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HomeMy WebLinkAboutM112812 Draft LTAC Minutes, November 28, 2012 Attendees: Debbie Wardrop, Bill Tennent, Joy Baisch, John Austin, Walter Kochansky Staff: Philip Morley TCC Staff: Kitti deLong took minutes. Minutes from 5-8-12: Add Philip’s name to the list of attendees as staff. Discussion of last year’s supplemental allocation to explain why it happened for Walter’s benefit. (Walter Kochansky from Kalaloch Lodge is our new LTAC Board Member). Discussion about State requirement to advertise each LTAC or TCC meeting. Bill Tennent moved to accept the Minutes as amended. Debbie seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Re: Meeting Notes from 6-27-12: Discussion about terminology in the minutes re: $7,000 overage in the fund balance. Philip will work on that language. At the last meeting, we made a correction to use the $11,000 that was taken by the State. As well as using the accumulation of $7,000 of additional funding balances from unanticipated revenue since 2008. Notes were distributed and minor corrections noted. 9:30 - Jefferson County Historical Society – Bill Tennent JCHS was founded in 1879, which is pretty remarkable. This is one of the few organizations still active that was started when Washington was a territory. Was incorporated in 1951, became a nonprofit in 1952. Now has several facilities, including: Museum, Rothschild House, Commanding Officer’s House, and the Research Center with one-half million documents. The Research Center has attracted a lot of researchers, and partners with the Genealogical Society, and now can help you worldwide. JCHS also manages the Gateway Visitor Center. We do operate as a visitor center at every one of our facilities. We count the people who come into the Museum, but do not visit the Museum, because we are assisting them with their visit to Jefferson County. When LTAC was first started in Jefferson County, JCHS was one of the three organizations written into the law because the employees of JCHS were actually Jefferson County employees. This has been a good source of funding, though employees do not get County benefits. In addition to running the facilities, we have programs that attract people. Many people come from quite a distance for the First Friday Lectures. West End Week End has been an event where we try to attract people from East Jefferson County to West Jefferson County. This program has been very successful. We have had field trips, lectures, exhibits, and take oral histories from residents at the West End. Lectures usually get 30-40 people. First Night includes art, music, dance, puppetry. Changing exhibits attract people. “Hope in Hard Times” When asked how JCHS does marketing, Bill answered that they receive a lot of coverage by the press and some of the articles get picked up by newspapers. Are partnering with Smithsonian, and National Historic Trust. If we receive the amount in 2013 that was received last year, that is the same amount we received for the last five years. When asked if JCHS received LTAC funding from the City of Port Townsend, Bill answered no, but JCHS does receive the rental space for the Museum rather than money. Discussion. Debbie observed that JCHS’s Board of Trustees is almost Port Townsend-centric. Is there any attempt to include County members? It is more difficult for people to come from farther away. Discussion. Philip asked, “Given that we have fewer dollars, if your award is less than you request, how would you adjust your budget?” Bill answered that they would have to eliminate some staff hours. Creating new exhibits is a way of attracting people, and we would probably have to eliminate at least one exhibit. 9:48 am - Gateway Visitor Center – Bill Roney We are going to keep our budget the same as last year with no increase. One of the things we have done to cut costs is to reduce the pages of our report, which is only half the pages as last year. We greet visitors to Jefferson County and let them know about all the opportunities and activities available here. We are open 362 days per year and keep our budget austere by using volunteers. We have had 9,500 visitors through the Center this year. Volunteers have donated 800 volunteer hours, which is 25% of our open hours. They have driven over 1,000 miles to get to the Visitor Center as well as volunteer their time. They are one of the most important assets we have. We provide services beyond our size, and bring visitors to Jefferson County. 