wished everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving; even with all of the challenges right now, there are still things to be thankful about. Respectfully submitted, Matt Wolf Secretary - Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau /jag