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HomeMy WebLinkAboutM061008 TCC Minutes, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 The June meeting was held at10:00 am at Inn at Port Hadlock. Members attening were: Bill Roney, Joy Baisch, Kathy Sharp, Debi Bainbridge. Staff attending were: Diane Schostak and Kitti deLong. Others attending were: John Austin, Dennis Richards and Larry McKeehen. Excused were: Bob Huelsdonk, Frances Rawski, Anna Matsche Introductions were made. Kathy Sharp moved to approve the minutes. Joy seconded. Motion passed. Additions to the Agenda Add FAM Tours Commissioner’s Update – John Austin John recommended that the TCC Board recommend to the County Commissioners that Larry McKeehen be accepted to the Jefferson County TCC. John stated that the County Commissioners had written a letter to the State Legislature encouraging the Park Service to open Falls View Park earlier. Dean Yoshina responded, saying that if he had known earlier, that could have happened. The request was made several times earlier, so seems the earlier requests were forgotten. Joy stated that the Park has no budget to open that park earlier. A request for volunteers has not brought any help. There is a new EIS for the road work needed to open that road. Joy stated that the Park is part of the Interior, which is a Cabinet Post and can lobby. The Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture, is not a Cabinet Post, and can not lobby. Therefore, the Forest Service budget will get their funds cut first. John stated that there were three possible plans for repair of the Dosewallips (Dose) Road. There was discussion about the Dose Road difficulties. Diane said there were two challenges for the Forest Service: 1. Keeping campgrounds maintained; 2. Keeping roads open. It is very important to send letters to our Legislators, and to Dale Hom (or his replacement). John suggested that it is very important to our economy to have eastern access to the Olympics. ACTION: John will talk with Dean Yoshina to find out what is the most positive way to support him in these matters. ACTION: Diane and Joy will work together to draft a letter from the Committee regarding restoring and protecting the Dose Road which is the only Jefferson County (east side) entrance to the Park and is the only ADA accessible park on the Peninsula. ACTION: John will send a print-out of the Lodging Tax to Kitti for disbursement. Financials Debi changed the format of the budget printout slightly so that the amount of money that we had left in any category would be immediately visible. Travel Planner The Centrum mailing has gone out, including to local Port Townsend and Jefferson County people on the Centrum list. ACTION: Kitti will check with Hattie re: cost for Travel Planner Inserts. ACTION: Debi will adjust the website fee. ACTION: Diane will check with King 5 to make sure we have all of our bills in. Bill stated that his expense is up 27.5% for Gateway Visitor’s Center budget year-to-date on this year’s mailing of the Travel Planner, which was split with Port Townsend. The second printing of the Travel Planner has been done. Budget 2009 Debi would like to continue what we are doing as far as co-op advertising with Clallam County. There was discussion about the value of advertising in a regional way, and that it is apparent that visitor’s don’t care about county lines. John stated that room tax dollars are not increasing and therefore there will be no increase in budgets funded in 2009. John stated that he is concerned that the State and County governments now have to pay for items that the Federal government has normally paid in the past, but are not now paying. 2009 Budget Kathy volunteered to help with the budget. Spring Marketing Campaign – Diane Today’s meetings packets contain a list of the number of leads generated, which was boiled down to net (doubles were removed). The packet also contains a recap from Debbie Black on the Spring Marketing Campaign. Articles written for Kitsap Sun Electronic Newsletter are now written and are on file. We can use them for other promotions. John asked if there was a way to know why people had come to Shrimpfest. Joy stated that DOT has information that many people came because of the “Road Less Traveled” campaign and came up Hood Canal Road for the first time. Dennis stated that he thinks that people are not traveling by plane right now. Joy reported that people are traveling in family groups and are staying longer in each place. Debbie Black recommends that the print ads did not generate as much as expected. Both the on-line and radio ads were most effective. Diane reported that the Aramark Properties (Lake Quinault, Solduc and Kalaloch) grossed $76,000 on their co-op ad. The opportunity for the Fall Campaign is “Trips on a Tankfull” with KMPS. There will be lots of promo before the weekend that the ad runs. One of their people will take the trip described in the promotion before that weekend, then will talk about their trip on the radio when they get back. ACTION: Debi will finalize numbers on the approx. $10,000 that we have left for the Fall Campaign. Tourism Commission Update – Diane The FAM Tours, East and West, went well. Huge kudos to Joy. Sunset Magazine did a six-page spread this month about National Park lodges (mostly on the West Side). The phone number for the OPVB is listed in the article. World Wide Country Tours Diane has met two operators, one from who will be doing 7 tours this year and next, traveling from Port Townsend to Lake Crescent and down the east side of the county spending two nights on the Peninsula per trip. Beyond Boundaries Tours Diane reported this company leads theme tours (Harry Potter and Jane Austin, for example), and are now targeting Forks for a “Twilight” Tour (the teenage romance/vampire/werewolf best-seller). Will include a salmon bake and legends with the Quileute Tribe. National Park Seasonal Workers Diane gave a talk yesterday to over 150 seasonal Park employees and gave them all bags with local information, which included candy bars. Joy made a motion to offer a position on the TCC to Larry McKeehen and that the TCC recommend to the County Commissioners to accept his nonmination. Kathy seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Larry has already submitted a letter of interest to the Commissioners. Larry stated that people in the east side of the state don’t know about Sequim or Port Townsend but they do know about the “Coast” and the “Loop.” He suggests that we target the east side of the state now when people are choosing to vacation closer to home instead of flying to remote vacation spots. Kathy suggested that we might want to have a sister group in another part of the state. Discussion about the advantages of that in relation to advertising and promotions. Diane suggested that maybe we could work with focus groups, such as Washington Trails Assoc. Joy stated that it snowed in the Olympics last night and our summer will be late this year. She thought it might be a good idea to include trails in our promotion considerations this year. Waterfall Trail – Diane A brochure is in the works. Concierge FAM Tours – Diane Joy had $573 in expenses for dinner and requested that be covered. The Brinnon/Quilcene Chamber will contribute $200 for the Concierge dinner, and she requested that the TCC pay $273. Kathy moved to pay the $273 toward the Concierge dinner. Joy seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Joy stated that she had already gotten some positive reports from the Concierge people. Next meeting will be August 12, 2009 at Inn at Port Hadlock. John Austin left at noon. Larry McKeehen and Kathy left at 12:15 pm. Joy volunteered to be vice chair. This matter was moved to the next meeting. Meeting ended at 12:20 pm.