Door County Tourism Zone Commission : Meeting Minutes

Home Page: Meeting Minutes

May 10, 2007 Door County Tourism Zone Commission Meeting

DOOR COUNTY TOURISM ZONE COMMISSION
MEETING MINUTES
Thursday May 10, 2007
Baileys Harbor Town Hall

A regularly scheduled meeting of the Door County Tourism Zone Commission was held on May 10, 2007 at the Baileys Harbor Town Hall in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. Robert Kufrin, the chair, called the meeting to order at 10:00 AM on May 1, 2007. Roll Call was taken. The following were present:

Paul Georgia, Town of Nasawaupee
Barb Lautenbach, Jacksonport
Bryan Nelson, Baileys Harbor
Andy Coulson, White Gull Inn
Bill Weddig, Gibraltar
Jim Sarkis, At-large
Chuck Tice, Sevastopool
Charlie Most, Liberty Grove
Bruce Hill, Egg Harbor
Craig Neddersen, Ephraim
Diane Lensert, Kerber-Rose & Associates
Jerry Zaug, Country House Resort
Karen Raymore, Door County Visitors Bureau
Patti Bissen-Taylor, Egg Harbor
Robert Kufrin, Sister Bay
Tom Girman, Sevastopol
Jon Jarosh, Door County Visitors Bureau

Paul Georgia passed out a clipboard with a meeting attendance sign-up sheet for the Door County Tourism Zone Commission members to sign in as being present. Robert Kufrin noted that we had a quorum and that the Door County Tourism Zone Commission meeting was to begin at approximately 10:00 am. The meeting began upstairs in the auditorium at approximately 10:00 AM.

Debbie Geiger of Geiger and Associates was making a presentation introducing her firm Geiger and Associates. The purpose of the presentation was to edify the Tourism Zone Commission members, members of the Tourism bureau, and other interested people in the Door Peninsula. The Door County Tourism Bureau had submitted a request for proposal to Geiger for their media and public relations services.

Debbie Geiger indicated that she has been in this business for 22 years. Her company has represented a number of towns, municipalities, convention bureaus, and other tourist destination areas. Debbie�s firm is based out of Florida, and she has a number of years experience working for the Florida Department of Tourism. Their objective is to get the message out to the traveling tourists. Geiger and Associates has a yearlong proposal submitted to the Door County Tourism Bureau. Geiger�s firm would be the media marketing and public relations firm for the Door County Tourism Bureau.

The presentation was to last 45 minutes. Geiger offered two case studies that were similar to what her firm could provide to the Door County marketing initiative. Media coverage would be a big part of Geiger�s role. In addition she discussed in-kind contributions that the bureau could receive from airline companies, car rental agencies, rental vans, and meals and lodging that could be contributed in support of the public relations program.

After the presentation, which lasted approximately one hour, the floor was opened for questions. Jim Sarkis, Bruce Hill, Charlie Most, and other TZC members asked questions and made further inquiries of Debbie Geiger as to the feasibility and justifying the expense of hiring her firm. After a round of questions from the commission members the commission readjourned to the basement at approximately 11:22 AM.

Karen Raymore and Jon Jarosh from the Tourism Bureau indicated that they had to leave at approximately 12:00 for another meeting. Robert Kufrin asked for comments on the April 27, 2007 meeting minutes. Charlie Most indicated that a sub-committee for banking and finance had not been formally approved and the minutes should be changed reflecting that and that Charlie was not heading that subcommittee. Georgia agreed to change the meeting minutes for this discrepancy. No further changes were noted.

A motion was made by Bryan Nelson seconded by Bill Weddig to approve the April 27 meeting minutes subject to the minor modification noted above. The motion carried. All voted in favor by indicating yes. All voted yes.

Georgia passed the meeting list around to make sure that everyone present signs the attendance sheet. Robert Kufrin asked to pick the next meeting date. Karen Raymore indicated that there was a 10:00 am ebrains presentation on May 17, 2007. Patti Bissen-Taylor indicated that it was important to start planning the meetings further in advance because everyone�s schedules fill up quickly.

It was agreed that meetings would be scheduled for the next two Thursday�s at 9:00 am. The next meeting will be Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 9:00 am. A meeting is also scheduled for the following Thursday, May 24, 2007 at 9:00 am. Charlie indicated that we agreed that Thursday�s were our meeting dates. Patti indicated that she was not present when Thursday�s were designated as our meeting dates. IT WAS AGREED THAT WE HAVE TWO SCHEDULED MEETING DATES. MAY 17, 2007 AT 9:00 AM AND MAY 24, 2007 AT 9:00 AM.

Banking services, insurance, and bonding are three issues that we must get worked out. Kufrin noted that the only issue that has come up is the bonding requirement. Bruce Hill noted that from an operational standpoint we need to begin the questions for Karen Raymore and Jon Jarosh.

Karen noted that Jon Jarosh the Bureau�s marketing director was there to present the marketing plan. Bill Weddig inquired as to what contingencies are in place if the amount of room tax dollars collected is insufficient to pay contractual obligations. Bill also asked what flexibility does the Bureau have to pare down the budget in the case the room tax dollars collected falls short of projections. Karen Raymore noted that yes we have contingencies in place in case of a shortfall of funds. Karen also said yes to the fact that if we had to we could borrow funds to carry through with the budget.

The ebrains contract has a number of components, as does the Geiger proposal that would allow us to renegotiate these contractual obligations. Karen also noted that the budget was based on a very conservative estimate of room tax dollars to be collected. Jim Sarkis asked why are the contracts for 18 months. Karen indicated that the depth of conversion and emarketing conversions need 18 months to implement and get a fair study completed.

Sarkis asked if we choose to renew the contract will it have to be another 18 months, and Karen indicated no it would not have to be another 18 months. Each component is a piece of the package. The marketing plan consists of three major components. Those components are public relations, emarketing, and brand assessment.

Bruce Hill inquired as to why are attempting to become a fly-to destination. Craig Nedderson indicated that the plan has to address a more immediate solution. He also noted that in talking to the local lenders over the last 3 years we are approaching a crisis situation. Ned further stated that in our core states there are 39 million people. Karen indicated that it does not mean that we are not going target the core markets. We are still going to be paying attention to the core markets. Both ebrains (emarketing) and Geiger will be targeting these areas. In order to do a traditional media marketing blitz (radio, television, and print) aimed at these core markets carries a very large price tag.

Emarketing and identifying the County�s target customers in those core markets is going to give us the fastest turnaround. Furthermore Karen noted that the Dells area did not feel that they were adversely affected by the price of gas.

Hill noted that we are talking about brand assessment and branding ourselves. Hill had concerns that his clients do not read some of the media outlets that we will be utilizing. Kufrin noted that even if we doubled the fly-to marketing efforts will it have an impact. Sarkis noted from past experience when he had high end rentals in his vacation management business there was very minimal customers who flew in.

Charlie Most cautioned the members of the commission that too often in Door County we talk ourselves out of the bigger/global view. Hill noted that we have core customers and opportunity customers and that our core markets are not fly-in customers. A number of the members agreed with Hill�s concern that the fly-in customers are not our niche �Charlie Most talked about branding. He noted that the visitor center booths should be uniform throughout the county and that visitor�s know where to go when they see the booths. The culturalization and uniformity of the visitor center is important to brand Door County. Karen noted that we need to stress all four seasons

The point is to put Door County on a national scale is what Geiger & Associates is stressing. Relative to the regional advertising needs in September 2007 we are hosting the Midwest Travel Writers Association. This is specifically tailored to addressing some of our regional advertising needs.

Karen noted that over the past ten years, you do not see destination marketing being done by the DMO or other visitors and convention bureaus. They are not purchasing the ads the hoteliers and what not are purchasing the ads under the destination marketing banner.

Hill indicated that our fastest growth to avoid pending doom is within the 300-mile radius of Door County. He is not seeing money being spent on the core markets. Hill has a question of whether or not we are adequately targeting these people. Marshall Murdaugh�s research indicated that we need to focus on the core market according to Hill.

Karen indicated that the fly-in is really a secondary market not the core market. Bruce Hill asked Karen to bring to the next meeting exactly where are our core markets being addressed through this marketing plan, what dollars are being targeted to them. Karen Raymore indicated that when we hire experts we ask them to make recommendations. Both Geiger and ebrains made recommendations based on their experiences. They have proposed what will provide us with the highest return results based on their experiences.

Andy Coulson noted that if we look back at the presentation by Geiger there were tons of articles in regional publications. Those addressed these core markets. Look at Waldo and Hill County/Fredericksburg and the number of articles written locally. Also there is a lot of secondary buzz that comes from being written in the major publications, and a local writer reads about it and picks it up. Coulson and the commission seemed to agree with Hill that yes people from South Carolina are not our target market�.but secondary and collaterally we will benefit from the larger market exposure. Charlie Most indicated that we cannot get hung up too much on the small stuff. The fly-in customer is really a secondary market approach.

Sarkis noted that Gannett takes $1 to $2 million from us and wondered how can we leverage this for our benefit. Is there any coop advertising potential? We are in a business partnership with Gannett and how can we partner with them. Bryan Nelson noted that he had just returned from a marketing conference and for the first time 50% of all travel is booked online�.and what piece got saturated first�it was the low-cost travel bargains.

