e e e e e e e e e World convention and visitors bureau today is November 26 2024 I am the chair Justin Olsen and I am calling this meeting to order uh our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance so please stand I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everyone uh Alexa would you please do the role director grula here director Hansen here director Lan here director Olsen here Vice chair Kata he's here here chairman olon here thank you very much full house this morning I love it our next item of business is item four uh which is adoption of the agenda I will seek a motion to approve the the agenda for today I'll make a motion thank you we have a motion by our board member Olson and do we have a second I'll second we have a second by board member LaVine any further discussion on this item all those in favor of the agenda please signify by saying I I I opposed and the agenda has has been approved item number five on the agenda is approval of the minutes we have two different meeting minutes to approve first we have the meeting of 227 2024 did anybody have any changes or Corrections they wanted to make on the minutes okay those will stand approved by unanimous consent and then uh we also have 64 2024 meeting minutes any changes or recommendations on those okay those also stand approved by unanimous consent we will move on to item six present presentations and our first presentation this evening is the 2024 holiday events in Cottage Grove I had a chance to see this on Wednesday night and uh Molly did a fantastic job let's see if she has the same juice in the morning that she had at night she's more of a morning person anyway so we're probably going to get a little extra today all right Molly go ahead good morning everyone my name is Molly petuski and I'm here to speak on behalf of the cottage Ro of Parks and Recreation Department um we have a ton of holidays events coming up here in cage Grove so I just wanted to quickly give you a brief overview of all of those events coming up um the first one that we have on here is the Hail to the bird 5K race this Thursday during Thanksgiving holiday events um at Hamlet Park the race begins at 9:00 a.m. and all money raise goes through the holiday train committee directly to the Friends of need food shelf so it's a great morning event um you can still register online via activet just Google just do activet and then Hail to the bird keywords or you can register on site as well it's a great event you can see it's a crowded um usually it just shive about a thousand people so we invite the community to come on out and support the food shelf right away Thanksgiving morning our our Holiday Lights tour efforts have begun um so the map is um going to be coming up soon but you can still enter your addresses online now through uh December 15th is the last day that we'll update the map so if you go to the city of cottage Groves website there's a link on there you can enter your home address or maybe another family member's address who you know is brightly lit here in Cottage Grove and then the website makes a map so on the flip side of that if you're a family in town looking for something fun to do on a Friday night Saturday night pack up the kids punch in that map on your phone and take a tour around Cottage Grove to see all the houses lit up typically we have between about 30 and 40 houses so it makes for a great event night out with your family Hometown holiday is coming next week already it is we're going to feel the pinch now with three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas so it's already next week which is you can see as you pull into City Hall things are starting to change a little bit outside so next Thursday December 5th from 5: to 7:00 p.m. we will be hosting the hometown holiday event here at City Hall it's a great event Santa Mrs Claus live reindeer food trucks kids games we light this whole trail with about 30 Inflatables going down the back of City Hall the Park High School choir will be here free cocoa and cookies uh wagons are going to start delivering people from either the Washington County building or the hero Center at 4:30 and then mayor in Santa and Mrs Claus will pull in Via fire truck at 5 to light the tree and kick off the festivities again another great event hoping the weather warms up a little bit it's a little cold this morning out there but um it's a great just kind of Hometown holiday event we invite people to come out for the night breakfast with Santa at River Oaks is sold out so this updated already already um so if you have your tickets you guys are set otherwise breakfast with stand at River Oaks is sold out on Sunday December 8th cpkc Holiday train is um one of the largest community events that I have the pleasure of working with um throughout the year so the train is scheduled to arrive Wednesday December 11th um the train will arrive at 5:15 festivities begin at 3:30 with food trucks merchandise on-site warming lots of fun activities down at the Holiday train stop which is really adjacent to the youth Service Bureau it's kind of a pillar in the community if you know where the youth Service Bureau is that's exactly where the train stops across from it um all of these funds what does it say this is the 20th year that we have had the CP casc holiday train stop in cage Grove it's not a given so our community strongly supports the friends that need food shelf so we um were chosen as a stop again the train arrives at 5:15 it does take about 15 minutes to set up that middle box car opens and they perform on stage for about a half hour and then they pull out of town um it's a great event again we use the wagons provided by zivix to transport people in from the park and ride it will be a little bit busy because as we know a lot of commuters come back on the buses at about 5 5:15 so it will be a little bit busy so we encourage people to come a little early leave a little extra time to get parked and get down to the site being a week night at that time and then we always just like to remind people that Recreation we are just as busy in the winter as we are the summer so our parks are groomed lots of outside playtime while um the ground is clean not a lot of Snow Trails we groom them all winter so we try to keep the main Trails plowed as possible for Walkers and Runners warming houses and outdoor skating ranks are scheduled to always open the day after Christmas um we're on track this year last year we were unsuccessful we did the best we could twice and we didn't quite make it so we're really hoping for a stronger warming in house outdoor skating season this year just a reminder we are opening glacia Valley Park this winter as an additional outdoor