Executive Board – January 12, 2022

Board Meeting

January 12, 2022

In attendance :

Beth Costa

John Viszlay

Aaron Krug

Devin Ruddick

Danny Christensen

Lillian Fechter

 

Budget

Conservative, but accurate.

Discussion around Barrel Tasting revenue. Feel positive about “Friday only” and “Sunday only” tickets

Beth concerned about timing of Insider Program. May hold until March 1^st and wait until Barrel Tickets pass.

Reserves – $150k in savings

Danny motioned to pass budget. He noted this is subject to change throughout the year. Continued to discuss budget.

Final motion by Danny at 9:30am. Second: Devin

No opposition. All agreeable. Motion carries.

 

Marketing

Devin and Lillian discussed the need to continue to evaluate marketing and encourage more wineries to participate.

It will be important to encourage wineries to participate, so more seats open, so more guests can purchase tickets.

We may actually need to spend marketing dollars on both consumers and wineries

 

Barrel Tickets

Delayed tickets back one week.

New signup deadline for wineries is next week

Open to winery consumers on February 1^st

Proactively limiting reservations at 49 or 50 people per winery, in case County COVID limitations are put in place

 

Winter Wineland – “It’s this weekend!”

Sold 900 tickets to WWL

Despite County change in COVID guidelines, received positive feedback on note we sent out yesterday.

We are lucky to have great weather this weekend. Wineries are being proactive to seat outdoors.

Still selling tickets this week.
From a PR/optics standpoint – we are limiting spaces, appointments, experiences, seating

We will allow cancellations as needed, from both wineries and guests

Two wineries had to drop out (one was not related to COVID), so Beth moved all of their reservations to another winery.

 

Ron Ruben

Ron continues to support the podcast – please reach out and thank him!

 

Winery Insider

The insider card will be digital on the phone (not a printed item). Pembrook is finalizing design.

Beth has been reaching out to “Off the Wine Road” outside companies (Pure Luxury, Ziplining, Starks, etc) for benefits

We will be able to launch initial program with 4k-6k spend

 

Board Elections

Julia and John – fulfilled terms. Cannot run again.

John can stay on one more year as past president and still have voting rights.

Danny and Jack – completed one, three year term. Can run another term as incumbent

Devin, Lillian and Oded – finished first year of second term

Helen, Harry, Aaron, Katie, Brooke, Lucas – finished one year. Have two more

 

John confirmed he wants to stay on

Danny confirmed he will run again as an incumbent

NEED : Two winery people. Ideally Owner or GM that is a member. Beth asked board to begin to reach out to contacts and think of potential candidates

 

Old/New Business

John – we need to be conscious that the Christopher Creek suspension is expiring soon (April).

Will we be extending an invitation to Joe or the winery to rejoin?

Discussion of staffing moves throughout other wineries

Discussion of other AVAs. Similar temperature at other wineries. Almost all are doing events with CellarPass/reservations. Neighborhood groups are also working well together for traffic

We will need a new president. Discussion around potential candidates.

Aaron – motion to adjourn at 10:00am

Danny – second at 10:02am