Visit Boerne Advisory Board

MINUTES REGULAR QUARTERLY MEETING CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU ADVISORY BOARD CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 124 Old San Antonio Road Boerne, TX 78006 Thursday, July 11, 2019 – 4:00 p.m. Present 4 - Board Member Mary Kanafani, Chairman Joe Granados, Board Member Brad Wilson, and Board Member Bexar Schenk Absent 5 - Board Member Jennifer Rabb Faz, Board Member Cristal Bitar, Vice Chair Michelle Ernst, Board Member Taylor Covington, and Board Member Elizabeth Castle Board Member Cristal Bitar arrived at 4:17 pm Board Member Jenny Rabb-Faz at 4:17 pm Guest Present: Tiffany Castillo 1. CALL TO ORDER – 4:00 PM Chairman Joe Granados called the meeting to order at 4:08 pm 2. PUBLIC COMMENTS There were no public comments. 3. 2019-767 APPROVE MINUTES FROM REGULAR QUARTERLY MEETING OF APRIL 24, 2019. A MOTION WAS MADE BY BOARD MEMBER KANAFANI, SECONDED BY BOARD MEMBER WILSON, THAT THIS MINUTES BE APPROVED APPROVE MINUTES FROM REGULAR QUARTERLY MEETING OF APRIL 24, 2019. THE MOTION CARRIED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE: Yeah: 6 - Board Member Faz, Board Member Kanafani, Board Member Bitar, Chairman Granados, Board Member Wilson, and Board Member Schenk City of Boerne Page 1 Printed on 3/23/2021 Convention & Visitors Bureau Official Meeting Minutes July 11, 2019 Advisory Board Absent: 3 - Vice Chair Ernst, Board Member Covington, and Board Member Castle 4. MAKE ANY NECESSARY ANNOUNCEMENTS AND/OR INTRODUCTIONS a. Introduce New Board Members and Positions Larry began by introducing Joe Granados as the new Chairman of Board and then introduced new board members Bexar Schenk and Brad Wilson and asked them each to tell the board a little bit about themselves. 5. REVIEW RESULTS OF HOT FUND APPLICATIONS a. JR Calf Roping Championships, LLC b. Genealogical Society of Kendall County c. Pride of Texas Street Rods d. Texas Corvette Association e. Boerne Convention and Visitors Bureau Larry reviewed the Hot tax meeting that was held last time and went over how that meeting went and the results of the meeting, explaining each application and the vote that was taken at that time. 6. RECEIVE UPDATE ON: a. Advertising Schedule for Current FY 2018-2019 b. Advertising Schedule for Next FY 2019-2020 c. Quarterly Advertising Plan d. Social Media Update Larry moved on to talk about the advertising schedule and explained how to read the schedule. Specifically mentioning the reach column. He mentioned how we are working on our next year’s advertising schedule and discussed the possibility of a three-person committee made up of board members to help work on the new advertising schedule. Larry asked if anyone had any opinions, questions or was interested in helping plan the advertising schedule. City of Boerne Page 2 Printed on 3/23/2021 Convention & Visitors Bureau Official Meeting Minutes July 11, 2019 Advisory Board Mary Kanafani asked how the publication reach was determined. Larry answered it was the number of print copies that will be printed. He discussed several other state publications and their reach. He gave the example of Triple A journey magazines as being very important to us because it is directed to the type of people who like coming to Boerne and they reach over 1 Million people. He then directed the board to look at the quarterly advertising schedule which determines where we advertise based on season. Larry explained that the CVB has their own in-house ad agency in that all our ads are created by Tori Bellos, the CVB’s Marketing Specialist, and we do our own research for where and when to place our ads and with whom. Larry gave an update on the CVB’s social media platforms and explained who our followers are and where they come from. Larry explained that Tori’s goal for this next year was to increase our Facebook followers and increase our monthly newsletter followers through Campaign Monitor. Joe asked if we can determine how many of our followers are from outside the county and Larry confirmed that we can track those numbers. Larry mentioned that we had culled our Campaign Monitor e-mail addresses recently to which Brad asked how you cull the addresses. Additionally, Cristal asked why you would cull any addresses when maybe the recipients were just busy. She asked why to waste the time it takes to cull, to which Jeanette explained that we cull stale e-mail addresses in order to report accurate numbers as it relates to our open rates and reaction rates. Larry talked about the TV show “You Only Live Once” (YOLO) and the fact that they were here last year to do art, Main Street and Dickens on Main filming and were returning this summer in order to get nice “green shots” of Boerne in bloom and high-end shopping that will air next spring. In addition, Larry mentioned that we are working with a film crew out of Austin for a new video add we are working on with the idea to elevate Boerne and what there is to do in Boerne. He also suggested running our tag lines before our board at a later date to help make decisions. Joe Granados asked about influencers and is there a plan to bring more into Boerne. Larry confirmed that Tori uses several influencers and bloggers and travel writers to market Boerne on a unified level. Joe expressed the need for a unified message through-out Boerne to which Larry agreed that it was one of the goals of the City. 7. THE BEVY HOTEL a. Introduction of Tiffany Castillo b. Sales Efforts and Bookings Larry introduced Tiffany Castillo, Sales Manager of The Bevy Hotel, to the board and who was in the audience. He went on to say that the CVB had sent 72 leads to the Bevy for new groups that would also offer overflow business to the other hotels. He mentioned that she was City of Boerne Page 3 Printed on 3/23/2021 Convention & Visitors Bureau Official Meeting Minutes July 11, 2019 Advisory Board currently working with Danny Zink, in the parks department to bring the TAAF organization to the Bevy. Larry also mentioned that we had booked TACVB's winter conference for January of 2020. Larry invited Tiffany to introduce herself and address the board. Tiffany introduced herself and gave a short background on herself and where she came from and expressed her desire to partner with the other hotels in town. She talked about how much the CVB was working with her in our sales efforts and direct mail pieces and where we are sending out information on Boerne and the Bevy. Joe Granados welcomed her and said a few words on behalf of himself, The Kendall Inn and the rest of the CVB board. 