HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013/01/10 MASON COUNTY LODGING TAX ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
January 10, 2013
Attendance: Beverly Voss-Petredis, David Wagner, Greg Oldham and Terri Jeffreys were in
attendance. Jean Farmer was absent.
1. The Chair called the meeting to order at 3:02 p.m.
The Chair recommended amending the agenda to include 2013 committee appointments and
scheduling a potential meeting in February after item 4.
Wagner/Voss-Petredis moved and seconded to approve the agenda as amended.
Motion carried unanimously.
2. Wagner/Voss-Petredis moved and seconded to approve the November 27, 2012
regular meeting minutes. Motion carried unanimously.
3. Reconsider Lodging Tax Grant Application for Traveler Days Arts Celebration.
Pam Hanson, Union Tourism Association, noted that the Association received $5,000 for the
same event in 2011. They were surprised that they were denied in 2012. They chose the
weekend of Mother's Day because hotel occupancy is usually low. She gave an overview of
the event and noted that it had been growing every year.
Mr. Wagner was concerned that the request was 40% of the event's budget. He was also
concerned that there wasn't any tracking of visitors to the event because tracking of visitors
is an important criteria for Lodging Tax funding.
Ms. Voss-Petredis agreed that it was important to see that people were coming from out of
county.
Heidi McCutcheon explained that they had been asking for too much information on the sign-
up sheet and they were fixing that for next year.
Mr. Oldham asked how many people were at the event last year.
Ms. Hanson stated that the hotel was at 91% occupancy and there were about 80 people on
the boat.
Oldham moved to approve the application in the amount of$5,000.
The motion died due to lack of a second.
Ms. McCutcheon suggested awarding the event $4,000 to be in line with the two day event
scoring criteria.
Voss-Petredis/Oldham moved and seconded to approve the Union Tourism
Association's application for the Traveler Days Arts Celebration in the amount of
$4,000 for out of county advertising. Motion carried unanimously.
Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Page 2
January 10, 2013
4. Discussion of proposed changes to the Mason County Lodging Tax funding program.
Cmmr. Jeffreys went over the proposal. She is asking the committee to reconsider how the
funding is used and to focus on general Mason County tourism promotion. She would like to
do an RFP process for a multi-year contract to make sure there is a sustained marketing
effort. She would like the committee to come up with an RFP and performance measures,
and to review any bids that come in. All of the festivals and events could participate with the
joint marketing effort instead of applying individually. She would also like to set aside funds
for start up organizations. The third piece would be the visitor information centers. There
would be an RFP process to decide where the VICs are located, hours of operation, etc.
Mr. Wagner and Ms. Voss Petredis liked the idea.
Mr. Oldham thought the committee would need to be larger to take on the amount of work
being requested.
There was discussion regarding the proposed changes in the Legislature regarding the use of
the funds and state tourism funding.
Annual appointments for 2013 —Cmmr. Jeffreys encouraged the committee members to
reapply and asked them to try to recruit new members.
5. The committee was unable to schedule a meeting for February so the next meeting was
scheduled for March 19, 2013 at 2:00 p.m.
6. The meeting adjourned at 3:55 p.m.
LODGING TAX ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MASON COUNTY, WASHINGTON
ATTEST:
Shannon Goudy, LTAC Clerk Chairperson