January 11, 2012

Attendance: Ray Allen, Jerri Barkley, Sally Brawley, Debe' Brazil, Bryan Campbell, Dawn Collings, Roger Clute,

Debbie Gallaher, Ray Heit, Chuck Johnson, Kristi Mahre, Charlotte Mayo,

Caryl Morrell, Freda Stephens. Guests: Tim Detering, Lisa Day and Nancy Warner.

President, Chuck Johnson called the January board of directors meeting to order at 5:31 PM in the Rivertop Restaurant/Coast Hotel.

The month of September's board meetings were reviewed.  Sally Brawley moved to approve the minutes as presented and Debe' Brazil seconded.  The minutes from December were approved by the board.

2012 Board Officers:  Chuck Johnson was instated as President, Kristi Mahre, Sec/Treasurer, Charlotte Mayo, Vice President and Bryan Campbell will be replacing Don Gurnard on the board.

The Board was free to take action on a new vote for the Vice President position.  Caryl Morrell put the motion up to continue with Charlotte Mayo, and  it was seconded by Freyda Stephens.

OLD BUSINESS

State of Washington State Audit

The auditor is finalizing the report and will meet again on Friday and 9 a.m. There will be some routine questions followed by the final filing the following week. The expected guidance with be held to certain areas for example in 2009 it was petty cash control, and an office door lock.

NEW BUSINESS

The Branding Meeting was well attended.  There will be a follow up meeting late February, the date TBD.  Notes were turned over to Public Relations to look over and give direction on the project.  Deb Gallaher encouraged everyone to attend the next meeting.

The Business Plan committee met at the Olive Garden.  Roger Clute presented the preliminary plan. Sally Brawley commented on how many great ideas were brought forward.  The deadline for the plan is the end of March.

Lunar Cow Contract, Lunar Cow is a company that created visitors guides online using Google map. They are working with 350 Visitors Bureaus to date.  The cost is $5000 that would be offset by space sold on the map and the Visitors Bureau would receive income from the map.  The map is inclusive, created from all sources available, and has received stellar reviews from all users.  We would want to start with the near valley first and then branch out to Chelan and Douglas counties having access thru the Visitors Bureau web site.  Deb Gallaher asked if Roger could get verification from other users thru conversation over a period of time before we vote.  Roger will make calls the week of 1/12/12 and will send out the information to the board.

Dominick Bonney has been hired by the Visitors Bureau for Social Media Marketing.  They will be paying him $300.00 per month to get the word out.  Dominick is currently working for Mission Ridge, Café' Mela and the Apple sox as well as many other companies here in the valley.

The board reviewed December fulfillment, the downtown Visitor Center had 157 walk-ins compared to 83 in 2010, with 1898 visitor requests compared to 443 in 2010.  Fulfillment and distribution was up 300 compared to 2010.  The social media category had 588 Facebook fans, 513 Twitter followers and 3431 Newsletter subscribers.

Although 3 weekends had visiting wine reps in the visitors center, wine sales were disappointing.. Tastings totaled 39 with bottle sales at 42 sold.

The board reviewed the November STAR Report.  It reflected good news from an economic standpoint.

Average daily hotel rates were up $3.27 at $69.41 from $66.14 in 2010.  Room occupancy was up 4.8% and hotel revenue increased by 10.7% to $1,082,088 compared to $977,500 in 2010.

The board reviewed the December P&L statement.  Roger noted that December income was $69,892.51    and expenses were $18,609.18 for a net ordinary income of $34,500.42.  Roger commented that they have saved approximately $57,000 in salaries this year and that professional fees for attorneys were $1,143 over budget. Dawn Collings made a motion to commend Roger Clute for bringing the 2011 budget in well under plan in a difficult economy and through the political uncertainty surrounding the future of the WVVB.  Debbie Gallaher seconded and the motion was unanimously approved by the board.

Sally Brawley made a motion to pay the bills and seconded by Freyda Stephens and the motion was approved.

Sally Brawley made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Caryl Morrell seconded the motion and the January meeting was concluded by unanimous consent.