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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3.1 7-27-2021 CGCVB Minutes COTTAGE GROVE CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU MINUTES CITY HALL - COUNCIL CHAMBERS July 27, 2021 A meeting of the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau was held on the 27th day of July, 2021, 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 Costello called the roll: Members Present: Steve Dennis, Chair - Here Laurie Levine, Director - Here Justin Olsen, Vice Chair - Here Roshan Patel, Director - Here Members Absent: None Staff Present: Christine Costello, Economic Developer Director Julie Prior-Miller, Marketing and Communication Specialist Scott Seroka, Communications Manager Others Present: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 3.1 Approval of Meeting Minutes CGCVB 2021-03-23 Approval of the March 23, 2021, Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Meeting Minutes. Vice Chair Olsen made a motion to accept the March 23, 2021 Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Meeting Minutes. The motion was seconded by Director Levine. The motion passed unanimously (4-to-0). BUSINESS ITEMS 4.1 Visitor Bureau Project Update Director Costello stated this is our first in-person meeting since COVID, so, it’s nice to see everybody here. She gave project updates on the following: Photo Shoot: This was done in May; we were lacking photos with people and activity, so, we took photos at Las Margaritas, Muddy Cow, and the River Oaks Eagles Bar and Grill, so we’d have photos with interaction and food. Eventually, we can use these photos on social media and other marketing materials for the Visitors Bureau. Photos were also taken at the Ice Arena, River Oaks, kayaking photos at Hazel P. Mooer, kids’ camps, as well as new hotel photos. It’s great to now have these photos on board. Trail Stencil: In March, we purchased a stencil for the trails. The trails are all eight-feet wide, and the trail stencil is six- feet wide; we’ll look to spray paint the logo with the website address in high-visibility areas within the City: Woodridge Park, near the Splash Pad, Hamlet Park, Kingston Park, Lamar Park, the bike path, and near the kayak launch, if possible. If there are any other suggestions of places to put the stencil, let us know. We’re going to test application methods of the stencil in a couple weeks at Public Works; we don’t want to ruin any trails until those are tested elsewhere. One-Page Flyer: This was sent to Cottage Grove residents in the newsletter. It provided an introduction to the Visitors Bureau and Eat Local and Shop Local; this was during the COVID pandemic. City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau July 27, 2021 Page 2 of 8 Bantam Flyer: In March, the Ice Arena held a hockey tournament. Former Assistant to the City Administrator, Matt Wolf, put together a flyer inside of the tournament program showing where families could Eat Local, again to promote our restaurants in Cottage Grove. Snowmobile Map: The map is completed. We’ll be distributing that to businesses this fall, including hotels, the gas station at Almar Village, 61 Marine & Sports, etc. We have a lot of maps for people come snowmobile season. HaveFunBiking.com: We are featured in this magazine; it’s an online publication for those who prefer not to receive the booklet. They are here at City Hall and at the Ice Arena as a promotion of our trails here. Director Costello stated she’d take any comments or questions. Chairman Dennis stated looking at the progress made on all of those publications, including the photographs, he felt things looked really nice. Director Costello stated moving forward, we want to get additional photos to show Cottage Grove in fall and winter; we can showcase all seasons here in the community, and we’re looking forward to doing that. Chairman Dennis thanked her for all of the information and asked that everybody keep up the good work. 4.2 Q1 Lodging Tax Revenues & 2022 Draft Budget Discussion Q1 Lodging Tax Revenues Director Costello stated that on May 1, 2020 we started collecting the 3% lodging tax on all facilities that were classified as hotel, motel, and rooming house. The funds are collected quarterly, and they’re used to fund the Convention and Visitors Bureau. The funds are due 30 days after the following dates: April 1, July 1, October 1, January 1. Revenue: 1st Quarter, 2021: A total of $9,468 from all the lodging facilities; the total revenue was $1,590 below revenue projections for the first quarter. 2nd Quarter, 2021: $13,400, so it’s trending in the right direction; the monthly average is $4,467, with a projected revenue of $5,529 per month. Wakota Inn has sent theirs in, so we’re continuing to trend in that upward direction. The Convention and Visitors Bureau started at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, so we had to adjust revenue projections to account for the downturn in the hospitality and lodging industry. Pre-COVID projections had annual lodging tax revenue between $66,000 to $71,000, using a 60%-to-65% occupancy rate. Revenue projections for 2020 were adjusted to a 10%-to-15% occupancy rate for lodging tax revenue of $18,572. The 2020 Final Revenue was $29,758, showing a slow and steady return of occupancy rates over the year. 2021 Revenue Projection: We used a 40%-to-45% occupancy rate, for an estimated lodging tax of $44,232: 2021 1st Quarter was $3,156 per month, lower than projected; 2nd Quarter to date (without Wakota Inn) is $4,467. The Convention and Visitors Bureau doesn’t have, to date, a reliable history on base projections. Until we have two-or- three years post COVID, we won’t truly know what our occupancy rate is; that will reflect on how the budget was proposed. 