skating rink sledding hills we have several good um Hills in Cottage Grove that you can get out there and sled and then utilize those warming houses if you need to River Oaks does groom cross country ski trails during the winter once they have enough snow on the ground and same with our snowshoes it does take quite a bit of snow to get our Snowshoe trailer out we retrofit the kayak trailer that we rent Kayaks out in the summer and we rebuild the inside and then we rent snowshoes out of that in the winter it is kind of looking like they may be back at um Oakwood again this year we were hoping for Mississippi Dunes but the roads just aren't going to be quite ready yet to make sure we can keep them plowed and open in there as much as we'd like to to make sure the snow shoes are accessible so we're looking at Oakwood Park one more year again for the snow shoes this winter and just other festive happenings around town we were just talking about this last s or Sunday we had grocery Bing at Cub Foods it was a great kickoff for the holiday train um coming up there's a few events at Shepherd's Farm on here there's turkey time on the 29th introduction to Glow forge on December 3rd and then a sensory friendly Saturday on December 24th shepher Farm is a great one I would follow if you have a family here in cottage girl follow on social media or check out their website they have lots of cool amazing things that they do you really don't even feel like you're in Cottage Grove but you are you're right in the heart of it they do lots of cool stuff over there uh River Oaks has another uh procrastinators Market craft show coming up on November 30th so that would be this Saturday from 10: a.m. to 300 p.m. um Phil a firet truck is also coming up this year it will not be at Wood Ridge Park it is going to be down at the friends and need food shelf so it's a great opportunity for families to drop off paper products as well they're requesting so toilet paper paper towel kleenexes things like that and then come and get a tour of the food shelf see what it's like on the inside it's pretty amazing if you've never been there I highly recommend it um it's an amazing operation it is very well-run they do a great job so it's another fun opportunity to get out see the fire trucks drop off some supplies for those who need it most this winter season and the Lion's Club breakfast is now your main opportunity on December 8 if you do not have something to do yet or tickets for some Santa breakfast somewhere else join The Cottage Grove lions at the VFW on December 8th from 800 to noon tickets can be purchased right at the door and it's a great event very popular in our community and that is all I have that's all that is all that we have is that it I know that is all that we have going on I can that only took a half an hour that can't be all I can definitely answer any questions that you guys guys might have about events coming up or things related to parks and wreck this winter any comments or questions from the board I got to tell you um second time hearing it it still sounds like a lot um it's it's starting to cause me anxiety like you know it's a great time of year in Cottage Grove and I could say that about any time of year but um for those of you who aren't aware uh our mayor mayor Bailey uh has a nickname uh we affectionately call him mer Christmas because he loves Christmas he absolutely loves it and um I know that uh you know he's behind sort of pushing the staff to add certain events each year Etc if you haven't been by his home yet um he did start lighting it up on Sunday night uh so uh my kids and and my wife and I went by uh for day one and he's added some new things to his yard you can land a plane by his yard it is very very very lit up Lori you live near there I'm sure you see the glow from from your house um but uh there's a lot going on and I would encourage everybody to take advantage of one of these opportunities Molly mentioned that the Santa breakfast at River Oaks is sold out you can still come to the Cottage Grove Lions breakfast uh that starts at 8: a.m. on the 8th goes till noon at the VFW adults are $12 children are $8 we will have Santa and sparkles the elf uh you know on hand for you to take pictures and tell Santa what you want for Christmas and all that so um if you can't get into River Oaks certainly please come and see us or do what I do and go to both uh I also want to mention the East Cottage Grove scramblers who is our local snowmobile club has their annual um dust them off uh snowmobile vintage Swap and extravagan and they call it all kinds of fun things but basically what it is is it's a great day to get outside over at 70th and 19 and that'll be on January the 4th Cottage Grove Lions will be there uh helping out for that too runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. so if you miss some of the Christmas events and uh you decide you want to get outside and have a little bit of fun after Christmas come check out the Cottage Grove scramblers on uh the 4th of January they'll have a radar run they have a lot of vintage snowmobiles uh board member Olsen I know you've participated in this go ahead what would you like to talk about yeah uh Molly great job uh most of these events are free that's neat yes that's neat for families so thank you lots of opportunities to get outside and play that's very uh welcome come in it it is it's one of the things that makes Cottage Grove so special so thank you very much Molly and uh look forward to seeing you I'm sure at multiple events over the next several weeks as you start to see less and less of people's faces as we start to bundle up more and more right right yeah for sure and uh let's all you know hope for some really nice weather for our hometown holiday celebration we had one year was a little nippy uh last year wasn't quite so bad so we'll hope for a repeat thanks again very good thank you guys all right um so on that happy note we're going to transition over to some business items try to bring the room down a little bit right uh get to some some things here that we need to discuss and we're going to start with our friend Jamie man to talk about the um Cottage Grove uh puzzle and painting and the 2024 food truck festival a little recap here for us welcome Jamie thank you chairman members of the board uh so I'm going to give you a quick recap of the doual painting unveiling and Cottage Grove food truck which was a huge success again this year so um the doual unveiling happened the morning of September 14th right before the food truck festival began uh we had 16 people representing 14 different people places or landmarks within the city um who all got to put their piece in the puzzle after the