Whitefish Convention & Visitor Bureau Committee

Board Meeting Minutes Monday, Nov 9, 2020 1 -2:45 pm Location: via Zoom Conferencing Meeting called to order at 1:04 pm by Zak Anderson of the WCVB Board of Directors Introductions: Board Members in Attendance:, Jessie Farnes, Mariah Joos, Erica Terrell, Edna White, Nick Polumbus, Zak Anderson Jenny Cloutier, Rhonda Fitzgerald Absent: Luke Walrath Quorum met with eight of nine members. Staff & Agencies: Dylan Boyle (WCVB Executive Director), Dan Hanson (WCVB Marketing & Sales Coordinator), Sarah Stewart (WCVB Office Manager), Lisa Jones, Brian Schott & Ella Kolbelt (LJ Communications) Public Attendees: Mike Bento Approval of Minutes Edna White motioned to approve the Oct 12, 2020 minutes. Motion was seconded by Jessie Farnes - passed unanimously Public Comment: Special Presentation: Dylan Boyle – Montana Aware Safety Grant Update Dylan gave a summary of what we have done so far, in regards to MT Aware Safety Grant expenditures. WhitefishCovidCares.com web URL is where all WCVB and City efforts point to. Our safety videos, in conjunction with the City, received so far over 34K views. We have messaging in the kiosks and the Airport. Other information distribution also took place through the Travel Guides in the way of custom sticky notes inserted manually into the current guides, consumer enews, and through our website. Future plans include: safety videos and radio PSAs, education and outreach with Sustainable Tourism Management Plan, more information in the 2021 Travel Guide. Rhonda suggested emphasizing wearing masks first in future messaging. Agency Reports: Agency DVA report – presented by Dylan Boyle October Recap: Fall campaign has wrapped up for the year. CTR and CPC have both improved slightly month over month. We received over 2 million impressions through our Fall Facebook ads. Summer plus ads showed that the fishing content had a lot more impressions than the biking ads. Year over year, email sign ups and Travel Guide digital views are up. Website users are up 26.7% from last year. Geographic breakdown: Seattle, Portland, Dallas, Spokane were the top out of state sources. PR Report - LJ Communications Public Relations Report: Lisa Jones reported on the LA Times article – they met with the reporter to help steer the Covid conversation. The message is not one we want, but it does show that Whitefish is the “little engine that could” in safety messaging and proactive actions with Covid outreach messaging started on March 3rd ahead of the State. The Covid Task Force is working ahead regarding messaging and hopefully it will save our ski season. Keeping our businesses and schools open is their goal. (Task force representation includes people from the Whitefish School System, North Valley Hospital, Glacier Medical Associates, WCVB, Whitefish Mtn Resort, City of Whitefish, and local business owners) The Task Force is creating a video series, including: "walks of life” type videos, featuring: kids, business owners, Maggie Voison & local musicians. Physical assets include: Hanging banners downtown is also part of the plan, posters, SNOW bus ads, etc. The Task Force plan should be available any day now. The City is doing the heavy lifting for most of the funding of the Covid campaign (along with the hospital and the schools). Committee Reports: WCVB Finance Committee: Sarah went over TPA collections. Rhonda suggested that we should review and (possibly) increase our budget after another month or so, as the TPA numbers are better than expected. Jenny Cloutier motioned to approve the financials as presented in the board packet Nick Plumbus seconded - passed unanimously. WCVB Marketing Committee: Values Statement: It started as a visitor pledge, with the Wander Lightly campaign that got shelved with Covid. At the end of Sept they decided to go with a values statement – titled “Be a Friend of the Fish” made up of 9 statements about recreating, visiting and living in Whitefish responsibly. Rhonda commented that she liked all the statements, but they need to be “snappier” – as stated they aren’t very catchy. STAFF Reports:. Marketing & Sales Report: Dan Hansen: Phone calls are up this year, highest since FY15. Gains in both Instagram and FB followers. Top posts on Facebook all featured Central Ave pictures. Dan reviewed other projects including Travel Guide, MT Aware Safety Grant items for distribution including hand sanitizer dispensers, masks, buffs, signs and stickers. Two photo shoots were done last month featuring masked models in photos/videos about fishing and shopping in town. A groups committee virtual social hour took place last month. Director's Report: Dylan Boyle: Reviewed the lodging report. For Q1 occupancy was down -12.5% and ADR down -6.2%. September’s numbers were much improved compared to the past few previous months. Air service is rebounding as well, GPI was the third business airport in the state for September. Overall GNP visits were down 30% in September, but West Glacier entrance saw an increase of entrances of 27% in September due to the East Entrance being closed. Oct lodging survey showed that Oct 2020 occupancy showed that over half of the respondents had higher occupancy than Oct 2019. Nov & Dec occupancy doesn’t look as promising. Nick suggested making the percentage ranges smaller for a more detailed report. New Business None Old Business None Board Member Round Table: (moved to Board Retreat Agenda) Rhonda made a motion to adjourn at 2:45 pm, Jessie Farnes seconded the motion – passed unanimously. The next WCVB meeting will be held starting at 2:30pm on December 14, 2020 via Zoom Signature: Date: 12/14/20