17% of our budget is spent on promotional materials such as our Activities Map, which is used in our fulfillment mailing/marketing program, and so far this year, there have been 15, 000+pieces sent out through this program financed by the Visitor Center. We have also placed this map on the Washington State ferries, and have distributed over 6,000 pieces so far this year. Regional Distribution: OP Gateway Visitor Center acts as a hub and distributes to Sequim, Forks, Port Angeles, and places off the Peninsula, including Kitsap Island, and Skagit County. Also provide funding to develop and place ads in the Getaway Guide, which is distributed locally and regionally. We provide oversight for internet marketing through olympicpeninsula.org, and provide funding for keeping our Gateway Visitor Center page up to date. We also provide funding for keeping the pages for Port Ludlow and Port Hadlock, Irondale, and Nordland up to date. We also provide oversight for an individual to be a member of the Board of TCC. We feel that our interests also promote tourism by participating in these different venues. We charge no fees to local businesses for display. Our only source of income is LTAC funding other than sales and donations. We are very effective in what we do because we are multi-faceted. We do not confine ourselves to the Visitor Center and we do have a regional program. If there is a reduction in our funding, we would try harder to maintain things as they are now. When asked if Gateway VC was in position to get funding from Clallam County? Answer was, yes, but that has not happened. Did get some response from Sequim, which contributed $500 to our operations. Gateway has a light out now, and before a repairman could come to fix it, someone evidently didn’t have enough gas and punctured a hole in the gas tank of a van in the parking lot. Got a call from volunteers that there was gas all over the parking lot. The van had to be towed. The fire department had to come out to sop up the gas. The Visitor Center also serves as a safe guard, and that particular location could not be maintained without some kind of facility there. Has there been any change in the restroom situation? Building restrooms would be prohibitively expensive because we still need potable water. Discussion about possible ways to solve this problem. 10:00 – Jefferson County Chamber - Fred Oboe and Teresa Verraes Our Proposal is similar to what we did last year primarily doing marketing for events. We do advertising in 80,000 Visitor Center Guides, which are on the ferries all year long. It is the widest distributed visitor guide of Jefferson County, and targets Kitsap and Clallam Counties to draw visitors to our events. Are also asking to construct a visitor kiosk at Chimacum corners. Are doing that in collaboration with Chimacum Corner Farm Stand, which is a nice central location. This is similar to what was presented last year and we are mindful to collect information about what impact we are having and that is our goal. Philip asked how they would do that. Fred answered that this is difficult but we do have a new website up and it does provide a matrix to track traffic. We will include that website in our advertising. When asked how they could count rooms rented in the County, Fred responded that they would have to use State reports. Discussion about Port Hadlock and Port Ludlow joining Port Townsend to make Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce. When asked how they decide to internally what to work on, Fred responded that Teresa attends all of the partners meetings and tries to be collaborative so that we do not duplicate services others are doing and we rely on Teresa for that information. Philip stated that on page 11 of the proposal, that adds up to $16,700, not $13,700, so how might you handle that discrepancy and also an issue that we are facing is that we have fewer dollars this year for funding. So if we were to award you less than the $13,700, how would that effect what you are planning to do? The answer was that would make our marketing less robust and we will have to trim back our expectations. Philip asked if this would be a trim back on advertising or on the kiosk? Fred answered that if the Chamber feels that the kiosk is really important, we would try to make that work. We do think it would be a valuable thing. Discussion. Joy asked, “You have a hybrid animal in that you have a City and a County. How do you make the determination to market each since LTAC dollars goes specifically to marketing events outside Port Townsend? Discussion. Funding from Port Townsend goes completely to running the Visitor Center. Port Townsend has its own marketing department. 10:30 – North Hood Canal – Joy Baisch We are still putting together some of our partnerships through the course of the winter. Have two VC’s, and have partnered since 2004 with fees and services. The Federal Government at Region 10 level was not interested in letting us have a Visitor Center. We had more and more requests for information and requests for more services. Dean Yoshina suggested doing a challenge grant. That gave us an opportunity to have more say and more input. That required more responsibility and required us to put in new kiosks for visitors materials. Had to answer phones on their lines, not just our lines. Gave people a better opportunity to be a Visitor Center docent. Ours are the largest VC’s with the highest volume until you get to Sequim. We have bathrooms available in both Brinnon and Quilcene. 