Board of Directors Meeting
September 10, 2025 | 9:00-10:30am
Meeting location – Soda Rock Winery
MINUTES (pending approval)
Members Present: Julie, Mari, Katie, Aaron, Janae, Tom (Beth)
Absent: Alexis, Harry, Lana, Danny, Helen
9:03 Call to order
9:04 Approve Minutes from Aug meeting – Mari made a motion to approve, Aaron 2nd the motion, all in favored. Minutes approved.
9:09 Treasurers Report / Assessments to date
Beth reported issue with Quickbooks and would like to hire help – Aaron has a bookkeeper he will contact on our behalf.
Checking: $25,415.24, Savings $55,428.96, CD $51,000.
Beth noted that today we are mailing our $19,000 in payments, so checking will be quite low again. Still missing assessments from 30 wineries and about 12 lodgings. Aaron requested the list of lodgings, so he, Danny and Tom can reach out if they are people they know.
Beth to send list.
9:12 Membership updates – map only option – see press release.
In order to pack our map for our 50th printing, Beth sent press release offering a DOT ON THE MAP for $300 for the year. Not a Wine Road membership, just the dot on the map. First taker is Adobe Road, located in Petaluma. Members present voted we make an exception and allow them, as they are out of our AVA regions. This is a one-off situation for our 50th. Beth will have the missing Board members vote and then notify the winery if approved or denied.
9:18 Events
Harvest Wine Trail – Beth is not sure we should continue this program. Some members present feel is an easy way for wineries to participate, without a big “event” commitments and they do see new people. Others feel it is a waste of resources and dilutes our bigger events. It is suggested Beth survey the participating wineries and then determine if we are going forward in 2026. We produced 3 videos for this event – sharing them now.
Wine & Food Affair -ticket sales on par with last year. We need to keep reminding members to share on social. Discussion about dropping the online recipes, having wineries produce printed recipe cards. Consensus seems to be to continue with the online recipes and let wineries know they can also hand out cards if that is helpful for them. We want wineries to direct people to the online recipes. We will include a QR code on the printed program linking to the recipes and we can hand out small signs for wineries to have on their check-in table with the QR codes. We produced 3 videos for this – sharing them now.
Winter Wineland – sign-up next month, tickets on sale the Thurs after WFA.
Healdsburg Sparkle – their 6-week promotion around the holidays
We need to find a way to connect as there will be a ton of promotion behind this imitative. We have 30+ wineries that make sparkling – that could be an easy tie in. Mysty has already submitted our Holiday Wine Trail press release as it falls within this time frame. Beth to have Mysty connect with the Healdsburg PR folks and see how else we can leverage this promotion.
9:25 Manhattan Beach Wine Festival
Dropped out – We were having a hard time connecting with press, and that would be the purpose of attending. There did not seem to be enough return on the investments, so we cancelled this trip.
9:26 Sip into the Weekend
FREE tastings + more / signs, press release, social – extended
We continue to add more wineries – customers DO know about it. There are questions daily on our webchat about this program. We have new BIGGER signs to distribute with the extended Nov. date. We did 3 videos for this promotion and will start sharing once Wine Trail ends.
9:29 Costco – outreach, pending
At our last meeting is was discussed that having some sort of Wine Road winery excursions, or pre-paid tasting, or packages we could sell through Costco could be some great exposure. Beth has reached out as directed with a detailed letter to Costo – waiting to hear back.
9:30 Shipping/Delivery (local area) Trellus – ZOOM on 9th, in person on 16th.
We helped introduce this local delivery service to our members via ZOOM. It could be a great/ cost effective way to deliver to wine club members, drop cases at restaurants or deliver to guests staying in the area. Beth will send one more notice to members about connecting with them and getting all of the details.
9:32 Sponsorships $10,000-$1000, leaning on our 50th as a reason to support
Total Wine, Groome Transportation, Visit Santa Rosa, Pure Lux, Wine Away, Exchange Bank, Foley Family, Mill District, Enzo Village, Healds. Sotheby’s Realty Other suggestions?
Beth is getting nowhere with sponsorships. Even Pure Lux said no this year – they just don’t have the funds to sponsor us. They are interested in some trade, or discounted rates for our packages. Total Wine takes 4 weeks to respond, so we’re waiting on that. Beth will continue to follow up, but it is unlikely anything will develop. Debbie did write the applications for grants to: Healdsburg Tourism District, Sonoma County Tourism and Board of Supervisors. We should hear from all three of those by November.
9:35 Wine Roads turns 50
Wrap up with tasting/party – what will it be? The Friday of WFA?
Options: Trentadue, Bricoleur, Foppiano
Beth reached out to Foppiano, as a founding member is a great location – they have new event center. Board agreed and so we are moving forward with that location. Beth to meet with Damy next week to discuss capacity, their vision and how Foppiano wants to be involved in the planning.
Brainstorming (not carved in stone yet) Friday Nov. 6, 2026, 7:00-10:00, Walk around tasting, casual food, music – background to begin with, then livelier as the night goes on. Suggest Cocktail attire – make it a dress up, celebration – 50 years! Cost: $195 – Wine & Food Affair 2 days + Friday night celebration.
Friday night celebration only $95 Need a name for Friday night tasting.
Wineries set up by years they have been members – Founders Table, 40 years of cheers, 30 years along the Wine Road, 20 Somethings and Newbies.. something like that – need names for each group or just “Up to 10 Years” “20 Years” “30 Years” “40 Years” “Founding Members 50 Years” Board reviewed LOGO samples and voted on their preference. Beth to send the options out to the missing Board members for their input.
We can consider an online auction as well as an in-person silent auction.
Swag – do we need hats, shirts, some sort of commemorative 50th…cup, glass… ?
How to we highlight the founding members – prior to the event via social posts, historical photos, podcast, dedicated newsletter…do we create a video, interviews…. Keep thinking.
9:45 NEW BUSINESS
Review outline for Wine Country Getaways.
Email approved to go out to members today. Beth will also send in the actual mail the same information. Timelines – Online by Oct. 1 (tentative) auction ends Dec. 15
Goal is to make $50,000 profit – after expenses.
Beth to get approval before posting auction online, making sure the working is correct as far as auction items being redeemed – subject to availability etc.
New – Season Pass for 5 Wine Trails
On sale 15th – after we launch Wineland – buy 4 get one Free will be the pricing.
We will put this on hold until we survey the Wine Trail wineries and see if we want to continue this program into 2026. The reality is we may sell 20 of these to some locals, which is not necessarily worth the time and expense to set up the ‘season pass” online and to promote it. We will have to explore CellarPass and determine how this would work.
Wineing.net – new platform that reached out wanting to connect with our members. This platform connects like-minded buyers, with wineries offering discounts online. Beth asked for 1-2 wineries to connect via ZOOM. It does not seem workable for wineries, but maybe they would have a different perspective. Katie said she would hear them out. Beth to arrange.
Drink this with That
Beth just wanted to make sure members knew we have been sharing this monthly blog to promote that wine goes with everything! Taco Tuesday, Sicilian Cuisine, Greek Food, Dumplings etc. We produced 3 videos for this and will begin sharing, driving traffic to those posts.
9:55 OLD Business
WID – seems to be on hold. Do you want more from Wine Road?
This was not discussed today.
10:00 Meeting adjourned by Julie Pedroncelli St. John
Notes respectfully submitted by Beth Costa in Helen’s absence.
Next Meeting – Oct 8h 9:00-10:30 – location to be determined
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