2013-02-05-TOUR2-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the meeting of Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at 11:30 a.m. G -15 Members Present: Mary Jo Bohart, Kerry Brandin, Bebe Fallick, Trisha Kennealy, Dawn McKenna, Denise Rickets Absent: Lou Sideris and Jim Shaw Guest: Susan Bennett, George Burnell, Paul Ross, Melisa Tintocallis, and Linda Vine 1. Strategies and Funding Based on Vision and Mission Statement a. Policy on Trip Advisor ad and charges— The Committee will consider a policy to provide one (or more) of the ad spaces to Lexington businesses and organizations to help defray costs of maintaining the page and advertising in general. Trisha Kennealy has recussed herself from participating in this discussion due to a potential conflict should she decide to advertise. b. AAA Travel marketplace —March 1St -3rd; Need help with setup, staffing and takedown; have handed out about 3,000 brochures in the past. Invite local businesses to participate by providing materials for us to distribute. c. Advertising opportunities – we need to draft a document to give to businesses to let them know about the various marketing opportunities available while partnering with the Tourism Committee. 2. 12:00 Liberty Ride Operations and Marketing a. Request for increase in fees that the Tourism Committee pays to the Historical Society for Liberty Ride users who visit the houses. Susan Bennett and Paul Ross presented their request to the Committee. We discussed the fact that in 2012 there were 20k visitors to the houses, and approximately 7k took the Liberty Ride. The percentage of Liberty Ride customers that visited the houses in 2012 increased to 49 %, which does not include the GoBoston customers. Masha attributes the increase in visitors to the houses by prompt given in the Visitor Center, and the better timing with the Liberty Ride starting at the Visitors Center. Liberty Ride is reimbursing the town for the free parking in municipal lot. The Historical Society is asking for an increase of $3 for adults doubling the reimbursement to $6, and also increasing the children rate by $2 for a total of $3. GoBoston pays $4 for adults and $1 for children. Susan was asked why the Town, which also contributes $40k in advertising and $1.4 million in CPA funding for capital projects would be asked to pay a higher reimbursement than GoBoston. The Liberty Ride just began a new six year contract which will increase the hourly rate by $15 to $95. This makes consideration of the steep increase challenging this year. We need to review an updated budget before making any decisions. We will think about the possibilities and take up the request at the February 26 meeting. The Tourism Committee wonders how we might get a larger percentage of the 20k house visitors onto the Liberty Ride. A memo will be sent to the Historical Society with ideas of how the request might be a win -win. Ideas such as including only one house, providing a higher commission to the