Lodgers Tax Committee

Minutes from May 18 Lodgers Tax Meeting Jennifer Lazarz: So I'm calling the meeting to order. The time is now 11:06 AM. Roll call: Ken Riege, Anna Connell, Jason Arsenault in attendance. Jeremy Boucher on the phone and on his way into the room. First item of the agenda is the approval of minutes from May 6th, 2021. The attached documents in your book are the first section include the minutes from May 9th. These are the longest minutes in the history of minutes because they're a direct transcript of the entire meeting. I did that for council to be able to read who said what during the entire meeting, instead of summarizing, next in that book is a summary of what Curtiss said and the allowed expenses that you have decided upon that day and then the following items in that packet are just the charts that I handed out during the last meeting. It should all look pretty familiar to you. So I'm going to give you about two minutes or so to review the minutes, just to make sure I did email them to you in advance. and we'll go from there. Anna Connell: I motion to approve the minutes from the ninth meeting. Ken Reige: Second Jennifer Lazarz: Okay. Yay or nay, Anna? (yay) Ken (yay) Jason (yay) Jeremy (abstain). Fiscal 22 round one review of applications submitted by 5:00 PM on the 18th and the consideration for funding for the Lodgers Tax program. So these recommendations made today will be taken to the city council May 25th at 6:00 PM. That meeting will be over zoom. So, I will request a zoom link for the application from the city clerk's office for the applicants here today if you wish to comment when the city council have a question about your applications because there is no, unfortunately in person meeting at that time. The budget for all of fiscal 22 grant program is $130,000. This is a reduction from previous years as a result of a 40% decline in lodger's tax from the pandemic. Jason Arsenault: Just these applications that we're hearing today are for what time period? Jennifer: July 1-June 30. So anything from literally about five weeks from now forward. So there are no events being requested at this time for this fiscal, which ends June 30. Jason Arsenault: So would be with like freedom rights flight and cruise, that's going to be canceled? Jennifer: That is. Anything before September 30th and has not applied is not for consideration today. So those events either not taking place or they may have missed the application deadline. I hope there hasn't been confusion because we've sent multiple communications. Jason Arsenault: So anything before September 1st, Jennifer: September 30th. So July, September 30 is the window today. Now I will say there are also two events in the packet that are later, one event in the fact that that's after September 30th, which is allowed because this is anything from July one to June 30th, 2022. These are just the guys who got their applications in first. So does that make sense? So all of them, July one to June 30 are considered the deadline for events. The cutoff for events before September 30th was last night at 5:00 PM. All right. So we do have a quorum in the room and Jeremy, I know you can hear us, but the applications are in front of the individuals in the room. Jeremy, I'll get you a copy as soon as you get here. We're going to turn to the Friends of Hubbell application. It'll be the third tab after the minutes. I'm going to walk you through what this application looks like, because this is a new format for you guys to look at since this the online application. The first page and a half is legal jargon and information. The next few pages after that, the page numbers are teeny tiny in the bottom left corner. The pages have information about the event organizer. The nature of the events, et cetera, et cetera. So this is the Friends of Hubbell Native American Auction that is taking place September 25th, 2021. This is where your questions take place in the application. And then when you finally get to the highlighted thing, that's the numbers section. So these are the two most important sections for you from this version of the application. It's all the same questions as the other application (the print). You will see later in the book, several events turned in from the paper application that are hand written. Those have been scanned in here. So it's the same questions. It just looks different because one is a print off of the online format. I am going to also mention to you in the very first section of your book, is that is a summary of what you had agreed upon during your last meeting. This is an advisory board. Jennifer: So here's the deal. If you feel that you want to discuss changes [from what you agreed upon at the last meeting], what does have to happen? You have to discuss a change to what you agreed to last time, if you would like to make changes to this, to recommend the city council. So this chart within the front has what you have voted on last time or rather it has what was discussed during your session and then the applications come afterwards. So you're flipping back and forth through this discussion. That's where it is in the book. I'm going to give you a second to review the application , and I'm going to come around here while you're reading. Frank, can you still hear me? Frank Kohler: Yes. [Jeremy arrived in the room] Jennifer: All four of lodger's tax committee members in the room. Frank, they have the applications in front of them, but what I'm going to ask you to do is introduce yourself. And could you give the events history again for them? Because we have had over 14 months since we have had events in the city of Gallup. Frank Kohler: My name is Frank Kohler, I'm chairman and treasurer of Friends of Hubbell, an organization that has been doing live Native American art auctions, both in Ganado Arizona at the Hubbell trading post, and then subsequently at the Gallup community center for approximately the past five years due to issues and closures and funding, from the park service and the availability to do it in Ganado. We have moved to Gallup. We do two auctions a year. what else to tell you? I'll be happy to answer any questions. Jennifer: Thank you. We're just going to take a pause for a moment. It's going to be quiet while they're reviewing your application. The committee unfortunately didn't have time to review the applications in advance due to the tight turn around. It's going to take a little longer for some reading. Jeremy Boucher: It's a two day event, right? Frank Kohler: Well, actually the auction is one day. it starts at noon on Saturday, the 25th, Wednesday through Friday, we do intake. We open the community center for intake, from the artists who come off the reservation, both Navajo Zuni and Hopi and present their items for the auction. We catalog all that stuff, price it, then preview to the general public is Saturday morning from approximately 9:00-11:30 am. And we shut it down for a half an hour, get ready to go and usually have between 400 and 500 items that go across the auction block, starting at noon, ending around 5 or 6:00 PM. Jeremy Boucher: So of the 200 people that you anticipate coming, how many of those folks are out-of-towners that stayed over overnight? Frank Kohler: I'd say probably at least a third to a half of them. We draw people from Colorado, California, a little bit parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Colorado as well. We have people come from Texas. we do a mailing of approximately 3000 invite cards to our buyers list and send out another thousand emails to people who have attended the auction, atleast once. Anna Connell: You said it starts like on the 22nd on that Wednesday, correct? Frank Kohler: Intake starts at noon on Wednesday runs till five o'clock Thursday. We do intake from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Friday we do intake from 9:00 AM to noon, and then we have to kind of get organized and get ready, print the catalog, et cetera, to be ready for Saturday morning. Jason Arsenault: In all of the grant, money is going to promoting the event. Frank Kohler: Exactly 100% of it. Jennifer: The budget that they are applying for, if you look at the teeny tiny numbers at the bottom, that's what it is on page six in that section was the first name, their overall estimate for the full cost is putting online and they're requesting. Frank Kohler: I may, I should also mention that the Gallup Real True logo will be emblazoned on all the advertising. Anna Connell: Okay. Frank Kohler: And we would be happy. Someone mentioned about people traveling in, we would be happy to promote hotels or certain hotels, or I don't really know how that works on our announcements for lodging request to rooms. Jennifer: This is Jennifer -regarding that when this has come up as an issue before, and that's the only reason I'm addressing