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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016/06/16 MASON COUNTY LODGING TAX ADVISORY COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes Commissioners'Chambers 411 North 5T" Street, Shelton, WA 98584 Wednesday,June 16, 2016 9:00 a.m. Members in Attendance: Chair Terri Jeffreys, Bonnie Knight, Heidi McCutcheon, Kelly Bergh, Duane Wilson and Shaun Tucker. Absent: Arnold Hampton 1. Chair Jeffreys called the meeting to order at 9:07 a.m. 2. Approval of April 6, 2016 minutes. Heidi/Bonnie moved and seconded to approve the April 6, 2016 meeting minutes as submitted. Motion carried. 3. Review of Request for Proposals —Visitor Information Centers • Stephanie Rowland presented the North Mason Chamber of Commerce proposal requesting $51,846 for 2017. There are two VIC locations — Belfair and Union. The Belfair location is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Union location is a new location and is open year around for visitors and is staffed May through October, Friday through Sunday. The Chamber contracts with Blue Collar through the tourism promotion funding to serve as a local liaison and one of the functions is to man the tourism booth at certain small festivals. In doing that, Chamber staff stays abreast of tourism opportunities in the county. The Union location is owned by Hunter Farms and is contracted by North Mason Chamber of Commerce. This proposal includes a wage expense for the Union location of $5,928, for 3 days a week, May through October. Nancy Johnson is currently volunteering her time at this location and the intent is if the wages are awarded, she would serve as the volunteer coordinator. The Chamber also sells fishing licenses and vehicle &vessel license tabs which Stephanie believes expose people to the VIC services. The heavier traffic is Thursday, Friday and Monday with some on Saturday. They are not open on Sundays. There are no volunteers in the North Mason VIC. 810 square feet of the 1,620 total square footage is dedicated to the VIC. Shaun has concern with the cost of the VIC rent at $1,520 per month. This is 50% of the total rental cost for the total space. Stephanie stated this location was chosen in order to best serve the VIC services. Shaun asked why is the VIC paying half the rental cost when it has less visitors compared to the Chamber/licensing side of the building. There are limited lodging tax funds and he has concern with this cost. Duane also expressed concern with the rental cost and that it appears the lodging tax dollars are helping to pay for the Chamber's costs. The request also includes $1,356 for travel costs to the Union VIC; $1,000 for telephone/internet. • Heidi McCutcheon presented the Shelton Chamber of Commerce proposal requesting $70,000. There are three locations — Hoodsport, Caboose and Shelton. The Caboose has a camera surveillance system that allows them to keep the Caboose open 40 hours. The Hoodsport location has 1,200 square feet and is open seven days a week for a total of 35 hours. The Shelton location has 250 square feet dedicated to the VIC and is open 45 hours per week. The Shelton Chamber pays for paper maps that are heavily used by Lodging Tax Advisory Board Meeting Minutes June 16, 2016 the VIC's. The sale of Discovery Passes and maps are receipted by the Chamber to provide the VIC services. Heidi stated the Chamber is losing money by providing VIC services. Kelly Bergh stated the LTAC will need to revisit how much to fund VIC's in 2018. Bonnie Knight believes the small festivals have lost some ground with the current method for small festival advertising. The majority of the $20,150 rental expense is for the Hoodsport VIC. The Shelton Chamber receives money from the City of Shelton for the Shelton and Caboose location and Hoodsport receives revenues from the Parks Service and Forest Service. The $2,500 telephone expense pays for all of the Caboose and Hoodsport telephone expenses and 35% of Shelton telephone and the 1-800#. 20% of Chamber staff wages are attributed to VIC expenses. Shelton Chamber pays two volunteer coordinators who manage the volunteers. Shaun stated is seems the high traffic centers are Hoodsport and Union. He suggested having one Chamber handle all the VIC's and serve as the headquarters and have more satellite offices in various business offices throughout the county. It may not spend less dollars but would better serve the visitors. After discussion, it was agreed to meet in the fall to discuss the future of VIC services. 4. Quarterly reports from Visitor Information Centers were distributed. 5 minute break was taken. 