HomeMy WebLinkAbout4.1a 8-23-2022 CGCVB Minutes
COTTAGE GROVE
CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU
MINUTES
CITY HALL - COUNCIL CHAMBERS
August 23, 2022
A meeting of the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau was held on the 23rd day of August, 2022, at 7:30 a.m.
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 a.m. by Chair Steve Dennis.
ROLL CALL
Assistant Mann called the roll:
Members Present: Steve Dennis, Chair - Here
Justin Olsen, Vice Chair - Here
Steve Hanson, Director - Here
Gretchen Larson, Director - Here
Laurie Levine, Director - Here
Druscilla Nute, Director - Here
Members Absent: Renee Bade, Director
Staff Present: Jennifer Levitt, City Administrator
Jaime Mann, Assistant to the City Administrator
Julie Prior-Miller, Marketing and Communication Specialist
Others Present: None.
3.1 ADOPTION OF AGENDA
There was no motion made to approve Adoption of the Agenda.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
4.1 Approval of Meeting Minutes CGCVB 2-22-2022
Approval of the May 17, 2022, Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Meeting Minutes.
Director Levine made a motion to approve the meeting minutes from May 17, 2022. The motion was seconded by
Vice Chair Olsen. The motion passed unanimously (6-0).
BUSINESS ITEMS
5.1 Convention and Visitors Bureau Events Recap
Julie Prior-Miller, Marketing and Communications Specialist, stated a large part of her role is supporting the CVB, so she
spoke of a few of the larger events so far this year in which Discover Cottage Grove took a part:
1. The Community Showcase, an event the Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce ran. Discover Cottage Grove
was there and partnered with City of Cottage Grove Economic Development to basically let residents know that
we have a Convention and Visitors Bureau and what our purpose is; of course, residents and community
members asked what’s going on in the City and what’s upcoming.
2. Cottage Grove Community Night at the St. Paul Saints game in June, a week prior to the Strawberry Fest. We
were there to help promote the Cottage Grove Strawberry Fest and just got brand awareness out to the larger
community in St. Paul about who we were, what we were doing in Cottage Grove, and invited them to come visit
us the next week at the Strawberry Fest and check out Cottage Grove and our various amenities. The
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August 23, 2022
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Strawberry Fest ambassadors were there talking to people and promoting the Strawberry Fest; they were also
selling buttons, which were good for some items at the Fest, but Discover Cottage Grove also sponsored a
medallion hunt that had to do with those buttons. If you had a button, you one a prize; so it was really exciting to
help them out and partner in that way. Specialist Prior-Miller recapped the very large reach that the St. Paul
Saints have with their social media; they also have a map that shows where they sell most of their tickets, which
is the majority of the Twin Cities, which is really who we want to reach. We’ve already established 45-to-60
miles out is our target audience for getting those visitors into Cottage Grove. The expense to the Convention
and Visitors Bureau for us to be able to have that tent space on the main concourse was $900; for that, we
received just over 60 tickets for us to be able to attend and also hand out to the community to have them join
us. The St. Paul Saints are ranked fifth in Minor League Baseball for their average attendance, so they do
really well, which in turn did really well for us with the number of people attending their games.
3. Strawberry Fest: She displayed a small sampling of photos, and by all measures, it was a record success; there
was wonderful attendance all four days and nice, sunny weather. Discover Cottage Grove spent a total of
$2,392 for promotion of the Strawberry Fest, which does not include staff time; that included an online campaign
for marketing the Strawberry Fest, an ad in Minnesota Monthly magazine, and the tent on the concourse at the
St. Paul Saints game. Because the Convention and Visitors Bureau is under the umbrella of the City of Cottage
Grove, which is a unique relationship, we’re also able to promote things in the City channels: The home page on
the City website, City social media, and in the Cottage Grove Reports, which reaches over 14,000 homes in
Cottage Grove. From the Discover Cottage Grove side, it was on our website, our events calendar, our social
media channels, and we also sent out multiple constant contact email blasts to our subscribers. Staff of
Discover Cottage Grove attended all weekend to take photos and promote on the social media channels. We
sponsored the medallion hunt, a new venture, but thought it aligned nicely with our goals and strategic
objectives to get people to come and enjoy our community and discover new things about it. We scouted
locations, wrote clues, and posted those clues on social media. We thought it was a success; the medallion
wasn’t found until day four of the hunt, so were happy it wasn’t found on the first day. We received a lot of
positive feedback from the community and through our messages on social media channels that people were
just having fun, being out with their family and talking to their neighbors. We also gained a number of new
followers on our social media channels who will see our content in the future. She recapped the Strawberry Fest
Meeting: 2022 was a record year with approximately $70,000 in profit. The beer garden sold over 1,400
hamburgers, button sales were $7,000, and at the Market Place, in which Discover Cottage Grove participated,
there were 91 vendors, also a new record. We believe that much of our promotion of the Strawberry Fest
contributed to the great attendance.