painting was revealed they got to say a few words about their organization or the um item that they were putting their piece in um there were about 200 attendees at the event uh at the event we also kicked off our puzzle sales so we sold about 540 puzzles that day between the unveiling event and the food truck festival um Eric dowle was at the unveiling to sign puzzles and take photos with people as well and then he came down to the food truck festival um because we had done a coloring contest with some kids um we put it out in the Cottage Grove reports that they could color a painting for a chance to be a finalist to be awarded a little Medallion by Eric dowle um and you can see on the screen he he presented them with The Medallion and um a framed their framed coloring contest piece um so he also came and signed puzzles met people at the food truck festival it was uh a fantastic day and so far as of November 15th we've sold 941 puzzles so we're just about a third of the way through our puzzles that we um purchased through through Eric dowle um I am going to switch to a different screen I'm sorry um there we go the video buffers when I played it in the PowerPoint so we have another option for you um this is a great video a drone shot by sctc so you can kind of see the full scale as I'm talking through um the details of the food truck festival so we are estimating over the course of the 11:00 a.m. to 700 P p.m. time frame we had between 8 and 9,000 people in attendance there were 40 food trucks at the event which you can see it is a full parking lot of food trucks um we had bounce houses we had Strawberry Fest ambassadors there um running carnival games uh we had police presence there um 17 Marketplace vendors this year which our goal was about 10 so we came in well above our goal um we had 10 sponsors at the event we had great entertainment in basic and boring who opened the day for us we had Liv McNair who then opened for Haley James who was kind of our headline liner for the event um the lions were there with in the beer tent we had doual puzzle sales at the event uh discover cage Grove also had a booth there some of you worked that day with us um and we got to talk to a lot of people hand out a lot of our swag that we have um so that is the overview video let me get back here sorry it doesn't keep me at the slide I will pull up our uh Revenue so we estimated the event coming in at just a slight loss before um we actually had everything come in for the event um Bas our estimates were based on last year's food truck event so last year we had 23 food trucks this year we had 40 um we were a little worried that they weren't all going to fit in the parking lot so I think about 35 is an ideal number of food trucks for next year so um that is our goal for our food truck count for next year just to make sure everybody fits um we actually came in at just over $7,000 in profit after all is said and done and you have a copy of this in front of you as well um so we received great feedback from our vendors um participants um public I had a phone call the day after the event saying please don't ever let this event go away so we are extremely happy with how the event turned out this year and I would be happy to stand for any questions thank you very much that is uh just amazing isn't it I mean it's got to feel pretty good um any questions at all for Jamie I have a thought uh from the Lions perspective Cottage go of lions are very happy with the event I'm also on that uh membership uh so thank you from the Lions Club we had a successful uh day we did and it was wonderful weather right so that helps uh so we enjoyed that the spools the wooden spools uh people seem to really gravitate and like those for eating drinking hey let's meet and and visit is there any way potentially in the future we could get five to eight more spools or or where's who is our source for that thank you chairman members of the board uh we actually get those free from from Van Meter um and we had at the event talked about putting some at both ends as well cuz down by um the bounce houses there was no place for people to kind of eat and stand as their kids were playing in the bounce houses so we are looking at probably getting a few more for next year so that we could have them at both ends but we could look at adding some additional down to the stage areas too thank you and uh as a note um that's actually one of our Lions members Brian Atkinson who helps us with that so I think we can figure out a way to make that happen no no problem any other questions or thoughts at all for Jamie I want to say uh first of all a very very hearty thank you to Jamie and her team um the the amount of work that went into putting this Festival on um is probably not well known to the public they spent months and months and months and many hours putting this Festival together and then um for those of you who may not recall we were not originally supposed to do the doual puzzle unveiling that day it was supposed to happen at Strawberry Fest and because of some logistical challenges we had to make an adjustment Midstream and uh Jamie and the rest of the staff here at City Hall found a way to accommodate that and really make it an essential part of a big day for us I think a lot of people went to the doual puzzle unveiling and then uh just transitioned right over to the food truck festival just walk down the hill basically um but that was no easy feat either because you had to deal with Logistics through the school district and um you know D and his team Etc so um again I really can't say thank you enough for everything that you did uh the financials speak for themselves clearly um what a difference between year 1 and year two um you know a lot of enhancements and as we continue to learn I have no doubt there will be even more enhancements but it was a really special day uh if people like me want to buy the puzzles as Christmas gifts this year because I planed to give a doal puzzle to pretty much every person I know how do they do that thank you chairman members of the board uh we actually have a Black Friday sale going on right now where if you purchase between now and I believe it's the 30th you have a chance to get a signed puzzle we do have some remaining signed puzzles so we have 10 people that are going to get a signed puzzle to replace the one that's not signed that they purchased um but they can go on our website to purchase online or they can come here in person and purchase them in person also throughout the next year-ish we will be uh participating in a lot of events where you'll see puzzle sales going on at community events as well and what are the costs again please it is $28 for the 500 piece puzzle and $30 for the Thousand piece puzzle okay and you said the Black Friday sale is now through the 30th yes okay and they have an opportunity uh to win a signed puzzle well they're not they're not technically winning it they're going to be the puzzle that they were going to get is just going to be signed in I okay I'm sorry thanks for clarifying that for me perfect good well that's kind of a cool thing too wow okay again um just thank you I don't know what else to say uh it it was absolutely fantastic and I can't wait till next year um good job uh anyone have anything else before we transition all right thank you very much Jamie and now we're going to introduce the lovely and talented Phil jent um Phil's the newest member of our team here uh or close to in the city of Cottage Grove and for those of you who don't know Phil I want to give him just a minute to introduce himself but I will say he's a local guy um he flew the Coupe for a while but we got him back so welcome Phil can you just first of all kind of tell the the team here and the people watching at home a little bit about yourself sure uh chairman of the board uh board members uh good morning and thank you and thank you for the the very kind introduction chairman olssen uh my name is Phil Jens I'm the city's Communications manager it is true that I uh grew up in Cottage Grove uh a phrase interestingly enough that I did not know growing up here until uh um taking this position was that I have a PhD and it's not even on my resume or reflected anywhere in a bio and that's that I graduated from Park High so that's a new phrase I got to learn that I definitely use uh in my in my personal life um but correct I grew up in Cottage Grove um very happy to be back uh home so to speak and um have worked uh to to manage Communications in another city prior to Cottage Grove uh and so it's very interesting and very rewarding to come back here to my hometown uh and be able to serve the community in this capacity uh we have a great team great colleagues uh and everyone including yourselves that I've had a chance to work with and meet um I've had had nothing but very very U great interactions with and so um having a really good time so far and and enjoying serving the community Phil did not have much time to um acclimate uh I think we had him rolling up his sleeves on day one if I remember right um and and he jumped right in and uh I think it's sort of been 100 miles an hour downhill with your hair on fire ever since but um you know he's he's really been a great addition to the team uh highly respected um very humble uh he won't tell you that he worked in duth but he did and and he did a great job up there for a long time and we're uh very fortunate to have had the opportunity to bring Phil on staff and look forward to working with him for a long time as he wants to tell Cottage Grove's story um and and we're very appreciative of that Phil's here today to talk to us a little bit about the Q2 and Q3 lodging Tax and Revenue collection and then I think you're going to move forward into the budget approval so take it away Cor yes uh thank you uh Cher Olson and board members uh so yes uh here to talk about uh the quarter 2 and quarter 3 lodging Tax and Revenue collections uh so the 2024 budget uh uses a 63% occupancy rate when calculating our 2024 lodging tax projections uh we also know that lodging typically does uh go down dip down in the winter months uh in Cottage Grove and then goes up in the warmer months um nothing too surprising there but just something to to point out so this average keeps our projections consistent throughout the year and the City of Cottage Grove has collected all of our second and third quarter lodging tax and receiv received the following amounts which you see before you uh quarter 2 $2,340 and quarter three $ 54,1 186 uh in total lodging tax collections for the second and third quarters were $75,500 tax revenue collections were higher than projected by about $ 57,6 38 we also collected initial payments for the uh food truck festival beginning in the second quarter to Total $3,200 quarter 2 total show a deficit of $822 based on our Revenue projections but a higher amount of payments were expected uh to come in earlier for the food truck festival uh those deficit numbers were made up in quarter three uh quarter three money which collected for the uh for the food truck festival uh with that um we'll stand for any questions regarding the quarter 2 quarter 3 lodging tax collections okay thank you Phil any questions at all for Phil on his report nothing all right perfect let's transition over to the budget approval for 2025 I know there will be a question on this one so just uh go forward and then we'll get to that at the end sounds good thank you chair Olsen and board members uh so the 2025 budget appr approval uh is before you and uh again as stated uh in the previous presentation projections of a 63% uh occupancy were used when forecasting for the 2024 lodging tax revenue which estimates a total of $72,600 uh in revenue and looking back at previous years on average uh the CVB has averaged a revenue of almost 65% OCC occy for the full year so for 2025 the recommendation is to continue uh the projected occupancy of 63% um uh a 63% occupancy rate for budgeting uh total lodging tax revenue which would give us a projected revenue of $723 this Falls more in line with what has historically been collected from our lodging facilities yearly it is also estimated that the advertising for the visitors guide in 2024 will be uh excuse me $4,500 which helps offset the cost of printing for The Visitor Guide added in 20125 are estimates for the food truck festival which based on projections is an estimated uh for the CVB will collect $15,500 uh in both food truck and Marketplace vendor payments and $8,000 from sponsorships of the event um moving on to expenses those are broken out into two categories you have marketing expenses uh and uh uh operations so before you on this slide you see marketing expenses in previous years um uh marketing expenses excuse me going back marketing expenses are the core to the cvb's mission uh and which is to promote Cottage Grove as a premier destination for leisure Travelers weddings and outdoor enthusiasts uh a recognized and successful host City for meetings and conventions and a prominent and respected venue for sporting events and so as you look at those expenditures um it is in service of that core Mission uh a reliable history for activities of the CVB is still being established so funding levels for each line item and Initiative for the 2025 budget are based on um actual and projected spending so in total we have marketing expenses for 2025 um at $56,500 uh printing