427,000 people visited Dosewallips State Park last year. From their statistics, most were from outside Jefferson County. Camping, fishing, back packing, hiking are very valuable to Europeans. Dosewallips State Park provides a lot of LTAC dollars to the County as does Fort Flagler. It is our approach to come to marketing for not just Hood Canal, but for the entire region. We have developed a relationship with TCC, OPTC, Port Townsend, Jefferson County, in which there is an opportunity to do that marketing. We also help fund some regional partnerships, which include: Bike Map, Quilcene Fair, Hood Canal Shrimp Fest, provide sponsorships for the Summit. With TCC, we do FAM tours and help to fund the Spring and Fall Campaigns. We also participate in Spring and Fall Campaigns with the Culinary Loop, and contribute to the Tribal Journey. Even with economic issues, we had a 44% increase over last year’s visitor count at Dosewallips State Park. Quinault has just joined OPTC and Mason County has asked to join as will, which will increase our marketing opportunities. We have had 234,253 visitors without Shrimp Fest, but Shrimp Fest is on for next year and that venue will be moved to the head of Jackson Cove. Why do we market? Because the State does not. All the surrounding states have large marketing budgets, and they are our competitors. We need to match the Challenge Grant for payroll. The rest is for collaboration marketing operations. We have committed to help Jefferson County Bike Association to reprint their bike map; FAM Tours; Culinary Loop; and work with the Quinault people on the Canoe Journey. 10:50 – TCC – Kitti deLong TCC will continue working in partnership with our major partner, Clallam County (Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau – OPVB) and Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission, and any other partnerships and alliances that can be formed to further promotional dollars and increase economies of scale in advertising. TCC will delve into the Social Media realm of advertising by using Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and a website that links to all those. Training has been set up to start working in those realms, and a focus has been decided. When asked what would change in TCC’s plans for the year if the award were less than requested, the answer was that TCC would have to cut back on promotions which would be a hazard to the income of Jefferson County. 11:15 – West End (Forks) - LIssy Andros and Bill Peach We will print Rain Forest Country Adventure Map. With Twilight, have had a lot of visitors, 300-350 people per day. Twilight is making people move to this area. One way we are promoting Jefferson County is through Hoh Rain Forest, and Ruby Beach. Part of the many that we have in our request is for Visitor Center personnel. We want to keep the Rain Forest Map as current as possible. We have lost two lodges, including Hoh Humm Ranch. Are excited to have Kalaloch. We promote Kalaloch area and Hoh Rain Forest without thinking about them not being in Clallam County. We do things on an idea basis without anyone asking us to do so. We have our five-day planners and give it out to anyone who comes in. It is attached to the Twilight packet. And Kalaloch is one of the things featured on that map. We want to put a couple of flat screen TV’s (monitors) in the Visitor Center in Forks. That would engage people and they could see different places that they did not know about before seeing the videos. We foresee having big numbers this coming summer. We want to add a flat screen TV for webcams at Kalaloch and Hoh Rain Forest. Those are one of our most popular hits on the website. When asked about employee wages, Bill Peach added that employee wages for the Visitor Center have not changed. Discussion about cost of last year’s mailings. Discussion about funding only one flat screen monitor. Bill looked at the difference between revenue last year and this year and noted a 10% decrease. There are 13 storefronts vacant in Forks. Current budget is $220,000 and $623 under budget. That is less than 1/20 of 1%. Our 11 member Board meets monthly. Every meeting has review of finances. Chamber meets every Wednesday. There are a lot of people watching the numbers carefully. The City of Forks appreciates the value of the information. Last year, we ran out of brochures because of a delay in funding and an increase of interest from visitors. 