Wine Road

Board of Directors

October 8, 2014

3:00pm ~ Hilton Garden Inn, Windsor

 

Minutes

DRAFT – pending approval

 

Members Present

Renae Perry, Robin Calkins, Darek Trowbridge, Kathleen Inman, Sue Burnet, Kevin West, Carri Holdredge, Carla Jeffries

 

Call meeting to order

 

Treasurer’s Report as of 9/30/14

• checking $101,617.42
• savings $220,213.64
• deposit for maps paid, glasses soon for WFA and balance on maps due in month.

 

Event

• Wine & Food Affair – calendar are in house, recipe link is now online, tix are about 800 less than this time last year. Could be no book, could be too many events, could be waiting until the last minute. Time will tell – bulk of our advertising kicks in this weekend. A notice was sent to all participating wineries last night with updates and a list of all advertising. Pre-event meeting at the Raven is schedule for Oct. 21. Board said going forward it should be mandatory with consequences, such as no reimbursement if someone does not attend the meeting
• Winter WINEland – posters & postcards on their way, sign-ups rolling in. We have had members express concern that the event is promoted as having wine on sale.
• Barrel Tasting – updated info online, looking for new look to poster
• 40^th Anniversary – Events committee and subcommittee have submitted the attached ideas, to BEGIN with. Board is very supportive, we need to continue to meet about just this topic and fine-tune the ideas. Today it was suggested NO dinner, just passed apps – celebrity chefs, walk about tasting. Need more work. Beth and Sue are to meet with FFC Winery this week to discuss that as a possible location.

 

Membership

• Non-renewals: Fountaingrove Inn, Jenner Inn, Santa Nella House, Catrograph, Atascadero, Claypool
• New Members: Cast Winery, Gary Farrell, Jigar Wines
• Meet & Greet – May 13 at Rodney Strong – Beth & Sue coordinating
• Updating by-laws – Board reviewed update for bylaws – made some edits, final version is attached, pending approval. This is for a member to have a secondary location for events.
• Marketing Seminar December 11 at the Raven Theater. Follow up with weekly town hall type of meeting at the office for an hour, every Tuesday.

Elizabeth Slater, Christopher Huber, Tammy Boatright, Rebecca Germolus,       Sue Straight. All really excited to work together.

• New Map – being delivered this Friday – just a few pallets until after event.

 

Marketing / PR

• NY Press Trip – making video, google satellite map with overview of entire Wine Road. Very great visual – we will add to our website also.
• Editorial Calendars and press releases – Meghan bi-weekly press releases for the local press. More business focused.
• Social Media – stats attached – tons of attention
• San Diego Bay Food & Wine Festival – adding to app, media lunch & dinner in the works – ideally 6-8 wineries will be available.
• Seattle Wine & Food – Beth pay for one table and pour multiple wines
• James Beard dinners – NEVER again, gifts to all the guests and chefs and wines for reception and dinner – should be excellent exposure for our members, but it has been hard to coordinate with the chefs.
• March of Dimes – $2500 package for their Nov. 13^th event, 5 wineries pouring
• Make-A-Wish – help get wineries to pour, rather grant wish for the feel good
• Off the Grid – flea market and picnic in the Presidio – pending permits – we will reconnect in spring.
• New Consumer newsletter – 2^nd one out next week – Oct. 15^th goal – we did get some nice feedback from the last one.
• Additionally – LinkedIn and Pricewaterhouse, and Sales force – all pending with tastings for either their staff or their VIP customers (all in SF).
• New Video this week – updated rules of the road – 12 members participating
• Speak to Me Events – Done! 4 wineries at 4 events – all in Marin
• US Airways – we took two pages for $6700, 7 million riders in Dec.
• Peter Greenberg – Nov. 7^th interviews – sending ideas for possible interviews.
• NEW LOGO – Beth suggested that the time has come to update our logo. The triangle shape does not translate well to any advertising and the words are too small to read – the grapes even look bad when reduced in size. Board agreed to explore some options. Everyone believes the logo is a problem.

 

Technology

• Website – new look, responsive design once again, should be updated soon to a responsive design. Entirely new look – black home page instead of white and very photo centric.
• Updates to app – new link for Wine & Food Affair, San Diego, Buy Tickets now goes directly to Eventbrite.

 

New Business

• SoCo Advertising dollars and grant for documentary – meeting tomorrow at County office to learn about these grants – all from TOT. Inquiring about the 40^th anniversary documentary $10,000 and ad money for all three of our events – pending
• Vantreo Insurance- pending seminar – December/January – owners

          

Old Business

• Food Bank volunteers – so far 3 months done – not easy L Board elected to all volunteer as a Board on Dec. 4^th. I will confirm with the REFB.
• SRJC Scholarship donation – dropped off $1000 check, sent press release, pending on Wine Business Monthly
• UC Davis – presentation during Barrel Tasting – not what they had in mind – I’m moving on…

 

Meeting adjourned at 4:30

 

Minutes respectfully submitted by Beth Costa