this is Lodger's tax is funded from all 40 properties in the city of Gallup. So it's entirely up to the event organizer if they want to seek proposals from hotels for this kind of room block. But it's one of those things that when you're receiving funding that is essentially pulling from all, it's a difficult position to put the hotels in to say, can we sponsor just you? And can you give us a discount, but we're also getting money from you too. At the same time, that's kind of how this is viewed by the largest tax committee in its history. and I bring that up because back when Councilor Yogash Kumar was on the board, that was something he used to be very leery about it, making sure that we're not promoting one hotel over another, since the tax funds come from, all of them. If you can see the room, the two hoteliers in the room are nodding their heads. Frank Kohler: I understand completely. And we discussed it with our board and ran into a similar issue because we assume that the hotels would ask for a minimum number of rooms and we have no control over where are our patrons stay? I mean, of the 40 some properties in Gallup, they have quite a choice. So trying to guarantee number of rooms was difficult. So we kind of backed off. Jeremy Boucher: Yeah, no, I think mostly that left. My question is along those lines what, the funding comes directly from the tax people who stay at the hotels. And so that kind of helps kind of helps go into the consideration. How many folks are actually drawn in this day? Ken Riege: Heads in beds. Jeremy Boucher: Yeah. so here's the question for the committee in general, since I was, I could kind of hear most of everything and I wasn't here last time. so the budget is 130,000. That's what we have for events for July one 2021 to June 30 to 2022, which means we have another round of folks that are probably going to want funding. Jennifer: There are actually three more rounds- it really depends on when people get their applications. Jeremy Boucher: And so everyone could have possibly gotten their application in this round? Jennifer: In some ways yes, however we have extenuating circumstances. Some of them in six days haven't had the opportunity to meet with their volunteer boards to decide if they're doing the event, let alone applying for funding. I know some of them whom I've spoken with during this period who just didn't know, and they're not going to know until a few weeks out before their event. And so that was one of the reasons I think they chose not to apply, but yeah, there's uncertainty about planning. Even a lot of these events, there's fears about be in a crowd. So there is a lot of challenges to pull this off. Ken Riege: But that amount could increase correct as the hotels increased in our occupancies? Jennifer Lazarz: let me put it to you this way, the way you would increase that funding, if we choose to do is you would make a recommendation to me to go to city council. Any funding would come out of the reserve, no matter what. The way lodger's tax work is what is collected now is going into the pot. We're actually working off of last year's collected pot. So we're not working on active collections because otherwise, if we tried to do that and we make a contract and you say, "Oh yeah, you can have all this money." And then you have a pandemic, you're still having to pay. Then what happens is when you take a 60 to 70% hit on hotels but we've extended a hundred percent we can run into issues. So the way the structure works is the money from this year gets collected and we're actually spending the last year of money. We're not spending the currently collected so that what is being collected currently is going into a separate line. So hypothetically, you may request from me in several months to go to council and ask for budget transfers from the reserve to increase this amount. So right now we're working from a budget, that kind of information from the fact that last year, at our lowest we were down 70%. and then at the best in the last year has been down 35%. It's recovering a lot. Now. I will tell you this positive, our average daily rates of hotel stays are close to pre pandemic levels. So that means we get a higher amount because they're paying the tax on a higher amount. Say the room cost $80 dollars, so we get 5% of that, whereas during the pandemic we were getting 5% of a $60 room. So the good news is the average daily rate is really healthy of the higher hotel chains. Does that answer your question? Jeremy Boucher: Okay. We're stationary is 96,430, about what? It's about a hundred thousand dollars. Anna Connell: Do you have a total for the amount asked for? Jason Arsenault: For today? $85,600 compared to what it was last year, just taking off this thing. What I'm trying to figure out is what's still left. We have the balloon rally... Jennifer: Within this fiscal year, there would be the Red Rock Balloon Rally in December, through January and February we have almost never had an awarded event. May has been the 5k for the children's home, June has been the Lions Club Rodeo, and there are four rodeo events put on by Walt Eddy. 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest would also fall within this budget. Frank Kohler: Jennifer. I should probably also add that I'll be resubmitting again for, an auction in May, 2022. Jeremy Boucher: All of these add up to? Jason Arsenault: $85,600. Jeremy Boucher: $85,600. The cost of them putting on this event is around $100,000 and they're bringing in people so. Anna Connell: I move to approve the $4,500 request for Friends of Hubbell Native Art Auction. Jeremy Boucher: I second that motion. Jennifer: asks each member of the committee present for their vote [they all vote in favor] Okay. We are going to proceed on everybody here. When it is your turn, I'm going to ask you to come up here so you can be reviewing your materials with the committee and we'll go from there. I'm going to start with Tod, you came from the farthest, and you've got the longest to go home. Frank Kohler: Jennifer, I'm going to check out. Anna Connell: Thank you so much. Tod Hammock: My name is Tod Hammock. I am from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and 26 years ago, I came here on other business, but start at the first Red Rock Arena Cross event. An arena cross event is a motorcycle race competition out at Red Rock Park. And last year would have been my 25th year. I don't know if any of you have ever been to my events, take it in, see... Jason Arsenault: I have. Tod Hammock: There's a reason why that I'm coming back for my 25th anniversary and I've increased my budget on my end to attract more riders, to promote my 25th anniversary. It means a lot to me. I've got a lot of friends here. Some of the first people I met 25 years ago, Sammy, sitting right over here, helping me out with media. A lot of the people, even though I don't live here, they're still like family my kids have been here for a week as they grew up every year coming to gala for this event, just so I can get to say this. A lot of times take, for example, someone who lives in different Colorado, never go skiing. Why you got it right here? It's just kinda how it works. You may be used to Red Rock Park, but I can tell you, when you get outside of here, you have a gem. You have a gem in that. When the lights go down and the action starts on a Saturday or a Friday night, it is magical out there. And that is one of the reasons we're here. That's why my racers love to come here. Over 400 racers. Come here. They bring two and a half people with them. I've got my mudbog trucks. Usually 75 trucks show up as they are part of the event as well. And you can see this. This is a Friday night and a Saturday night show. It requires at least three nights space. Plus all the fuel. They drive motor homes. They drive trucks, trailers, lodging, restaurants. You get the idea on the revenue that they put in this community that then gets turned around seven to 10 times. So it's very important, I feel this event continues. You've got your budget in front of you. All my money goes towards promoting this event. It promotes Gallup in a positive light outside of this area. Motorcycle racing is what I do. I go all over the country. We do well with it. As far as promoting the event, we have a good follow- up. So I hope that you can help me to make this event special this year. You're going to see a few other guys that come through here that some of us have some of the largest events in this community. And they do require additional money to market to get these people here so that it stays to be the largest event. I hope you just give some consideration granting, we're asking for a fair amount, but it takes a fair amount to get a lot of people here and the investment and the return are well worth it. Jason Arsenault: Do you expect to have more people at this year's event than have in the previous year? Tod Hammock: I do. And I can explain to you why. I'd venture to say any motorcycle bicycle shop in this country is out of inventory. Everybody's bought it. Everybody done is staying put traveling, around your hotels this summer are going to be busy. I know that there are a lot people are going to get out to go into national parks. So they've got to spend the night here traveling through. So things are going to be good. On my end, there is a plethora of new racers that are getting out. Other race tracks in other areas are seeing increases in competitors and would like to capitalize on that. I'm going to capitalize on it. I'm going to bring more people into this market. Let them see what we have and they'll be back. Jason Arsenault: The problem is because we have a lesser amount of money to work with. And the increase from the last time is $7,700 in your ask for 21,700. Tod Hammock: The event attracts 4,000 spectators from sometimes up to four hours away. They're coming into your market. Granted, a lot of them are local. A lot of them are driving down from Farmington, Durango. They're going to stop and spend money while they're here. Jeremy Boucher: So you're anticipating more people this year. How much? I think you're right. I mean, I was just up Moab a couple of weeks ago and it was absolutely insane. I think a lot of those travelers, people just want to get outside and they've gotten into some new hobbies, make 'em outside or last year. So my question is why the, why the large increase in advertising. if you're expecting it, what's the increase in advertising, what's the ask there? What, what, what is that going to go towards and how do you...why do you need extra if you think it's going to be good anyway just in general. Tod Hammock: I do 20 events a year and we have a formula for the amount of money for advertising, and the return on that investment. And the reason I'm asking for more I want a bigger return. I want more people. Let's just say that not everybody knows about the event. We're 8 weeks away. . I want to hit it now and hard. The additional funding is to reach harder and stronger to raise awareness that the event is taking place. Jason Boucher: Okay. And last year we were awarded you how much? Sorry. Tod Hammock: 14K. Jeremy Boucher: And 5,200. That's how many were counted last year or the last time we had the event? Jennifer: There are the registered participants, the people who come with them, and the spectators. Tod Hammock: Yeah. When they come to sign up for my events, you have to go online and fill out a form. I know their phone number, their date of birth, their address, everything we know they're the geography of where they come from. We know how many you're covering each one. As I mentioned earlier, brings two 2.5 people with them. That's their mom or girlfriend, a friend, a brother, whatever it might be. That's just a multiplier on an average of 400 racers. We're going to attract an additional 2.5 people with that exam. And then on the other side is I know my ticket sales because they are advanced. They go to the O'Reilly's here in town. And so those are easily tracked. Those people who came in and out of the O'Reilly offices, they did it regionally. So I know that they come out of Farmington and bought a ticket there Albuquerque or locally. Jeremy Boucher: I got you. Tod Hammock: There are 400 entries 80% of my participants are from over 2 hours away. Average attendance over 2 nights is 4,000. Jason Arsenault: What is Red Rock Park's capacity? Tod Hammock: Well they stayed at 6,000, but now when you're a general admission house, people set down and spread out, Larry Peterson: I was just out there with the Fire Marshall, and he says 6000-6100 is the occupancy. Jennifer: With current rules its 75% of outdoor arena occupancy. So with him having an average of 2019, he's not even touching a 75% occupancy that said representative of the governor's office, both to the New Mexico tourism commission and expect that number to change in July. So their numbers could potentially see 100% of occupancy in July. If the state is over 60% fascinated statewide. And that came directly from a representative at the governor's office, Jason Arsenault: I'm thankful that you're having an event because Gallup's been closed and we want things to happen. The problem is, of course the money we're allowed to give out, like we have Wild thing here today, And we have Greg here for this race and they're actually coming around 20% less than what they, last time they got money just because of the circumstances. And so, I don't know, if we give the whole $21,000 that really puts us in a position and we only have this 130,000. Jeremy Boucher: How do you guys feel about, let's put this for discussion on the table, going with what we gave last year? Jason Arsenault: Yeah. Which was the fourteen? Jeremy Boucher: yes, so that would leave his over $7,000 back in the pot. Jason Arsenault: Yeah. Tod Hammock: So you're recommending $14,000? Anna Connell: What if we did $15K? We give a little bit more. $15K is still 6700 less than he's asking and its for an anniversary. It's going to be big. He's here today and we've got people who want to do stuff in Gallup starting in the next eight weeks or so and I think we should support it. Jason Aresnault: But we do have established events that are here who have reduced their asks due to the circumstances. And I get it. We're all excited about it. You have $55,000 still becoming in requests here. Anna Connell: I understand that, but I, I think the last year, an extra thousand above last year isn't asking for to much. I motion we recommend an award for $15,000. Jeremy Boucher: I'll second. Jennifer: Is there any additional discussion regarding 15 quick question? Jeremy Boucher: Sorry. Before we move on, to do due diligence here. Your all just advertising, right? So there's no, there's no swag in there or anything like that. Tod Hammock: Correct. So thank you. I appreciate the 15, it will go to exceptional use to get people here in town. And I really hope that each one of you takes the time to try to come out and not only see me from your position, come out and see what we do I know my costs are there. That's not even really all of it, but I'm out there with 12 people starting on Tuesday to construct everything to my tune here in town where there's a lot, a lot of effort that goes into it. Like all these other guys just didn't happen in a day. Jeremy Boucher: I fully understand that I've run events before. Shall we take a vote? [there was no further discussion, all four members present voted in favor of the $15K recommendation] Jennifer: Thank you. Our next applicant is the Tony Dorsett Football League Four Corners Invitational. Sammy Chioda: Good afternoon Lodger's Tax committee members. My name is Sammy Chioda and I am one of the co- founders of TDFL , we've been in existence since 1996 and 11 years ago we started what we call the four corners football championships. And in 2019, we didn't have one in 2020, but in 2019, we celebrate our 10th anniversary and became the largest youth football tournament at this time in state of New Mexico. , I was going through what, probably the biggest numbers of teams I ever, 58 teams in three days playing 64 games on seven fields. In two days, we had just had a lot of activity in the community. our people come as far away as the Denver, Grand junction, Colorado and Carlsbad, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Show Low, a lot of the area teams, Utah, places like that. And the program has just grown immensely and here as we go into 2021, a couple of things that occurred, we had created a big relationship with an organization in Albuquerque, we've worked with the young American football YAPL program which has been in existence for a long time. And we were told for years that nobody from Albuquerque would ever come to Gallup for a tournament and probably say in 2019, we got 28 from Albuquerque and Rio Rancho come to Gallup for a tournament. So that was huge. And everybody spent the night and one of team for sure spent two nights and of course the convenience store and the restaurants, gas stations everybody was busy I went to Lowe's one day. I checked periodically to see if you're getting any people in from the outside, coming in to Football uniforms. I hear that all the time there was the tournament. So overall it's been a great, great thing. We can stand our social media presence by using Sunny 505 with the help of Bill Lee and they're out of Albuquerque. And with that, we've been able to do some outreaching to areas where we've never reached out before. And that helped us to grow some teams in 2019. We plan to expand that horizon this year, a little bit and utilize utilizing Sunny505 in Albuquerque to reach out to some more communities that maybe