2022 Draft Budget This has been submitted; it’s serving as a placeholder for the Final Budget for the Board. It must be approved by the City Council in November. For 2022, we’re using a 60% occupancy rate for total revenue of $66,348, which does not include any grants. The CGCVB is still in the middle of carrying out its first full year of activities since we launched the brand and website in 2020. We’ve talked about stickers on park signs, but those get faded and people pick at them; perhaps those should be small metal signs instead, to alleviate fading and disappearing. We’re looking into the cost of those. Expenses: Marketing, Operations, and Other. Director Costello detailed the expenses of each of the categories, as follows: Marketing: Social media and online marketing $18,000 Marketing in future publications $ 7,008 Other Types $ 4,200 Collateral Development & Printing: $ 3,000 Website Hosting/Domain $ 1,260 Marketing at Local Events $ 4,992 Total=$38,460 City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau July 27, 2021 Page 3 of 8 It was noted that when Matt Wolf was here, we’d talked about how extremely expensive printing is; so, we might need to increase that amount for any future printing, especially with the Visitors Guide, just due to the quality of the paper and what we want to include in that. Operations: Day-to-Day Expenses $ 1,280 Membership to MACVB $ 390 MACVB Annual Conference $ 375 Contractual Services to City $ 15,756 Total=$17,801 Director Costello stated she believed it was very important that they become members of the Minnesota Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (MACVB) and also attend their annual conference. She believed Specialist Prior-Miller had made connections with other Visitors Bureaus and was learning the tricks of the trade. Regarding the Contractual Services to the City to operate the Convention and Visitors Bureau; per the ordinance establishing the CGCVB, charges shall be $10,000 per year, or 25% of the total local lodging tax received by the City, whichever is greater. Other: This category is to reimburse the EDA Trust Fund and EDA Fun for start-up costs associated with the CGCVB. For 2022, the total is $5,954; so, two payments of $1,602 ($3,204) to the EDA Trust Fund, and two payments of $1,375 ($2,750) to the EDA Fund. 2022 Summary Total Projected Revenue: $66,348 Total Proposed Expenses: $65,532 Net Income: $ 816 Recommendation: Review the draft 2022 budget and offer suggestions, additions, or changes. Director Costello turned it over to Chairman Dennis for any questions from the Board. Chairman Dennis asked the Directors if they had any thoughts for direction on this. Vice Chair Olsen asked if the budget in front of them included the additional expense for printing; Director Costello stated within that $10,000, yes, we’d just move funds over from that to accommodate the printing. Chairman Dennis thanked Director Costello for her presentation. He said it’s nice to see that we’re looking at the bottom line and still operating in the black, even if it’s only $815. This is a brand-new entity, so he’s thought from the start of this, with the weird COVID situation, that we’d take our time and learn as we go and try to bring whatever good insights we could into it. He felt we were all doing that and contributing; he thanked the Board and all of our staff for their work. 4.3 Amendment to the Rules and Regulations of the CGCVB Director Costello stated in December, 2019, through the City Council, we established the rules and regulations for this Board and the Convention and Visitors Bureau as a whole. We amended that in early 2020 to reflect that our City Finance Department would issue any checks for the Convention and Visitors Bureau Board, but any documents that needed signature would be done by the Board Chair. As we’ve moved on, one thing that makes the Convention and Visitors Bureau Board unique is that two members of the Board must be from the business community, and one member from a major hotel. It’s important to note that not all members of the business and hotel community live here in Cottage Grove and do business elsewhere in the Metro Area and State. Therefore, we’re proposing two changes to the Rules and Regulations set forth: 1) Meeting Frequency: Changing from a monthly meeting to a quarterly meeting. We still are able to set a Special Meeting; so, if the Board wants to meet, if something comes up, we can call a Special Meeting if there’s a quorum to meet. That does not mean that we can’t go back to meeting monthly. At this point, we thought perhaps quarterly meetings would be appropriate. That way, the meetings will be meaningful and there will be a large agenda for the Board Members. 