As an expert transcriptionist, I have analyzed the context and officials provided to assign speaker names to the transcript. **Note on Speaker Identification:** * **Chair Justin Olsen** is the presiding official. * **Jaime Mann** is the Assistant to the City Administrator. * **Director Lori LaVine**, **Director Eric Olson**, **Director New**, and **Director Drusilla Grula** are members of the Bureau board (noted from roll call and dialogue). * **Gretchen** and **Liz** are identified by name in the dialogue as staff/presenters. * **Alexa** is the staff member recording the minutes/roll call. *** [00:00] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Good morning everybody. I am Chair Justin Olsen, and I am calling this meeting of the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau to order. First point of business is to stand for the pledge, so if you would please join. 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. Thanks everybody. Alexa, would you please do the roll? [00:01] **Alexa**: Chairman Olsen? [00:01] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Here. [00:01] **Alexa**: Vice Chair Kada? Director Grula? [00:02] **Director Drusilla Grula**: Here. [00:02] **Alexa**: Director Henson? [00:02] **Director Henson**: Here. [00:02] **Alexa**: Director LaVine? [00:02] **Director Lori LaVine**: Here. [00:03] **Alexa**: Director New? [00:03] **Director New**: Here. [00:03] **Alexa**: Director Olsen? [00:03] **Director Eric Olson**: Here. [00:04] **Alexa**: Thank you very much. [00:04] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Item number three on our agenda this morning is actually adoption of the agenda. I will look for a motion to adopt this morning's agenda please. [00:05] **Director Drusilla Grula**: I'll move to adopt the agenda. [00:05] **Chair Justin Olsen**: All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? [00:06] **Director Eric Olson**: I'll second. [00:06] **Chair Justin Olsen**: I have two seconds. We'll go with Drusilla since I heard her first. I think this year is just a little better than this one, Eric; sorry about that. Anybody have any comments on the agenda? All right, all in favor signify by saying aye. [00:07] **Board (In Unison)**: Aye. [00:07] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Any opposed? Great, that motion carries. Item four is approval of the minutes. We have item 4.1, which is the November 28, 2023, Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau meeting minutes. Are there any changes or questions or comments on those? No? All right, those will stand approved by unanimous consent. Thank you. We'll move on to item five which is business items. Item 5.1 is our 2023 quarter 4 lodging tax update, and Jaime is going to take us through this. Good morning. [00:08] **Jaime Mann**: Good morning. Thank you, Chairman, members of the board. So, we had a great year last year in 2023. Quarter 4 lodging tax revenue came in over budget again—slightly over budget, but still over budget—at $16,779.23. We were 5.7% over our budgeted amount and came in at just under $100,000 to a budget of about $94,000. So quick and easy, I'd be happy to stand for any questions. [00:09] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Well, it's always good to start with some good news, isn't it? Thank you. Did anybody have any questions or comments for Jaime with respect to the 2023 Q4 lodging tax? [00:09] **Director Eric Olson**: No. [00:10] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Jaime, what do we attribute that to? Just a little bit busier season for us with different things going on etc.? [00:10] **Jaime Mann**: Well, if you recall when we went back to our budgeting, we did increase our lodging tax estimates for 2024 to 63% versus 60%. So I think we were a little bit under budget on the lodging tax side, but we did come in higher on grant and the CVB or the Food Truck Festival revenue. [00:11] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Okay, wonderful. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Item 5.2 is the Visitors Bureau Strategic Plan and I believe Gretchen has this one, is that right? [00:11] **Gretchen**: I do. Thank you. All right, good morning, Chairman, members of the board. Just real briefly, we had been working on an RFP for a strategic plan for the CVB and we issued the RFP earlier in the month and we had it out for about three weeks. We had hoped, given the discussions prior to actually issuing it, that we'd probably get four or five proposals. Unfortunately, we only received one, and while they're well-qualified, they don't necessarily have any experience in the tourism industry. So we've decided to go ahead and tweak the RFP and put it back out for the next month. In your packet, we had originally said March 22 was the deadline but we've decided to change it to March 28 just so you know the disconnect there. We might as well just give them a full month because we're not in any particular rush for the RFP to come back in since you don't meet again until May. This time