Office Update – Emailed to Board – Dec/Jan

Emailed Feb. 26, 2025 to the Board of Directors, from  Beth Costa

Because we did not meet in December or January as a Board, I wanted to do a quick recap of what we were working on here.  These are the items I would have reviewed at the meetings.

December

• We collected info and prepped for Barrel Weekend, while Winter WINEland sales were still moving along.
  • Nov/Dec issue of VIA Magazine had 1/4 page ad for Wineland – most other advertising happened Jan. 2-12, other than email blasts in Nov & Dec
• Holiday Wine Trail & Market – Dec. 7th – 31 wineries, sold 100 tickets = $4000
• We mailed a Locals Only sign to participating wineries we also distributed to local wine shops, larger employers and senior living clubs and Mayacama Golf
  • Signs were designed to fit in a 8” x 10” frame.
  • Created webpage for program, listing participating wineries
• Continuing to work on new website design and functionality.
• Wine Oh! TV (now syndicated) featured Healdsburg – Mysty (our PR Manager) worked with Monique to coordinate featuring some of our members.
• Welcomed J. Cage Cellars and Oak Creek Winery as 2 new members
• Printed and mailed “Wine Road Ambassador on the Go” cards to 300+ Ambassadors with AVA postcards as a thank you for their support.
• Recorded 3 podcasts

January

• Winter Wineland ended with 1450 in ticket sales, shy of our projections of 1800.
  • We did up our VIP tickets to 30 instead of 20 as in the past.  70 wineries participated in the event weekend.
  • Income $132,392 vs. Expenses $15,100 will give us a profit of $117,292
  • VIP Experience: Gary Farrell for Fri Happy Hour, Williamson Wine for Sat Breakfast – rave reviews for both!
  • Multiple members contributed items for the VIP Goodie Bag – guests were thrilled.
  • Liana and Debbie managed supply hand out and then collecting after the event
  • Beth has mailed all reimbursement checks (for paperwork that has been submitted)
• Using the Bartering system we did print postcards and posters for both Wineland and Barrel Weekend.
  • Distributed via our member wineries, visitor centers, wine shops, Senior living clubs, larger area employers (for their staff break rooms) & Mayacama
• Also via Barter, we printed and mailed 4000 “Save the Date” postcards with all 2025 event dates to prior visitors from the greater bay area. Using Ad-Vangtage Marketing they cleaned up the list we had prior to mailing.
• We are working with Constant Contact and our web designer to get SMS set up. We have had some issues with Constant Contact, hopefully that will be ready to roll out in the next couple of weeks.
• Debbie and I did three local radio interviews in Dec & Jan to promote Wineland and our new LOCALS Only program.
• We distributed Wine Trail signs with a QR code to the participating wineries – this sign can be out all year, as the QR code lands on the home page for which ever Wine Trail is coming up next.  We included small plexi-sign holders which we had on hand, to make them easy to display.
• Collected info, set up website and launched tickets for Wine Love Wine Trail – Feb. 15
  • 36 wineries are signed up – may end up with 40…
• We discontinued our Varietal of the Month blog. In January we launched Drink This With That.
  •  A blog to showcase wine pairing with more unique ethnic foods – linking to our varietal search and our member recipes.
  • This will NOT be a stand alone monthly email, it will be a segment in our My Wine Road monthly email and live on our website.
• Wine Road Podcast nominated for 4 Taste Awards – sent email to our 50,000 subscribers to get VOTES!
• We gained 6 more Wine Road Insiders
• Final edits for printed map – held off because Assessments were so late coming in, didn’t want to leave people off the map.
• Year-end audits for 40K, reports to accountant for taxes, 1099’s sent
• Welcomed Kenneth Carl Vineyard – new winery member

Sonoma County Tourism confirmed we did get some of the GRANT money we applied for, but they have yet to confirm the amount.

February…just around the corner

• We will have new printed maps and a new website.
  • I anticipate both by the middle of the month. I hesitate to launch a new website while running two events (Wine Trail and Barrel)
• We are scheduled to shoot social videos next week for Locals Only, Barrel Weekend & Wine Love
• Beth and Debbie are both scheduled for various radio interviews to promote Barrel Weekend

Liana updated the “Visit – Stay – Sip” on our homepage every Tuesday

She mailed 520 map requests in Dec/Jan

Treasurer’s Report

2024 ended with a loss:  Income  $708,128 vs. Expenses $721,320 = ($13,192)

Cash on hand:

Savings                       $102,366.

Checking                     $140,776.

CD:                             $ 52,000

TOTAL                      $295,142.

Our next Board Meeting will be Wednesday, February 8th at Balletto Vineyards, 9:00-10:00am

Regards,

Beth

Posted by Beth Costa

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