of the visitors guide for 2025 is estimated at $111,000 expenses related to the brochure programs at the Mall of America and Minneapolis St Paul airports uh have been budgeted at $463 uh Professional Services has been budgeted at $400 and includes transcription Services uh this leaves some areas that allow for flexibility in the budget um at 400 or excuse me flexibility in the budget and marketing and at local events and other types of AD advertising which are budgeted at $642 social media will continue to be the focus for the cvb's marketing efforts uh and therefore $122,000 has been budgeted to maintain the presence of the CVB online on social media the second category of expenses uh operations um many of the operations expenditures are for dat to-day expenses uh things like office supplies and postage that equal $1,100 uh and in 2025 the visitors bureau will continue its membership with the Minnesota Association of a of convention and visitors uh for $410 and has $1,700 budgeted for continuing education which does include the Mac Phoebe uh annual conference uh $3,615 is budgeted as the 5% administrative fee that is paid back to the city of Cottage Grove for facilitating the CVB and then contractual Services uh to the city of 25 % uh covers services like accounting audit clerical Legal Services which totals 17,7 125 and finally the largest expense is for a portion of the salary and benefits of a communication specialist position at $24,000 so with total revenue projections of $100,500 uh and expenses projected at $4,130 125 uh it equates to a a net loss of $ 3,831 25 um which you see here and so moving forward the CVB is still determining best practices and methods for marketing the city uh which you'll hear a little bit more about later and then also the the 2025 budget is meant as a guide uh that allows for flexibility to adapt and change as we move forward so with that uh there is a motion before you thank you very much before we uh look to approve this budget I want to see uh who might have some questions Vice chair Kat I know you had a question go ahead um on the projected revenues for um food truck donations and sponsors line 3812 for June July August and September um the the vertical column doesn't add up um for those four months but then the the end of year totals do so I don't know if that's um just a a quirk with the Excel spreadsheet to get the formula right but it didn't seem to affect the overall um math uh in the totals column but uh it's just something I noticed um is that those four months the the subtotals are $2,000 off on each of those months uh chairman of the board board member Kata thank you for pointing that out uh we will look into that further and if any corrections need to be made we will certainly make those thank you yeah that stood out to me too and it could just be the way we're interpreting the data but it it just appears uh you know using my PhD um that uh the the math doesn't math so um if you guys could check that that would be much appreciated but to the vice chair's Point uh you know when we look at the totals uh on the far right hand side everything appears to be accurate so um just something to check into any other questions at all on the budget folks all right great well then I will seek a motion to approve the 2025 CVB budget I'll second I'm I'll make a motion all right so I have a motion by Vice chair Kata do I have a second I'll second I have a second by board member Hansen any further discussion on this all right seeing none all those in favor of approving the budget please signify by saying I I opposed okay thank you Phil and thanks for joining us this morning great to have you uh let's transition to Gretchen who's going to take us through the 2024 Chandler thinks strategic Plan update thank chairman good morning everyone members of the board so we are going to talk a little bit about the updates for the strategic planning process as you may recall Chandler thinks was selected in June to be the um consultant that helped helps us develop the plan they um did their Insight visits on October 7th and 8th and we of course interviewed the CVB board city council the Eda area businesses City staff and also the cotage Grove Athletic Association was our last big interview and that was on November the 10th so we're essentially done with all the interview processes for right now um some observations that came out of that phase one we'd like to share with you um there was a recommendation to pair down the amount of content in the visitors guide and make it more destination focused there was a need for uh one or more brand hotels in the city I'm sure that comes as no surprise to some of you you've been on the board of one um to conduct a short survey of larger businesses to see how many vendors contractors corporate visits they have each year and how many overnight stays they may have and what we may be missing um most of the people in town for sporting events and tournaments stay at Woodberry because two teams will fill up the entire uh country in in suits and then the final recommendation which was an interesting one is that we should begin to think about creating destination marketing packages um for not only our businesses but kind of partner with other areas that are of Interest like Aton elps or afon the apples um Orchard um but it example of a weekend package would include like staying at Hope Glenn having coffee or breakfast at Caribou lunch at Junction 70 dinner at River Oaks and then you could do things like depending on the time of the year package um golf at River Oaks or a massage at The Healing Place um and again you or like Shepherd's Farm does Apple you can pick apples and learn how to bake a pie so things like that that kind of just expand not just our influence but come stay here and you're only 20 minutes from all sorts of things here and elsewhere so that was a recommendation that we found very interesting phase one is now essentially complete they will review their findings with the city administrator and staff on on uh December the 9th and then we'll send an interim report thereafter to the board and let you know about the phase one and then we'll move on to the rest of the phases which phase two is the gap analysis and the survey regarding the overnight stays and actually has already been sent out we've received responses and now the analysis of that will begin phase three this is important for you all because this is your SWAT analysis which includes your goal settings so they're look I just received an email this morning from them they're looking at January 9th the 10th or the 11th for a 2-hour meeting which would be a virtual meeting with them so if you can kind of just put those three