have not been in our tournaments before. we're going to utilize that for sets expensive we're expecting a little bit of inflation to affect us here.one of the neat things about our tournaments we've had we can look at about 24 to 27 kids, 14, and we have about 58 teams competing here. Every kid that comes in participates as awarded a medallion and they walk away, it has got the Gallup logo on it and they walk away with this. This is a metal that stays with them for the rest of their lives. So we do some briefings things here. We have a hospitality event. Our community has been so gracious to be a great host for it. In years past, we have a big hamburger. Saturday night, everybody comes together, the community comes together. We had Red Rock Balloon rally with tethered hot air balloons, We have MedStar flying their helicopters up over Ford Canyon. I mean, it's just a great community event that really showcases and makes Gallup look good. And when you're dealing with young kids that are age six to 14 and 15 is football they're bringing the whole families. They're bringing brothers, sisters, grandma, grandpa, moms and dads, some have single parents. And it's a good deal. We have some, a great event here and I'm proud saying that we're looking forward to going into 2021 this year with a real good positive impact with being in four corners tournament and teams that have bond or those come here from Pueblo, Colorado. For example, then we have supplied teams from there this past time, we had a tournament in checking back with all on board to come back to the [inaudible] last year. And we knew there some wins there on the West side. So that's where we're at with you. Football is a great deal for Gallup. we're just excited about all the great things that we're doing to help make this event happen. Jason Arsenault: Yeah, I was there with my kid. We didn't win a game. We got to play multiple games. It was quite a turn out, Ken Riege: I have just have a quick question for you. it doesn't have really, it just popped into my head. Yeah. Because it's been going on for about 11 years. Have you heard back from any of the parents or the team, any of the kids, maybe they've gone on to play division one football or higher? I mean, its such a great event. Sammy Chioda: Maybe four or so years ago, I think it was the sixth annual tournament. It was so great the way they had it was the oldest group that we had was supposed to be 12, 13, 14 year old that year. And we had an Albuquerque champion playing in our tournament. They won the city championship in Albuquerque undefeated, and then they played, they happened to be matched up for the finals with the Moab’s Thunder birds who won their city championship in undefeated. And they met for the championship game here at Gallup. And the four of those kids went on and played for the university of Utah and all, once you get much of Colorado and one went to Arizona and another went to a community college. And one of them turned out to be a terrific kicker for one of the Utah teams. Roy Gerela formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers came over from the NFL and work with us. We try to get that kind of help every year. He came over and actually ran a clinic here during the off times, and then kids walked away really learning a lot from the session that they had with Roy. It's a real good thing. we've had probably I'd say in a 10 year period that we've had it, I'd say maybe 25 to 30 kids. It takes a lot to go to that next level. I'd say 25 to 30, between the Albuquerque... Jordan Love for a year, he's been in Las Lunas...he played in our tournament and one of the running backs. Jeremy Boucher: So looking at the numbers here, the last, the last event you had here is about a thousand more people than the previous year. Sammy Chioda: Right? Right. Jeremy Boucher: what do you anticipate in this year? Sammy Chioda: Well, we put in for $20,000 in 2019 and we left it at $20,000 for this year. with that just anticipation of increasing the numbers with Pop Warner league out of Las Lunas. We anticipate some teams coming out of there and also we're doing some, we're going to do some outreach to areas we've never reached out before with social media. And that's going to be a little bit pretty pricey for us to, to be able to do that. I know Gabe Gallegos [of Sunny505] did a great job, great guy. He did a great job in helping us solidify some teams that have never been here before, in years past in 2019. And so I'm hoping that that would be keeping the money right where it's at and of course the costs of awards going up, fortunately the community helps us with the hospitality, we don't use any of our money from lunch tax for that. Ours is more awards based the jackets ,the shirts, the trophies. We had trophies for like eight, nine different brackets, just tournaments in that, in that weekend of the tournament because of the different age groups. So that I couldn't give you a number, because I think that I feel that we're going to get an additional teams because of the, of the new relationships that we've created. I don't see any teams dropping out. Jeremy Boucher: What has everybody's comfort level been like with COVID-19 in the football community? Sammy Chioda: You're going to have that element. We're experiencing that right now, just with our own local registrations here. There's some parents that don't want their kids playing for another year. And we grant that. I understand that, but I think that aside from New Mexico, aside from the Gallup thing, I know there's going to be an element of people in Albuquerque that are not going to play yet, the real serious kids are going to play, Pop Warner is the same way here. There's going to be that element. We just went online two weeks ago with our registration. We've got, COVID safe practices that we're going to follow. We're going to follow the CDC guidelines. That's kind of a, an umbrella coverage for us, cause we're going to follow up with the youngers going to set out Saturday. but we, the most important thing is we're going, I'm really professed the sensibility to the teams and families. And as Jennifer pointed out a moment ago, they're expecting, July 1 to open things up a little bit more than the state and ours is not till the end of October. So we feel that we have a little bit of a cushion there to kind of work up to that event on the COVID standpoint, I think we're probably going to have, I know where it will have to increase. I just don't know how high of an increase we're going to have. Jeremy Boucher: Well, my feeling is just to kind of start conversations mirror there's the one line item in your budget for your free item marketing costs is, I mean, it's like a thousand dollars unallowable cost. Jennifer: To clarify, in the application chart, it says that shirts may not be used as awards. That's something you all have to discuss. Sammy Chioda: So in our case, we do the awards for the team. if a team wins a championship and the tournament coaches get in shirts Jennifer: The city manager recommended asking, is there something else that's not the shirt that can be given as an award? Sammy Chioda: I'm open to suggestions. We can do double bags a little bit more pricey. But these are not for sale. These are awards that we can give out and nothingness is resold from what we generate. We can do duffle bags, we can do jackets- would those qualify? Jennifer: I'm going to leave it to them because they are in charge of the considerations, they can decide what qualifies. Sammy Chioda: And then we have a thousand there at the uniform station and all that. And then we also have sports world work with sports school. Then they do some embroidery up there as well of us. They were great to work with in 2019. Jeremy Boucher: So those two things go together, Sportsworld and Uniform Station? Sammy Chioda: Yes. So he does the embroidery on the shirts or some stuff that vice versa Sports World, that's where we've gotten more before we've had the jackets from Uniform Station. We haven't done caps in a while, or we haven't done those. Everybody's got ball caps. So we have the bags. So I don't have any problems doing duffle bags or coming up with something more creative. Jeremy Boucher: So maybe again on this last, the last meeting you guys have this information about specifically… Did you guys have this conversation about specifically what can be given out? Anna Connell: I think I would even be okay with the shirts as the award, if we make sure that those are being handed out. Jennifer: One thing that you guys have done in the last meeting as a refresher, from the anti-donation standpoint, here is my question for you- is receiving something for paying to participate antidonation? That is for you to decide. Is it an incentive? Sammy Chioda: It isn’t an incentive. Jeremy Boucher: Yeah, you have to have some sort