Wine Road Executive Board Meeting
July 10, 2018 9:00am
Wine Road Office – Upstairs
DRAFT – Pending Approval at Sept. Meeting
NOTES
9:00 Call to order:
Attendees: Carla Jeffries, John Vislay, Mike Salinas, Devin Ruddick, Carri Holdredge, Beth Costa.
-Approved notes from Exec Board meeting of May 2018.
8:35 Treasurer’s Report – revised budget
-2018 Budget approved
Checking: $11,133.45 (July balance is traditionally low, assessments arriving in August.)
Savings: $200,061.17
8:37 New Board position – election time
WR had two board positions open, but EB approved addition of three new directors: James Luchini of Coppola; Stephanie Wycoff of Seghesio; and Oded Shakked of Longboard. New board consists of 13 members (12 required), plus ED.
8:42 Review ED Goals for year / revised timeline
Adopted goals for ED for remainder of 2018. EB will set CY2019 goals in Dec 2018 to coincide with ED’s annual performance review occurring in January (instead of June/July).
9:15 Events
- Cleveland: June wine tasting at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; while Cleveland did a great job of hosting, event not to be repeated in 2019.
- Wine & Food Affair: wrapping up online recipes.
- Barrel Tasting: Completed two hour task force meeting. (see below)
9:40 Membership
- Assessment: Sent in late June/early July with dues expected to arrive in August.
- Completed two hour Task Force meeting (see below)
10:15 Task Force Updates
- Website: Need to setup Task Force. Will work with Mindy Joyce from Kendal Jackson re: direction.
- Barrel Tasting: WR will launch tickets early; wineries to commit to participation in August. WR to create multiple videos of consumers and winemakers stating why they love BW. Goal is to reach younger demographic so they can “start their tradition” or create lifelong passion of attending this one event. Videos will launch in conjunction with “Winemakers Uncorked” in Sept/Oct. on Discovery Channel.
As part of BW, WR will test a Friday night intimate event, 30 attendees hosted at one of 4 wineries per weekend (8 total); no reimbursement; wineries to pour minimum of six wines and offer appetizers. Goal is to attract consumers who either haven’t attended in the past, or bring back consumers via popular winery members who don’t participate in BW (i.e., Coppola). List of 8 wineries identified.
Winery members will be given the option to purchase up to 10 BW tickets at ½ price (can be used to bring back customers; reward existing customer, etc.) WR will no longer offer 4 complimentary tickets per winery.
- Brand Ambassadors: Typically 10 WR customers who are hardcore WR fans and actively post positive comments on social media. WR looking for ways to support those people without actually paying them (i.e., sponsoring a race; WR swag, etc). Task Force needed to brainstorm ideas.
- Membership:
–Tiered pricing discussed, but rejected as that was considered too complicated.
–Still need to address difference in member dues (i.e., 15 newer members paying $1,000/year while the majority of members paying $850)
–Addition of Sonoma Coast appellation was rejected; too large of a territory.
–After assessments come in, if wineries opt not to renew, WR will survey them in Sept. to get feedback.
-Possible By-law changes below will be discussed at next full board meeting:
- Should members be allowed to pour all Sonoma County wines (i.e., Sonoma Coast) at WR events even if those wines don’t fall into our RRV, DC, or AV appellations?
- Should winery members be allowed to also obtain a lodging membership to promote and rent their winery guest house?
10:20 Old Business
-Still need to develop “elevator speech” re: who is WR, and what WR does?
-Mike to host lodging member meeting (before Aug. 9th mini-retreat) to see how members feel about Air BnB, winery guest houses, etc.
Next meeting
Full Board – RETREAT progress – August 9 plan on 8:30-12:30 Geyserville Inn
Continental Breakfast starting at 8:15, lunch to following meeting at Geyserville Grille