dates the 9th the 10th 11th in your head and make sure that when I send the email that we can nail down one of those three days and then phase four which will be the final report the tourism action plan and the road map for the next 3 to five years and then we anticipate that the report will be done sometime in mid January and it'll be presented to you in February and with that we'll stand for any questions that you have thank you for the update g a lot of uh um a lot of interesting things came out of that um you know interview process I think um both on behalf of those being interviewed and and those doing the interviews because of their experience in this um particular Niche and and definitely um I think there's a lot of fun things ahead what questions does the board have with respect to the Chandler thinks update I have a couple questions okay board member Cula the first one was what content were they suggesting that we remove from the visitors guide well um my colleague Courtney is going to go a little bit more into that um but they were just saying that if you're going to be a tourist destination be a tourist destination give people itineraries things to do like what I mentioned right giving package deals why are they coming here as opposed to things like recipes and book reviews and movie reviews all of that's good it's actually very good but the idea is that at some point we need to split those apart so that when you're focusing on tourism that's all it is all the fun Hometown holiday stuff and all of that can be a partial draw but it's also for the community as opposed to visitors so that's that makes sense uh my second question I thought it was an interesting idea the Partnerships with other cities to make packages does Cottage Grove do we have people that have good relationships with the city government in Afton or Hastings yes we do and of course we have our member we have our chamber as well so yeah we do have relationships with folks and we think we can build some interesting packages um and we also um introduced uh the folks at Chandler thinks to visit St Paul and visit Minnesota Minneapolis sorry and uh so we really think that we can do that 20 minutes it's still ideal to stay here we hope to still get another hotel or two so you would come here and stay and you would do all the fun things here and you could still go pick apples go skiing whatever because I mean they're only just a few minutes away so why not the power of in Economic Development we always say the best place is our place and the next best place is right next door so thank you any other questions at all I will say that uh from an elected officials perspective we do have very good relationships with our absolutely partner elected officials and all of our surrounding communities um you know I consider many of those folks uh colleagues and friends and and they always seem very willing to want to work with us to find mutually beneficial solutions to the challenges that we face in fact uh we meet once a year um for a full workshop with City of Woodbury uh and and their staff and councel um we also have a little competition when we meet with them uh to kind of kick things off and at this point we've never lost to them I just want to make that very clear for those people watching that home that um you know uh there may come a day but not while I'm around uh anyway so um thank you I did want to make a couple of comments on uh Chandler thinks real quick one thing that I took away was Chandler thinks very much stressed that uh tourism means an overnight stay and they've were were adamant about the fact that uh we are extremely short when it comes to lodging we we definitely have a focus uh to try to gain additional lodging and you mentioned sort of the brand names and that is something that um the city staff and the Economic Development Authority have been working on for quite some time when the mayor and I went to Las Vegas this year for the um ICC convention which we do every year to market the city um we spent a good amount of time talking with various um Brokers and and uh you know lodging purveyors to try to work towards gaining some additional foothold for lodging because um we do get a lot of tournaments here in town you guys know that in the summer months we have a lot of softball tournaments baseball tournaments things of that nature um in the winter months our Ice Arena continually packed uh there's an awful lot of uh hockey tournaments that take place here in addition to just the regular games and um it it pains me to send those people away to uh eat someplace else and stay someplace else so um I think that is for me anyway one of the primary strategies that came out of that is we need to double our efforts on on that but uh it was really good um to interface with them and I look forward to their work if there are no further questions oh go ahead please um so I'll say that um I was able to be a part of a few of those um conversations along with um a good handful of the chamber members and that is the one the biggest thing probably that came out of that is because the um topic of a potential for a hotel especially a name brand Hotel um every time I turn around people are like when is it coming when is it coming when you know so that's exciting to hear that um especially from our um Business Park members um our businesses there that it will be very well received and can't come quick enough yeah I I agree because as our business park um members continue to expand and and they do they expand their Footprints regularly you know they need to bring people in for meetings and conferences and all of those things and where do they stay right so that's a challenge um good any other thoughts on that uh Vice chair Kat uh yeah I'd like to kind of um complement what you said regarding um you know sitting down with the uh people at Chandler thinks the the takeaway that I took from it is we've got a lot of activities that draw people in um and the question kept coming up well where are they staying and it's well they're staying in Woodberry or they're staying they're staying somewhere else and coming here um and and I think when he highlighted the fact that uh tourism dollars means keeping people here you know overnight to spend money to to you know eat and and recreate and whatever um I think highlighting the fact of much to what Gretchen said where our proximity to a lot of activities and uh recreational opportunities is about equal and I think we need to try and use that to sell that to bring in additional lodging and and again keep those dollars here rather than being the stopover destination for somebody who's staying somewhere else absolutely I couldn't agree more any other