2) Meeting Absences: It currently states just three absences and you’d basically be removed from the Board. That seemed kind of tight; in speaking with legal counsel, it’s more common to do three or more unexcused absences. So, we’d just ask that any Board Member contact staff if they’re unavailable to attend; that way, it could be an excused absence, and that Board Member could continue on the Board if they’d like. City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau July 27, 2021 Page 4 of 8 Director Costello stated the Recommendation was before the Board. Chairman Dennis stated when we’d discussed this, there were two things: 1) We wanted to be very respectful of everyone’s time. We know people are busy, and we also very much appreciate our volunteers as they come in to help with this. 2) We wanted to again take things as we go; knowing how hard it is in this time period to get volunteers, to be as flexible as we can in terms of peoples’ schedules. He asked if the Board had any thoughts or concerns on these proposed changes, but there were none expressed. Vice President Olsen made a motion to approve the changes, as recommended. The motion was seconded by Director Patel. The motion passed unanimously (4-to-0). 4.4 Social Media Marketing Plan Chairman Dennis stated Julie Prior-Miller is our new Marketing and Communication Specialist; she’s just joined the City within the last three weeks or so. He asked her to introduce herself to the Board, which she did. Specialist Prior-Miller stated she’s worked for the City for less than 30 days, but she’s very excited to be here to help out; she’d previously worked with Assistant Wolf and now will be working with Director Costello. There are many exciting things in store, and she appreciated being here this morning. Specialist Prior-Miller spoke about the Social Media Marketing Plan. She gave its background, noting the CGCVB currently only has a Facebook account; by adding additional social media accounts, it’s a very cost-effective way to promote the CGCVB and increase the destination and brand awareness to Discover Cottage Grove. We’d also like to set up a blog to help promote various businesses and things within Cottage Grove. She researched other Visitors Bureaus, and they have just really simple blog posts; outside things you can do on a Saturday with your family, or five things you can do with your dog here in the City. Those are things that catch people’s attention; it’s quick, easy, and it reels them in. It brings them in and drives them to the website where they can see all the other things that we have to offer. Specialist Prior-Miller stated for social media, she’d like to add Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube. • Instagram: Has a very large platform, similar to Facebook, where we can really entice people with photos and communicate with them on there. • Twitter: A place where people flock to in real time to talk to each other and see what’s going on; she envisions this like the Strawberry Festival, during Halloween, etc. It’s just more connective and engaging. • Pinterest: A platform where she’s been following Explore Minnesota, and they have a lot of boards on their account of other cities; she’d really like to get on their page to be able to promote Cottage Grove so when people are looking at Minnesota, in general, they can see the things that we have to offer. That platform is something that takes a little bit of work at the setup, but once it’s there, it just lives there; people can find it when they’re on that platform. • LinkedIn: She envisions using to promote more of our meeting spaces and hotels for more business-minded people who are in the area. • YouTube: She’d like to set up a page simply to house some of the videos and ground footage that we receive from the Sievers Creative photo shoot, as that’s the best place for that to be viewed. She stated the Recommendation is before the Board, and she’d be happy to take any questions or comments. Chairman Dennis asked if there was any feedback on this. Vice Chair Olsen welcomed her and stated it was great to have her on the team. He appreciated all of her hard work in the short time with us; she’d provided a lot of good information. His question was if she’d had an opportunity to benchmark some of the social media accounts that the City currently has to determine their reach, their effectiveness, the way in which other members of the community and the public at large engage with those. He knew that several Departments in the City have their own social media presence; the City itself has a social media presence in a few different areas. He was curious if she’d had a chance to dig into some of that and determine what may or may not be working well for us. Specialist Prior-Miller replied that’s a great question. She didn’t have any formal numbers with her now, but she’d been looking behind the scenes in the City’s accounts; the City of Cottage Grove, Parks and Rec, Fire, and Police. One thing that she’s specifically noticed within Cottage Grove is the engagement on those pages is really exceptional. Having been