though, we're going to ask our partners in the Chamber, the Minnesota Chamber, and Explore Minnesota to push it out a little harder for us to select consultants that they may work with. Then we're also going to place an ad in the League of Minnesota Cities and in the Pioneer Press and the Minnesota Business Journal because we know consultants generally look for RFPs in legal postings. We're hoping with that we'll get some more submittals that you'll be able to select from or we'll make a recommendation for. Happy to answer any questions. [00:12] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Okay, good. Thank you very much. So before I ask any questions, does anybody on the board have any questions for Gretchen about this plan? No? I do have a couple myself if you don't mind. Absolutely, number one: I think it's a smart decision obviously to extend the deadline a little bit, considering that we want to make sure we do this right. Have we had any conversations with others that we work with as a city with regard to strategic planning? For example, Ethical Leaders in Action—have we asked if they maybe have some contacts or know of anybody who does this sort of work in this particular niche? [00:13] **Gretchen**: We've actually talked to all of our partners, so hopefully this next round will be a little more strategic with what we do and ask them to help us with it. [00:13] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Okay. All right, good. And then the second question I had had to do with how we're advertising. I know we do RFPs regularly, so I'm certainly talking to the subject matter experts here as it relates to the way in which we kind of go to market with this. But because we're a Convention and Visitors Bureau, are there other avenues that we may want to explore that lean more towards sort of what we're looking for versus your standardized municipal government RFP? I saw we're advertising through the League and we're advertising in the various newspapers. I just don't know if there are other publications or anything of that nature that we might want to take advantage of. Frankly, it boils down to I don't know what I don't know, so I'm just curious if you're hearing from others who kind of do this sort of work that there may be potentially other avenues to try to source somebody who's going to fit our needs. Anybody who wants to answer that can answer that. [00:14] **Gretchen**: Well, we have discussed that. Alexa and I just discussed that yesterday as a matter of fact. Let's look at everybody who's in this business and try to figure out, because there are so many people who do strategic planning and they do a great job. Even the submittal we received, they're clearly qualified, but they don't have any tourism expertise. I think that's really the challenge is that we've got to figure out who makes the most sense to share it with as our partners. Explore Minnesota, the Minnesota Chamber, and our Chamber of Commerce are certainly three that are very influential, but yes, we are going to talk about who else we would send it to. [00:14] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Okay. Even though we'll issue it this week, right? I'm just wondering if there are specialty websites and things of that nature, and if those things do exist, it would be a shame if we didn't take advantage of it. Good. Any other questions at all for Gretchen? Go ahead. [00:15] **Director New**: I'll ask one question just to clarify. So you're looking for companies with expertise in tourism obviously. Are you also looking for companies that are based here in Minnesota? [00:15] **Gretchen**: Well yes, actually that was our original scope. We didn't really send it out of state, but we're competing with a lot of folks, even Woodbury, who's going to set up a DMO which is a Direct Marketing Organization. So we want someone who has expertise in our area if we can, but then also has that expertise in the tourism industry because we're going to just butt up right against our neighbors. We'd like to have a cooperative relationship obviously, but they're going to do things that have budgets that far exceed ours. So we're going to try as hard as we can. [00:15] **Director New**: Thank you. [00:16] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Okay, perfect. Thank you very much, Gretchen. Now we're going to move on to item 5.3 which is our 2024 Visitors Bureau events plan, and we have Liz with us this morning. Hey, welcome. Good to have you here. [00:16] **Liz**: Thank you. Good morning, Chair and board members. I'm happy to share the 2024 event schedule for Discover Cottage Grove. We have a tentative date of Saturday, June 8th for Cottage Grove Community Night with the St. Paul Saints. This is an opportunity to get in front of a really large crowd that may not know of all the happenings in the city. Our biggest one of course is Strawberry Fest, which is our largest community event, and this is the one we will be promoting the most heavily. Speaking of Strawberry Fest, we're excited to be back at the