of value added for winning something. Whether it is first second, third, etc. Sammy Chioda: The thing that is neat about this too, like the shirts we gave in 2019 with Gallup Real True, I’ve seen those in Albuquerque and other areas where people are wearing those shirts. The medallions get a sticker with Gallup Real True because the medallions are hard to do engraving. The cost is $1.99 but the value to the kid is so much higher. We have families that have kids play in our tournament for every one of the 11 years or 10 years, because this kid, the first kid was part of it. The second kid was part of it solely, and we'd become friends and I go over and you walk into their place and it's Thomas employee and they're in their sports or their family room. There's no doubt. I mean, I think, I mean, with any sports thing, like it's a sports at the sports thing is it doesn't matter what the things were monetary. Like you fought, you bled with that. I mean, that's the way it goes. And it's just, it's all about promoting Gallup. I mean, that's what it is. I think if we can get, if we can get 1500 people promoting Gallup with something that they walk away from, from our turn to discuss some recognition of Gallup on it that to me is going to be an extension once we leave here, that promotes our community. Anna Connell: Well, with that, you like to a kid like that t-shirt, or that, whatever the metal - that made their weekend. And that's what it's all about as a parent. if you spent three bucks on my kid, and they wore that metal and my kids will wear it for weeks. That means that I'll come back next time. I don't care what the registration fee is. I don't care if they won or lost or whatever, but if they had a good time and they felt good, that's why I'm going to come back. And so I want to make sure that that's what we're promoting here and that we're making sure that you're able to give them that experience that they've had in the past, so have them coming back for the next 10 years. it might be a small investment, but it really is a big investment in the grand scheme of things because we'll have families and grandparents. And I think all these people come October will be vaccinated. They'll be more comfortable to travel. You might get the aunts and uncles that haven't ever come because they're bringing their whole gang of people because it's fine. They're able to do it for the first time in a year and a half. Sammy Chioda: Yeah. To your point. I don't think I've ever seen anybody leave our tournament disappointed except from losing a game. When they leave they're happy about what they're experiencing. And if you talk to coaches that have been here, the hospitality that we provide them is second to none. They don't get it an Albuquerque. They don't get it in, in Phoenix, Vegas. They don't get it in Denver. They get it in Gallup. And we've been the envy of Farmington. Farmington even tried to compete with our tournament by doing their own tournament. And it only lasted three years cause they don't know, they don't have, they don't get all the elements and dynamics in place that makes them become a winning program. And so to that point, and I'm glad you brought that up, it's cultivating. And that family that I just mentioned from Albuquerque, that's a good explanation and a good description of what I'm saying in the fact that rour of their kids for the, and one of them was a girl, four of their young kids and their family went through our program. Jeremy Boucher: No, I think, I think, I mean, I think that's right. Sammy this thing it's grown every year. Jennifer: I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I want to clarify a few things for the public record. Based on what I’m hearing here, you are continuing to support prizes. Yes. So that is exactly what the last meeting you did agree that prizes were an allowable expense. Jeremy Boucher: I'm going to make a motion that will help with this. Jennifer: Okay. I do need to ask about the shirts and I need to consider that all of this discussion we need to come back. I just needed it clear for the public record about the prizes portion of things because there was a very clear connection in the last meeting between prizes and give-aways Anna Connell: And we need to make sure that the t-shirts are prizes and that's what they are going to be. Jennifer: That's what this discussion is, I just need to know that for the public record, because in the last meeting you all had said no, but what is your decision today? I have no skin in this game. Jeremy Boucher: I think, I think the distinction there, and I think Anna brought this up is that it's not, so we can't, obviously we're not selling them. Right. And we're not just giving them away to everybody who shows up or whatever. I think that that's a clean and clear distinction, prizes for coaches. It's an inexpensive way to extend that prize feeling of satisfaction. And you came away with something because you could earn, real hard work to win the game or whatever. So with that, with that in mind I would move to, to fund the four corners tournament at $20,000, with that caveat that, any t-shirts purchased the, just for the, the number of prizes that are going to be awarded for those costs, Sammy Chioda: That’s what we do. Anna Connell: And it's for coaches only? Sammy Chioda: We have we as a board, we went ahead and purchased our own shirts that were an extension of those the last time we did it because they came up so nice. How about us? So we bought our own shirts. We bought the same lot, the same style, the same embroidery, the same Gallup inscription. You'd probably seen me wear from time to time. And so we bought our own shirts for that. And but for that reason, and that reason only, and I think that if you consider it on a per need basis, in other words, I've explained to you how we utilize our stuff, if you do it, and if you analyze it on a per need basis, I think I'm going to be safe in making your decisions on how those monies are going to be extended and going to be offered. Jennifer: So I’ve heard a motion for $20,000 for Four Corners Tournament marketing and prizes from Jeremy? Anna: I'll second that, Sammy Chioda: But Jeremy, if I may before you have a vote, if I may, I just almost say to us, if for some reason we don't have the numbers coming in and we were nearly do we, and we don't extend the dollars as we do that. Money gets to back to Lodgers tax. We don’t drawn down on it. If we don't spend it just cause we haven't. We, if we, if we realistically look at it in the middle part of October, we look at the early, there's an early bird registration fee, which really when you look at what the value is of what they pay for and what they get in return and the valuation paying for the registration fee we exceed what they’re expecting. And so when we do this, I'll run the 14th of October. If the numbers just aren't there because we get more early because they're going to save on the registration fee, as opposed to later late, we'll probably get a few trickling in, but it's not going to be significant enough. That's going to make the difference between the expenditure of 15,000 and 20,000. So we look at that if for some reason, and there's been years gone by, if you look back to our history with the city hall, because we're very precise on turning in receipts and everything like that, you'll find that there's so many, many years we refund the money back. [it doesn’t get drawn down] Anna Connell: And that's what I was going to say, especially with, after our conversation last week. and talking with the city attorney, I think it's important that everyone just keep extra good track of all of their receipts and exactly what they're sending it on. And if it is a prize versus a giveaway, have all that itemized. There is no gray area, and that we don't get ourselves, the city of Gallup it's not us. The city will get in trouble. Jennifer: We have had a motion and second, may I have a vote? [roll calls all committee members, all say yes] Thank you. I'm taking a recommendation for $20,000 from council on Tuesday, I will get a link for you and please let me know if you have any questions. Sammy Chioda: I invite each of you to come to our event that can just see what we do. I mean as you know we're scattered in five different fields in the community, solar. I don’t think people will have a problem social distancing. Also, mark your calendars for the 30th, which is Saturday night of our event, which is our hospitality night. Jennifer: [Discussed with Sammy listing his event on the State tourism website, then informed the Lodger’s Tax Committee about his business’s inclusion in the Sports Fan’s Guide to Route 66 Book and the author book signing on September 18th at Sammy C’s]. Jennifer: Our next application for consideration is Wildthing, it’s the last application in yoru book. Larry