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Wine Road Executive Board

Sept. 11, 2019

Wine Road Office

9:00am-10:00

DRAFT – PENDING APPROVAL

NOTES

** Action Items or Decisions

9:00                Call to order – Executive Board

Attending: Beth Costa, Carla Jeffries, Carri Holdredge, Danny Christensen, Devin Ruddick, John Viszlay

 

9:05                Review minutes from August. Minutes approved.

9:10                Exec. Director goals. Goals Reviewed, and progress notes listed below under agenda items.

9:15                Treasurer’s Report

Checking account: $43121.13 as of 8/31/19

Savings account:   $200,223.94

WR needs an new accountant going forward (current accountant retiring), and a formal treasurer to serve on the board. Danny & John to speak with John Meislahan regarding the accountant position. Danny also has another 2-3 accountants with non-profit experience that he will recommend.

Short term, Carla will act as Treasurer until a permanent person is appointed. Carla terms out in March/April.

** Beth to reach out to Oded, Joe, and Jack to see if any one of them would be willing to serve in the Treasurer position.

9:25                Assessments, next map printing

WR reached out to multiple wineries & lodgings who were not willing to renew their dues. WR lost more members this time around than in the past, upwards of 17 (15 wineries + 2 lodges). Reasons cited include dues too expensive; not interested in hosting WR events; business is slow; some going out of business; no longer see the value.

** In an effort to maintain and further develop WR’s relationship with its members, WR wants to create a Sales or Biz Dev Coordinator position that manages both Membership and Partnerships; this position would include measurable sales goals. The position would have regular communication with both sets of people (i.e., their “accounts”) and would be responsible for building those relationships, and getting new accounts, plus existing ones to renew their membership, and/or partnership. This position would need to generate enough revenue to justify the expense (not just an Admin position).

9:30                Health Insurance update:

WR is working with Sandra Hess to gather information re: the health insurance program that Sandra is coordinating with Amador County (they have 15-20 interested members, and WR would likely need the same minimum.) ** WR needs to have all of Sandra’s information in advance of the Nov. annual, member meeting.

9:35                Event update – review marketing plan WFA

A wide array of ads are set to launch this month (see Beth’s spreadsheet for details). GeoFencing the Elton John concert this weekend – hoping to bring in new guests to the venue. Will use radio at the last minute, but right now look for Alaska Air, Sonoma magazine, Reddit, etc.

For WFA, added a winemaker dinner at John Ash featuring Balletto ($140/person); added Somm tasting at Chalk Hill ($65/person); Winemaker breakfast sold out.

TV shooting this weekend to promote both WFA & the Tasting Pass. WFA tickets launched early so that WR could be included in EventBrite’s big promo which begins Oct. 1st. (It’s too late for WR to add “where did you hear about this event?” or a tracking code on EventBrite, but can consider that in the future.) WFA tickets sold ytd: 1500 with goal of 4500. (last year sold 3900)

9:40                PR and Social updates

All marketing efforts are scheduled to work together each month throughout the entire year. See “Podcast, Newsletter PITCHES and TOPICS” spreadsheet which details how “Blog Post; Press Release; Podcast; Newsletter; Events; and Social Highlights” are integrated on a monthly basis.

9:45                Brand Ambassador (BA) – this program is being postponed until the end of the year. ** Short term, Beth and Devin will schedule a meeting to determine what information they’d like SSU students to research for the BA program. Stephanie will make the introduction to SSU Business Department.

9:47                Partnerships / Map advertising

Currently at $62K in partner revenue for CY 2019; $62K will likely be the total revenue for 2019. Many of these partnerships will be up for renewal in January. Having the Sales/Biz Dev Coordinator onboard will greatly help with getting these accounts to renew, in addition to obtaining new partnerships for CY2020.

Bottle Barn may consider being the glass partner for Barrel Tasting 2020.

9:50                Golf Tournament – Date set for May 29th at Windsor Gold Course. Goal of 124 players with ticket sales at $200 each. Looking for a winemaker to play with each foursome. WR wants to net $10K and will need multiple sponsors to make that happen. Dinner and Silent Auction items will be included. WR considering REFB’s Summer School Lunch Program as the beneficiary.

9:55                New / Old Business

WR to partner with Harvest Card and their July “White Water Rafting” day in July, 2020. Allows WR to round out the calendar with a multitude of tourist events (vs. just winetasting) and without a great deal of planning/management.

10:00              Adjourn

Next Meeting – October 9th, 9:00-10:00 Full Board – location TBD