Fest in the Strawberry Fields Marketplace. This has an expected attendance of 20,000 people and again is the largest event. On a personal note, I've never been, so I'm very excited to attend my first Strawberry Fest this year. The Food Truck Festival is hosted by Discover Cottage Grove. We had a lot of success in the inaugural year. With the support of the Food Truck Committee, we are going to add more food trucks this year and are hoping to increase the perimeter of the event so folks can spread out a little bit more in the grass. This will also be the unveiling date of the Eric Drusilla painting and the kickoff to the puzzle sale. Last year's attendance was about 6,000 people and we're estimating between 8,000 and 10,000 folks this year. In 2023, we enjoyed unseasonably warm weather for the Hometown Holiday celebration, which helped increase attendance. This is a free event that had carnival games for the kids and photos with Santa, Mrs. Claus, and of course Sparkle the Elf. With Thanksgiving falling on the last Thursday of November this year, this will either be late November or early December, date TBD. The CPKC releases their train stops in the fall, so we will know later this year when the train stops in Cottage Grove. Our stop is one of the most popular, so we're looking forward to welcoming the train once again this year. Before we start our events in 2024, we need to replenish our giveaways. The backpacks were very popular as they are showcased in this photo, of course. So we're looking to order more of those and other items to be decided at a later date. Before you is a recommendation and I'd be happy to stand for any questions. [00:18] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Well, thank you very much. That's a lot packed into a pretty small presentation. Wow, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on which looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. Before we get to the recommendation, does anybody have questions, thoughts, concerns, ideas—anything for Liz? I think she's been up all night, she's ready for you. [00:19] **Liz**: I'm ready. Everything you got, let's go. [00:19] **Director Eric Olson**: I have a question regarding the chronology here. The St. Paul Saints game—sounds fun. I believe we did it last year. I personally didn't attend, but I heard it was a fun get-together. How do we promote and advertise that within the community? Thinking CGAA baseball and softball, obviously there's a connection. How do we promote that? Educate me on that and how we can grow some attendance. [00:20] **Liz**: Thank you for the question. I'm going to pivot over to Jaime as I wasn't there last year. [00:20] **Director Eric Olson**: I guess coupled with that is, do the Saints allow so many tickets or is it first come first serve? How does that work? [00:20] **Jaime Mann**: Yes, thank you, Chair, members of the board. This is our third year of attendance. We've had great success in the past two years attending. It's a fun event to work; I would happily invite all of you to join us at the event to work the booth that day. We are allotted some tickets with the package that we purchase. They have shifted their packages a little bit and I'm still working with them to figure out what's included for this year so we can update you once we know. But then they do open a ticket portal for Cottage Grove residents to purchase tickets right through the portal as well. I don't know that they allocate a certain number to us through that portal, but as long as there are tickets available, I think our residents can purchase them. [00:21] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Jaime, do you mind if I chime in a little bit on that? [00:21] **Jaime Mann**: Feel free. [00:21] **Chair Justin Olsen**: I want to try to add a little color to the purpose behind the Saints partnership for those of you who may not be privy to why we started it, etc. Jaime, Jennifer, whomever, feel free to chime in and correct me when I'm wrong. Two years ago, the Saints approached us when we were brand new as a Convention and Visitors Bureau about a local partnership and essentially the theme was "Cottage Grove Night at the Saints game." One of the reasons we chose to take advantage of that partnership and utilize the timeline that we utilized—which this year also includes tentatively a June date—is because we wanted to be there to feature Strawberry Fest. We made sure that we had a bunch of giveaways, and in fact, I think we ran out. Did we run out last year too? Yeah. So a bunch of us got together from the CVB and the city staff and dressed up in our CVB gear, and you guys saw the pictures. We had the CVB awning there, etc. People were very interested; a lot of people stopped by. We had a few of us standing out in front on the concourse handing out gifts and talking to people about Cottage Grove. Again, the intent was that this is a Convention and Visitors Bureau—we wanted visitors. And boy did we ever get them, because that Strawberry Fest two years ago was the largest Strawberry