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Home My WebLink About2005-10-13 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS firGRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, October 13, 2005 -- 11:30 a.m. WALLIS BUILDING ONE LIBERTY PARK PLAZA, GRAPEVINE, TEXAS AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II. STAFF INTRODUCTIONS III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES IV. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT (ir V. SALES AND MARKETING REPORT VI. OLD BUSINESS A. AMERICAN BUS ASSOCIATION (ABA) UPDATE B. TOON PROPERTY UPDATE C. CVB-GHF TRANSITION D. SISTER CITY MISSION E. KREMS STUDENT EXCHANGE VII. REPORTS A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE VIII. ADJOURNMENT State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, October 13, 2005 at the Wallis Building, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Don Bigbie Chairman Ev Barnes Board Member Bill Brink Board Member Philip Cloud Board Member John Imaizumi Board Member Kathee Livengood Board Member Paul Slechta Board Member Steve Stinson Board Member Mark Wasiak Board Member Darlene Freed Council Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director for Absent: Ron Stacy Grapevine Chamber Pat Stinson Heritage Foundation CALL TO ORDER Chairman Bigbie called the meeting to order. INTRODUCTION OF STAFF Mr. McCallum introduced the staff that are a part of the CVB as a result of the merging of the Heritage Foundation into the CVB. Sallie Andrews is Historic Preservation Manager, David Klempin is Township Preservation Coordinator, Elspeth McDonald is Palace Theatre Coordinator and Gretchen Voight serving as Preservation Assistant. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the September 15th meeting was made by Bill Brink and seconded by Steve Stinson. Motion carried. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT Mr. McCallum reported • Su Vino Winery has been bought by David and Chari Scott out of Atlanta, GA. • One of the Market Days vendors has opened a gift store named, Confetti, just off Main Street. • Great Wolf Lodge has closed on their property The Board of Directors Meeting October 13, 2005 Page 2 of 4 HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT cont. • Gaylord has broken ground on the Glass Cactus. They expect this nightclub concept to open September or October 2006. • The Grapevine High School Homecoming Parade is tonight. • This weekend is Butterfly Flutterby. There are 570 monarch butterflies tagged and ready to be released. • Next weekend the Fall Roundup at Nash Farm. • Shared brochures with the board for Grapevine's Polar Express, the train brochure and Ice. • We are having some renovation work done on the train. • A special charter will run this weekend to DeLeon, Gorman and Dublin. This run "sold out" in two days and the group wants to do it again in the spring. • Gaylord owns the rights in the U.S. to the Chinese ice carvers. They will start carving the winter wonderland in the next couple of days. SALES AND MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos reported that the bureau has adopted a new system, iDSS, which will electronically distribute leads to the hotels. Each hotel has a lead administrator who then distributes the lead to the appropriate sales manager. Mr. Kakos reported for the month of September that the convention sales division produced 32 leads representing 36,841 potential room nights. The team assisted with 5 definite groups representing 1,059 room nights. The team conducted 2 site inspections and attended the Texas Society of Association Executives annual meeting gathering 50 contacts. The GrapeFest fam had 38 attendees; 24 from convention group sales, 9 for tourism and 5 for media. Tourism sales produced 14 leads representing 2,710 potential attendees. Staff assisted with 6 definite groups representing 290 room nights and 26 day-visitors. The tour operator fam produced 10 leads. Destination Services assisted six groups representing 11,225 attendees. During the month over 84,562 brochures were distributed and 14,694 guests were assisted at the Visitor Information Center. The staff fulfilled 3,488 requests for information. The Convention Center booked 51 groups representing 16,100 attendees and produced over $10,000 in in-house catering. The Grapevine Vintage Railroad carried 3,883 passengers for the month that included 15 GrapeFest short runs. They booked 3 charters and have booked 39 schools for the School Polar Express. Visits to the Grapevine Vintage Railroad website totaled 20,118 and visits to the general site numbered 39,077. Since April, we have consistently exceeded 30,000 visitors a month on the website. Public Relations generated $63,074 in print and $90,451 in electronic media coverage. Board of Directors Meeting October 13, 2005 Page 3 of 4 OLD BUSINESS American Bus Association (ABA) Update Mr. McCallum shared the fast facts and market place advisor with the board. Wednesday, February 8, 2006 is the date for the "Gone to Texas" reception in Nashville. Sponsors are coming on board there is a total to date of$283,500 and the goal is $400,000. Toon Property Update Mr. McCallum reported that we have closed on this property. He met the folks yesterday to begin cleanup on the property. Meetings are set with roofers to get bids on reroofing the stationmaster's house. Some of the hundred year old irises on the property will go to the Botanical Garden. CVB-GHF Transition Mr. McCallum reported that staff is meeting with all the committees of the Grapevine Heritage Foundation. We will review the number of committees and review with the full board the possibility of reducing that number. Mr. McCallum has met individually with the board members and there are no radical changes planned for the first 90 days. Staff is in the process of auditing the position descriptions. The Palace Theatre will come under facilities and Rusty Hernandez has taken over the day to day operations of the Palace. We have posted an opening for an event coordinator. We are in the process of rewriting the Palace Theatre Coordinator position. We have had sound experts in to determine a way to improve the sound in the Lancaster and will move on to improve the air-conditioning. Staff will bring any major changes before the CVB and Heritage Foundation Boards. Sister City Mission A group of 13 will depart on October 20th for Krems. The focus of this mission is hospitality and tourism education. A secondary mission is to view plans for the Congress Hall and Convention Hotel. Krems Student Exchange Elisabeth Streibel, coordinator of the mission for the school in Krems, would like to see exchanges during the school term. While the group was here they created an art piece for the ecology center at Grapevine High School. Mr. McCallum recognized Eloise Koehn for coordinating this program for the bureau. REPORTS Heritage Foundation Mr. McCallum reported for Pat Stinson that the Foundation's target to begin the Nash Farm restoration is $400,000 and they are presently at $330,000. The total project will be $800,000. They have engaged an architect. Bank of the West was the lead donor with a $50,000 donation. The Band Hall from the old high school originally sat where Board of Directors Meeting October 13, 2005 Page 4 of 4 REPORTS cont. Heritage Foundation cont. Faith Christian School is at present. Faith Christian will take the building and put the President's office in it. The International Porcelain Artists and Teachers (IPAT) have one of the homes on East Franklin Street. David is working on some drawings for them. November 11 is the date for the 2nd annual Jubilee at Austin Ranch. Pat Stinson and Sue Franks are chairs of the event. Ken & Clydene Johnson are in charge of ticket sales. Kathrine Brink has been successful in fundraising and has covered the expenses of the evening. Kathee Livengood is on the committee. Chamber of Commerce Due to a conflict with the Chamber luncheon Ron Stacy could not be present. Darlene Freed shared that the Texas Municipal League's annual conference is here starting October 27th at the Gaylord. Paula Wilbanks, Bill Burton and Mark Stanfield are being inducted into the Hall of Fame for Grapevine High School. Phil Cloud announced that AMBUC's are doing an event at Main Event on November 8th for 30 past recipients of AMTRYKE's. Mr. McCallum announced that November 21St is the date for the Joey Wilkins Foundation's Annual Golf Benefit. The recipient this year is Alice McKitrick. Ev Barnes announced that there will again be a Veteran's Day event at Grapevine High School. They will have the original wind talkers and oldest veteran from WW II present. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the board; Ev Barnes made a motion to adjourn; seconded by Phil Cloud. Motion carried. ATTEST: DATE: