Mendocino County Lodging Association
Board of Directors Meeting

Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Harbor Lite Lodge, Fort Bragg, CA
MINUTES
The meeting was called to order by President Jan Rodriguez at 1:07PM

Present were: Jan Rodriguez, Jeff Stanford, Jaime Buckner, Jason Hurst, Pauline Zamboni, Cally Dym, Pam Amante
Phone: Mike Bradbook, Jo Bradley
Guest: Jim Masten, candidate for 5th District Supervisor
Visit Mendocino County Inc. Staff: Scott Schneider, Aimee Hanson
Privilege of the Floor
• Introductions were held
• The board expressed concern about the effectiveness of the County Film Office.

Jeff motions to move all items needing a quorum be moved to the top of the agenda to ensure business can be conducted. Cally seconded. Motion Passes unanimously.

President’s Report
• Jan asked the board to please RSVP to BOD meetings. It is a waste of staff time to call board members to insure a quorum. Staff spent almost 2 hours today getting a quorum for today’s meeting.
• Jay Gordon writes about Mendocino County for examiner.com and he asks that we send information to him. Please support Jay Gordon to make this free promotion tool work for us! Scott to send email again to the MCLA list serve to encourage participation. Jay will discontinue this service if people are not enthusiastic and take him up on his offer.

Approval and Posting of Last Meeting’s Minutes -
Cally motions to approve minutes from the October meeting. Pam seconds. Motion Passes unanimously.

Jo motions to note in the minutes the number of ayes, nays and abstentions for motions. No individual names will be used. Pauline seconds. Motion Passes unanimously.


Treasurer’s Report
Jo reported:
• Checking Account balance through Dec 31st:$108,312.00
• Savings Account balance through Dec 31st:$1002.48
• October BID check received from County. 91% paid to VMC as stated in the contract
• Contingency Fund balance: $130,000.00-$140,000.00

Jeff motions that we approve the Treasurers Report. Cally seconds. Motion Passes unanimously.

Administration Report VMC President’s Report –
• 2010-2011 Annual Report
o Scott presented the Report as approved by the Advisory Board. Scott noted no contingency in the budget as well as an overall budget deduction of 5% vs. 2009-2010 budget.
o The Board had comments regarding formatting and ensuring charts were up to date.

Pam motions to accept the Annual Report and Budget for fiscal year 2010-2011 as presented with minor corrections that Scott will make and after Pauline’s grammatical overview. Jason Seconds. Motion Passes unanimously.

• 2010 Lodging Survey
o Scott presented two options to perform the required lodging survey this month. One is for VMC staff to conduct the survey and hope for efficient participation. Scott also received a quote from Berkeley Young of Young Strategies to perform the survey for us in the amount of $5,000.
o It was the Board’s opinion to do as in depth research as possible to ensure proper marketing of the County.

Jeff motions that we contract with Young Strategies to conduct the 2010 Lodging Survey for $5,000. Jason seconds. Motion Passes unanimously.

• Update on activities:
o Jan – July 2010 County Wide Event Guide is out. Copies are available at either the Fort Bragg or Ukiah offices.
o Visitor Guide: You can now view this on goMendo.com. Ads are clickable where the URL is in the ads. This is an added benefit to advertisers.
o Crab Festival: 6 high profile judges are coming for the Crab and Wine Cook Off. VMC has planned for a private reception and dinner on Jan. 21 to showcase the County prior to their busy schedules with the festival.
o Scott negotiated with Navteq Maps: Travel related businesses can be listed on Navteq maps which includes online maps such as Yahoo!, mapquest.com and most of the GPS units out there. Staff has been working hard providing a list of the first 100 businesses for their Beta site. We are allowed to list as many points of interest (POI) as we would like and VMC will work over the next year to have every property on the goMendo website to be in the Navteq database. Normal POIs cost $200 annually to be in the database. VMC is offering this opportunity to lodging at no cost as an added benefit. We are very fortunate to have this opportunity.
o Website redesign: The beta/testing site of goMendo.com is launching today. This is the first time that staff can use it as a ‘regular site’. Hopefully within a week all of lodging can begin to populate the site. The MOU for obtaining www.visitmendocino.com should be complete in the next few days. We are hoping for a hard launch by February 1st.
o Trade Show update: It is Trade Show Season. Bay Area Travel Show has been cancelled. LA is still on. We are applying for Sunset Celebration Days again. If you know anyone who would like to hand out brochures and work trade shows (no pay) please let us know.
o Two weeks from now our Governor is being recognized, in Hollywood, and they have asked Scott to present a Mendocino County gift to one of CTTC’s outgoing Vice Chairman. Scott will have an opportunity to promote Mendocino County in front of the Governor and all attending the dinner.

• New member/lodging owner introductory letter
o Cally presented the new member letter and asked Board members to take some time to review and send comments. It will be placed on a future agenda for approval.
• New Board Member Orientation Packet
o Documents are being developed to assist new Board Members understand the BID, structure of the organization and VMC’s function. . Cally has asked Board Members to review and send comments. This will be on a future agenda for approval.
o Conflict of Interest Policy: Documents are being developed to assist Board Members to understand their responsibilities to the Board. Cally has asked Board Members to review and send comments. This will be on a future agenda for approval

Old Business –
• Partnership Application and Policy Revisions
o Some Changes Discussed:
 From “Partnership” to “Sponsorship”
 Submission date
 Deadline date
Jeff motions to accept the Partnership Application and Policy report as presented with the addition of 5-10 minute presentation and 10 working day timeframe to receive revisions suggested by subcommittee. Pam seconds. Motion Passes unanimously.

New Business –
• Sponsorship Committee Setup:
o Sponsorship Committee: Jason and Pam
• Partnership (“Sponsorship”) Requests: Ukiah Art Center - $1,000.00

Cally moves to accept the partnership request from Ukiah Art Center. The Art Center should research obtaining matching funds as well as writing a press release for local press regarding MCLA’s $1,000 funding. Jeff seconds. Motion Passes unanimously.

• Discuss forming an Ad Hoc Committee to decide seats for VMC/MCLA BOD
o This will be an exploratory committee, no action will be taken.
o Ad Hoc Committee: Jan, Pauline, Jo Jeff, Jason, and Mike

Next Meeting -
Scheduled for Feb 3rd in Willits

Adjournment - Cally motioned to adjourn at 2:54pm