Fest that we I think had ever had. Now the caveat to that is we'd been off for a few years because of the pandemic, so there was probably some built-up demand, plus I think we had absolutely beautiful weather. We were very blessed that year. But we had just a massive turnout and so we thought to ourselves, "Gosh, this is something we need to keep doing." What the Saints did, Eric, is they opened up that portal for tickets, and I don't know if you remember this, but they picked a local charity and the charity they chose was the Lions. Anybody who bought tickets through that portal got to contribute a portion of that revenue towards a charitable donation to the Lions Club, and then of course the Lions passed that through to the CVB. Last year that changed; the portal last year was still open and you could still purchase tickets, and they had sort of three sections of tickets right in front of our CVB booth that they designated for Cottage Grove folks, but they didn't do the charitable donation last year, which was fine. But they did make sure that they allocated a certain chunk of tickets. There again, we set up and made sure to hand out a bunch of things. We had some cool stuff last year; we had fishing lures last year that I think everybody really liked. We also used those at the Community Showcase. Again, we had just an amazing Strawberry Fest last year; it was huge. Turnout was just magnificent. So it feels like there's some really good synergy there. The Saints get a bunch of people at their games; it got a little cold that night, but we still had people who went down on the field and did the horse race where they were on inflatable horses. The Mayor participated in that; for some reason, I had a sore knee and I couldn't get down there at that point in time, but I know Commissioner Bigam went out there, etc. I think it's a fun thing to do for the city. It's close, it's in St. Paul, so it's not a hideous drive and it seems to be working out well for our friends at the Strawberry Fest as well. I just wanted to add a little color to that and the Saints have been tremendous partners. It's not a massive expense; I think the most expensive thing is the stuff we give away. Any other thoughts or questions since we're still talking? Lori, go ahead. [00:23] **Director Lori LaVine**: All I had was just one idea that came across my desk yesterday that I may use down the line. As long as you were talking about looking at different giveaway items, something that was really cool is reusable logoed snack bags. I thought how fabulous is that, because every mother and parent is carrying those snack bags around for years and years. To have some—I have no idea on pricing—but I just thought it was a fantastic long-term giveaway to spread around our community. [00:24] **Liz**: Thank you for the comment. Yeah, something sustainable. It's a great idea, it really is. [00:24] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Now's the time to share those because they haven't placed an order yet. [00:24] **Director Eric Olson**: Back to the Saints booth—of course, promote Strawberry Fest, it's some two to three weeks past the Saints game, but we might want to consider also having some literature or touting the September Food Truck Festival as that's roughly 90 days away. That's the same type of crowd: baseball, food truck, and fun. [00:25] **Jaime Mann**: Yes, thank you Chairman, members of the board. Last year we had huge success with having a backpack with a giveaway, so we were able to stuff flyers and the Visitors Guide into all of the backpacks to give away. So yes, we will absolutely promote the Food Truck Festival along with Strawberry Fest and our Visitors Guide. [00:25] **Chair Justin Olsen**: And Jaime, would you stay up there please? Jaime is a little more familiar with this. You mentioned that last year we gave away the backpacks and we had different things in there. I think the comment by Board Member Olson was definitely relevant. Liz briefly mentioned we're going to do the puzzle reveal at the Food Truck Festival this year instead of Strawberry Fest. Can you maybe walk us through a little bit of how that came to be and what the vision is, etc., please? [00:26] **Jaime Mann**: Yes, thank you Chairman, members of the board. So with the puzzle, we learned that it was going to be slightly delayed for the date that we could reveal it. If we couldn't capitalize on having it available for sale at Strawberry Fest, we wanted to go to our next biggest community event, which is our Food Truck Festival. As Liz said, we're estimating about 6,000 people last year at the event, so this year we're hoping for higher attendance with more food trucks. We're looking at other possibilities with the committee and things we can do as well. Everything is to be determined right now; we just started meeting as a committee for that. We thought that was a great opportunity to reveal the painting and start puzzle sales. While we don't have exact timing, we'll probably start off early in the day—the Food Truck Festival