comments at all okay so um thank you for the update Gretchen I don't think you need any action on our behalf right I don't all right so now Courtney who's been here waiting patiently this whole time uh is going to take us through the 2025 Visitor Guide updates welcome good morning chair members of the board um as Gretchen mentioned uh feedback from our strategic partnership with Chandler Chandler thinks has been incorporated into the 2025 visitor guides so a lot of what we just talked about is kind of what I'll cover um and so as we talked with Chandler thinks um today the average Cottage grow visitor is a Day Tripper like you said um they they're typically traveling 40 to 65 miles um in distance um and not spending the night so this edition of The Visitor Guide focuses on the main objective which is to inspire a visit and encourage that overnight stay uh rather than including communitybased stories which we did in the 2024 Edition uh We've slimmed down the guide and focused on the core mission of the CVB providing our visitors with helpful suggestions and resources and so as you can see at the bottom our page count has gone from 44 to 20 Pages um but that was very inten so the contents of this guide um there are four key sections uh the first section is like your main key attractions so dining and lodging a couple of the main reasons people are coming here we we also still are offering uh suggestions of things to do Outdoor Adventure um highlighting some of our annual events and um now including nearby attractions uh so you will see mention of the Mall of America the KO Zoo things that are 20 20 miles uh from Cottage Grove and then chanandler things also mentioned that we really need to focus on weddings and groups um that's a big draw too we also we have multiple wedding venues here uh so we have um contact information for uh Services resources for weddings and groups that are coming to Cottage Grove and then some entertainment ideas as well the last section includes information regarding the Grove puzzle uh which is a fun thing that we offer now for residents and visitors and then we also provided a travel itinerary sample for uh someone who isn't familiar with Cottage Grove and is just here for the day and wants to plan their visit before coming so before you you will see a printed draft of The Visitor Guide uh that is no not done for sure um but you can see that the design stayed relatively the same we had really positive feedback on the design it was more so the content that we had included in it so uh that is why we stripped it down we kept a similar design um of course had our our sponsored ads uh who we really appreciate and um yeah so feature on the front cover is the Cottage Grove Bike Park that is a staple in Cottage Grove it's something we offer that many cities don't have uh so we wanted to make sure that when it's sitting on a shelf someone sees it and says hey like what's that I want to do that when I go there um it falls under that travel itinerary something to do when the family's here um and then in comparison to last year I mentioned this before the design has kept a similar theme um but we are just now pivoting to a visitor resource versus a community- based recreation guide uh this guide provides visitors with more direct information uh such as location and contact details that was something Chandler thinks highly recommended um having a direct source to the website the phone number um you know instead of reading through paragraphs of information that they won't remember having that direct source to the location essentially um that's what it's for it's a guide to these businesses so um and then after presenting you the draft I'd be happy to stand for any questions before I continue any questions at all on the draft I have one question please I see some very nice um promotional content or ads country in and Suites Aton Apple St Paul Saints are they paying for this space or are we just including them because or and if not are we going to approach them for ad space yes so we have six approved ads um the ones with logos included and website and contact information those are all paid for um and then the mention of um you know we have the list of contact details and so stuff like that um if there's no logo it's more so just mentioned so visitors are aware thank you yes go ahead Vice chair Kata uh so where it says like half Place ad placement if if some if no one purchases that do do you guys do you have like a a backup or something to fill it yes definitely um when I when we start the guide we start with a long list of things we want to include um so there's definitely things that we kept out to make space for the ads um as of now the ads are closed um but we do have potential space still um if needed since this is not final um but yes we do have information we can include there okay um otherwise no I like the layout um I think looks very attractive thank you thank you chairman board member livine yeah I'll add to this is beautiful again you do such a great job every year um and I um I have a great understanding and how much work goes into one of these so um congrats on that just U Remind me again when does this um publish it'll be distributed in January of 20125 nice okay thank you y any other questions I have a couple myself if you don't mind um I'm all for uh bringing people into the community although I'm not sure uh Latin is probably the language we want want to use in here um I know that that's just a default but uh uh wanted to just point that out but I was looking through the guide and um trying to find references to some of our um kind of unique outdoor venues as an example the disc golf course um so when I look at uh the goet side page and I see spring subtitle here summer subtitle here false I'm assuming that's where some of that stuff's going to go yes that's correct okay all right good enough because there are so many outdoor things to do here and of course we're very excited about Mississippi Dunes Park and um access to the river so uh having that included I think will be something that um not only locals will appreciate but those who want to visit will appreciate and we're hopeful that those are the things that will attract people to the community and get them to stay uh for people at home who don't know we've actually been the destination for the um State disc golf tournament uh on a couple of different occasions and that Disc Go of course gets a lot of use so um that's why I was looking for it but the the layout's beautiful I think um condensing to some degree was a wise decision for sure and uh I look forward to seeing the final product um I I really can't wait uh great photography as well so uh using the bike park