5. Review of Request for Proposals - Tourism Promotion/Small Festival Marketing Promotional Services • John Mitchell of Blue Collar Agency presented their 2016 quarterly report. There were 21% more clicks to lodging sites in May 2016 than the same month last year. Facebook followers have nearly doubled; Blue Collar is connecting with military pages and partnering with Outdoor Project. April shared their content strategy and asset creation. YTD room tax has increased by 13.43% over 2015. There was a discussion of other measurements for tourism that would include sales tax. Room inventory is limited which doesn't allow for a lot of growth. Joyce, on behalf of Allyn Community Assoc, voiced concern that LTAC funding for festivals that would have been directly granted to the community associations is now contracted to Blue Collar. The promotion costs then have to be paid by the community associations therefore reducing their profit. Shaun stated the long term goal is to utilize the funds efficiently and pooling the small awards will have a bigger impact to promoting the festivals. Bonnie also expressed frustration of small festival funding and some of the community associations are feeling left out. Stephanie, Blue Collar liaison, explained the process Blue Collar has followed with the small festivals. They have a conference call with the various festival contacts, gather information and schedule out the various promotion items, but the message doesn't seem to filter down to the association members. LTAC Page 12 Lodging Tax Advisory Board Meeting Minutes June 16, 2016 Duane shared marketing information he used for the Bluegrass Festival and believes it needs to be a combination of social media and other types of marketing. • Tourism Promotion/Small Festival Marketing Promotional Services Heidi suggested paying for the Olympic Peninsula Visitors Association. Duane asked where the reference to relocating the Bluegrass Festival to Lake Cushman came from. John stated that was just an example. Duane feels the south end of the county is under represented. John talked about their plan for outreach that includes college and military. Kelly and Bonnie are also feeling there is not enough promotion of the south end of the county. Discussion of including the tribal properties in the lodging tax promotion even though they don't pay lodging tax. John Mitchell reassured the members that the LTAC are the decision makers and he is sensitive to their concerns. The RFP specifically requested $33,500 be dedicated to festival and event marketing and there is not a breakdown. John stated this can be provided. Heidi stated the budget appears to be more of what they are already doing. • VIC Funding Duane suggested funding $46K for the North Mason Chamber of Commerce and fund half of the Union VIC wage; fund $54K for Shelton Chamber of Commerce. Bonnie suggested $45K for North Mason/$55K for Shelton. Cmmr. Jeffreys stated if funding is less than requested, she assumes there would be a decrease in services. Shaun suggested $40K to North Mason Chamber and include the Union VIC/$60K to Shelton Chamber. Kelly agreed with Shaun. Duane/Bonnie moved and seconded to fund $40,700 to the North Mason COC; $60,000 to the Shelton Chamber of Commerce for 2017 VIC services. Motion carried. Heidi abstained. Heidi stated she is leveraging a lot with the lodging dollars. Shaun/Bonnie moved and seconded to have the North Mason Chamber contract include funding for the Union VIC as proposed. Motion carried. Heidi abstained. • Tourism Promotion/Small Festival Marketing Promotional Services Funding Bonnie suggested funding Blue Collar at $228K. Heidi asked about the amount dedicated to small festivals. John from Blue Collar stated they have less money in 2017 for festivals and they will take what they learned this year and plan to put more ad dollars; if there is an opportunity to put funding towards print they would consider that. He does not have a line item detail for each festival. LTAC Page 13 Lodging Tax Advisory Board Meeting Minutes June 16, 2016 Cmmr. Jeffreys stated that in the reporting it could be required for Blue Collar to break down the expenses between tourism and small festivals. Discussion of what would be reduced since award will be less than request. Heidi/Bonnie moved and seconded to approve Blue Collar's proposal for tourism promotion/festival marketing and fund at$228,000 and a minimum of$33,500 dedicated to festival and small event marketing. Motion carried. 6. Other Business— There was discussion of having two fall meetings. One would be to discuss the future of VIC's. Heidi suggested the members come in prepared with how to carry it out. Send the proposals ahead of time so LTAC can consider. The second meeting will be to hear 3rd quarter reports and invite Stephanie to talk about what worked for small festival promotion. 7. Public comment. Nancy Johnson stated that at the Union VIC she makes it a point to share information for future visits. 8. Calendar—two meetings in the fall will be scheduled. 9. The meeting adjourned at 1:35 p.m. LODGING TAX ADVISORY COMMITTEE MASON COUNTY, WASHINGTON ATTEST: LTAC Clerk Cmmr. Terri Jeffreys, Chair LTAC Page 14