starts at 11:00 AM—so we can sell puzzles for the entirety of the festival. [00:27] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Perfect, thank you very much. And for those who aren't aware, that date I think is the 14th of September, is that right? [00:27] **Jaime Mann**: Yes. [00:27] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Beautiful. Thanks. Any other questions for Liz or Jaime with regard to the events plan? All right, with that I will entertain a motion based on the recommendation on your screen please. [00:28] **Director Drusilla Grula**: I'll make a motion to approve the budget for event giveaways. [00:28] **Chair Justin Olsen**: And that budget is a spend up to $15,000? [00:28] **Director Drusilla Grula**: Yes. [00:28] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Okay, perfect. So we have a motion on the table. Is there a second? [00:28] **Director Eric Olson**: Second. [00:28] **Chair Justin Olsen**: All right, we have a motion and a second. Thank you. Any further discussion on this item? All in favor please signify by saying aye. [00:29] **Board (In Unison)**: Aye. [00:29] **Chair Justin Olsen**: All right, those opposed say no. That motion stands passed. Thank you very much. We are now going to move on to item 5.4 which is the 2024 Visitors Guide. Jaime just mentioned that we're stuffing backpacks with that thing. Jaime, why don't you take us forward into 2024. [00:29] **Jaime Mann**: Thank you Chairman, members of the board. We have a new graphic designer on staff, Courtney, and she has created a fantastic updated 2024 Visitors Guide for you. For those of you who are fairly new to our board, I will tell you our first Visitors Guide was in 2022. In 2023 we did a refresh so the content remained basically the same but we changed the cover, some of the photos, and dates. For 2024 it's a completely revamped Visitors Guide. Courtney did a wonderful job. You'll have a printed copy of the draft for your review. Our cover features probably our most unique item in Cottage Grove, which is the Treehouse at Hope Glen Farm. That actually is a paid ad for us this year; we offered them the opportunity to advertise on our cover, which we haven't done previously. We also had additional ads throughout the book. We are open to feedback; it has not gone to print yet. We've broken it down into five categories: Explore, Eat, Play, Events, and Extras. I'm going to point out a few new things. There is an article on "Accessible Cottage Grove" which includes our accessible playground. We also partnered with Strawberry Fest to include some of the winning "Top Chef" contest recipes in the book. We also have Top 12 book recommendations which came from the Park Grove Library. Photo contest winners are now featured and there's a call to action on that page that tells people to share their photos with us on social media. In 2023 we purchased 5,000 books and ran out in about October. We had such great giveaways between the Saints game and Strawberry Fest that that depleted our stock. This year we want to increase our guides to 7,000 copies for 2024. We think that amount should get us through the entire year between welcome centers, events, and online requests. We also have them here at City Hall and the Chamber office. We can offset a little bit of that cost with the six ads that are in there; we had $4,450 in ad sales including that cover ad. With that, I'd be happy to stand for any questions. [00:31] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Thank you Jaime, this is really neat. I really like the look of it. Before I share any comments, I'll open it up to the board. [00:31] **Director Lori LaVine**: I'll just make a quick comment. This is beautiful. On behalf of the Chamber, we're really excited to be a part of it this year. I was excited when Courtney reached out. On top of that, I didn't have a marketing person that was able to create the ad, and so she jumped in and helped with that as well. So impressed with everything that she did. [00:32] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Thank you very much. For those who aren't aware, Board Member LaVine is also the Queen of All She Surveys as it relates to the Cottage Grove Area Chamber. It's great to have the Chamber in lockstep with us on this partnership. Any other comments? [00:32] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Before we get to the recommendation, Jaime, the layout of this is much better than what we've done in the past. It really shows. Can you briefly touch on the partnership we have with Explore Minnesota regarding the guide? [00:33] **Jaime Mann**: Yes. I will make one correction: we actually didn't get our bid for the airport this year, but we will be at the Mall of America. The airport is a lottery. We do partner with Explore Minnesota, especially on grants and advertising. About twice a year they put out a grant opportunity for us which helps fund some of our social media paid advertisements. We also work with them to be in six or seven welcome centers throughout the state where