an administrator for other accounts in the past, she’d say the Cottage Grove community is very active in their social media use. She and Communications Manager Scott Seroka had spoken about how we could reach more people, but City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau July 27, 2021 Page 5 of 8 they looked at how many households we have, and it’s almost the same number of people that we have on our pages. So, she’s hoping that Discover Cottage Grove could gain some of those numbers, but also look to influence people outside of Cottage Grove to come in; it’s a little bit different audience of what we’d be looking for, aiming for, but hopefully the residents of Cottage Grove kind of pump up the page as well, just like they do with all of the City accounts. Vice Chair Olsen stated he appreciated her comments; it’s true that we have a very large population of engaged citizens in Cottage Grove. On the various Facebook accounts, there’s definitely a lot of chatter about what’s going on in the City, what might be coming and if they do or do not like it. His particular interest is with respect to Twitter. The City of Cottage Grove has a Twitter account, but it doesn’t get used, it’s just there. His sense is there’s a reason for that; maybe we don’t feel it’s as effective as we’d like it to be. If we don’t think it’s working well for us, is that something that we want to do? While it’s free to get a Twitter account, its still work; somebody has to monitor it. He doesn’t want somebody to be overwhelmed trying to put things in all of these different places when we might not be getting the return on the investment. His only piece of advice would be as much as he likes all of this and thinks we should move forward with it, we need to be diligent about monitoring the response rates, the effectiveness, and the engagement. If it’s not really giving us any benefit, we might want to take one, two, or three different platforms off of the list at some point. Specialist Prior-Miller stated she completely agreed with Vice Chair Olsen; she was undecided if we should have all of these to really promote and connect, but she has these in phases of how to roll them out. Her idea with Twitter was to link our accounts with Facebook and Instagram; so, when she’s pushing out a message, it would go to all of the platforms so we could still be active as much on any channel and not miss anyone. She respects his point about taking on too much; she would be completely open to pushing Twitter to even Phase 2 of our Social Media Marketing Plan, and then rolling it out afterward if we want to take our time with it. Vice Chair Olsen replied that he’s a Twitter person, he likes it, and appreciated that she put it on the list. To the point of sort of pushing messages out in several different formats, we see that all over the place; we see it with the DNR, we see it with the State Patrol, and with the State Fire Marshal’s Office. He follows all of those accounts on Twitter, and they generally have the same message on Instagram, Facebook, etc. It’s just a question of what is the preferred social media platform and where are you going to find the message; many people don’t use Facebook, but they might find it on Twitter. There are people who don’t use Facebook or Twitter, but they might find it on Instagram. He completely agreed with her. His point was let’s make sure that in the future, if one or more of these don’t work well, that we don’t continue to make work for somebody if that work isn’t being beneficial. Vice President Olsen made a motion to approve the Recommendation. The motion was seconded by Director Levine. The motion passed unanimously (4-to-0). 4.5 Visitor Guide Ideas Specialist Prior-Miller reviewed the background on the Visitors Guide; the rough layout of the Visitors Guide was created by Siever’s Creative and the Board reviewed that at their last meeting, on March 26, 2021. Discussion indicated that the Board would like to see something different on the cover and maybe some more action shots. As part of the interview process for this new Marketing and Communication Specialist position, candidates were asked to create sample advertisements and a plan of action for developing the Visitors Guide. She walked the Board through some of the images that she had created for her interview, just a mockup for interviewing purposes. Before she created these images and layouts, she looked at a lot of other CVBs and what they had done; she found most of them did more of a magazine look with their guide as a booklet, 8.5 x 11” size. She took the CGCVB goals that had already been developed for marketing, and she tried to weave those into a plan for the Visitors Guide. She walked the Board through a few different slides of ads she’d created; the ads were wedding based, to create new business and bring weddings into Cottage Grove since there are so many great venues here. • Hope Glen Farm: She showcased some awards that Hope Glen Farm had won, and added quotes from real people who said they had an amazing time. With the images, she tried to create a visual story for brides; it’s not just the “I do,” it’s getting dressed, being with your bridesmaids, having dinner with