2018 March - Board of Directors Meeting Minutes 📝

MEETING NOTES

Attending:  Stephen Janes, Kate Griffith, Tara Gomez, Matt Murphy, Ross Rankin & Denise Shurtleff, Alison Laslett

NEW BUSINESS

Budgets

·      Alison’s comments:  Breaks out Events in the Budget so we can see if it makes $ or not

·      Placed the 2017 financial loss into 2018’s Budget so the dollar figures reflect a true annual basis

·      There is upwards of another $20K in cost savings potentially for the 2018 Budget

·      Budget currently shows a profit without the $20K potential costs savings from above

·      First time we are not showing a loss in a long time

·      Budget relies on over $100K in Receivables from Membership Dues + there are several new Members also joining; could be worrisome here

·      There is attrition within the Membership as well + the addition of new Members

Vintner’s Festival Update

·      438 Tickets Sold as of March 15. 2018

·      30 Food Purveyors – Katie thinks we will get to 40

·      sbvintnersweekend.com – is a dedicated Vintners Festival website

·      Bubble Lounge is exciting and positive; Kate Griffith’s idea

·      Sponsorship money is weak; only budgeted $7500 total though

·      How hard is Katie Hershfelt pushing for Vintners Members to attend and pour?  AL said she is actively working it behind the scenes

·      Short on Volunteer Wine – several winery board members offered to step up in case we are short wine

·      Need to get a Drone for pictures of the festival

·      Kate is concerned about the hiring of Elixir for the Vintner’s Festival and the potential message this sends to auditors about where the $ is coming from to pay for Elixir; She is concerned about the optics because Elaina is on the SB Vintners Foundation’s Board

·      Kate Griffith noted that the Marketing Committee did not participate in the Elixir contract

·      Kate Griffith requested confirmation that Elixir understands the stipulations of the Explore Lompoc grant

·      The Marketing Grant from Lompoc was used to hire Elixir Winery Management as our Festival Marketing Company and that the $ for this hiring came entirely from this Lompoc Grant

·      Alison interviewed several different firms for the Marketing of the Festival and discussed her process in detail. Alison did her due diligence having interviewed 7 different Marketing firms for this job

·      Elixir’s proposal was very similar to another but it came with far more including the addition of a digital social media expert

·      Lindsey Jessup came with Elixir’s team – digital marketing expertise; very tied to the wine community, Alison felt it was the best value for the lowest costs; very clear on making sure that Explore Lompoc receives a final report of how this $20K funds were spent

·      Alison consulted with Katie Hershfelt, who is operationally running the festival, and Matt Murphy both helped AL make a final decision about Elixir over anyone else

·      Alison also made a sponsorship arrangement with NOVI social media

Other Revenue Enhancing ideas

·      Viticultural Improvement Bid (VIB)– Charge every bottle we sell with the customer paying the tax!!; Alison met some bankers up at WiVi who could maybe sponsor the $20K study; several bankers seemed very vested in our regional success

·      $20K study to see if this is feasible; plus another $60K for a 9-12 month process to research how to do it

·      $300,000 Grant called a Specialty Crop Grant; Alison to research more; this is what Paso has done so successfully; this is a separate funding source for the SBV

Human Resouces for SB Vintners

·      Philip Carpenter is a potential new hire for SB Vintners’; Chloe (currently at 20 hours/week) is too; Phil is very knowledgeable, organized, comes highly recommended, loves SB Wine Country

·      $55K for Phil, Chloe is only Part Time potentially

Other Business

·      The Touring Guide –“ the most popular” and flies off the shelf; Brings in $11K in Advertising Revenue

·      Can we do it Cheaper, Maybe Change It, Go more Digital with it; Spring 2019 to change brochure; Board Members Denise and Stephen to pursue and research this and will come back to the Board by Fall 2018

·      Current Cost is $750/Month for SoCal Distribution Deal

Events Update

Taste of the Valley

·      Shelby is going to give all profits to the SB Vintners

·      Make the ToV a smaller first year and only focus on 3 cities (Solvang, Los Alamos, Los Olivos); Potentially hire Releve Events to help run the 3 day festival

Mission SB

·      Dates are currently June 10 - 12

·      Working on 2018 Invite

·      Need a budget to break even ore better

·      Working on a letter to Membership