we distribute our guides. [00:34] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Fantastic. And I did just receive a text message from our former board chair, former councilman Dennis, and he loves the guide as well and is all in favor. [00:34] **Director New**: Well, I have a comment. I do like the book. I do think that we need a few more pictures of diversity to see what our community really truly looks like. And just a question: you said six ads were sold. Are all of the ads being sold at the same price? [00:35] **Jaime Mann**: There is different pricing. I don't know it off the top of my head, but the front inside cover is a different price than a quarter-page ad. As far as the diverse photos, we are working on building a library. Being that we are still a newer CVB, we go out to every event that we can to try to take photos. We have made a conscious effort to include diversity. [00:35] **Director New**: Is there only six ads available in each book or that's just who wanted it at this time? [00:36] **Jaime Mann**: We open it up to everybody. We only had six interested this year. It's about average for our advertisements in the guide since it is still newer. [00:36] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Thank you for the comment, Board Member New. I talk every year about how important it is that we have photographs that reflect our diverse community. One notable item that I did not see in the guide—and I may have missed it—is the Hmong Family Festival. Is it in there? [00:37] **Jaime Mann**: I believe it's on our calendar where we have spring, summer, fall, winter. If it's not, I will make sure it gets added on there. [00:37] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Yeah, the reason I bring it up is that festival is geared towards the Hmong community and it draws a ton of people to Kingston Park twice a year. I did notice in the photographs that we're making a conscious effort, but there's always room for more. All right, I will look for someone to make the recommended motion. [00:38] **Director Eric Olson**: Motion for the printing of 7,000 Visitor Guides at a cost of $10,500. [00:38] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Do we have a second on that motion? [00:38] **Director New**: Second. [00:39] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. [00:39] **Board (In Unison)**: Aye. [00:39] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Opposed? Great, that motion carries. Item number six is public hearings and we have none. Item seven is other business. I'll just start down at the end. Do we have anything from Board Member New? [00:40] **Director New**: No. [00:40] **Director Lori LaVine**: I'll real quick just add that the Chamber of Commerce is working with a new member to collect video and photography throughout our events as well. I'm happy to share any of that that might be helpful for next year. [00:40] **Director Eric Olson**: No comment on the guide, but I like the cadence of our events. If you look at a 12-month calendar, the cadence feels right. I think we're on the right track. [00:41] **Chair Justin Olsen**: I would agree with that. I am going to ask Jaime to step to the podium one more time. We learned that we would be doing the painting unveiling and the puzzle project at our Food Truck Festival. Could you tell us a little bit about when your team is meeting so that if folks want to participate in the planning process, they can? [00:42] **Jaime Mann**: We meet about every three weeks. Director LaVine is on the committee already, but we would welcome anybody else. It's a Thursday, usually from 3:00 to 4:00 PM. We talk through vendors, food trucks, music, and timing. If anybody would like to be a part of the planning committee, feel free to reach out to me. [00:43] **Chair Justin Olsen**: The reason I brought this up is, as a former president of the Strawberry Fest committee, I learned that more hands make for lighter work. This is going to be a big deal, arguably our second biggest event of the year. We would very much like it if members of the Bureau would be willing to help out. Jaime, maybe what you could do is send an email out to the membership indicating the schedule of planning meetings. The last thing I wanted to touch on is that our friends at SoWashCo Cares have their "Leap into Legacy" event on Thursday the 29th at River Oaks. It starts at 6:00 PM. This is a way for them to raise funds and educate the community. You can still purchase tickets on their website. Our Cottage Grove Lions Club is an event sponsor. That leaves us at item 10 which is adjournment. I will seek a motion. [00:45] **Director Drusilla Grula**: I'll make the motion to adjourn. [00:45] **Director Eric Olson**: I'll second the motion. [00:45] **Chair Justin Olsen**: All those in favor signify by saying aye. [00:45] **Board (In Unison)**: Aye. [00:46] **Chair Justin Olsen**: Great, the meeting is adjourned. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, May 21st, 2024 at 7:30 in the morning right here. Have a great day everybody.