Bruce Hill indicated that our brand assessment has fallen. Kufrin asked what part of the marketing plan did the board of director�s change. Karen indicated that there were three key components that we must focus on. Those three areas are research, public relations, and emarketing. Karen asked us what components do we believe are missing from the plan and what needs to be addressed.

Karen specifically must answer this How are we marketing within the 300 mile target�.how are we going to address this within this season�.flex our collective ad muscle with Gannett to get more positive editorials�.Sarkis noted not ad muscle but collectively how can we work with them better�.

Kufrin asked�how much money are we expected to collect between now and the end of the year? Where are the projections and how were they arrived at??? We are being asked to approve a lot of expenses and we are not sure how certain we are of the amount of money the room tax will actually bring in�.

Jerry Zaug noted that three items the task force identified were 50% of the budget. The task force came up with three things that would not get reduced whatsoever�. The mandatory items were brand assessment, Geiger, and Ebrains. Charlie asked if there is a way to stagger the payments to Geiger. The first piece of Geiger�s tour is for $43,000. Karen indicated that she would have a projection of what the room tax collections should be through December of 2007.

Questions were asked as to what the branding task force has come up with. The branding task force is still in the developmental stages.

Bill Weddig noted that we need to make a commitment for the fall tour relatively soon. Karen is going to come back to us next week with how they came up with the room tax revenue projections. Karen asked the commission members to email her with questions and she promised not to respond to those questions she would just come in with the answers. This way we could avoid the open meetings walking quorum issues.

Patti Bissen-Taylor asked how much money is going to be committed through contractual obligations. This way we could scale down some of the noncontractual obligations if projected room tax revenues fall short. It appeared that 50% of the budget would be through some form of contractual obligations.

Andy Coulson, Jerry Zaug, Bruce Hill, Jon Jarosh, Tom Girman, and Karen Raymore all had to leave for various reasons. Kufrin noted that we still had a quorum present to act on other matters on the agenda.

The meeting proceeded.

Diane Lensert from Kerber Rose was present. To date 149 permits had been issued. The Verizon phone bill came in and Diane sent that in to her home office to be paid. 28 emails have come in and on average 10 phone calls per day. Room Tax Permit and reporting requirements were sent out on April 27, 2007. A question was asked about the taxability of campground sites. Campground sites are exempt if the people are merely renting out a site or if they bring their own campers. One of the problems that have arisen is the contractual obligations.

Relative to authorizing certain commission members to sign the permits on behalf of the commission. A motion was made by Charlie Most seconded by Brian Nelson to authorize Robert (Bob) Kufrin, Paul Georgia, and Bruce Hill to sign permits on behalf of the commission. The motion carried. All voted yes in favor of the motion authorizing Kufrin, Georgia, and Hill to sign on behalf of the Commission.

Kufrin indicated that there was an issue with getting bonding for $2 million. Most municipalities carry $500,000 bond. The insurance agent�s largest customer with one thousand (1,000 +) plus employees carries a $500,000 bond. Kufrin noted that the cost of a $2 million bond would be $15,000 to $20,000.

Further discussions were had on hiring a lawyer for the commission, and that we should all consider attorneys for the commission. Also, discussions were had on banking services and we now have three proposals. It was noted that Dianne should be included/involved in the process of choosing a bank.

A discussion was had about a number of issues relative to the compliance and how was the commission going to monitor the compliance with the room tax. Chuck Tice from Sevastopol noted that compliance monitoring was an important role for members of the commission, and that he had already found a couple in his district that were not sent packages. Chuck noted that the other commission members need to be vigilant about compliance in their areas. It was noted that Steve Bell, an inspector from the state issues permits, and we will need to stay in contact with him for new health permits issued.

Kufrin then discussed the lodging permits, the frequently asked questions, and the rest of the information that went out in the mailer to the Innkeepers. We should look at updating this FAQ list.

A packet has not gone out to the vacation rental companies yet. Some vacation rental companies collect and remit the tax others do not. So it was agreed that we err on the side of caution and send a packet to all real estate rental companies in addition to the respective innkeepers. This will be done.

Kufrin further agreed to get this packet of information out on the web site so that people could download forms, permit applications, frequently asked questions, the ordinance, and other pertinent information.

Kufrin discussed other issues that we need to start considering. Charlie Most indicated that he had spoken to the Mayor of Sturgeon Bay and to McAllister at legislative days and that they want to get something worked out that would enable the city to join the commission.

Jim Sarkis questioned whether or not it would be a good idea to bring Marshall Murdaugh back to review the marketing plan. And whether or not we are on the right course. Georgia, Nelson, and other commission members agreed that this would be a good idea.

A motion was made by Bryan Nelson seconded by Barb Lautenbach to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried. All voted yes to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 1:17 pm on May 10, 2007.

Respectfully submitted,

Paul J. Georgia
Secretary/Treasurer

View all from: 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007