Wine Road Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Thursday February 11, 2016
9:00 am
Kendall-Jackson Office
In Attendance: Robin, Beth, Sue, Carri, Robert, Sharon, Julia, Jeff, Kevin, Derek, Ross, Joe, Renae, Stacy
Absent: Carla
9:00 Meeting called to order
9:05 Approval of December minutes
- Motion to approve – Robert / Seconded – Carri / Unanimously passed
9:08 Treasurer’s Report
- Checking: $53,503.93
- Savings: $160,229.98
- Approximately $50k was taken out to pay Winter WINEland expenses and $40K back in from Winter WineLand sales
9:10 401K
- Began on February 1st – started on first pay period
9:30 Events
- Winter WINEland – feedback
- Sold more tickets in advance than last year – could end up ahead, but won’t know until after door mone comes in
- Wineries feedback
- Half of feedback reported wineries were great, great event and other half of feedback reported unpleasant experiences
- Negative Response from attendee
- One attendee reported that they would not come back to the event because all winery staffs talked about how they disliked the event and that no “buyers” attend these events
- Beth contacted the wineries that were reported to her and informed them of the reviews.
- Discussion on Wineries conducting a more professional/positive atmosphere- suggestions included: Winery employee training in marketing and reminders at Wine Road meetings
- Barrel Tasting
- New format for pre-event meetings
- Will speedup the powerpoint and take advantage of the large attendance – will use this time to address more information other than barrel tastings, such as navigating through Wine Road website.
- 116 wineries are participating
- 12 wineries participating first weekend only
- Ticket sales thus far: approximately 6,000 sold
- A few non-participating members have been “trashing” Barrel Tasting and using the barrel tasting weekends to do own promotional events to capitalize on the crowd
- Beth has sent email to all members as a reminder that members should positively promote membership events even if not participating
- New format for pre-event meetings
9:35 40th Anniversary
- AVA Tasting – Alexander Valley Winegrowers @ Stryker
- 9 Wineries focusing on history, elevations and location
- $40 per ticket / 40 attending
- Breakfasts
- 4 will be done on Barrel Tasting weekend
- Art of Oak
- Will be on display at DeLoach Winery or reception tonight and all weekend then placed at 40 different locations in the next few weeks
- Will use the DeLoach display as advertisement for Ruby Affair and Mystery Tours
- Ruby Affair
- Link for tickets will be going on sale on Wine Road site possibly by this afternoon – waiting on EventBrite
- Goal is to raise $50k for each charity
- REFB raffle – instant cellar
- tried to sell tickets at Winter WINEland – only about $1,200 was brought in.
- Need to rethink advertising – possibly banners
- Magical Mystery Tours
- Preview for social media (6 people) went smooth – already sold tickets through the press that they gave us.
- Tickets for tours are $100 per person / limited to 40 people. Each tour has a host and each stop will provide wine & food
9:50 PRMD Update
- Met with Carillo and Gore – provide them with information
- Gore voiced that no one wants to read pages and pages – want to have bullet points of facts (not “ideas”)
- Events need to be defined
9:55 ABC Licensing update
- Wine Road still has to pay for licensing for event day – Reason given was because Wine Road provides the glass to attendees / trying to get this resolved before Barrel Tasting
10:00 Public Relations
- LA with SF Travel March 30
- Looking at giving gifts – little grapevine with stake that has WR brand on it
- VinDIego
- April 1-2 / 14 wineries
- Monetery
- June 4-5 / Laura will be attending
- Wineries are just now signing up
- Rancho Palos Verdes, Trump Golf Course
- Beth will be looking into it – reported to her as a great event due to good demographic
10:05 New/Old Business
- AVA groups now meeting monthly at WR office
- presidents/directors of all AVAs meet
- Problem Members
- members not turning in supplies/money from ticket sales – the executive board will discuss solutions in next meeting
- Submitted Grant to Sonoma County
- Potential New Board Members
- Robert & Sue interviewed Jim Conell from Medlock Ames for a winery seat
- Still need 3 wineries seats and 1 lodging seat to be filled – board members are urged to pick up an application for anyone they think is a good fit and is interested in sitting on the board
10:25 Adjourned
- Motion to adjourn – Renea / Seconded – Ross
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