Peterson: Thank you everyone for your time, as well as any councilors or the mayor that may be watching. Wildthing championship Bullriding- we’re the number one open bullriding, the entire Southwest, the very first wild thing, we have 600 people attend between both nights. Now we push 10 thousand. They have filmed us and just so you know, open bull riding means anyone from any sanction across the country can enter. PRCA PBR. We allow anybody from any sanction around the country can enter. We have bull riders from four different countries every year Canada, Mexico, Brazil, America. They filmed us five different times. It's aired in five different countries several times. and that's just the contestant side of it on that. I've got plenty of 29 years of my life into this, this thing is number 28. I rode bulls for nine years. I started this two years after charter Jordan. We started the same year that PBR did or the same year that they are. We're asking for 35% less than we got two years ago from the last one. Jennifer: I just want to amend, I redid the math in the application- please go by more notes, it’s a few hundred dollars more than what Larry wrote. Larry Peterson: For the community, the impact study that they get out of a private deal out of Phoenix. They estimated at a 1.2 million. The one at the tall had turned out to 1.4 million, as far as impact study, we’re the largest fundraiser for the Manuelito Children’s home, we have been for years. As far as heads in beds, when you have $5,000 people until 10 at night there are going to be heads in beds, that's just all there is to it on this size of an event that contestants come from everywhere. There's, they're scattered from all over, just so everybody knows a little bit of the background. There's over 50 or 60 people come from back East from a big church who could come five days early, they'd pull weeds, paint, spruce up, help them at the children's home. Then, they all go to the park to handle their part of it, the parking and concession. All those people have to stay in a motel room for that five or six days. My manpower that rolls in here, we use a lot of people from Gallup, but there's a lot of people come and start contractors, workers, everybody, all those people and their families stay in motel rooms. That's not even counting the 8,500 to 10,000 spectators that are in Gallup for Wildthing. It's a pretty massive monster that comes from a lot of different directions on there. that's kind of where we're at. We are asking for a lot less, we actually turned in $38,000 worth of receipts two years ago that were all approved against the 35,000 that we got. This thing will cost a lot more to put on then while we actually have ways to here always does. And every year it costs more than it did the year before. I'll be honest with you. I would this COVID thing and the way we all got matched, I have no idea how much more it’s going to cost to do every day over and above. I kind of went off the numbers from previous. You’ll see, I did break out separate a few things that are in questions that are in that gray zone. I separated that on there because two of the counselors asked me to please put it on the list because they want to discuss it more next week. And they wanted it on the list in case they say it's okay for those items that are broken out separate. because it would have been too hard to come back and add them if they approved those four separate deals. So that's why they're on there, because four of them did express there in the last council meeting that they thought some of that was okay. And they did say that Gallup has been audited for 15 years and we've never had any hiccups on lodger’s tax. And so they felt some of those items, as long as they were not being sold were okay because we put Gallup Real True on everything we do. We've got a national variety magazine and number one, we're running the magazine and the country's break in June 1st. We'll go coast to coast and me right up front Gallup is on it. And just so you know, even if some of those items are not qualified, Gallup Real True will not just be on them. Jennifer: I’m sorry to interrupt you, one of the things that you guys need to discuss exactly that, and I started to interrupt you because there was a conversation in the last meeting about the public perception of the logo on non- funded items. So you guys need to tell to decide today is that's okay. I can't say whether it is or not, but from you need to decide what is allowable for public perception. Jeremy, what the City Attorney said is that the give-away is violating the anti-donation, it’s not a lodger’s tax violation. I’m just putting it out there for you guys to discuss. Are you fine with the logo being on things that are not funded. Anna Connell: I’m okay with that. I will say, organizers just need to keep a record of what they’ve paid for so there is public transparency about what was paid for. [committee agrees]. Jennifer: Thank you, I just need to ask the questions for public clarification. Larry Peterson: And I wanted to tell you something, you were talking about kids. Our six little kids that are the wooly rider, we give a buckle each night. I’ve been told by the parents that its one of the most prestigious buckles in the United States. You can’t take it off of them, they even want to take baths with those buckles on. They wear them everywhere they go for years. Anna Connell: And this is one of Gallup’s best events that we put on every year. Larry Peterson: I try my very best. The only way I can relate it, I have to, I have to categorize what I'm doing on things. And so I have to treat everybody like a sponsor. Lodger’s Tax is a different animal, but I tried to put everything out there in front of everybody across the entire country. And get the most maximized everything is I can, I have story I wanted to tell y'all- I got a second cousin two years ago. She and her own family were on a Caribbean cruise. She called me when they got back there on the cruise, they saw a man wearing a Wildthing t-shirt. Of course I'm not real close to her. She's a second cousin. I've seen her at a family reunion, whichever three years or whatever. She went up to the man and said, you're wearing this shirt. My cousin is Wilthing. He put that event on. The man told her the story. He lives in Europe, his whole family, they were on a big vacation. They were touring across United States. They'd heard the ad on the radio station coming from Albuquerque. They stopped Gallup to fill up with gas and eat. They didn't intend on staying. They saw posters. They talked to some people, what is this? They didn't even really know what a bull riding was. What is this to him? They were just rodeo. They decided to spend the night, this was on Thursday night and go to it on Friday. They went to it on Friday. Love this so much. They bought another motel room and stayed and went to it on Saturday. She, she heard this story from this man about this. I've got hundreds of stories like, yes, they've seen her step in Canada and Mexico all over New York. But anyway, they had attended. Then after hearing that story, they planned to come to Wildthing. It all got canceled. Last year, they are all coming this year. There's 13 of them all coming. That's just one of hundreds of stories of what has happened with this job. And it all happened because of a t-shirt being seen on a boat in the middle of the ocean. I've heard stories that is scattered from Canada and Mexico to New York City. Our bumper sticker people are always sending me pictures where they snap it in Phoenix or El Paso or wherever of our bumper sticker. My nephew's on SWAT in Lubbock. After a call out for SWAT. This is about a year and a half ago. Him and a couple of other SWAT members were eating a restaurant at one o'clock in the morning. He snapped a picture of a man walking by wearing a Wildthing shirt and sent it to me. So people see this stuff, it happens and we have a massive reach out there. We advertise for contestants across the country. We advertise in five or six states for spectators. We have a big reach. And just so you know, the money is being spent properly, Wildthing gets a better price on advertising any event, probably in the country because of the children's home, all of them want that children's home to do good. They all know we’re their biggest fundraiser of the year. They give us outstanding prices on our advertising across the board. So we, the dollars are being spent very, very well. So we get a very good reach for our dollar out there across the country, Jennifer: If I may, let’s direct the discussion to be award amount and the budget, because we can talk all day about the event’s successes, I love it, but let’s move to this. Jeremy Boucher: What were you awarded? [$35,000] you guys spend the full 35,000? Larry Peterson: Yes sir, we turned in $38,000 