Chair Dennis stated it’s always nice to look back and see different things in which we were involved this year, a lot of fun
activities. If promoting the City is what we’re about, he thought we were doing a very good job of it. He offered two points
of feedback: 1) He thought the $900 that we paid to go to the St. Paul Saints game and get out in front of that many
people was a qualified value for us; so, that’s something we might want to continue doing. 2) It comes as no surprise to
him that we had such a great turnout for Strawberry Fest. It wasn’t just the promotion that the City did, but it was also the
Strawberry Fest panel volunteers, the nice weather, and the fact that we hadn’t had one for a couple of years. People
were just interested in getting out and living again. All in all, he likes what he’s seeing.
Vice Chair Olsen thanked Specialist Prior-Miller for the nice recap. He stated one of the very nice things about this Saints
game promotion is the Saints opened up a ticket portal essentially for Cottage Grove residents to be able to order tickets
to go to the game; the Saints donated a portion of those proceeds back to the community through the Cottage Grove
Lions Club, which amounted to $226. If we think about the investment that the Discover Cottage Grove team put forth, we
got over $200 back in donations to the Lions Club, which goes directly back to the community. He encouraged that we
continue to look at this as an ongoing opportunity because it really worked out well. Having attended the game, he saw
hundreds of people from Cottage Grove there, including many of the Lions Club members; they thought it was just a really
nice event and a really fun day. The Saints do it right, it’s a fun place to go.
Regarding the Strawberry Fest, it was a record year by any measure. The Cottage Grove Lions Club had a record year
for sales; the beer was over by the St. Paul-Newport Lions, and the Cottage Grove Lions tent was where we made/served
hamburgers, etc. and also sold various beverages. It wasn’t just a little bit better than past years; it was appreciably
better. He commended everyone who played a part in terms of promoting Strawberry Fest, whether at the Saints game or
through digital media, because it clearly worked. There hadn’t been a Strawberry Fest for a while, so people wanted to
get out and the weather was perfect, which certainly helped. We had many parade entries, the route was crazy, and he
personally spent about $600 on candy and ran out; that’s never happened before so that was unbelievable to him. It just
showed there were a lot of people who wanted to celebrate Cottage Grove. He thought a good portion of that was due to
the hard work of the Discover Cottage Grove team.
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Director Levine echoed the comments about the success of the Saints game and the Strawberry Fest; she thought they
were both awesome and she thinks they’ll grow if we choose to continue to do that. The Chamber had a booth at the
Strawberry Fest for the first time, and it was wildly successful, so that was great. On the Chamber website, we also
advertised the Saints game, the Strawberry Fest, as well as the digital Visitors Guide for Discover Cottage Grove. She
stated the Visitors Guide will remain there until there’s a new revision.
5.2 Update on 2022 Visitors Guide and Business Newsletter
Visitors Guide
Specialist Prior-Miller stated the data that she’s able to show was because our online digital platform hosts the online
version of our Visitors Guide; so, they track user data, which enables us to see this information. The software that we
purchased to host this was the direct result of obtaining an Explore Minnesota grant last year, which was great. You’ll see
from these images that 73% of our online users who are looking at the Visitors Guide are using their mobile phone to do
so. This information is really helpful to us as we continue to put our Guide out; it shows how people are looking at it in
terms of our layout and how we display our pages.
In January, when our Visitors Guide went online, there was a huge spike in traffic, everyone was looking at it, which
was very exciting. Over the next few months, we had a social media ad campaign going promoting the Visitors Guide, so
those numbers were still quite high, doing really well. There was a little drop off when we took one of our ads offline, and
that made an impact on our online views. She attributed the success towards the end of the chart she displayed to
Strawberry Fest traffic and people coming to Cottage Grove, visiting us, and being interested about what we have; she
thought that really made an impact. We can gather very interesting information from this platform. She noted that not just
people from Minnesota or the U.S. are looking at this and displayed a world map that indicated people from many
countries had seen our Visitors Guide and had looked through it, which she thought that was pretty neat.