your family and friends, staying at this really beautiful place. You could have your whole day here, and your wedding will be beautiful and amazing. • River Oaks Golf Course: Showed the wedding capabilities there. She included a scenic shot of the couple outside. She included ads for Belissimo, Rustic Floral, and Hy-Vee Catering; she wanted to let those viewing it know that they can get all of their wedding services taken care of in Cottage Grove. Their hair, nails, eyelashes, tanning, a spa day; we also offer flower and catering venues. They can spend their wedding money here, have their wedding here, and not have to worry about going to all of those different places to pick up everything they need. Everything they need is right here. • Cedarhurst: Shows an outdoor wedding, with a little peek inside to give that same sort of experience and look; their day is going to be beautiful. City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau July 27, 2021 Page 6 of 8 • The Furber Farm: They’ve won some awards as being a great wedding venue, which is a significant achievement we want to promote. She’s luring people in with a story that they can have everything here; it will be wonderful and beautiful for their event. Specialist Prior-Miller asked the Board to look at these, and tell her if they liked them, if they liked the photos, or if they wanted to do more of the vector images that Siever’s Creative had on the front of their cover. She didn’t do a cover shot; the pages she displayed would be inside, but focused on the marketing plan that we want to promote wedding venues. Specialist Prior-Miller stated regarding the ads, she’d requested Convention and Visitors Bureau materials from other CVBs around the state; from the 11 she has received, 9 of the 11 contain ads, just like the ones in her presentation. Of those, all of the ads are from local sources in that City, in addition to sources outside of their defined area. She’d propose that we include ads in our Visitors Guide to help offset the cost of production. Director Costello mentioned $3,000 for printing, but she’d first like to visit Cottage Grove businesses and say, “We’d love to see you in our Visitors Guide, let’s get an ad in place for you,” and then discuss price with them. We’d love to showcase them and their business in this guide as that, in turn, will help us offset the cost of producing the Visitors Guide. It is a nicer-looking publication and it could have a longer shelf life if we could offset some of those costs. She would give Cottage Grove businesses a timeframe for them to commit; if we had any ad space available after that, she’d maybe seek commitments from Afton Alps or Whistling Well Farm, places like that, which are also on our webpage. Specialist Prior-Miller stated there are some questions she has for the Board: • How would you like to promote the Visitors Guide; is it an annual publication? How often do we update it; every six months, one year, or two years? One of the samples she received had a 2021 Events Calendar; so, they perhaps just switch out that calendar every year. Several of them were branded as 2020-2021; so, a one-year Visitors Guide. • Would you like to have ads inside of it to help us offset the production costs? • Are there questions or comments on the sample layouts provided? Do you want to see something completely different, or do you like this direction? Specialist Prior-Miller stated these are questions to get us thinking, as we get closer to December and January. There’s a Recommendation before you, and she’d take any questions or comments. Chairman Dennis thanked her; she provided a lot of information and gave us a lot of things to think about. His thoughts: He liked her layouts; they were done in a very classy way. He liked the formatting. He’d previously spoken with Matt Wolf about the setup of this: Include introductory information about the community; include different types of maps; and map out, by the four seasons, highlights of things to do or that happen in Cottage Grove. Obviously, we can offset its cost by selling ads to businesses here who want to get in on the promotion; he felt that was substantial and something we should do. He’d advocate for a once-a-year publication, and we can also seek feedback from various sources to see what they think of it; based upon feedback, we could change that as we go forward to make it better and better. Overall, he felt we’ve got a really good start with it. Determining locations to hand these out within the community will be key, too. He felt it was just a really great start. Director Levine stated all in all, it’s beautiful, and she loved it; she loves the pages, the storybook line feel of it. She agreed a yearly publication would be nice; if we need to do every other year just to kick it off because of the expense until more monies come in, she’d be okay with that, too. She agreed with the ad sales; in fact, as far as the Chamber of Commerce, we do a CONNECT magazine; that’s once a year. We are rolling that out shortly; we’ll go to print and deliver in January. She has all of their ads, the pricing and sizes, so if that’s helpful, she’d be happy to share that. She asked if this was going to