worth of receipts that were okayed and got our $35,000.And so we're asking for about 35% less this time, because we know everything is different. Jennifer: And, the problem Mr. Peterson, with the changes to the meeting last week, many of the items in his were items for retail, and Larry has strategically redone his budget, so I wanted to compliment him on that and make that you guys know that he's really thought about his expenses. Larry Peterson: Thank you. Anna Connell: I know that we talked last time last week, that allowed and not allowed expenses, but I, and I also know that we talked this year being year, being with COVID a healing year, and it's kind of a year for us to get back on track. Did I make this up or did I hear it where we talked about some of these promotional items possibly being okay if we okayed it as a board ? Jennifer: You did talk about that, the discussion was it comes down to anti-donation. From the tracking standpoint, I’m not asking for any event evaluations until 2023, it’s just not fair to event organizers otherwise. But with regard to items, giveaways were considered anti-donation but it is really up to you all. Jeremy Boucher: I wasn't here last time and I see why the concern for the giveaways and the anti donation clause, that seems like more of a conversation on lawyer should have. But I think going, here's my, here's my thing there. And I, and I understand the t-shirts and all the promotional items, but what I'm, what my thought is, because we're sure this year, so much money, you guys are trying to get up and running. We appreciate you guys. but what if we just focused on getting folks here for this year? And then we reapproach the conversation with the swag,, we give away stuff, like, I mean, I know to help a lot of fun to catch t-shirts when you're in the crowd or whatever, but for this year, just looking at the budget and we certainly appreciate you going back and rearranging the budget and asking for less. But what if we focus on only those things that are just absolutely essential to marketing Gallup, to making sure that you can get the people here that need to be here and we can start there for this year. Including prizes. Jason Arsenault: I think what Larry is saying. Yeah, I privately because that's an essential, that's an essential aspect of the, I think what Larry's saying is that he put them out here on the bottom to separate them from the top, because he's asking us as an advisory board, if we were to approve that, that it has to be taken in front of council any way for them to decide whether that's Larry Peterson: And I don't know if you saw the council meeting, but the mayor and three of the council spoke up and said that they thought as long as they weren't being sold, that they thought the promotional items were very important to drawing your crowd. Jeremy Boucher: I, 100% agree with that. Larry Peterson: I’m at 35% less, even with that included. Anna Connell: Well, and that's one thing that I feel like sometimes gets a little fuzzy because I agree that like, that's a good time. Like I want, like, I want my kids to get the shirts and I want my I want to get that stuff when I'm there. But in the, where does it say? It says that these funds are specifically to be used for advertising publicizing and promoting, which is the pre-event versus the event itself. And so that's where it's hard because like my heart to give everything, but then we have to like it, we've got to go back to what the city attorney presented us with and really just making it that black and white. Larry Peterson: If I could, could I add something to that? The attorney said if you speak to another attorney who might have a totally different opinion, we did when we talked to an attorney, used to be a big part of the City. And he told us that as long as it wasn’t being sold, so he felt like that it was fine and his opinions, but it wasn't totally different. That being said, he also the one that said city of Gallup’s been audited for 15, 20 years every year. And they've never had a problem with that, the whole thing is a grey area so that every city could adjust everything to what they wanted and needed. I have lots of concussions. I've been through a lot. but I do my homework and Ms. Lazarz I’m sure will agree with that. I've dealt with her a long time and I do my homework. I check on things. I ask people, I talk to people. and like I said, a couple of the councilors asked me to put it on the list. I did separate it as Jason said there, because I knew it was going to be a separate discussion item. and I did try to bring these things down as far as I could. I do know a lot of those promotional items are what helps build our crowd, gets them to return and tell other people, this thing was fun and fantastic. You need to bring your family to come. We just ran a two minute video. 10 days ago out there, they got shared over 350 times over 40,000 people viewed it. And I call it starting to wake our wild things up across the country. Trust me, they're waking up. Jennifer: I’d like to add that the committee can at any point revisit last week’s discussion. One meeting is not an absolute. Ken Riege: Nice. A real quick comment too. I mean, you've done this in the years past. Why is it this year? All of a sudden it took concern Jennifer: Because the point that the attorney last week, where we off of the [inaudible] from the attorney General's office and the last group of audits from the last previous country music festival and how they were cited within their audit, those were the two things that the city attorney brought up. 90% was fraud but then of that 10% was they were cited for t-shirts in the morning. And there was a question of over promotional items thing. So that's what he said last week. The city attorney word for 90% of that lawsuit is not, it's really going to apply 10%. Shouldn't be in his opinions. But the other point that he was making was about the Anti-donation in the constitution. So this is not coming from me. I want to make it clear this is coming from the city attorney and his review of cases from other cities and the audits. I want to make it clear this isn’t coming from me. What he also expressed is it is his job to advise the city because he's the one that has to defend in court. However, this is a policy decision that is made by you and the council, not by him. The last week in that discussion with the city attorney, you decided that promotional items were not part of the permitted item. That said, it’s a policy decision and you can revisit the discussion. Jeremy Boucher: And that's a separate question from, for me anyway. I mean, it's separate question and just budget considerations that we're facing right now. I mean, if we had $230,000, 250,000, it's easy to just be like, Oh yeah, let's roll. but we don't have that this year. And I think it's so it's important that we get as many events rolling again this year as we can, because I know from personal experience, if you let it go for a year, two years, it's like starting over all over again. And so that's considered like that's what's in my mind will be what they were. Larry Peterson: Our crowds will be what they were, they may be bigger. How many beds? Those people are craving the entertainment. so, and I understand what you're saying, and that's why I worked on this thing. We brought it down 35% trying to help those conditions right there. I will be honest with you. I was kind of surprised that the others didn't factor amounts off that they asked for but we're trying to make it happen. We're trying to make everything survive. Jeremy Boucher: So just, just so like, I see you're saying right, Sammy, we awarded him the full amount that he asked for, which is basically the same as last year. Right. but looking at his list, that's the only thing, that's the only difference between your request and his request is that a lot of yours are promotional items. They're giveaways. And I understand that in general, those are very healthy and great things. But what we're saying is we absolutely need to make sure that you have an event, so we'll get the advertising, but we also need to make sure that we get have enough money for when the second, because all those folks that are having their, their stuff early next, Anna Connell: So what you’re saying, the $2335 comes out? Jason Arsenualt: I mean, if you look at Sammy’s you have $9,000, almost half of what he asked for go for non- promotional stuff. Right. I mean, even though it's award and stuff, I mean, trophies are still non-promotional. So those are those. That's what I'm saying is like, those are essential aspects. you can't do a competitive event without a prize. So that'd be stupid here. Larry Peterson: If you rode that 1800 pound bull, you want that buckle. Jeremy Boucher: That's exactly right. I think there's a legitimate difference that