In addition, we’re now able to track impressions on our website. Overall, this Visitors Guide has had about 28,000
impressions. In the Strawberry Fest two-page spread, specifically, they had over 63,000 impressions, in part due to our
online ad that we ran to promote the Strawberry Fest. She’s been very impressed that with the online version, we’d
embedded a few videos, and were able to track the highest-visited things in the Visitors Guide were the videos. Next, our
local venues, Boondocks and Hope Glen Farms, had the most traffic. It’s good to know what people are looking at first,
second, and third. She’s been very impressed with the digital Visitors Guide; the cover and the first few pages always
have the highest number of viewers. Usually, that trails off significantly, but throughout the entire 36 pages we’ve
remained steady in the number of impressions. That tells her that people are reading through the entire Guide, not just
looking at the first five pages.
Physical Distribution of the Visitors Guide: So far over 5,000 copies have been distributed throughout Minnesota at the
Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, approximately 900; Mall of America, approximately 800; Explore Minnesota
Welcome Centers, approximately 2,000; Special Events (Saints game, Strawberry Fest, Strawberry Fest Ambassadors’
events, Parades, etc.); Special Requests, such as Marathon Oil and online requests; Local businesses, hotels, and
advertiser locations.
Business Newsletter
Specialist Prior-Miller noted that we launched the business newsletter in January 2022. We have a partnership with our
City facilities and Parks and Recreation; as they permit all of the large events that take place in the City and on our fields,
they let us know about them. She displayed a newsletter that was sent out earlier this year, which highlighted the
Strawberry Fest. The language in the newsletter is really meant to give local businesses advance notice when there are
going to be a lot of people in the City; our hope is that they will staff and stock appropriately. So far, there are 76
businesses on the newsletter list. To date, no one has unsubscribed, so we continue to add to that number. She stated
that our average open rate for the last eight months is 52%, which is much higher than the industry average of 16%; most
people on the newsletter list are looking at it to see upcoming events.
5.3 Events Plan for 2023
Specialist Prior-Miller displayed photos taken at the Saints game and the Strawberry Fest. Both events were very large
and took a lot of coordinating and effort. If we decide to go to another Saints game in 2023, it would be sometime near
the week of June 5-11; the Saints do not have the 2023 schedule out yet, so we don’t yet know which games are home or
away. Next year’s Strawberry Fest is June 15-18.
Recommendation: By motion: 1) Approve a partnership with the Saints to secure a date for Cottage Grove
Community Night 2023. 2) Approve staff to begin working with the Strawberry Fest Committee to secure a
Discover Cottage Grove booth in the 2023 Strawberry Fields Marketplace and agreements made for the
distribution of swag materials by the Strawberry Fest ambassadors.
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Vice Chair Olsen made a motion to approve a partnership with the Saints to secure a date for Cottage Grove
Community Night 2023. The motion was seconded by Director Larson. The motion passed unanimously (6-to-0
vote).
Director Levine made a motion to approve staff to begin working with the Strawberry Fest Committee to secure a
Discover Cottage Grove booth in the 2023 Strawberry Fields Marketplace and agreements made for the
distribution for swag materials by the Strawberry Fest ambassadors. The motion was seconded by Vice Chair
Olsen. Motion passed unanimously (6-to-0 vote).
5.4 2022 Q2 Lodging Tax Collection and 2023 Preliminary Budget Approval
2022 Q2 Lodging Tax Collection
Assistant Mann reviewed the 2022 Q2 Lodging Tax Collections, which totaled $19,608, this was 18.2% over our budgeted
amount of $16,587. However, year to date we are just about flat, which means we budgeted correctly; year to date, we’re
down about $276, or .08%. At this point, it looks like we are on track to hit our budgeted amount for 2022.
2023 Preliminary Budget Approval
2023 Revenue: We anticipate using the same 60% occupancy rate for our 2023 revenue projections, which would put our
Lodging Tax revenue at approximately $66,000. We are projecting Visitor Guide ad sales to remain stable; so, our total
projected revenue for 2023 is $72,640.
2023 Expenses: Expenses for the Convention and Visitors Bureau are broken down into three categories: Marketing
Expenses, Operating Expenses, and Other Expenses:
Marketing Expenses: Include social media, marketing and local events, website hosting, etc. We’re projecting about
$45,874.37 for our 2023 Budget.
Operating Expenses: Include postage, office supplies, etc. The payback to the City of Cottage Grove for administrative
services is the largest expense. We’re projecting approximately $22,295.63 for our 2023 Budget.
Other Expenses: Consists of one item, payback to the City of Cottage Grove for the startup costs; we have two payments
left before that’s completely paid back, so we’ll make those payments in Q1 and Q2 of 2023, which total $2,750.
Summary: Total Revenue Projection: $ 72,640
Total Expense Projection: ($70,920)
Profit Projection: $ 1,720
The profit projection is based on revenues staying on track, but based on this year, it seems we’re projecting accurately
for 2023.
