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Minutes Town Celebrations Committee February 17, 2016 Cafe, 201 Bedford Street Members present Rich McDonough, Co-Chair; Diana Bishop, Suzanne Caton, Kim Coburn, Linda Dixon, Carol Flynn, Karen Gaughan, Cerise Jalelian, Paul Jenkins, Linda Levitt, Melanie Lin, Sondra Lucente, Julie Miller, Wayne Miller, Bill Mix, Geetha Padaki, Sandy Podgorski Members not present Lorain Marquis, Co-Chair; Henry Murphy, Dave Taylor, Bob Tracey, Sam Zales Business Committee member Linda Dixon chaired the business session while Co-Chair Rich McDonough operated the computer and projected working documents onto a screen. The Chair declared that a quorum was present. The minutes of February 3, 2016 were approved. Discussion with Tourism Committee on Possible Collaborations Linda introduced Dawn McKenna, Chair of the Lexington Tourism Committee, to discuss two possible collaborations between TCC and Tourism that were brought up at the January 28 Stakeholders Meeting. The first involved marketing and promotion of Patriots’ Weekend through a more widely distributed, and more professionally designed, TCC weekend schedule. Dawn reported that, next to Boston and Cambridge, the Lexington-Concord area is the most-visited tourist area in the state. At the professional tourism gatherings she attends, Patriots’ Weekend is always the #1 request for information about Lexington. Using the marketing logo, “Linger in Lexington,” the Tourism Committee promotes Patriots Day as a full week of activity. The TCC Weekend Schedule is a key part of their marketing materials. Dawn offered to redesign the weekend schedule, which consists of an 11x17 sheet folded in half to make a four- page booklet, to make it more user friendly and to blend with the overall Tourism marketing effort. Their designer, a Lexington resident, would provide the new design at no charge. If the Committee chooses to continue with the same design, the Tourism Committee can fund the cost of printing extra quantities and distributing them to a wider audience. In the discussion, the Committee’s main concern was the loss of editorial control by entering this partnership. Other concerns raised included changing content after the schedules were printed; lack of time to complete the redesign; and conflicting target markets, i.e. TCC’s target market is local and inward while Tourism’s focus is outward and broader. In response, Dawn suggested printing in two batches a month apart and maintaining current information on the committee website. She was confident that she could produce a draft design for Committee approval within a short time frame. She explained that the tourism community recognizes that a town’s strongest market is the town itself and its surrounding communities, so Tourism and TCC have similar outreach goals. She discouraged a suggestion to create a short version of the schedule because it will only confuse visitors. After discussion, the committee consensus was not to enter into a collaboration with the Tourism Committee. The Committee was, however, very interested in updating the design of the weekend schedule booklet. Dawn agreed to speak with the designer, who is away until February 24, and let us know. Her offer to print approximately 3000 additional copies of the program still stands.