on the cover I think is a real grab you kind of a photograph and um I just think it it's beautiful thank you any other thoughts on the visitors guide you guys guys yeah the back cover is beautiful as well that's a nice shot of that is isn't that a great shot of the golf course it's really good and the lights just perfect yeah so really great uh anyone else with comments no looks good okay perfect well thank you Courtney um when will we see the finished product did you say before my maternity leave in January congratulations to you yes how wonderful is that okay now did you get that approved through Phil is that okay all right good just make sure wonderful well good um our next item on our agenda is a workshop and we have none so we are now Mr chair we do have one action we do need relate related to the visitors oh I'm sorry please tell me oh here it is on the screen how about I pay attention that would be great wouldn't it yes so uh you need approval for the uh printing costs right yes so displayed on the screen are two quotes um from companies that we have worked with before uh it's for a very similar product that we've done before full color uh this is a 16-page booklet and we are requesting 7,000 copies um you will notice in comparison to last year that there is a significant cost decrease which is a result of the smaller page count uh last year we had 44 Pages which cost us about 10 10 $10,000 um and then this year's 20 Pages um which will be $622 I didn't look but did this reduced cost get it uh included in our prospective budget for 2025 did that get entered in there do we know I can if we don't know that's okay Phil do you know Phil yeah the projected budget was $111,000 so there goes our $3,000 loss right there look at that wow you're really good okay so were you hoping for approval for ideal uh yes so with that I present you with a recommendation to approve the quote all right so the recommendation is to approve the quote for the printing of 7,000 copies of the 202 Visitor Guide through ideal Printers Inc for $622 can I get a motion please I'll make a motion all right a second board member Cula with the motion Vice chair kado with the second any further discussion on this item all those in favor please signify by saying I I I opposed all right thanks for catching me Jennifer I appreciate that okay good so uh we are now up to uh number eight Workshop there are none uh now we have board member comments does anybody have comments that they would like to share no comments okay um I do want to take a minute to thank our vice chair Tony Kata for his service to The Cottage Grove convention and visitors bureau um Tony will be moving on from his uh elected role here at the end of uh 2024 but I know he's going to stay involved with the city in various forms and fashions um and and I'm not sure what all of that's going to look like but I have a few ideas uh but you know Tony's Been instrumental in helping us drive this process he's been a wonderful city council member and colleague um and he's just a really good guy so I wanted to just take a moment to say thanks to Tony for everything that he's done for the board uh for the city and I look forward to your continued involvement in um city policymaking I also wanted to congratulate our board member to my left uh Lori LaVine for those of you who at home who may not know Lori and I don't know that there's probably 10 people in town who don't but um Lori is the CEO uh president uh Queen of All She surveys as it relates to the um Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce and recently at the chambers uh is it called the evening of Excellence did I get it right okay at the chamber's evening of Excellence which um Tony and I had the opportunity to attend with uh our Council colleagues and staff uh Lori received some uh very well-deserved recognition for her hard work as um uh a great advocate for all of our chamber members uh including those in Cottage Grove and uh I got to tell you she's the hardest working lady in Show Business she's she's tireless um and I have a lot of admiration for the work that she does so I'm I'm going to give you a minute Lori if you want to speak you don't have to but um maybe you can tell the folks at home kind of what you what you received and why and all that good stuff that was not on the agenda it was not so thank you thank you very much yes so um I celebrated five years um in my position um at The Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce as a um president and CEO um along with the women in business organization so it was really exciting um to see um where this uh the Chamber of Commerce was when I um took the position to where we are now and it's just so exciting to see where we're going to be in five more years from that and so our partnership um with our cities with our members with our businesses is just um um incredible to see kind of what can happen over the years so thank you for that uh those kind words and I can't wait to see what the future brings you have done so much to grow the influence of the chamber not to mention just the membership count and earlier when we talked about Chandler thanks and the question came up about you know working with our our uh partner communities around us in South Washington County Dakota County Lori is the tip of the spear when uh we do that um she she has amazing relationships that we are uh able to benefit from and we're so grateful to have her in that role so again congratulations uh any other comments at all uh Vice chair Kat please so I wasn't going to bring this up but but um thank you for the kind words as well uh I I was thinking this morning about how uh the um visitors bureau even came into existence which was uh collaboration with uh our our chamber and then we advocated for a lodging tax and then the city came on board and and kind of uh helped us guide it and it's grown into what it is now which um to me is amazing because I remember being at like a networking function with chamber members and being like wouldn't this be a great idea and that was well before I was ever on Council and um yeah so and it's been mostly a volunteer effort so thank you everyone for helping to to build this into what it is and you know it benefits everyone in the city so great work yes I agree we should be proud uh of the hard work that went into that so if there are no further comments I will seek a motion to a journ I'll move to a journ we have a motion by Vice chair Kata do we have a second we have a second we have a second by board member Hansen any further discussion before we adjourn all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed all right that motion carries and we stand adjourned thank you everyone