Recommendation: By motion: Approve the 2023 Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau preliminary
budget.
Vice Chair Olsen made a motion to approve the 2023 Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau preliminary
budget. The motion was seconded by Director Hanson. Motion passed unanimously (6-to-0 vote).
OTHER BUSINESS
6.1 CGCVB Comments
Vice Chair Olsen stated it’s very exciting to finally see events taking place. When we first started, we were guessing at
what would and wouldn’t work, and tried to be very strategic in our thinking. It appears that more often than not we’ve
been successful. With the events update and the budget update today, it’s nice to see that so many of the things that we
thought might work actually bore some fruit for us. He thanked board members and staff for their advice, counsel, and
time and energy for attending these events; this certainly didn’t happen without people willing to show up, hand out our
marketing materials, and talk to potential visitors, etc.
He asked his colleagues to think about his suggestion and whether it’s wise, at least for this year: Our River Oaks Golf
Course/The Eagles Bar & Grill is a wonderful facility. They are constantly hosting events there, including 50-100 golf
tournaments; each of those has an opportunity for hole sponsorship or other ways to get our name out there. Those
events have a captive audience, and on September 24 there’s a Public Safety golf tournament at River Oaks. He
wondered if maybe we should sponsor a hole at that tournament so we could talk to the golfers about what’s going on. It
will certainly draw a number of people to River Oaks, as last year they had approximately 400 golfers; this year will
hopefully be just as big, if not bigger. A hole sponsorship is about $250, but there’s also the return in terms of just getting
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our name out there and talking to people as they participate in the tournament; there’s also a silent auction, a dinner, etc.
so that sponsorship might be something that would serve us well. He just posed that as an option for us to discuss.
Because it’s just a month away, we’d want to make our decision today; if we don’t want to do that this year but want to
consider it for next year, that’s also fine. He just wanted to bring up that opportunity.
Chair Dennis stated if this group wants to do that, we’d need to have a motion and a second on that to make it happen.
We also want to discuss our current budget situation and if we have the funds to cover that.
Vice Chair Olsen made a motion that the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau/Discover Cottage Grove
spend $250 to sponsor a hole at this year’s Cottage Grove Public Safety Golf Tournament at the River Oaks Golf
Course on September 24. Director Levine seconded the motion.
Chair Dennis asked Assistant Mann if we had the budget to cover that expense. Assistant Mann replied that she would
have to review the budget on her computer before she could answer that question. Chair Dennis stated that the cost is
$250; as he’s not personally donated anything yet to that particular cause, if we don’t have the $250 for it, he would cover
that cost and would be fine doing that. It still requires a need to get members of this Board to that event, dedicate the time
and energy for that, and no doubt some staff time as well. He sought feedback from other members.
Director Nute stated it sounds interesting to her; she thought we should reach out to the community to let them know
what’s going on in Cottage Grove and get people excited about it, so she thought we should take that chance.
Director Levine stated she agreed with Director Nute. She’s been thinking about that golf tournament herself, with the
Chamber. She just didn’t know about staffing for that weekend, but thought it was a good opportunity.
Director Hanson thought it was a great opportunity, he’s on board, and would donate his time for that. We obviously
want to get good numbers back to determine if it was or wasn’t a good idea; going forward next year, we can know wether
or not it’s something we want to continue.
Director Larson concurred with what everyone has said and stated she’s certainly available with her time.
Chair Dennis stated he normally wouldn’t ask City Administrator Jennifer Levitt to weigh in on this, but as she’s here and
is the leader of our City, he asked for her thoughts on this regarding any impacts it might have on our staff.
Administrator Levitt stated her only concern would be the staffing capability on that specific day since we haven’t
blocked that off on the schedule. For her, it would be the need to confirm if staff could assist. If there are enough board
members for tent setup and who are willing to do some of the heavy lifting, then we shouldn’t have an issue. Obviously,
based upon the financial opportunity stated, she didn’t see that there would be a financial challenge.
Chair Dennis asked Vice Chair Olsen to amend his motion to include the fact that if we don’t have the finances to cover
that, that this Board would accept a donation from him to cover that cost.
Vice Chair Olsen made an amendment to the motion that if the Convention and Visitors Bureau doesn’t currently
have the funds available to cover the $250 cost, that we would accept a donation from the Chair to cover that
cost. Director Levine seconded the updated motion. Motion passed unanimously (6-to-0 vote).
