Mendocino County Lodging Association
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Baechtel Creek Inn, Willits, CA

The meeting was called to order by President Jan Rodriguez at 11:10am. Present were Scott Schneider (ED), Jo Bradley, Jeff Stanford, Cally Dym, Josie Perla, Renata Dorn, Stuart Marcus, Jitu Ishwar, Deny Shah, Richard Strom, Louis Bohannan (guest), Alydia Atkins (guest), Joyce Beard (guest), Jason Hurst (guest). Phone: Christina Affinito, Pam Amante, Phil Walker, Kevin Gallagher

Privilege of the Floor
• Introductions were held
• Request to move treasurer’s report due to Jo being tardy
• Jeff reported that Mendocino.com is interested in having their domain name purchased. Also talked with David McGrane from Ozone. Ozone would very much like to work with us. They would like to work with us on the marketing plan and positioning statements.

Approval of Last Meeting’s Minutes
Cally moved to approve September minutes. Jeff seconded. Motion passed.

Treasurer’s Report
Savings Account - $3,761.86
Checking Account - $3.163.69
Jo moved moving $10,000 from Welcome Center category to a new category named, “Visiting Media Expenses”. Jitu seconded. Motion Passed.
Jeff moved to approve treasurer’s report. Richard seconded. Motion Passed.

MCPA Report
• Agritourism conference November 12, 2008. Attendance is encouraged
• Introduced Joyce Beard as new part-time event coordinator – encouraged participation for Crab & Wine Festival – deadline is Nov. 14 to submit events for the printed guide
• Presentations of Randall marketing report well received and well attended
• Still in process of establishing a 501(c)3 – Mendocino County Promotional Foundation
• Encourages signing up for MCPA list serve
• Officers were re-elected for another term

Administration Report
• Presentation from ARES Reservation systems – Richard introduces possible concept of ARES Reservation Systems taking over Webervations as the on-line booking center on www.gomendo.com. Justin from ARES Reservation Systems discussed the program answering questions from those present.
• Jeff moves to table the online booking center issue until a marketing plan is presented. Kevin seconds. Motion Passes
• Advisory Board meeting/Annual Report – Meeting held on Monday. Annual plan was presented to Board. Board is eager to see MCLA Board’s direction regarding the recommendations of the marketing study and hope to include some of the recommendations in the upcoming annual report. Next meeting is December 15th at the Fairfield Inn in Ukiah at 2pm.
• Scott gave presentation on overview of MCLA, countywide promotional efforts and role of Executive Director

Marketing Committee Report
• Approval of September marketing committee minutes – Jeff motions to approve minutes. Jitu seconds. Motion Passes.
• VIA magazine proposal – Pam moves we advertise in VIA in March/April with a 1/3 page vertical Travel Guide ad and get an updated plan for the rest of the year. Richard seconds. Motion Passes.
Jeff moves we commit to being in the Sept/Oct issue with the updated plan being built around this advertisement. Pam seconds. Motion Passes.
• Partnership Requests
o Firefighter’s fundraiser – MCLA will ask individual inns to donate in the next newsletter, but it is not in our mandate to support things that do not promote tourism.

Old Business
• By-Law Changes –Associate membership, MCPA Alternatives, Marketing Committee. Changes tabled to December.
• MCPA Alternates – tabled to December
• Partnership Protocol – Jeff moves to accept changes to partnership policy and application as suggested by ad-hoc committee. Renata seconds. Motion Passes.

New Business
• Adopting of policy to be researched based – Jeff motions MCLA will be a research-based marketing organization. Cally seconds. Motion Passes.
• “Visit Mendocino” adoption – Jeff moves to develop the Visit Mendocino concept and the recommendations as written in section 11 of the Mendocino County Travel Research Study. The contract, once established, must stipulate that funds will be retracted if it is found funds are being misappropriated or the committee becomes dysfunctional. Cally Seconds. Motion Passes (Intent is to transfer approximately 90% of annual budget to the Visit Mendocino Management Committee to execute approved marketing plan).
o Jeff moves we develop a media plan with Randall Travel Marketing with a focus on print with a budget of $80,000. Cally seconds. Motion Passes.
o Stuart motions we advertise in “Sacramento Magazine” for 3 months doing a ½ page (if possible) based on feedback from Randall Travel Marketing. Jeff seconds. Motion Passes.

Next Meeting
Scheduled for December3 @ 11am, Ukiah.

Adjournment - Cally motioned to adjourn. Jo seconded. 3:45pm