be a mailed piece, or if it would simply be something that’s all over town. Specialist Prior-Miller replied she’d like to ask some other people, but her initial thoughts were that it wouldn’t be mailed to residents because they live here and are spending their dollars here, but we’d hopefully have it in places like different malls, the airport, and we’d give it to realtors. She’d love to get it in different areas where brides, snowmobilers, bikers, and people like that would see it; some areas from which we’re hoping to attract people. Vice Chair Olsen stated this was excellent. He stated it captured, both visually and artistically, what we’re trying to accomplish with respect to this body. The content is good, the photographs are great; they’re very compelling. He agrees annually is important because of the Calendar of Events; we really need to ensure that our end users are aware of some of these events. A perfect example is this last weekend we had a huge softball tournament in Cottage Grove. It’s his belief that several of the restaurants in town and other service-oriented people here might not have been aware that that event was going to be here. So, restaurants were packed, including drive-thru lanes, and all of the dinner places over the course of the weekend; the hotel was very busy place with lots of softball players swimming in the pool. If they’d been City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau July 27, 2021 Page 7 of 8 fully aware that that was coming, they probably would have scheduled differently or changed the way that they delivered their services. Not only does this serve as just a terrific marketing tool, it’s also a good planning tool for local business. There’s going to be a softball tournament in town; what kind of specials do we want to run? How do we want to format our own marketing to tie into what might be taking place in the community? Having that annual calendar he thought was a really critical piece. He thanked Specialist Prior-Miller for her work on that. Director Patel stated this was excellent and very beautiful. Other cities do their marketing annually, too; so that increases revenue for the restaurants who want to put in their ads. This is a great start; he agreed the ads would be a good revenue stream for us to help out with our costs. He 100% agrees with the previous statements about being able to see the Events Calendar because sometimes the hotel industry has tunnel vision, focusing on weddings, and then they see that there’s a big event coming. Oops! So, it’s nice to have that information, too. Chairman Dennis stated Specialist Prior-Miller had asked for some guidance with the cover. We’d touched on that at a past meeting. If we want to give a formal recommendation, what Siever’s had created was a nice concept, but it really wasn’t the direction that we wanted to go as a team. He remembered that both Director Levine and Vice Chair Olsen had mentioned having some great photography, some action shots, showing people having a great time in Cottage Grove. If that’s acceptable, noted they were giving thumbs up, we’d like to include that as well. Chairman Dennis stated we’ve reviewed the Recommendation and we’ve provided some feedback; he asked Specialist Prior-Miller if there was anything more that she would need from them at this time. Specialist Prior-Miller replied that she’s hearing it should be an annual guide, acceptance of ads in the process, and some photography for the cover, something very compelling and exciting so that people will want to open it, too. She felt that would be a really great direction to go. Chairman Dennis stated we’ll be looking forward to seeing some mockups as she starts to do the layout; we’ll all work together as a team in order to make that happen. Vice Chair Olsen stated as she’s thinking through the photographs she might want to use, we’d previously talked about those in-action photographs, people actually engaged in activities, doing something. He also asked that we remain very cognizant of the diversity of our community. We have a very diverse community so we want to represent the entire community in these photographs. Specialist Prior-Miller replied she thought that was an excellent point; she will do her best to make sure things are diverse in terms of race, gender, and ability, as that’s really important. OTHER BUSINESS 5.1 CGCVB Comments Director Levine stated regarding the Visitors Guide, maybe we should explore mailing it; she understands that we think that everybody in our community knows what we have in our community, but she’s found that that’s not true. There’s an expense to it, as it’s something that the Chamber does, so she clearly understands that. They’ve mailed their guide for two years, and she can’t tell you how much people reach out afterward. They’re saying, “I didn’t even know that this was here.” So, something like this, it’s a great, beautiful piece, and to get that out into every home and business she thought would be important if that’s something we could do this year. Director Costello stated she and Specialist Prior-Miller would explore the cost of that once the guide is developed, its weight and size, and what that would cost to