8. CVB STRATEGIC PLAN a. Mission Statement Larry mentioned the Strategic Marketing Plan and how the CVB uses it on a weekly basis and updates it annually, adding to its analytics and the CVB’s transparencies. He discussed how he showed the CVB’s Strategic Marketing Plan to two leaders in the industry: David Dunham with Texas Monthly, and Bob Phillips with the Texas Travel Industry Association. Larry recalled that at a recent Destination Management Organization (DMO) meeting in Houston, there were only two CVB personnel in the room who had a plan, and it was he himself and Jeanette Teague. Larry went on to explain why and how we use it. Joe asked if this would be incorporated into the masterplan, to which Larry said yes, it would. 9. CVB PRIORITIES SCHEDULE a. Tasks vs. Priorities Moving on, Larry discussed the cities new mayor and new city council members and talked about project management in the corporate world vs. municipalities. Larry explained the differences between projects vs. tasks and confirmed that we would be joining in with the City's efforts to incorporated project management into our departmental goals. 10. RECEIVE PRESENTATION ON HOTEL PERFORMANCE AND STATISTICS - HILL COUNTRY COMPETITIVE SET a. Annual Fair Market Share - 2018 b. 1st Quarter 2019 Fair Market Share Larry went on to discuss the analytics we get from Source Strategies and STR reports. He reviewed the Annual Fair Market Share report provided in the packets and discussed the fair market share schedules for the year 2018. Larry then explained how to read the report and pointed out how well Boerne did as compared to our competitors. Larry mentioned that while ADR was down, occupancies are up, and that Boerne is ahead revenue wise. City of Boerne Page 4 Printed on 3/23/2021 Convention & Visitors Bureau Official Meeting Minutes July 11, 2019 Advisory Board Larry passed out the annual STR report that we use to judge how we gauge our hotel business and Cristal mentioned that San Antonio is also down right now. Larry agreed, and that based on what he has read regarding hotel business, occupancies are going to continue to be flat, but ADR's will increase. He mentioned that he is a member with TTIA, TACVB, and other tourism related organizations that address these concerns on an ongoing basis. Mary Kanafani asked what city is up, to which Larry replied, Austin. He went on to say that Austin is booming but may see a slight crash in their hotel business due to traffic and the crowds and that millennials are moving away from Austin due to heavy traffic and crowding. Larry review the Source Strategy Reports Books that the CVB subscribes to and talked about root cause thinking and how he is proactive in the marketplace based on trends he is seeing. Brad Wilson asked about the reasons why certain markets are down to which Larry talked about how San Marcos has over built, and Waco is building way up and will be overbuilt soon as well. Brad Wilson asked when the Bevy’s increase in rooms will be reflected in the market and show what impact they will bring to which Larry said probably September. Mary asked about the traffic problems in the city and if cities have any say in when streets are closed, to which Larry replied that street closures are decisions made by TX Dot and cities have very little say in the matter. 11. RECEIVE INFORMATION ON ADVISORY BOARD a. Schedule for 2019-2020 Meeting Dates b. Board Member Contact List c. Schedule for 2020 HOT Fund Meeting 4-23-2020 Jeanette went over the advisory board information and meeting schedules in the packets. 12. COMMENTS FROM BOARD & STAFF Joe asked if there were any other comments from the board and staff, to which there were none. 13. ADJOURNMENT Joe asked for a motion to adjourn; all were in favor and the meeting adjourned at 4:57 p.m. Next Regular Scheduled Meeting will be held Thursday, October 3, 2019. City of Boerne Page 5 Printed on 3/23/2021 Convention & Visitors Bureau Official Meeting Minutes July 11, 2019 Advisory Board _________________________ Chairman CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the above notice of meeting was posted on the 8th day of July, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. ______________________ Secretary NOTICE OF ASSISTANCE AT THE PUBLIC MEETINGS. The Police / Municipal Court Complex is wheelchair accessible. Access to the building and special parking is available at the front entrance of the building. Requests for special services must be received forty-eight (48) hours prior to the meeting time by calling the City Secretary at 830-249-9511. Pursuant to Section 30.06 Penal Code (trespass by license holder with a concealed handgun), a person licensed under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code (handgun licensing law), may not enter this property with a concealed handgun. Pursuant to section 30.07 Penal Code (trespass by license holder with an openly carried handgun), a person licensed under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code (handgun licensing law), may not enter this property with a handgun that is carried openly. City of Boerne Page 6 Printed on 3/23/2021