we can probably, I mean, that's probably a conversation you guys had last time around, but like a prize. I mean, you put out real true on it. It's Gallup New Mexico and it's like, that's coming, that's kind of like us in the community, recognizing the excellence of the people who are coming to your thing. I mean, that's kind of how I'm feeling. And I mean, so the prize is one thing. Larry Peterson: As a producer, I looked at the other side as important or more important than like the testing is that tease out with, people's going to spend money in gala, got to make sure they're entertaining. Jeremy Boucher: So let me propose a compromise. I move that we fund Larry for the first, $22,500 which would be about half of the promotional items for this year, all your advertising, all your prizes and everything that you're requesting here. Larry Peterson: I would be tickled to death with that. Jennifer: Can we have a second? Anna Connell: I’ll second. Jennifer: Any further discussion? Anna Connell? So we can, we can do that. Jennifer: This is all policy decisions. You may choose to do promotional items. This is really good. Last week you said no, this week you said, yes, so it's there for the public. To clarify for the public, you’re walking back on the promotional item thing, but to summarize you would prefer if the majority of the ask is non-promotional items to get people to come into town. Anna Connell: I think because really, I think the majority of our funding needs to be the pre event, getting the people here, and in my opinion, if we're able to we have a little bit for the promotional items, then that's case by case. Really the main focus of the lodger’s tax is the pre-event publicly publicizing and familiar. Larry Peterson: We all have been hammered. this has been a miserable situation for a year and a half, and there's lots and lots of problems behind everything. All of us are doing. And pulling this back up out of the ashes after two years is rough to say the least, cause we've all lost, loved ones. Businesses have been destroyed everything, but everybody out here is wanting things back to normal. They're wanting entertainment and things for their family. It's a rough deal for everybody. I appreciate everybody's concern. Jennifer: So I have a motion from Jeremy for $22,500 and a second from Anna. [roll calls the vote and everyone says yes, then explained taking it to council on Tuesday and asked Larry to talk to his niece to get his event on the state tourism website]. Greg Kirk: Thank you for having me here. I’m Greg Kirk, president of Red Rock Motor sports club. We're a nonprofit club. We lease the Gallup OHV motorcross park from the City. We took over the lease in 2010. I shouldn't say take it took over- we established prior to that the area on the North side was it was basically a chaotic piece of land where every illegal activity took place, but we took over 2010. It helps the City because they cannot insure a motocross park. So therefore they leased it to a nonprofit. The nonprofit can then take the insurance and all that their liability. And that's where we're at. And we've been doing it for the last 11 years. So our club we've promoted over 40 off-road events out the Gallup OHV motocross park. This year will be the 15th desert race we've had. we team up with gas-it off road promotions to the largest desert racing entity in New Mexico. This year, we'll be round two. we're starting to halfway through the season. It'll be Cuba, Gallup, and then Carlsbad. So we're just going to try to put together a miniseries for the desert race. We just secured another grant from the New Mexico OHV program for $15,000 to renovate our motor track. so this will be perfect timing. It will be like a grand reopening perfect in September. We're excited to get going again. We need the income from an event to get a fusion of money into the club because our funds are so low. We didn't have the event last year. We have to pay the insurance. Butut we've got a big amount of support through the volunteers, EMS. The committee really supports us. We've got tons of sponsors that just go above and beyond for a club. We are asking for less this year in lieu of the promotional items which was pretty disappointing because we were the only event in the entire state that was offering free t-shirts to all the participants Jason: You could change them to be awards. Jeremy Boucher: So that's the kind of thing. If it's for the contestants, they pay an entry fee? They’re paying for their t- shirts dude, am I right? Jason Arsenault: Does their application include the cost of the shirt? Jennifer: So your prizes are trophies and then some categories get hoodies, those are prizes. But I honestly, if you're telling me you're hurting for revenue, why not utilize selling the shirts as a revenue stream? Greg Kirk: I think that's what we're going to do this year. So we're going to buy them of our own money. Jennifer: Yeah. I mean, cause we can go down right now, clearly the present is that they are considered promotional items. If you’d like, the committee can consider them, otherwise at the same time you're telling me you're hurting for money. So what would you like to have the committee consider? Greg Kirk: I just say let's, let's sell our own t-shirts this year. Anna Connell: I have a question on that you said this is a series, isn't it? How many cities or are you like, I'm just wondering? Greg Kirk: It's it's a 10 to 12 round series. But gas it off road cannot get the BLM permit for a lot of the areas around the state in time. We are an exception because we're privately owned. It’s an automatic and they too, they need the revenue as well. They go out of pocket, a bunch to travel from Las Cruces to Gallup. So they're excited. Jennifer: So to clarify Gas-it is your partner- you're the one really putting it on there, just a partner in terms of getting participants and some additional marketing. Greg Kirk: Yes. Because this series helps draw those racers here. Jennifer: I’m just clarifying for the committee that this is an event created within our own community, it isn’t an outside organization. That was something of concern earlier with regard to website funding. Jeremy Boucher: So just a quick question. In your budget list you have $8,200, but on your funding request you have $10,000. Which is it? Greg Kirk: $8,200. It was just a typo with the online form. Jennifer: I want to bring this up: you brought up that you have hoodies as prizes but you didn’t include those. Jason Arsenault: How much were those? Greg Kirk: A thousand. Jason Arsenault: So your ask is really for $9,200. Jeremy Boucher: I move to approve for $9,200. Ken Riege: I second. Jennifer: I have a motion by Jeremy and a second by Ken . Any additional discussion? [Roll call of votes, all yes] Greg Kirk: I appreciate that. I'm just letting you know that the events showcase our facility. So even though it's just one event, we have the turned off voters coming in all year long. Okay. And I get calls weekly. I meet people out there weekly to sign up as members to set them up. Camping, what a great spot. It's on the map. It's on the off-roading map. People love it. easy access. Why don't by 40? Jennifer: Oh Greg. One thing I'd like to mention to you with regard to the park is to have a meeting with JM DeYoung and the land and water conservation fund. Have you looked at that? Greg Kirk: We are doing that through. Jennifer: Great. It came up with the Outdoor Atlas Project. Have you heard about it? Okay. So the Mexico main street have contracted Groundwork as an organization to develop out an outdoor recreation atlas. And it is two focuses. One is it as an asset map and then details all of the outdoor recreation. And then number two is identifying projects for future development. They sent an email that explained uses for Land and Conservation funds and the park is that kind of qualifier. Greg Kirk: In the grand scheme of things. We as a group, Adventure Gallup and Beyond, want to acquire the entire North side, that's 8,000 acres. And if we can do that, then we can have hiking and biking, uploading all one shared use area so we can have our mini-Moab. So we're looking at funds to purchase from GLP. Jennifer: that leads me to one more question with regard to outdoor recreation. In the past, Adventure Gallup has served two roles. One is the trail building and the outdoor adventure infrastructure building. And then other one has been preparation and marketing. Would you say that the organization is leaning more heavily into the, the attraction building side? I want to confirm that too. So then if I'm applying for grants and stuff it helps me have a delineation of roles. Greg Kirk: I would say definitely they’re leaning into the attraction building. I’d agree. Jennifer: thanks! Anna: Motion to adjorn Jason: Second. All in favor. Meeting ended at 1:52pm.