mail; they’ll bring that forward to the Board. Vice Chair Olsen stated he agreed with Director Levine about mailing the guide to all of our homes. As he mentioned earlier, our community is quite diverse; also, because of our development, we have many new residents. Especially as it relates to our parks and green space in the community, there are many people who have no idea how many parks we have and how many trail systems. The other thing that might happen with the mailing of this is when you’re thinking advertising, you’re thinking reach; so, if I’m a business that wants to advertise in the Visitors Guide, and you can tell me that this is going to be distributed to 13,000 homes, in addition to X, Y, and Z, that might give me another incentive to place an ad. Director Patel stated he really like the direction in which we’re going; it’s excellent. It’s nice to see it working from the ground up and seeing other communities doing what we’re kind of striving for. He’s excited to see where this goes. Chairman Dennis stated when we talked earlier about the different types of social media, one that was mentioned was YouTube. He knows that the City has done a good job of creating our own YouTube channel, where we have some videos and other pieces of information. Something that might be good to do is to work with Communications Manager City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau July 27, 2021 Page 8 of 8 Seroka and our friends at SWCTC to see if we can get a short video put together. We could talk about what we do here and introduce ourselves to the community; that way they could understand what it is that we’re working to accomplish and the value that we hope to bring to the City of Cottage Grove. He stated since this is our very first live meeting in front of the cameras, he asked each of his colleagues to introduce themselves to the community, what we do, and what we bring to the panel. Director Laurie Levine stated she’s the Executive Director with the Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce, and she’s been with the Chamber of Commerce just about 1.5 years. She’s also excited to be part of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. She’s lived in the community for over 30 years and she loves it; she loves the business community and the community itself. Vice Chair Justin Olsen stated he’s a member of the City Council and is also involved with several volunteer organizations in the community, including the Cottage Grove Lions, our Beyond the Yellow Ribbon group for Cottage Grove and the surrounding area. In his private life, he’s a retail district manager; he’s been a multiunit supervisor in retail for almost 30 years now. He’s also lived in the community for his entire life and really appreciates the opportunity to serve our residents, whether in this capacity, on the City Council, or in his capacity as a volunteer. He really enjoys the fact that Cottage Grove is working towards this ultimate goal of really marketing the community to all of the wonderful people in the metro, who may not know what a hidden gem they’ve got just minutes from their home. He thanked them for allowing him the opportunity to be part of this. Director Roshan Patel thanked everyone for having him on this Board, too, noting he’s the youngest member. He acquired the Country Inn & Suites 3.5 years ago, and it is a hidden gem. This is a great community. He’s very shocked every time he learns something; it’s like, oh, this place is amazing. He thanked them for having him and hopefully we can be here for a long time. Chairman Dennis told him we’re also very happy to have him here as a local business investor; he thanked him for that. Chairman Steve Dennis stated he’s lived in this community for over 33 years; he’s a local business owner and a huge fan and supporter of everything that is Cottage Grove. He serves our community in a number of ways; he’s on the City Council with Council Member Olsen, he serves as Mayor Pro Tem, and is Vice President of the Economic Development Authority. He’s also very involved with Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, the directors for the Chamber, and is very happy with what we’re working on here. He thought this was a great process, something that’s very positive, and it will help to pay major dividends for our area as we go through time; he’s looking forward to all the goodness that comes along with that. Chairman Dennis stated he wanted to formally recognize Mr. Matt Wolf, who had been with us from the inception of our Convention and Visitors Bureau. He was instrumental in helping to get this balloon off the ground, and it takes a lot of hot air to get it to rise; so, there was a tremendous amount of work that was put in behind the scenes. He has moved on from the City and is now the City Administrator for Prescott, Wisconsin; so that’s a big thing for him and for us. 5.2 Response to Previous CGCVB Comments None. ADJOURNMENT Vice President Olsen made a motion to adjourn. Motion was seconded by Director Patel. Motion passed unanimously (4-to-0 vote). The meeting adjourned at 8:22 a.m. Respectfully submitted, _____________________ Christine Costello, Director of Economic Development /jag