06-03-20 Tourism Business Improvement District MinutesBoard of Directors Meeting
Kalispell Tourism Business Improvement District
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
3:00 – 5:00 pm
Location: Kalispell Chamber Conference Room
MINUTES
Board Members Present: Emily Schroeder, Bryce Baker, Janet Clark
Board Members Absent: Dawn Hendrickson, Joe Alexander, Zac Ford, Lucy Weeder
Staff Present: Diane Medler, Dawn Jackson, Joe Unterreiner
Guests: Joann Schadewitz, Kalispell Grand; Scott Rieke, Best Western Flathead Lake Inn & Suites; Jenn
Cronk, Kalispell Chamber; Jamie Reed, Flathead Job Service; Hilary Hanson & Lisa Dennison, Flathead
Country Health Department; Lori Alsbury, Kalispell Regional Medical Center
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Meeting called to order by Vice-Chair Emily Schroeder at 2:57pm.
1. Hear from the Public – none
2. Hillary Hanson and Lisa Dennison with the Flathead County Health Department:
• COVID testing locations in West Glacier, Columbia Falls is an existing one in Whitefish
and Kalispell. Visitors will be encouraged to go to these facilities instead of Emergency
Rooms and Clinics. Putting out information to all tourism related businesses.
• Should someone test positive for COVID they need to quarantine for 14 days and the
FCHD will do everything possible to get the visitor home safely. Should they need to
quarantine in a hotel room, the FCHD recommends that they inform the hotel as they
are not able to because of the HIPPA laws.
• Group Gathering Form is suggested by the FCHD to complete if there is a group of 50
people or more. The City of Kalispell does not currently require it.
3. Lori Alsbury, Kalispell Regional Healthcenter:
Lori shared flyers from KRH that can be posted to inform hotel guests. They will also be available
digitally on their website. Dawn will be sent electronic files of the flyers to full TBID.
4. Board Action Items – the board did not have a quorum, so action items were tabled and
moved to the July 1, 2020 meeting.
a) Approval of minutes from May 6, 2020: No action taken
b) Approval of TBID financial statements for April 2020: No action taken
c) Approval of slate of board officers for term beginning July 1, 2020 to recommend to City
Council for approval: No action taken
5. Board Discussion
a. TBID applications for board trustee positions due to City Clerk by June 5th
The City of Kalispell has received six applications for TBID board trustee seats, leaving one
additional application needed. Diane will send another reminder to full TBID membership.
The board will review and approve the TBID Operating Agreement, By Laws and Associate
Member Agreement at the July TBID board meeting. Approval, including any recommended
changes will be forwarded to the City Attorney for adoption by City Council.
b. Event Grants
• Brash Rodeo grant included a $5 rebate for actualized rooms. The rebate totaled
178 rooms, so they received a check for $890.00. This process of awarding grant
dollars worked well, enabling the TBID to award funds on actualized room versus
projected room pick up.
• Due to the decrease in the grant budget for FY21, the board will need to discuss the
process for events that were cancelled due to COVID-19 but had been awarded
funds such as the Kalispell PBR event. This item will be added to the July agenda for
discussion.
c. Marketing Updates
• Discover Kalispell has released an RFP on May 31st for Creative Agency and Media
Buy Services. Proposals are due June 22nd. Representatives of the board will be
requested to serve on the evaluation committee to review proposals and award
contract if a suitable offeror is received.
• TBID collections for Q3 (Jan-Mar) were up 4% from 2019. The STR report showed a
53.4% decrease in occupancy and 17% decrease in ADR in April as compared to
2019. Average occupancy was 18.3% compared to 39.3%.
• 1,943 Visitor Guides sent in 2020 compared to 1,149 for the same period in 2019.
• Glacier National Park will partially reopen June 8. Encourage visitors to look at the
park website for updates. Camas road will be closed for a short time due to
construction. There will be no park shuttle busses or Red Bus Tours running this
year. The Blackfeet tribe has delayed opening the East side until the end of the
month. No reservations are allowed for the Backcountry permits, they are provided
on a walk-up basis.
• A resource for current conditions in the area on DiscoverKalispell.com: What to
Expect When You Visit and the COVID-19 Resources page.
• Discover Kalispell has updated messaging on website, social media and retargeting
ads which leads with Come and discover Kalispell but also shared information on
how to travel responsibly. In-state marketing campaign will be launched in the next
week. That will be expanded to regional drive market by the first of July.
• Sherman Lodge at True Water Fly Shop opened June 1 and will be a good asset to
downtown. It is a five-room lodge with a fly shop and interior design studio at the
same location.
d. Group, M&C Updates
• Out of 3,185 rooms 80% have choose to keep their fall dates, move to 2020 fall or move
to 2021. MT League of Cities and Towns is still considering moving their fall conference
to 2022. Dawn worked on off-site options should they go forward with 2020.
• Current Meetings Today publication included an ad which included Discover
Kalispell that was part of a coop with Glacier Country. Ad headline: Break Out From
the Boardroom.
• Dawn showed the example from Connect, a meeting planner trade show, which
outlines the extra precautions the show organizers are taking to provide a safe and
healthy environment and meet the COVID-19 standards.
• Trainings with IDSS our CRM have been valuable during this time to understand our
system.
e. Round Table Discussion
• Scott Rieke suggested a letter to the Flathead County Health Department to
increase the group size to 250. He would like a reason and better understanding of
why. One of the hotels/properties he manages in the San Juan Islands wanted to
shut things down for a year and after a strong push they will reopen soon. Emily
suggested that even though increasing the group number to 250 the social
distancing restriction would also need to be changed to accommodate that many.
Bryce agreed that pushing it to 250 would be beneficial. He suggested it would be
better for the chambers to send a letter versus the MLHA.
• Joe Unterreiner is on the Business Recovery Task Force for the Flathead County
Health Department. Local Chambers, businesses and Canadian residents with
investments in the Flathead Valley have reached out to Joe requesting support to
encourage the opening of the Canadian/US border.
• Best Western Flathead Lake Inn & Suites received PPS money and has most of their
staff back. New protocol includes heavy housekeeping day, spraying a room after a
guest leaves and coming back in with a UV light. Stayover cleans by request only. For
breakfast no self-serve, staff on hand to provide servings.
• Hilton Garden Inn reported they have staff on call, averaging 18%-44% occupancy
and due to their Aimbridge cleaning protocol rooms are taking 50 minutes to clean.
• Jamie with the Kalispell Job Service office talked about using SIDES to help track
employees that have been offered their jobs back. He said there will be an online
career fair starting this month.
• My Place had natural attrition with some quitting and was able to work many part
time employees and still allow them to get the $600. Marriott SpringHill Suites
furloughed about 20% of their staff.
• Super 8 currently offering grab-n-go breakfast, not certain that will change.
• MLHA is requesting $150 million in State Recovery Funding be allocated to a
‘Hospitality Business Assistance Program’ to assist lodging and restaurant recovery
from the COVID-19 crisis. More information is available on mtlha.com.
• Janet Clark expressed the Kalispell Grand is still slow. The Kalispell Bar is open for business.
Meeting adjourned at 4:55 pm.
Respectfully submitted: Diane Medler
For further information, please contact:
diane@discoverkalispell.com or 406-758-2808