Mendocino County Lodging Association
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Baechtel Creek, Willits, Ca

The meeting was called to order by President Jan Rodriguez at 1:15pm.

Present were: Jeff Stanford, Jan Rodriguez, Pam Amante, Josie Perla, Stuart Marcus, Renata Dorn, Jo Bradley

Phone: Mike Bradbook, Pauline Zamboni, Jitu Ishwar, Cally Dym, Jason Hurst, Kevin Gallagher

Visit Mendocino County Inc. Staff: Scott Schneider, Aimee Hanson

Visitor: Ruth Sparks, Ian Fitzpatrick, Tawny MacMillan (Phone)

Privilege of the Floor
• Renata officially requested that VMC staff produce projected presentations of the BOD packet. Josie offered to look into projector costs and get back to the Board.
• Pam reported that she recently joined Richard Strom for site visits along HWY 101 regarding possible locations for gateway signs. Gualala is also a possibility.
• Renata requests that notices be placed onto mcla.info to announce when VMC meetings are; a link will be placed on the “Visit Mendocino County” page going to all VMC information including agendas & minutes.
• Renata inquired about having “VMC area representatives” vs “VMC officers”. The board is waiting for the by-law’s to be finalized and then a separate committee will be tasked to look into this possibility.

President’s Report
• Jan reported that the Partnership Request Agreement paperwork needs refinement
• Jan reported that there is a committee on the county level looking into raising the TOT. The county committee is required to discuss the TOT increase with MCLA. Jan needs to provide feedback to this county committee. The question: How would the committee feel about raising TOT by 1%? Feedback from the board: “It is a huge mistake right now.”

Approval and Posting of Last Meeting’s Minutes -
Jeff motions to approve minutes from the September meeting. Jo seconds. Motion Passes.

Treasurer’s Report
Jo reported:
• Checking Account balance: $26074.65
• Savings Account balance: $999.24
• July BID check received from County. 91% paid to VMC as stated in the contract


Administration Report VMC President’s Report -
• Annual Meeting – Meeting was a great success with over 60 people in attendance. Scott recognized Aimee for her excellent event planning. Board members present very happy with location, food, discussion, etc. New trade show booth unveiled and very well received. Members present were very positive and impressed with amount accomplished over past year. Board is interested in doing a similar event on the Coast in the Spring. This will be agendized for November.
• Mushroom & Wine Festival brochures are printed – they have been distributed throughout the county. We printed 10,000. Any comments on distribution should go to Joyce, joyce@gomendo.com
• Deadline for Crab and Wine Festival is October 12th – if you have a special or event please get it into joyce@gomendo.com
• Scott inquired if MCLA wants it’s own separate Chamber membership? It was agreed that MCLA needs to maintain a separate Chamber membership
• Scott attended California’s First Sustainable Conference, in Pacific Grove on October 1st
• Website Redesign: Venture Web was chosen to be our gomendo.com designer. An example of their work, showing functionality and ease: visittelluride.com. Staff will bring reservation system recommendations to the board once it is received from Venture Web.
• Radio: 6 week fall campaign has begun and is getting great initial returns. Gene Burns is talking for 2.5 minutes (we contracted for 60 seconds - this is excellent!).
• County wide nature tourism map should be ready by the end of October
• Visitredwoodcoast.com – the Geotourism project – should be finished by the end of 2009
• Mendocino County Promotional Foundation received first grant ever for $2K (to help fund National Heritage Area)
• Small groups and meetings brochure will be available 2010.
• First quarterly report will be presented to the board after the VMC BOD approves it on October 20th

Old Business -
• By-Laws Revisions- John Lambeth says the revisions of the By-Laws look really good. He needs a copy of our incorporation papers. After John approves the papers staff needs to send it out to the constituency for comment.
• Partnership Requests:
o A committee for Partnership Requests is being formed. The committee’s first task is to write a draft form letter for those who request more than $1K. Jason Hurst, Stuart Marcus, Pam Amante, Jitu Ishwar,and Richard Strom are on this committee. They need to come back to the Board in December
o MAPA: VMC recommended giving $4,000 to keep the Ford House open. The Board did not accept the request as it was above the maximum given for regional projects.
o Ukiah Chamber: It was proposed that we give $4K to fund the move. MCLA requested a budget from Bert @ Ukiah Chamber.
o Coast Clinics: Tawny MacMillan presented proposal of $1,000 to fund advertisement of Crab & Wine Days.
o Mendocino Heritage Days: Ruth Sparks presented her proposal. www.mendocinoheritage.com: Stuart motions we grant $1K to Heritage Days, on the condition that they work to develop as a county-wide event. Pam seconds. Stuart suggests: we grant $1K to Coast Heritage Day…we tell them that we want them to make a presentation to the county wide board, MCLA is giving them seed money to hire a coordinator and then they need to make a presentation to the county wide event.
o Howard Foundation, Ian presented funding $1,000 to the Mushroom Train in November.
o Jeff moves to grant $1K to Howard Foundation and $1K to Coast Clinics and Renata seconded. Motions passes
New Business
• 2009/10 Annual Plan:
o Cally motions to approve the annual plan giving the Board one week for further review. Barring any substantial changes, the report can be submitted to the County once the one week has passed. Pam seconds. Motion passes.
Next Meeting -
Scheduled for Nov 4th – 1:00 to 4:00pm at Gualala Art Center

Adjournment - motioned to adjourn at 4:15pm