60% of our customer base was return visitors. When researching the amount for employee wages, did not ask how much the hourly rate was, just how much the over all amount was. 11:36: Quilcene Historical Museum – Mari Phillips and Dave Satterly Had about 1,000 visitors to the Museum but does not include any of the concerts that were held at the stage, nor the tours of Worthington Park, nor the wine tasting events. Did accomplish the oral history. Was expensive for us to do, but was worth doing. Have since lost three of the people who could give us historical perspective. Are considering for the first time raising our annual dues from $15 up to $25. Are currently doing a business-to-business grant for Worthington Park. Did a walk- about visiting 17 business and 12 have donated. To promote the Museum to tourists outside Jefferson County, we use newsletters and brochures of the motels and restaurants, and our blog, “I’ve heard of Quilcene.” Worthington Park: We are doing an old fashioned picnic on July 6. Will consolidate other events on that day. There will be butter churning and auguring. Please consider this an invitation to that event. How to measure effectiveness? We have seen a tremendous ground swell of interest in the Museum. Economic Impact? The two concerts were well attended with visitors from outside the area. Do not quite know how to correct visitor information yet, but are working on that. Are at $205,936 with just private money and including no grants at this point. With a goal of $300,000, the “Triangle” property was given to the Museum, which will be a great place for the River Walk that is contemplated. We specialize in gathering information and imparting that to visitors. That has worked for us in the past and we are continuing that. Also have a local author program and that will continue. Part of our request concerns our water, and as we near the culmination of our capital campaign, we need money for the water. The well has proven to not be what the well driller represented. With Worthington Park coming on line, we are going to need water to provide toilette facilities for the stage. That is a critical matter. Dave stated that there are no particular salaries at the Museum. LTAC money is vitally important. Considering ROI so far, have used the money to promote the Museum and have taken the opportunity to bring Worthington Park on line. We will complete that project and one day, that will probably be an LTAC generator. The stage has a retail value of $180,000 and was built all by donations. This Museum does bring people in for overnight stays. The three options for improving the water situation are water storage, drilling the well deeper, or hooking up to public water. We do need help. 12:00 Fair Board – Bill McIntire and Susan Short (Only paid employee) Fair Association maintains and operates the fair grounds year round. Last year, received two grants from the Department of Agriculture with volunteer help. Susan relayed her family history at the Fair and stated the Fair has been struggling. Camp Ground is open year around and is Fair’s bread and butter. Would like to upgrade the power in the second row. That is the easiest. Also, would like to come in level and excavate and revamp the RV pad. The Wooden Boat Fest had people camp everywhere because everything had filled up. There is really no place else to camp in Port Townsend. When asked if the campground was part of the non-profit organization, the answer was yes. The Fairgrounds are physically located in Port Townsend, but are a County park. LTAC money goes to the City. Have placed this campground in Good Sam, etc. 12:15 Discussion about the constraints of this committee for funding. Jefferson County Fair does not fit under the LTAC funding guidelines. Museum well does not fit under the LTAC funding guidelines. After much deliberation, the funding recommendations were: Jefferson County Historical Society $51,595 Olympic Peninsula Gateway VC 55,725 Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce 12,360 Port Townsend Bicycle Association 685 N. Hood Canal CC and VC 44.535 Tourism Coordinating Council 85,490 Forks CC for West End Visitor Center 23,190 Quilcene Historical Museum 8,420 Total: $282,000 Debbie made a motion to accept to accept the recommendations above for LTAC funding for 2013. John seconded. Motion passed 4-1 with Joy dissenting. Philip noted that there have been a couple of capital repairs totaling about $400 for Gateway Visitor Center out of the Capital Reserve Account. Debbie moved to accept those repairs. Bill Tennent seconded. Motion passed unanimously. John recommended that we get together again in the early spring to discuss the structure of LTAC. Is there a strategic vision? Philip will email the RCW’s and recommendations for LTAC funding to each of us. Debbie suggested a quarterly review saying, this is what has been done and this is the money that has been spent. Recommendation to Quilcene Museum is that they need to prioitize: to the Fair Board is that their facility is inside Port Townsend, and their overnight stays pay LTAC to the City of Port Townsend, therefore funding will have to come from the City of Port Townsend. Debbie moved to adjourn at 2:30 pm. Bill seconded. Motion passed unanimously.