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07-06-16 Tourism Business Improvement District MinutesBoard of Directors Meeting Kalispell Tourism Business Improvement District Location: Kalispell Chamber of Commerce Wednesday, July 6, 2016 3:00 pm — 5:00 pm Minutes Board Members Present: Janet Clark, Vanessa Nordahl, Dan Moderie, Dawn Hendrickson Board Members Absent: Nautam Patel, Lisa Brown, Laurie Otto -Bradford Staff Present: Joe Unterreiner, Diane Medler, Dawn Jackson, Vonnie Day Visitors: Scott Rieke, Larry Lambert, Rob Eberhardy Meeting was called to order by Vanessa Nordahl, Board Chair, at 3:04 PM. 1. Hear from the Public — none 2. Flathead Celtic Festival — Rob Eberhardy presented information about his application for an event grant. Flathead Celtic Festival is held Sept 17t" at Herron Park. Out of market participation with visiting Clans, vendors, performers. Also corresponds with Clan Donald conference held in Kalispell over that date. 3. TBID Safety Awareness Updates — none 4. Board Action a. Approve minutes from the June 1, 2016 meeting: Action: Motion was made by Dawn Hendrickson to approve the minutes. Motion seconded by Dan Moderie. Discussion: none. Board approved unanimously. b. TBID financial statements for May, 2016: Action: Motion was made by Janet Clark to approve the financial statements. Motion seconded by Dawn Hendrickson. Discussion: none. Board approved unanimously. c. Approval of Event Grant Applications Action: Motion was made by Janet Clark to approve a $1,000 grant to Flathead Valley Celtic Festival. Motion seconded by Dawn Hendrickson. Discussion: event is growing, was well -run last year, good room night yield, potential to host supporting events such as regional Irish Dance contests. Board approved unanimously. Action: Motion was made by Dawn Hendrickson to approve a $500 grant to The Event at Rebecca Farm. Motion seconded by Dan Moderie. Discussion: repeat of grant awarded last year. Board approved unanimously. Action: Motion was made by Dawn Hendrickson to approve a $250 cash plus in -kind grant to Cowboy Mounted Shooter Association. Discussion: out of market attendance is small but increasing, board felt event would not yield substantial room nights to justify $1,500 requested. Board approved unanimously. 5. Board Discussion a. Event updates - Spartan Race created $4,399,252 in economic impact. 37% of out of county visitors reported it was their first trip to the Flathead Valley. 56% stayed in hotel/motel (2014 = 64%) and 15% stayed in rental cabin/home (2014 + 10%) reflecting increasing use of short term rentals. The 2017 race will be held May 6 -7. b. Dragon Boat — 40 teams have registered. Nine of those teams are from Canada. The prolonged weakness of the Canadian dollar and Alberta economy have caused a decrease in the number of Canadian teams participating. Social media promotions continue including a two for one team registration offer to members of Pacific Dragon Boat Association. Individual paddlers and BCS teams are being recruited. Less expensive contract with Race Director Kevin Kwan has been negotiated. There will be no road closure permit, conditional use permit or property owner agreements which will reduce costs. Event merchandise will be handled in-house as an additional source of revenue. An RFP for merchandise production has been distributed. c. Group, M& C updates — 6 RFP's were distributed for leads sent in June. Dawn will send list to each TBID member. POMA Conference had 200 registrants. Received great feedback on the event. More than half attending were media people. CVB is holding several contests to encourage media attendees to feature Kalispell and Northwest Montana. Videos of the POMA Conference were created by CVB and will be added to photo library. POMA will make additional videos of the event available. A representative of Tourco will offer a presentation on ways to work with his organization on July 20. TBID members will be invited. Arrangements are underway for a Meeting Fam with qualified meeting planners on September 20. Dawn is available to assist groups with meeting planning. d. Marketing updates —Trip Advisor featured Kalispell in a list of Father's Day vacation ideas. Budget travel blogger Shereen Rayle (hosted by CVB in May) posted 3 articles about her trip to Kalispell. CVB will have rights to 20 photos of outdoor spring activities provided by travel writer Matt Gibson who visited in May. Numbers of social media followers continues to grow on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The majority of signs in the Wayfinding project have been installed. Feedback has been very positive. Correction to last month's 3rd quarter TBID collections report: total collections were $100,756, a 9% increase year over year. There was 0% change when Greenwood and LaQuinta were removed. STIR Report: occupancy was up .7% for May, ADR was down 6%. Some properties are lowering rates due to new facilities entering the market. Larry Lambert suggested having Smith Travel do a seminar in rate management for the TBID. Northwest Magazine featured Farwest Boat Tours and Examiner.com mentioned a police blotter report of canine crimes in the Flathead County. The Kalispell VIC is experiencing increased traffic over 2015 with walk-ins up 10% in May and 7% in June. e. Short term rentals were discussed at a City Council work session. Kalispell Chamber supported City staff recommendation that short term rentals be allowed as a conditional use with restrictions in residential areas. The minimum number of rooms required for inclusion in TBID is six. Short term rentals are supposed to pay bed tax, but not all do. There is a national effort to address bed tax collection by Airbnb and other short term rental organizations. f. Glacier National Park updates — park management is anticipating a very busy summer. CVB met with local tourism partners to develop a PR plan in case of fires or other crises. GNP is offering tips for enjoying the park including using the free shuttle, carpooling, visiting less -traveled areas of the park, etc. Updates on park conditions will be posted on Twitter. Meeting adjourned at 4:32 pm. Respectfully Submitted: Diane Medler For Further Information, Please Contact: Diane Medler, CVB Director, diane@discoverkalispell.com or 406-758-2808