Vice Chair Olsen stated for the price that we’d pay to sponsor the hole, there are options in terms of how we’re going to
promote ourselves. He knows this as he, as well as the Lions Club, are sponsoring tournament holes; the Lions Club is
also sponsoring the beverage carts. The $250 donation enables us to have a presence at the hole; that doesn’t have to
be a human presence. The hole he’s sponsoring will only have a sign indicating that he’s sponsoring it, but you also get
your logo in digital format on the screen on each of the golf carts that the players use. Everybody will know when they pull
up to the hole that we’re sponsoring that its sponsored by Discover Cottage Grove and the logo is on the screen. While it’s
nice to have people there, it’s not a necessity; they’re certainly looking for people who want to do that. Some people hand
out coupons or certificates or they have a spin wheel where golfers can win a prize. We could certainly do those things if
we had the ability to put a person(s) on the hole.
Chair Dennis asked Administrator Levitt about proper accounting, to whom his donation should be made, the City or
the Crime Prevention Board. Administrator Levitt replied it could be done either way, to the Crime Prevention Board as a
direct donation or through the City as a standard donation accepted quarterly by the City Council. Chair Dennis stated
he’d probably prefer to do it through the City since this is a City process.
Chair Dennis welcomed three new Board Members to the Convention and Visitors Bureau:
Gretchen Larson, also known as “G,” is our Economic Development Director for the City of Cottage Grove. It’s great to
have her here with us as a valuable resource. He welcomed her and told her we’re happy to have her.
Steve Hanson is the second new Board Member; Chair Dennis asked him to introduce himself to the community.
Director Hanson stated he and his family, his wife and two children, have lived in Cottage Grove for about 14 years, and
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they love it here; his children also attend school here. He just wanted to be part of the community in any way he could,
and this was the right fit at the time. He appreciated them bringing him on, and he’s looking forward to it. Chair Dennis
welcomed him aboard.
Chair Dennis stated Druscilla Nute had already helped us out at the Saints game, but as this is her first meeting, he
asked her to introduce herself. Director Nute stated she’s been living in Cottage Grove for the past eight years; she has
children attending Park High School and also some at Crestview. She just wants to be a part of the community, to see
what’s going on in the neighborhood, get to know more people, see what the needs are in our community, and learn which
ways she can help and be a part of that. Chair Dennis stated it’s great to have her here and thanked her.
Chair Dennis stated we’re missing Director Bade this morning, who is also new, but it’s nice to see more people sitting
at the table today.
Chair Dennis stated he looks at the Convention and Visitors Bureau as being an extension of the EDA because this very
process came out of work that was done through economic development, especially when we went to Las Vegas and
learned about the Lodging Tax potential. We had an EDA meeting yesterday morning and talked a little bit about the
Hotel Study that we’re going to be doing. He asked Director Larson to give a brief overview of that so people will know
we’re working on something; the primary funding source for this Board is hotels and lodging, with the 3% user fee, money
that’s collected and sent to us to use to promote and put Cottage Grove on the map. He felt it was important to talk about
that.
Director Larson stated the Hotel Study that the EDA approved on August 9 will be done by a company, HVS; they
specialize in hotels only and came highly recommended. Two days after the EDA approved the Hotel Study, we had yet
another hotelier call us and say that they truly believe that Cottage Grove is ready for a hotel. Not only are companies
interested in possibly building a hotel here in the next year or so, but also companies are now competing, wanting to talk
to the City about that. The study will take about 45 days. Perhaps the end of September or mid-October there will be a
report to the EDA, with hopefully some recommendations about the study and accepting it. City Administrator Levitt and I
and the rest of the team will probably be meeting in the next week or two with HVS and how they’ll want to lay out their
plan and our thoughts about how the plan and study should take place.
Chair Dennis stated we’re very excited about that, and HVS is considered the leading organization to do those types of
research projects. Scoring one, if not two, hotels would be the wind that goes into the sales, as it really helps to fund us.
Chair Dennis mentioned that on September 6, from 7:00-8:00 p.m., he and Mayor Bailey will be holding a Facebook Live
event regarding economic development. We’ll be talking about positive things for the City that have already happened
this year and what happened at the ICSC Convention in Las Vegas. It should be a really good time, as people will be able
to ask questions live, and we’ll do our very best to address those.
6.2 Response to Previous CGCVB Comments - None.
7.1 Workshop - None.
ADJOURNMENT
Vice Chair Olsen made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:16 a.m. The motion was seconded by Director
Levine. Motion passed unanimously (6-0).
Chair Dennis noted that our next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 29, 2022, at 7:30 a.m. in the Council Chambers.
Respectfully submitted,
_______________________________________
Jaime Mann, Assistant to the City Administrator
/jag